Tracking number question

[gooseislandcollectibles]

I have been selling on eBay since 2001 and ran into an issue this past weekend with uploading a tracking number. I purchase all my USPS labels through eBay shipping. I had a buyer purchase 3 separate items and paid for each separately. I offer in all my listing combined shipping. Since everything was already paid for I couldn't offer a revise shipping total. I packed all 3 items in one box(I sell mostly LPs, 45rpm and 78rpm records). When I tried to add the original tracking number to the additional items purchase I was unable to do so because it was previously used on the original item. I had eBay call me (which surprisingly only took under 2 minutes). I spent nearly 30 minutes with two agents with no positive results. The only suggestion was to cancel  everything and have the buyer repurchase the items and request an update shipping invoice. There was no way I would make my buyer do this as they did nothing wrong. So I just canceled the second item and shipped it to the buyer anyway with the original purchase.(It was  under 10 bucks so I took the loss )

rather than annoying the buyer. My refunds have always been under 50 a year so it doesn't hurt me to keep my customers happy and coming back. The question is how to I avoid this going forward when I ship everything together I have need to add the same tracking number to additional items. In the past I was able to always use the tracking number to the additional items so this is a recent problem.

[luckythewinner]

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@gooseislandcollectibles wrote:

The question is how to I avoid this going forward when I ship everything together I have need to add the same tracking number to additional items. In the past I was able to always use the tracking number to the additional items so this is a recent problem.

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I have never had an issue with this, as long as all the item were purchased with the same buyer account. 

[wastingtime101]

It sounds like your buyer checked out as a Guest. They were assigned a different ID for each purchase. eBay doesn't let you upload the same tracking number for transactions purchased by different IDs.

Why did you cancel? You could have let it ride without tracking attached. As long as the buyer is honest they're not going to file a claim for non-receipt - which is really the only reason you 'need' to upload tracking. eBay doesn't require tracking unless you want seller protection on item not received claims.

[sirrantsalot · Accepted solution]

I've run into that issue too. As you said, eBay no longer lets you use a delivery confirmation # on more than one item.

You need to do it through the bulk shipping page. There you can combine multiple purchases into one shipment:

ebay.com/gslblui/bulk 

Or try

https://gslblui.ebay.com/gslblui/bulk 

[a_c_green]

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@sirrantsalot wrote:

I've run into that issue too. As you said, eBay no longer lets you use a delivery confirmation # on more than one item. 

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Sure they do. I combine shipments all the time and upload the tracking number to each Sold item. 

Where the problem may have come in here is if the buyer was doing a guest purchase, as @wastingtime101 suggested. Each transaction would go to a different temporary buyer ID, so the shipments could not be combined.

[yuzuha]

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@sirrantsalot wrote:

I've run into that issue too. As you said, eBay no longer lets you use a delivery confirmation # on more than one item.

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This is incorrect. I literally did exactly that just last week.

[gooseislandcollectibles]

Up until this weekend I had no issue combining orders into one shipment as I have done it many many times in the past. I don't know why I could not do it this time . I am no rookie at this and have found many work around on past issues that I thought could not be resolved but this one stumped me. 

[gooseislandcollectibles]

I provide tracking for everything on the outside chance a buyer claims he never received it. And without tracking I have no proof. Sure even with tracking a buyer can claim not delivery  but I am kinda crazy and feel better by having proof it was delivered.

[gooseislandcollectibles]

Thanks for this suggestion. At some point in the past I remember using the bulk shipping page to work around this so I give that another look to as a possible fix. It irritates me that this is the first time this has been an issue. At least once a week I combine shipments without having any problems. 

Thanks to all the others for your thoughts on this and suggestions. I knew by reaching out to the community someone  would help. You all are much more polite and helpful than the nonsense I deal with on the big river site.

[wayneosjewelry]

hi,i had this problem when the buyer had used two different user id's to buy from us.i just put the tracking number on the most expensive item.

[kh-cathy]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.