Post Office Refuses to Accept EBAY STANDARD ENVELOPES

[osionline]

Ebay specifically advertises the shipping service of EBAY STANDARD ENVELOPE to people who sell coins and sealed booster packs of up to 15 cards.

It is also pushed to any many single card sellers and advises them to load loose cards in rigid Top loaders. USPS is saying they cannot accept these items and they are NON-MACHINEABLE. Top loaders, Sealed Booster Packs and COINS of any type should not be sent ESE!

Specifically when it comes to Sealed booster packs of 15 cards EVERY post office says these items are not flexible enough and has no idea why Ebay is advising people to mail rigid items through this service because they cannot bend to meet USPS requirements. I showed 3 USPS Local Postmasters the Ebay Guidelines and Advertisement page for ESE and they were shocked that it was being advised this way!!!!

In addition the ESE Tracking system is an absolute SCAM! for every 100 packages sent ESE, 50+% will not have updated delivery details showing the item reached its destination. Many despite positive feedback being given proving buyer had received the item will show non delivered.

30%+ will HAVE Buyers filing "did not receive" claims, & 20%+ will be returned to either you as Additional Postage Due!

SOOO Why is E-bay pushing this service specifically to sellers like myself who sell these products if it is apparent that it is in violation of USPS guidelines for non machinable mail and what are they going to do about the poorly managed tracking system that is leaving sellers open to extreme buyer fraud?

[kaysert]

I don't know about the mailers, but eBay International Mail is pretty good. I question the statistics quoted, as no one capable of compiling the nessary data would release such information, for obvious reasons. So, those figures can be summarily tossed. It might be accurate for an individual seller, but not overall! 

There are obviously some things missing from the OP. I'm not sure what, but it isn't as simple as it's being made out to be.

[osionline]

[wastingtime101]

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@kaysert wrote:

I don't know about the mailers, but eBay International Mail is pretty good.

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OP is talking about eBay Standard Envelope, not eBay International Standard Delivery. The services are drastically different.

Go here for info on how to file claims on lost packages shipped with ESE after you've paid out on item not received claims.

[osionline]

It really is that simple...

E-Bay sells a shipping service that advertises that it can send "Items" up to 3 oz in very specific categories for under $1 but USPS is telling hundreds of sellers just like me that these items are in violation of USPS shipping guidelines. USPS has shown they will not accept our packages, they return our packages, there is no updated ESUS tracking showing items were delivered over 50+% of the time (common), and this is ultimately causing massive buyer fraud exploitation for many sellers.

You are welcome to search other threads about this issue as well, there are many that i found that detail these same problems with ESE. Many are from sellers that have problems with Top Loaders being returned or not accepted and even many Larger Sellers who have sold ~100+ items with ESE and are experiencing Item not Delivered difficulties and Buyer fraud problems as a result of those sales. The ones i have spoken too experience on average 20-30 people claiming Items not delivered per ~100 sold with tracking not updating to delivered.

I personally have sold about 35 items with ESE and only had 3 open Item not Received so far but I believe scammers are picking their targets to larger sellers and i'm not there yet and ive also found one post office who will take anything i give them no questions asked and just force it down the machine if i pack it the same way skinny always way for them. The other post offices I visited to discuss this issue claim they will never allow these items as E-bay advertises as they essentially aren't making enough money at .53 cents to treat it as 1st Class mail and if they think it cant go in the standard mail machines like they train there staff to find non machinable mail they will reject it every time even if its packed correctly and could probably still make it through the machine. USPS says they have no official deal with EBAY to allow non machinable or semi machinable "Items" through ESE.

If you find any additional information please feel free to share it or add to this discussion but I believe there is a massive liability here with the ESE system that needs to be addressed.

The Ebay Standard Envelope system needs to have first class equivalent tracking and these items should be treated like first class mail as that is how it is being advertised as a replacement option for lightweight "ITEMS". The price could even be double or triple and it would work fine still! 2x$1.06-$1.86 - 3x $1.59-$2.79.

If E-Bay or USPS cannot honor this shipping method as they advertise it then can they at least revise the service to a method to allow them be scannable and move through as first class mail for a smaller set price then 4 oz.+ First Class mail or just please remove the service altogether because it is a extreme liability in its current state for sellers and is going to cause lasting damage to this sales ecosystem long run.

[wastingtime101]

There's a chat with eBay staff every Wednesday (link). You used to be able to get someone on the chat to pass the info to the shipping team and they would reach out to eBay's USPS contacts to let them know post offices in your zip code aren't complying with approved services. Lately the chats have been less than helpful so I don't know if you could get that same service. It wouldn't hurt to ask.

Leave out the rant. Leave out the percentages of unscanned packages. Bullet point the specific issue:

- ESE requires envelope size X which your packages match.

- ESE requires thickness no more than X which your packages match.

- ESE requires weight no more than X which your packages match.

- ESE requires value less than or equal to $X which your packages match.

- Despite meeting all the physical package requirements, 3 area post offices will not accept your packages for X reason.

- How do you get this escalated to the shipping team so they can reach out to their USPS contacts and get your local POs to comply with the service?

That's an outline to get you started. Good luck and I hope you get somewhere with it!

[lacemaker3]

@osionline,

You have to read all the terms and conditions for the ESE eBay Standard Envelope service.

The envelope can't be rigid, or it doesn't qualify. That is the same requirements as the USPS requirement for an envelope to be "machinable":  rigid envelopes don't qualify, because the machines can't handle them. If you want to use top loaders, they can't be rigid ones, and they can't be too thick.

If you want to ship your items in rigid envelopes, that is understandable. It gives better protection. But in that case, you can't use ESE, so there's no point in complaining because you can't use a service that your package doesn't qualify for.

https://pages.ebay.com/sell/standarddelivery/termsofservice.html

[wastingtime101]

Thank you for posting that. I was trying to get the OP to review all the specs to make sure they were actually in compliance before submitting a complaint which is why I outlined it the way I did. I was also being lazy about looking up the specific guidelines. haha

[onefootflipper]

I shipped 6,000 standard envelopes last year. 

Of which the post office only lost about 10 of them and damaged 3. The insurance paid out in every single case.

I did have some hiccups at first. 

I figured out exactly how to pack them so they don't get returned. 

I pack my cards in a gaming sleeve, with 1-2 filler cards on either side of the card the person paid for. Then I tape that off-center inside the envelope, alternating left for one order, right for the next. I do this so when a postal employee picks up the stack the stack is uniform in thickness. I only use a top-loader if the customer specifically requests it.

I never drop my envelopes off at the post office counter. Nor do I give them to my mail carrier. That makes it too easy for some postal employee applying their own standards to just rubber band the whole lot and send them back with my own postal carrier. 

I instead drop them in a high volume mailbox in a nearby commercial area that isn't serviced by the same post office that services my house. 

Standard envelope has been far superior to the huge numbers of customers in certain card categories claiming to not get their cards at all. Used to be around 10 percent of my pokemon customers claimed they didn't get their cards, that has dropped to nearly zero.

[wastingtime101]

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@onefootflipper wrote:

Standard envelope has been far superior to the huge numbers of customers in certain card categories claiming to not get their cards at all. Used to be around 10 percent of my pokemon customers claimed they didn't get their cards, that has dropped to nearly zero.

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Initially ESE was not available for non-sports trading cards. Do you know when they changed that @onefootflipper? It must have been within the past few months because I remember before the holidays we still ran into a lot of non-sports trading card sellers that didn't understand why they couldn't access it. Now that I think about it, those questions have pretty much gone away.

[onefootflipper]

It was in the Collectible Card Game category from day 1, that is my main card category.  It was definitely in non-sports by July as I just checked my invoices and I sold multiple cards in that category in July.

[tylehammon-42]

Same thing is happening to me, Post Office refuses to ship out my items. Learned the trick is to drop off less than 2, otherwise it's guaranteed the standard envelope will be returned. Even USPS Consumer Affairs has stated they are not aware of the standard envelope product, and claim the tracking numbers are invalid. 

[soh.maryl]

The original message on this thread is from 01/31/22.

You might get more responses if you would start your own thread here.

Suggested respectfully.  

[tylehammon-42]

Sounds great. Except I am using a plane old paper envelope and it still gets returned. Also not using a toploader, shipping in thin cardboard that is equivalent to a holiday card. The ebay standard envelope is simply a poor product that negatively impacts sellers. 

[yotman19]

One of my counter ladies said they were not acceptable. I had copied the exact measurements page and the weight and amount of cards etc. Showed her and she accepted it and then made my wife pay extra the next day for first calss. I went to see my local Pos Mastewr - who was in hi offcie and he took the soft cardboard eBay exnelope and bent it back and forth and said look flexible to me.  Called her him and told her NOT to refuse any more.  He also gave me the money back.  I have never had one returned and have sent MANY, MANY using that ebay envelope.  The Issue I have is that it is by categpry only so Victorian Trade cards , MOSt of which ar eeven lighter than sports catds or non-sports card are not allowed.  I just moved the all to a non-spot single card cateory but did not change the titles or discriptions.  It is something that was negotiated with the USPS by ebay.