Sellers must upload tracking BEFORE Estimated Delivery Date to be covered for INR

[couldabeenworse]

Since other threads regarding this have gone off track, I just want to make sure everyone takes note of the Fall Update:

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2018-fall/service-metrics-and-shipping.html#m17-...

Starting September 10, 2018, you will be required to upload tracking in the structured data field before the estimated delivery date has passed in order to appeal an "item not received" claim. eBay will not protect you from a claim if you send the tracking number to the buyer via email.

Long story short: if you fail to upload tracking before the Estimated Delivery Date passes and buyer insists he did not receive your order, you will lose the claim no matter what your tracking says.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Well, if you use Ebay labels, tracking is automatically added, so there's that.

If you use another postage provider, or ship over the counter, just add the tracking number when you ship the package. Done deal.

If a seller doesn't use tracking, we all know how that goes anyway.

If a seller has a tracking number, there's really no need to withhold it. Cuts down on a lot of the "where's my stuff" messages and it's just good customer service IMO.

[emerald40]

I upload tracking as soon as I have the number.

It puts the buyer at ease knowing the item is coming and he can track it.

A buyer should not have to ask for it, and I never understood why some sellers keep it a secret.

If you have it, show it.

[threshold.sales.group]

My $0.02, Uploading tracking asap is certainly a best practice and imo, I don't see why anyone wouldn't do it, but it seems to me an INR dispute should be settled only on whether there is a "delivered" scan or not, no matter when the tracking  gets uploaded.   An INR case should be fact based only. If eBay wants to encourage timely uploaded tracking I think there are better ways to do that and keep the INR dispute resolution process clean.  

[pburn]

I would normally agree with you, but we're seeing more and more buyers on these discussion boards who've had sellers scam them with fake address labels or whatever. Just the other day, a buyer had a seller actually print a label and then cover up their name and address with a fake name and address, photocopy it, and slap it on a package.

The tracking number--which the seller left intact--indicated the package was moving along in the tracking details; however, it was going to the wrong address . . .

The more we see of these kinds of seller scams, the less I believe the "delivered" scan should be the only criterion on which an INR is decided.

[couldabeenworse]

An INR case should be fact based only.

I'm not sure that a carrier's word that it was delivered is any more of a fact than a recipient's word that it was not.

It just occurred to me that this change may well aimed at fighting porch pirates.  If a seller properly uploads the tracking, eBay notifies the buyer of delivery, so he can retrieve his goods before some crook gets them.

[ekmadonna]

there is NO EXCUSE for not uploading tracking when you ship. Tracking is uploaded immediatly when you get a scan from PO. I don't understand why this would be an issue for anyone??

[missjen831]

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@ekmadonna wrote:

there is NO EXCUSE for not uploading tracking when you ship. Tracking is uploaded immediatly when you get a scan from PO. I don't understand why this would be an issue for anyone??

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It’s only automatically uploaded if you buy your labels through eBay. Not everyone does that. 

[couldabeenworse]

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@ekmadonna wrote:

there is NO EXCUSE for not uploading tracking when you ship. Tracking is uploaded immediatly when you get a scan from PO. I don't understand why this would be an issue for anyone??

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Some casual sellers just ship at the post office, and it's an extra hassle for them to upload the tracking.  And some sellers have strange ideas about buyers using tracking to somehow cheat them so they go out of their way to NOT supply tracking.

[ted_200]

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@missjen831 wrote:

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@ekmadonna wrote:

there is NO EXCUSE for not uploading tracking when you ship. Tracking is uploaded immediatly when you get a scan from PO. I don't understand why this would be an issue for anyone??

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It’s only automatically uploaded if you buy your labels through eBay. Not everyone does that. 

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...which is likely the proximate reasoning behing the policy - to cause more sellers to buy shipping labels through eBay (which is a profit center). 

If you have it, show it.

I don't always have it (some stuff ships without it), I don't necessarily want to telegraph which is the case in every instance. 

Unfortunately, the post office doesn't always scan it delivered like they're supposed to.  I don't see any reason to encourage buyers to claim a freebie by putting the tracking status front and center... "the Post Office didn't scan this, you can get it free, open a claim now" is just inviting unnecessary losses for sellers.  But that's irrelevant to the decision makers, this is just all about making money selling labels.

[couldabeenworse]

  I don't see any reason to encourage buyers to claim a freebie by putting the tracking status front and center...

I don't see any reason for eBay to protect sellers from Porch Pirates if they don't tell their buyers when their stuff is coming.

I have convinced myself that this is a major reason for the change, and will henceforth refer to it as The Porch Pirate Amendment.... 

[bigchief2472000]

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@couldabeenworse wrote:

An INR case should be fact based only.

I'm not sure that a carrier's word that it was delivered is any more of a fact than a recipient's word that it was not.

It just occurred to me that this change may well aimed at fighting porch pirates.  If a seller properly uploads the tracking, eBay notifies the buyer of delivery, so he can retrieve his goods before some crook gets them.

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That's the same takeaway I get from it.  As a buyer, I want to be able to track my package so I can see when it's delivered for the exact reason you pointed out.

If a package gets delivered to me and I don't know it was delivered, because a seller didn't provide a tracking number, then the package gets stolen, because I was unaware that it was in the mailbox/on the porch, having a seller provide the tracking number after the fact would be no help to me.

[gracieallen01]

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@couldabeenworse wrote:

  I don't see any reason to encourage buyers to claim a freebie by putting the tracking status front and center...

I don't see any reason for eBay to protect sellers from Porch Pirates if they don't tell their buyers when their stuff is coming.

I have convinced myself that this is a major reason for the change, and will henceforth refer to it as The Porch Pirate Amendment.... 

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Unfortunately, you can be sure of one thing - people are people and if there is a hinderance to a scam, they WILL find a workaround.

Perhaps it should be kept simple, and worry about the problems IF/WHEN they happen.

[ted_200]

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@couldabeenworse wrote:

  I don't see any reason to encourage buyers to claim a freebie by putting the tracking status front and center...

I don't see any reason for eBay to protect sellers from Porch Pirates if they don't tell their buyers when their stuff is coming.

I have convinced myself that this is a major reason for the change, and will henceforth refer to it as The Porch Pirate Amendment.... 

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Well... I marked it shipped, it's not like they didn't know it was coming.  For the most part, this "Porch Pirate" thing is a) way overblown (an excuse to attempt to get a refund more often than an actual stolen off the porch item), and b) not my (our... or eBay's...) problem.  I don't think it's too much to expect that mail order buyers would have a secure way to handle their incoming mail. 

But however you see it, if I provided the tracking number 4 days ago, or I provided it 4 minutes ago, it doesn't change anything.  It was delivered, or it was delivered and stolen, either way - exactly how far in advance the tracking # was provided doesn't change a thing.  If it was left on the porch, it's because the buyer wasn't home, and it likely got "stolen" before he got home.  It's an arbitrary way to decide cases that are essentially the same circumstance, so I'd call it the "Shipping Label Profit Center Amendment" myself. 

[gracieallen01]

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@couldabeenworse wrote:

  I don't see any reason to encourage buyers to claim a freebie by putting the tracking status front and center...

I don't see any reason for eBay to protect sellers from Porch Pirates if they don't tell their buyers when their stuff is coming.

I have convinced myself that this is a major reason for the change, and will henceforth refer to it as The Porch Pirate Amendment.... 

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Oh, yes.  And, just how many people do you think are going to take time from their 'busy schedule' to wait for the postman, on THAT day, whichever THAT day is - how often is ebay correct in their guesstimates of delivery?  

AND, how is it going to stop porch pirates?  Tracking will just say WHEN it was sent, and where it MIGHT be at any particular time - as so many people have shouted to ebay, it doesn't guarantee WHEN it will ARRIVE. 

I can just see the sale of Coleman camping supplies dramatically jump, so people can camp out on the porch and wait for the postman and foil those cursed pirates.