Losing My Top Ranked Status down to above Standard Help me please

[diabill]

A few days ago I checked my status and saw that my Tracking uploaded had dropped from 99.52% to 72.89%. This means that on 12-20-28 when I get evalulated I will drop to above standard. I checked to see what happened and saw that they had 400 transactions for Hot Air Balloon pins that I sold to one gentlemen were showing no scan or tracking added. 

This is correct the gentleman picked them up from me and paid me for them at that time. I then went to PAYPAL and marked all of the items paid. I then marked all of them shipped as I have always done when items have been picked up from me before. When I did it this way before it was never a problem. This time it triggered 400 items as having no tracking.

I called EBAY customer service. they were very polite but said there was nothing they could do to fix this. That when I was evaluated on the 20th it should all go away they think and be back to normal. I of course was not satisfied with waiting until the 20th and hoping that it would be fixed so I asked for a supervisor and believe it or not I got to speak to one. Again she was very nice but no help. She even called be back twice as she tried to find out what could be done to fix this. She said one problem could be because the items did not show that the items could be picked up

I got her to look at a few of the listings and showed her where local pick up was offered on all my lisings. She did not know where to look for it. I explained that if EBAY added where you could click item picked up I would not have this problem.

She said she would call me back if she could figure how to fix this problem. It has now been more then 3 days and no help received

So here I am asking my fellow sellers and hopefully someone from EBAY who might read this what I can do to get this problem cleared up instead of just waiting until the 20th and hope it goes away. If it can not be fixed it will cost me money.

Help me with your suggestions and if it is possible to get one of the EBAY employees to help me so this can be cleared up.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Yes, tracking upload is one of the  criteria for TRS, and yes, you will fall to above standard when you go below the threshold. Doesn't make you a bad seller. Ebay does expect TRS sellers to use tracking, but doesn't expect every transaction to have it, which is why upload percentage is not 100%, it's 97% I think. However, those 400 items you sold locally brought you well below that 97% threshold.  If you are going to do local pickups, you need to specify in the shipping section local pickup, and the buyer can choose that when they pay.  If you do that, those transactions shouldn't count toward shipping upload. (BUT, I could be wrong about that)  By having a shipping method and marking those transactions shipped, Ebay expected them to be shipped.

I have two accounts that I use to ship untracked.  They both have tracking upload at zero percent, on time at 100%,  my stats on those accounts look better than this one (all fives across, 100% on time) but they are above standard because I don't use tracking.   No shame in being above standard. Yes, you don't get the 10%FVF discount (1% off total), but unless you sell a large volume a discount of a few dollars isn't worth worrying over.

[joem4stuff]

Maybe it's too late for this sale but next time send the buyer who picked up an order a receipt in a first class envelope with tracking. Mark the order as shipped and enter the tracking number. That will give ebay the illusion that the order was shipped and received.

[diabill]

I appreciate your reply.

Every item I list offers free local pickup. Every EBAY invoice I send out offers free local pickup. I have 3 to 4 people a week pick their items that they purchased from me. I have always marked them shipped as EBAY does not offer a way to mark item picked up. None of those have ever counted against me.

Why then did these 400 items count against me.

Has EBAY changed something again and failed to let sellers know. Why not give us a way to mark them Item was picked up

diabill

[creekcoyote]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

Yes, tracking upload is one of the  criteria for TRS, and yes, you will fall to above standard when you go below the threshold. Doesn't make you a bad seller. Ebay does expect TRS sellers to use tracking, but doesn't expect every transaction to have it, which is why upload percentage is not 100%, it's 97% I think. However, those 400 items you sold locally brought you well below that 97% threshold.  If you are going to do local pickups, you need to specify in the shipping section local pickup, and the buyer can choose that when they pay.  If you do that, those transactions shouldn't count toward shipping upload. (BUT, I could be wrong about that)  By having a shipping method and marking those transactions shipped, Ebay expected them to be shipped.

I have two accounts that I use to ship untracked.  They both have tracking upload at zero percent, on time at 100%,  my stats on those accounts look better than this one (all fives across, 100% on time) but they are above standard because I don't use tracking.   No shame in being above standard. Yes, you don't get the 10%FVF discount (1% off total), but unless you sell a large volume a discount of a few dollars isn't worth worrying over.

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After re-reading the OP's post, it occurred to me that the reason that no one can fix this issue, which shouldn't have been an issue in the first place, is because it will bring E-bay more money.

This seller quickly satisfied the customer, made a sale and got his/her items on the road.

Any Customer Service representative in any other company would be able to see this and realize that no tracking was needed and immediately would be able to fix the problem. 

I mean, they can see that there was no tracking uploaded but were unable to see that many of the sellers listings have a pick-up option.

It has always amazed me what this company can see when it comes to a mistake but they cannot see things that might help the seller.

But then, few other companies would have such strict policies that they would even have an issue like this in the first place, except maybe Amazon.

Customer Service should be able to deal with things like this, fix the issue and send the seller or buyer on their way.

[diabill]

I appreciate your reply.
What I don't understand is why did it happen on this transaction and not on the many other items that have been picked up from me over the years and I handled exactly the same way.
In fact on some of the invoices that were sent some did not even offer shipping as I knew that they would be picked up.

diabill

[ten_o_nine]

You have to call ebay again and again until someone resolves it, if a supervisor can't, ask for a manager. ebay is like that, you have to call until you find someone with common sense, you'll find one.

[joem4stuff]

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@diabill wrote:

What I don't understand is why did it happen on this transaction and not on the many other items ...

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Your not alone there! This community form is filled with questions like that. Ebay is constantly making changes, some good, some bad and the rest confusing. Hopefully they will end up with mostly good as they try to be a become a more competitive online marketplace.

[diabill]

Yes that is the next step. By posting I was hoping one of the helpful EBAY staff like Trinton etc might see this post and might be able to help get this straightened out.

diabill

[terrycanarsky]

I'm a bit confused - "Local pick up" is an option for all listings (except, I think, in eBay motors).   It's not something  you write in the description, it's a particular shipping option.

We had a similar, much less catastrophic, situation several months ago.  Before, we'd simply marked items as shipped whenever someone came by to pick up, no problem.  Then suddenly, we were being dinged for it.

The seller must use the check box on every single listing (where pertinent) to allow for local pick up - or eBay gleefully brings out the red marker and scribbles all over your metrics. 

~M

[diabill]

I appreciate your reply.
Local pick up is checked when I type the auction. I double checked that.
Like you said no problems when I marked shipped before. Why on this large order and not on others during the same time frame that were not in the large order
Did EBAY see a chance to take a little money out of my pocket????
I find it hard to believe that but what other explanation is there.

diabill

[goodluckselling]

For transactions marked as shipped with no tracking number available, the buyer will get reminders to leave feedback and part of the feedback process for these orders is a question  Did your item arrive by so and so date?  The buyer who is leaving feedback can say yes or no and eBay accepts that answer for the on time shipping rating.

What I do not understand is why the buyer created 400 separate transactions?  Or why the seller did not have a way for the buyer to purchase all of them in one transaction?  400 Paypal transaction fees at 0.30 each is a lot of money in extra fees.

If the buyer did buy them all in one transaction then it would have only been one late shipping rating not 400.

Good Luck Selling!

[diabill]

I appreciate you taking time to answer.
The buyer purchased the items over a period of a couple of weeks. I have over 200 Hot Air balloon pins for him to look at on EBAY. The EBAY invoices will only do 40 items at a time. Therefore he had several invoices. The buyer paid me cash when he picked up the items. Therefore there was no PAYPAL fees.
As for the feedback we discussed it and I asked him to not leave feedback as I already have over 30.000 feedback since I started selling in 2002. 99% of the feedback is as a seller. I did not want new customers going to check out my feedback and having to look at 400 positive feedback from the same buyer. I feel it looks better when you see positives from many different buyers.

diabill

[goodluckselling]

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@diabill wrote:
I appreciate you taking time to answer.
The buyer purchased the items over a period of a couple of weeks. I have over 200 Hot Air balloon pins for him to look at on EBAY. The EBAY invoices will only do 40 items at a time. Therefore he had several invoices. The buyer paid me cash when he picked up the items. Therefore there was no PAYPAL fees.
As for the feedback we discussed it and I asked him to not leave feedback as I already have over 30.000 feedback since I started selling in 2002. 99% of the feedback is as a seller. I did not want new customers going to check out my feedback and having to look at 400 positive feedback from the same buyer. I feel it looks better when you see positives from many different buyers.

diabill

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Well you might want to change your habit of telling buyers to not leave feedback for these pickup orders.  This might have prevented your issue.

Good Luck Selling!

[terrycanarsky]

Only thing I can figure is that for some reason (hard not to put on a tinfoil bonnet at this point) the eBay system failed to recognize your marking things as 'shipped'. 

Did your buyer choose "local pick up" as the shipping preferred or did you, perchance?  That should have set everything so your later selecting the purchase as "shipped" would be fine.

~M