Seller Rating Downgraded Due to Tracking

[tja1521]

In trying to keep postage costs down for certain items (brochure or picture, etc.), that are low cost items that easily fit into a regular envelope I have only charged regular 1st class postage.  I have never had an item not received.   My seller status was just downgraded because of the number of items that did not have a tracking number. I spoke with an Ebay representative and she said that is just the way it is.  So now I have to charge $3+ for something that should only be $1.

How are the rest of you handling this?  This is VERY frustrating.

tja1521

[orangehound]

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@tja1521 wrote:

How are the rest of you handling this?  This is VERY frustrating.

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The eBay representative was correct.  You have to have tracking on your items to maintain your seller rating.

The way others handle this is that they create a separate account specifically to handle the items that they want to ship without tracking.

[city*satins]

orangehound's advice is good.  Sellers are required to upload tracking and have online proof of delivery in order to maintain their status.

If this doesn't make good business sense to you for some of your inventory, siphon them off to a different selling ID whose status you aren't concerned about.

But remember, whatever happens to one ID  happens to your others in the unhappy event that one of your IDs actually gets restricted or suspended.  So think this through carefully.

[m60driver]

Yes, the same thing happened to me.  But I doubt having an "above standard" rating rather then "top" rating will effect sales and the savings add up pretty darn quickly.  I am using envelopes with stamps more and more and hoping that my feedback makes up for the slightly lower rating.  By the way, I have never had anything lost nor any customer complaints sending small items without tracking.

[uniwarehousewares]

The reason ebay asked you to add tracking and that is for a valid reason that tracking ensure the delivery status and it will protect you if someone open item not received case and also ebay want to see if item is delivered or not , if some buyer will open item not received case he will win case because you have no tracking, i understand your concern too but this is how it is , when you sell on any platform you have to follow their policy,carrier charge high shipping rates and that is screwing sellers day by day that is different story, from june 23th you will see some bad changes are coming from USPS.
online business is controlled business but still better then physical markets in term of saving cost and making money.

[slideshopper]

I had done this voluntarily on the downgrade in status. I had a significant dropoff in sales. I implemented afterwards  $2.50 flat fee for shipping parcel post with tracking. Yes, I am aware it is lower than actual shipping cost. For $2.50 shipping they can buy as much as they want and I will still only charge $2.50 . This has worked quite well in pcking up multiple sales from the same buyer

[tja1521]

Thank you for your reply.  I only mailed small $$ items and if the buyer said they didn't receive it, I would have refunded their $$.  

[tja1521]

Thank you for your response. I thoroughly understand the reason why - however, on LOW valued paper items it is costing almost as much as the item to ship. I have to say that Marketplace through FB has worked very well for me as well. I have been on Ebay for almost 20 years and have not had a problem in the past either. Again, thank you for responding.

[tja1521]

Thank you! Do you put in your listing that you are using regular mail to save them on postage?

[tja1521]

Thank you for your information; appreciate it! 

[tja1521]

Thank you so much for your information!

[buyselljack2016 · Accepted solution]

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@orangehound wrote:

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@tja1521 wrote:

How are the rest of you handling this?  This is VERY frustrating.

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The eBay representative was correct.  You have to have tracking on your items to maintain your seller rating.

The way others handle this is that they create a separate account specifically to handle the items that they want to ship without tracking.

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@tja1521 

This   ^^^^^^   is the answer.

Separate those items to another account if TRS is a big deal for you. The "above standard" (where you end up without tracking) rating is satisfactory for being a seller. You do not have to spend the $$ to track those items where sales  levels would be hurt by the added cost.

Not having tracking just knocks you out of TRS, it will not get you into the "below standard" rating.

[luckythewinner]

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 So now I have to charge $3+ for something that should only be $1.

You only have to do that if you want to maintain top rated status.

How are the rest of you handling this?

Some sellers create a second seller account to sell the non-tracked items, so they can maintain their top rated status on their first account.

[buyselljack2016]

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@city*satins wrote:

orangehound's advice is good.  Sellers are required to upload tracking and have online proof of delivery in order to maintain their status.

If this doesn't make good business sense to you for some of your inventory, siphon them off to a different selling ID whose status you aren't concerned about.

But remember, whatever happens to one ID  happens to your others in the unhappy event that one of your IDs actually gets restricted or suspended.  So think this through carefully.

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This is a very good point.

A SNAD, or any other problem (possibly OOS cancellation) on a low volume account can drag that account to a level that would be hard to recover from.

Although eBay allows you some time to recover from it, one defect takes many, many sales to climb back up to a good status.

1 defect in 200 you can survive/absorb.  1 defect in 10, or even 20 takes you into the deep part of the stream, fighting against the current.

@tja1521 

[stoli1964]

Paying for the tracking won't make a difference. EBay continues to refund buyers who make claims that they didn't receive items. This is complete **bleep** when the tracking shows was clearly in transit. Items aren't always scanned when they are delivered so buyers nasty areas are continuously lying and claiming they haven't received items when they clearly have!!!