eBay

musicman1a2a3a4 · ‎06-01-2025

Has anyone been experiencing a huge increase of USPS lost packages or packages stuck in transit without any tracking updates? I have been a full time seller since 1999 and the last 3 months are the worst for me that it has ever been by large amount. Just wondering if anyone else has also seen a big increase recently. Thanks !

gurlcat · ‎06-02-2025

Yup, your issue is definitely in Flint. It's a good news/bad news thing.
Good: Your local postmaster will be much more likely to care about someone s/he has to look in the eye than someone on a phone far away.
Bad: Until they catch up, ALL your sales will potentially be late (unlike a distant sorting facility that only some of your packages might go to.

itsjustasprain gave good advice, but here's one more piece: Talk to your buyers, reach out to them before they reach out to you, because by then they're already frustrated. After the 3rd or so day of no new scans, send the buyer a simple message letting them know you're watching the tracking and will start a missing package case soon if needed. -That's really all you need to say, no details, just a gesture to let them know you didn't forget them after you got their money. I did this during 'Shipnado Fall/Winter 2020' and never had a single INR filed on me, while other sellers were losing money to refunds out the wazoo, putting their stores on vacation, or quitting altogether.

a_c_green · ‎06-02-2025

@itsjustasprain wrote:
Oh yeah - you have some kind of local issue there. The truck seems to leave your local PO and vanish. Your origin sort facility needs to answer questions about why nothing is getting scanned in when it reaches their place.

Back in the Covid era, our local PO northwest of Chicago had a whole bunch of packages disappear exactly like this. I mean, their entire output from one or two specific days left as usual on the truck, and then never resurfaced for something like two weeks if I remember right.

It turned out that the local sort facility totally messed up their handling of full incoming trailers. Instead of handling them First-In/First-Out, they seemed to be handling mail on the basis of whichever trailer was closest to the dock. 🙄 My postmaster was good enough to make some phone calls (must have been inevitable since multiple people were complaining to him), and eventually they got everything sorted out and delivered. I was lucky and didn't have any Item Not Received claims filed in the meantime.

adamcartwright · ‎06-02-2025

I have experienced this from time to time.

I recently had one package bound for the opposite coast take an entire week to loop back to my city and then on to the destination.

When I notice issues, I sign up for email tracking notifications, and so far that has always worked to get the package moving in the right direction. I'm very grateful for patient buyers; so far no one has complained when delivery time exceeds the estimate.

tobaccocardyahoo · ‎06-02-2025

@van3125 wrote:
I am a new seller and this is happening to me a lot lately. I live in Alabama. I would think ebay would look into the situation before demanding that this must be resolved by X date. The only way to resolve is by refunding. Makes me wonder if this ebay thing is worth the trouble. I normally ship same day. I don't know what to do.

IMO based on your total sale prices including shipping and the low number of items you have listed, Ebay is not worth the trouble.

If you are using untracked shipping, it definitely is not worth the effort you are making - since it is likely that your refunds exceed the additional costs of a tracked shipping method.

We are all being affected by the high costs of shipping, and you may also be affected by not having an adequate handling time to cushion you from spot problems in shipping.

New sellers often find themselves offering too low a handling time as well as free shipping. Neither of which is necessary for some types of items they sell.

carlmarxx · ‎06-02-2025

How did the USPS explain your Package Loop? I had a package shipped to me that got looped and the USPS district customer affairs Rep for my neck of woods could not explain why the regulations where not followed after first loop back to senders PO . where as that small square bar-code the computer read was not blacked out and covered be USPS employee that did a fiscal hand scan before sending it back out to do two more loops before I got it . It did in up at the USPS logistics office ,but the employees there did nothing to fix the issue .

gurlcat · ‎06-02-2025

Here's the explanation I've seen multiple times in postal worker groups, about when they abandon the normal first in/first out thing. -The reward/punishment metrics for supervisory personnel is based % late packages, and by "late" I mean in a purely binary way; the facility either did or didn't get the package in and out within a set amount of time, and once a package (rather a whole bin of packages, or truck full of packages) is late, it doesn't matter if it gets latER. So when a facility gets too in the weeds, they switch to focusing on the ones that still have a chance of being moved out 'on time.'

Another tactic is to stall arrival scans (can't be held responsible for a package you "don't have yet"). What this can do is make an unwary customer think the LAST facility is still holding it, if they didn't do a departure scan, but really it's been sitting at the next one, unacknowledged until they get caught up.

carlmarxx · ‎06-02-2025

That is interesting . I have had USPS district customer service that lot of scans are system error phony tracking info. The ground Advantage shipping seem's to be number one for the tactic 's you are talking about. based on the unexplained delays and bouncing around to the wrong sort plants . But there issue of civilian contractor driver's not showing up with trucks for 3 to 5 days . In fact 3 of USPS's IOC plants from LAX, O'Hear to Kennedy International airports ,the USPS employee's have and are playing fast and Lose with tracking scans by blaming delays on U.S. Customs .

van3125 · ‎06-03-2025

Not untracked shipping. It is ebay tracking.

big_guys_place · ‎06-03-2025

Post Office is really underperforming as of recent. Stand in line and get a counter scan on anything you ship. It's a top down problem. While not a package delivery problem, our local Post Office has 9, yes, 9 abandoned cars most with flat tires, some there over a year, and the Post Master at the location is too lazy to get them moved out. One has the trunk wide open, people go thru it looking for stuff. its crazy. They would actually run out of parking spots during the holidays. None of them care about anything and will fix nothing, they know the gig will be up soon.

itsjustasprain · ‎06-03-2025

@big_guys_place wrote:
While not a package delivery problem, our local Post Office has 9, yes, 9 abandoned cars most with flat tires, some there over a year, and the Post Master at the location is too lazy to get them moved out. One has the trunk wide open, people go thru it looking for stuff. its crazy. They would actually run out of parking spots during the holidays.

Hah! Our local PO is one block over from the high school. Teenagers kept parking in the PO lot because they dont want to pay the fees to park in the school lot. You can always tell the teenager cars because of the little cluster of ratty old cars huddled in the corner of the lot closest to the school.

But our PO was the opposite of yours - especially one clerk who had some management position at the PO and she was FURIOUS at the freeloaders. She told the school that they would be stickering the offending cars and towing the repeat violators - and she did. I dont know how many actually got towed but the problem went away in about a week.

gurlcat · ‎06-03-2025

If it was a "top-down problem" then all post offices would be as sorry as yours (which I'm sorry about, by the way). In truth, there are bad ones like yours and there are sleek, state-of-the art, well-staffed ones, and everything in-between. It's just like some public schools are crumbling structures with outdated textbooks and just-graduated teachers, while others are gleaming academies of learning. All public schools and all post offices get a proportionate amount of federal funding (that's the "top-down" part), but it's not nearly enough money for everything needed, so rest must come from other revenues (local property taxes for schools, and local postal business for post offices).

bill.purvis2012 · ‎06-03-2025

Yes. It's widespread. It's worse than I've ever notcied before. But, I see a difference in UPS and FedEx as well.

carlmarxx · ‎06-04-2025

I have been requesting UPS , FedEx more often , also Priority mail was main request before the other carriers from sellers I will buy from. I have seen wired one day unexplained delays with priority mail . Since USPS started rolling out Dejoys new Business plan 5 months ago , I seen the damage and disruptions of all their shipping services based on PO's location . Also they have stopped having trucks show up for pickups after 1:30 pm ,so their customers now need mail stuff out by 12:30 pm to get out on the same day . and their express services are in a bigger mess at those P.O's also . In Dejoys plan has down graded some of large P.O.'s in some Major city's as Rual Units to delay shipping services .