Keep getting cited for late shipment on eBay Standard envelope

[pricedtosell]

Hi, I am having a problem with being cited for LATE ebay standard envelope shipping when I am indeed shipping them on time.

I contacted my local post office about it. They told me that they cannot scan the ebay standard envelopes through their facility as they do not have a machine to scan them. All the ebay standard envelopes go directly to the large hub, in my case,  Milwaukee WI to be scanned. Right now, they said Milwaukee is behind on envelopes by 2 to 3 days.

What am I supposed to do? I can't keep getting cited for late shipping when I indeed ship to my post office on time?   I ship hundreds if not thousands of postcards and vintage valentines throughout the year.  Any suggestions?

I have contacted eBay numerous times and they won't help me. I want to keep my Top Rated standards. 

[solidguitar1961]

My experience has been that after a couple of days the defects are removed

[12345jamesstamps]

eBay standard envelope doesn't need an acceptance scan or a delivered scan....per eBay.

Hopefully, along the way a scan happens. At least your buyers are honest and don't open a claim for item not received.

Maybe others here can tell you what to do.

These envelopes are considered "metered mail" and treated as such.

[pricedtosell]

Yes they are considered meter mail but when the postal carrier tries to scan them, they will not scan. So he went to his supervisor and was told, they cannot be scanned in our post office, they are sent to Milwaukee to be scanned. By the time Milwaukee scans them, they are considered late because I have a one day handling for my shipping. eBay will do nothing about it, and I am getting cited for late shipping daily. ( Milwaukee is having problems and are 2-3 days late with scanning envelopes and shipping them out to their destinations....) 

[pricedtosell]

Nope, not in my case....

[wastingtime101]

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

eBay standard envelope doesn't need an acceptance scan or a delivered scan....per eBay.

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Technically no package requires tracking or scans. However both are required for seller protections on non-receipt claims and to maintain TRS status, whether an ESE shipment or not.

Can you point me to wherever you read ESE doesn't need scans? I've never heard that odd theory before.

[a_c_green]

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@pricedtosell wrote:

Yes they are considered meter mail but when the postal carrier tries to scan them, they will not scan. So he went to his supervisor and was told, they cannot be scanned in our post office, they are sent to Milwaukee to be scanned. 

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That's correct: the scans of eSE items are done by sorting machines reading the routing code on the envelope. Thus your first in-network scan of an eSE item (which proves that it's in USPS possession, and stops the clock on your Handling time) will occur at the origin sort facility, not your local post office.

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@pricedtosell wrote:

By the time Milwaukee scans them, they are considered late because I have a one day handling for my shipping. eBay will do nothing about it, and I am getting cited for late shipping daily. ( Milwaukee is having problems and are 2-3 days late with scanning envelopes and shipping them out to their destinations....) 

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You're going to have to push your Handling time out long enough to account for your situation. Per your description, a 1-day Handling time is just not going to be sufficient if the Milwaukee sort facility is taking 2-3 days to deal with your package. Sorry.

[wastingtime101]

Hey @pricedtosell . Because those listings are not TRS+, you can extend your handling time without any adverse effects. By extending your handling time on listing using that service, but continuing to ship next day, it should give you the buffer needed due to your local sort facility taking a while to scan things in. That should help with the late shipping and maintaining your TRS status.

[1786davycrockett · Accepted solution]

@pricedtosell 

"Yes they are considered meter mail but when the postal carrier tries to scan them, they will not scan. So he went to his supervisor and was told, they cannot be scanned in our post office, they are sent to Milwaukee to be scanned."

Yep -- just as you both were told:  metered mail can ONLY be machine scanned -- the hand-held USPS scanners can NOT detect the bar-codes on the ESEs.

As others have suggested -- extend your shipping days out a few days, in order to maintain your "on time" status for that first acceptance scan at the USPS Distribution Center.

And a general note:  All around the country, USPS is currently having scheduling problems.  My local post office in New Brighton, MN was just investigated by a U. S. Congressional delegation, and it was disclosed that over 40,000 pieces of mail had not yet been scanned in a single day!  In addition, one employee had only been working TWO weeks out of a NINE week period, and one manager had been on a five month "leave of absence"!

And the population of New Brighton is under 22,000.  

I can only imagine the LARGER problems under which Milwaukee must be suffering.