Ebay want all sales to be shipped with Tracking.

[duckvinylsignsandotherstuff]

We sell low priced vinyl decals stickers and other items that we may find profitable from time to time.  

I will say 75% of our decals are shipped in a First Class Stamped Envelope because the value of the decal is so low @ .99c and up! .99c is to attract the buyer to look at the auction and other listings. Yes, we sell a decal here and there for .99c, but they will usually buy more than 1 at that price.  That .99c decal is what got us started on selling vinyl decals and we have been doing this for the past 5 years. We have had no problem in doing so until ebay has implemented new changes in shipping policies.  This is the 1st time in my history of selling on ebay (22 years) that we have not had one single sale except when we were on vacation and had ebay on "Time Away" mode.  I was once a Sponsored Seller and sometimes sold couple hundred dollars worth of vinyl decals a day.  We are now considered Below Standard and have 90 days to bring it back up or face suspension.  We have started changing our listing to larger quantities and tacking on additional shipping charges which has halted most if not all orders.  Has anyone else come across this problem?

[southern*sweet*tea]

Shipping without tracking will NOT send you below standard.   On another selling account I have, that's all I do - ship small items in a plain envelope with a stamp.  No tracking.  That account is above standard, with ZERO percent tracking uploaded and 100% on time shipping.

The only way to go below standard due to tracking (that I know of) would be if buyers were marking your items as late. 

If you ship without tracking, with no tracking uploaded, those transactions don't even count toward anything UNLESS it is physically marked late by the buyer.

[heckofagame]

If you wish to be Top Rated, you will need to upload tracking. If not, no biggie. 

[duffy4444]

@southern*sweet*tea  is right.

    Just shipping without tracking by itself cannot  drop you below "Above Standard". If you look at your metrics for  "Tracking uploaded on time and validated", you will see that not using tracking cannot drop you to "Below Standard" on its own. There has to be one or more other metrics that you are falling down on, and for which you have been given a warning by eBay.

    I, and many others here, sell a lot of DMC Floss skeins and ship the smaller orders with one or two First Class stamps on a letter envelope and without tracking. I've never been dropped to "Below Standard" in the nearly 25 years I've been selling here. It has kept me from becoming a "Top Rated Seller" (no big deal for me and my business model), but has never dropped me lower than "Above Standard".  I've also had only two valid INR's related to these floss shipments (both to Canada) in over a thousand floss sales shipped by letter envelope. I refunded them and went about my business.

Cheers, Duffy

[fern*wood]

Your dashboard should show you why you have fallen to below standard.  Check your defect section for cancellations and/or cases closed without seller resolution. 

[aprilmoviebuf2000]

Based on your replies to some of your feedback, looks like you may have had some out of stock cancellations?  Too many of those in a certain period of time...that's what would cause your account fall below standard.  

[pjcdn2005]

Even if the buyers were marking an item as late they still wouldn't go below standard.   They might just get a longer handling time added on to their listings.

[varebelrose]

Shipping without tracking has nothing to do with it. There is no penalty for using stamped envelopes, other than the risk of an occasional INR case.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Even if the buyers were marking an item as late they still wouldn't go below standard.   They might just get a longer handling time added on to their listings.

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Thanks, wasn't sure about that.  I wasn't sure exactly what too many received late marks would actually do, but I knew it wasn't something good.