Tracking Upload/Validation and Top Seller rating.

[mcmcollectionandhobby]

I'm having difficulty receiving Top Seller status through no real fault of my own, and I am wondering how this could be fixed. 

Trying to explain this is a little difficult for me because I am still trying to wrap my head around it. 

My Tracking Upload/Validation percentage is low, and I found out why. 

I sell comics. Let's say I sell 10 comics individually to one customer. The customer has already paid, and I refund the cost of shipping to combine the order. That part has little to do with the situation. I take the item to the post office to be delivered and am given only one tracking number. I can only use that tracking number once.  Out of the ten comics this customer purchased I can only insert that tracking number on one of the comics.  I would assume eBay would know that that one tracking number is for all 10 comics, but that isn't the case. I get notifications on items that were already shipped and received that say the items need to be shipped because the tracking number can only be used on one comic and not the remaining 10. 

One way to resolve this is probably is by sending an invoice (can't be done if the customer has already paid) with combined total, as eBay will recognize that it was multiple individual orders and that one tracking number will represent all the items. Probably the correct way, but it puts more effort on the buyer than the seller. The customer just wants to purchase the item, make the payment and receive his/her order. 

I hope I am making sense. How can this be fixed? 

[cstpos]

@mcmcollectionandhobby  You can go to your account settings, combined payment and shipping preferences, the select Combined shipping.

We added a line to our listing that asks the buyer to wait to pay if ordering multiple items so we can send them an updated invoice. If they pay right away anyway, and it's a considerable difference, we just issue a partial for the overcharge. Let your buyers know that you will combine for shipping by adding that in your listing as well. It might prompt them to purchase more items from you. Good Luck!

PS - ebay can't know that you're refunding the shipping to people and have combine the orders. They only know that they require a tracking # for each order, and you're only providing 1 tracking number.

[biggymoe · Accepted solution]

On your Sold Listings, under the title, there is Add Tracking.  Copy the one tracking number you have and paste for each additional one.  Works for me.  Would work better if buyers would wait for an invoice and then there is no problem.

[ebskye]

I copy the tracking number on multiple sold items shipped in one package and still got dinged for not uploading the tracking. 

Any suggestions? Thanks.

[a_c_green]

---

@ebskye wrote:

I copy the tracking number on multiple sold items shipped in one package and still got dinged for not uploading the tracking. 

Any suggestions? Thanks.

---

Just to be clear: you selected Mark as Shipped for each item, and then Add Tracking Number to each item (along with the carrier you used), and you did this within the Handling time you gave for those items, and still got a late-shipping notice? 

[rainbowranchmom]

I finally said "screw it" to eBay and made my shipping two days so I don't even have to try to play their games. I still ship the minute an order comes in but I am sick and tired of eBay's juvenile rating system. 99% of my "errors" are from the USPS and there is absolutely nothing I can do to change that. I occasionally lose an item - I am 71 and sometimes can't even find my glasses - but the scale is so high, I quit jumping after selling for over 17 years!  I know I am about as perfect as you can get and I jump through hoops for my customers but I am not playing eBay games anymore that are stacked against the seller from the get-go. Who cares - a ten percent discount is nothing when the fees are stacked against you, too. AND who cares about a 25.00 if that discount for shipping materials when they are all priced at $25.99. I don't think my buyers care anything about a silly badge on my pages. They do care about shipping fees and the prices!  How stupid does eBay think we really are?  

[luckythewinner]

---

@mcmcollectionandhobby wrote:

 I can only use that tracking number once.  

---

I have always been able to add the same tracking number to multiple purchases by the same buyer.