Fed Ex Acceptance Scan

[anthonyd46]

I'm having a bit of an issue with the Fed Ex scanning on ebay. Two of my items were both shipped with Fed Ex Smartpost in the past month. Since ebay labels using Fed Ex kept mischarging me and dealing with that whole run around was ridicolous I switched to my own Fed Ex account with smartpost enabled as well as the other services. It still gives the ebay discounts, but the only difference is the tracking now has to be uploaded manually because I am pritning the labels off the Fed Ex website instead of directly on ebay. This way if there is an overcharge I can call Fed Ex directly. There hasn't been one since I made this switch.

Anyway when I upload the tracking manually ebay usually either detects it as Fed Ex or Fed Ex Smartpost, however, for these two packages ebay changed it to USPS for whatever reason. This made both packages not show any scanning at all on ebays side like I never dropped the package off. Yet if you go to the Fed Ex website it says complete tracking history. I talked to one CSR last week and he noticed and removed it, but this week it happened again with a different package and I was told that even though the Fed Ex website shows full tracking on time with a delivery scan that the defect would stand because it only shows "In FedEx possession Tendered at FedEx location." They told me that is not a valid acceptance scan. This confused me because the previous CSR the week before said that was a valid acceptance scan. Did the rule change in a week or was the previous CSR wrong? This CSR linked me to a policy that says this as a reason a defect can be removed:

You upload tracking that confirms the item was shipped within the handling time or the item was delivered by the estimated delivery date, but the late shipment rate wasn't automatically updated because the tracking isn't integrated with eBay. 

How does this not fall in those parameters? The Fed Ex website shows complete tracking, but ebay isnt intergrating it correctly. Am I missing something here?

[berserkerplanet]

Just checked it out and there does appear to be something buggy in at least the "Add/Edit" tracking interface I tried on the classic My eBay Sold items page, but it is something that can be easily be corrected by the user.

As a test, I plugged a FedEx Smartpost tracking number in as an additional tracking number on a recent Priority Mail shipment after the fact:

which brings up:

then tabbed to the "carrier" box - it detected it as USPS and offered 3 options in the dropdown:

Note how the "USPS" in the box is highlighted? It is selected, so just hit the F key (or start typing FedEx which narrows it down even more), and .....

Choose FedEx Smart Post, hit "Save" button, and it should be good to go (didn't want to screw up that order so did not save it):

There does appear to be a bug in that interface. The tracking number is both a USPS and a FedEx number, so I can see why it might assume USPS, but the workings of the controls seem a bit wonky.

There's javascript in there parsing the tracking number and making assumptions which maybe it shouldn't, or it should be recognizing that it's a FedEx number and should be either giving that precedence or should be presenting both USPS and FedEx options in the dropdown. That info is encoded in 3 digits starting with digit 3 in the 22 digits of the tracking number)

(If that's not the interface you used, then disregard the above 🙂

As far as the rest of your question goes:

The hybrid nature of Smartpost and the resulting "dual tracking" makes it more complex. The reality is that you need to have that tracking number tagged as a FedEx tracking number from the beginning when you manually add it precisely because eBay's systems aren't set up to recognize it properly as a USPS number.

(I'd assume that there is a spaghetti pile of eBay systems in play here - late shipment db, user tracking gui, etc that aren't 100% integrated, some a decade old, some new, and they just can't make that logical leap).

So just enter FedEx numbers as FedEx numbers and you shouldn't have any problems.

Aside:

How did you manage to get SmartPost capability added to your account? That is something I'm interested in as a backup, but was under the impression that it was a "big shipper FedEx account only" option- at least in the past. Has that changed?

[phcd1]

If you're doing you own labels and not through eBay, I wouldn't even put the tracking number in eBay. Many sellers are doing that now to avoid INR claims and its working great! Just mark it shipped (you really aren't even required to that). It's amazing how many items are "found" when you put that tracking number in an INR case.

[anthonyd46]

You have to put the tracking in. Needs to be within 1 business day for Top Rated Plus or be delivered by the estimated delivery time. I did not see that it could be edited after if there was a mistake in carrier as the first reply posted. Yes it was that same interface I just totally missed the edit part and just saw the word add. 

I simply explained to them what was happening with ebay and that I had been charged for 4 shipments for a total overcharge of almost $400 extra. First they said can't help you this is ebays fed ex account etc etc. So I told them ebay isnt correcting the issue they said to contact you. So they looked it up saw this was happenign to alot of people and said they could open a business account. So first they did that and I compared and the discount was seriously like 2% off the normal Fed Ex rates. So i explained to them that I couldn't use this service with such a low discount. So they forawarded me to a business specialist and they basically just asked which services I used and I said Ground, Home Delivery, Smartpost. They asked how many packages I ship a week and I said combined between USPS and Fed Ex on a good week probably 20, but only maybe half those are Fed Ex. So I thoguht they were going to be like 10 shipments a week? Thats too little, but shockingly enough they said that was more than enough. So they told me that they were going to set me up with a Fed Ex business account + Ebay discounts + Smartpost service and thats what they did. Most of the times the rates are right on the ebay rates, but sometimes its a dollar or two more, but least its now completely through Fed Ex if theres a problem. I've been doing this since May and no problem so far. Plus after every so many shipments (I think its 10) you get a $5 or $10 gift card to starbucks or amazon. 

I tried the same thing with UPS Surepost, but they told me its 30 packages a day MINIMUM and they evaluate you every week. If they see you drop under 30 for more than one week its dropped and you are kicked out. Fed Ex is alot more leninant. 

[berserkerplanet]

If tracking numbers aren't uploaded to eBay a seller

• can't maintain TRS status at all (fails tracking uploaded within handling time metric)
• is open to possibility of falling to above standard from TRS for failing to meet the 3% or less "on time shipment metric". Without tracking uploaded within handling time, seller is at the mercy of the carriers - hoping they deliver before last EDD - and at the mercy of buyer's poor recollection if asked if it was delivered late. And those hits stick around for a year.

Tradeoff is possible protection against possible INR claims (which can mostly be neutralized by uploading tracking showing delivery, mostly) vs losing TRS and maybe falling to only above standard.

I know which way I'm going on that

[anthonyd46]

I had a whole response typed up and it seems to have disappeared, but again basically I just called them told them I kept having problems with the ebay invoices and they offered me a business account with the ebay discounts. I asked about smartpost and they asked how many packages I shipped in a week I said about 10 fed ex packages they said that was enough and I talked to a specialist who approved me.

[berserkerplanet]

Thanks for that info. I am real hit and miss, low volume, and might average 2  month, so doubt it's enough 😞

Did any of what I posted in that big first post apply?

I have gotten in the habit of hitting ctrl-a ctrl-c and copying everything in the edit box to the clipboard while I'm composing a post because I've been burned way too many times. Taking a while to grab images to embed, checking facts, etc and the stupid forum logs me out and throws the "authentication error". Sometimes it does it just hitting the "Preview" tab. And the backup draft functionality is worthless.

Copy your post to the clipboard often and before doing anything like hitting "preview" or "post", or compose in a text editor and paste in the forum editor - you'll lower your blood pressure. 🙂

[anthonyd46]

Hi, 

Sorry for the late response. What you said worked, however, it then gave me a defect for uploading late as it assumed this was a "new" tracking number.

[berserkerplanet]

eBay needs to fix that, although I'm not sure how they could.

You would have gotten dinged anyway from what you said in your OP - if the original tracking never updated because eBay changed it to USPS tracking then you would have fallen afoul of the the TRS "uploaded within handling time and validated at some point" metric, and the late shipping "uploaded and validated within handling time" wouldn't protect you against late delivery either because there would have been no scans.

At least this way you are protected against INR with valid tracking capable of showing delivery.

You might be able to get eBay CS to do something about the ding on the phone.