eBay

toews.trendal · ‎04-18-2023

The first handful of items we sold on our account were shipped via a Post Office that did not give us any tracking info and when we go back there they say there is no way to retrieve it. All we have is a printed receipt of the amounts, no other identifications.

Ebay has locked our account because we haven't provided tracking for *every* item we have sold. It's impossible, the PO says they have no way of getting the info. So were at a stalemate here with thousands of dollars of other items sold and ebay is holding the money. What can we do?

Note: This is a different account than the one I am posting this message from

pickermall · ‎04-18-2023

At least mark the items as "Shipped" on the other account. Hopefully that will show that the items were actually shipped out, even without tracking

anasazirose · ‎04-18-2023

@buyselljack2016 wrote:
Little "country" office (manual office) that has no Point Of Sale terminal would indeed have no printed receipt with tracking, but if the items sent were "packages" a tracking # sticker would have been applied to each, and a "customer copy" of each of those should have been provided.

The info could actually be extracted from USPS internal documentation, but not likely that it will happen.

Given the day/time (you have CC receipt) , and knowing what zips those items were sent to it is possible to get that data. I truly believe that USPS has it recorded someplace. If the items were "packages" that tracking # sticker would have been scanned (should have been scanned) when they were sent. It would be amongst the data for that office someplace in the USPS intranet. There should be a record of every inbound scan, and every outbound scan for that office.

This is what I was thinking. We have a tiny post office near us. I sent some 1st class packages out and asked for receipts with tracking number on them. Poor clerk had to hand write the tracking numbers, no stickers for the sender here! This was 3 years ago, and I haven't been back to that post office..., just drive right by to the one that's 2 miles away and fully automated.

anasazirose · ‎04-18-2023

@joliztoyco wrote:
Many of you have no idea of what you're talking about.
Our P.O. has a roll of Tracking #'s. They peel one off and affix it to your package. It has a UPC code and tracking # on it. They tear the remainder off which has the tracking # along the bottom and on the reverse they stamp it with the PO, Date, and USPS. My PO workers write the name of the recipient on the back ( because they know how exacting I am about keeping records) and hand it to me. Once they weigh and price it, they tell me the charge and I write it next to the name. If I am shipping multiple packages, we do it to all of them. When we're done, the add up all the charges with a calculator and tell me the total. I insert my card, pay it all, and get a simple receipt that displays the PO & Address, Date, Time, Term & Clerk ID # and the total.
Says NOTHING about tracking or Zip codes.
When I go to bigger towns, their PO's have the technology you're describing.
Not all Post Offices are "equal".

LOL, as you say, not all post offices are "equal" . There's a tiny post office near us that had to hand write the tracking number on a receipt for me.

buyselljack2016 · ‎04-19-2023

Have not done any small office tracked package shipping label purchases in quite a while. I will have to ask next time I stop by. Just seems very off to not have the duplicate sticker for the customer.

Seems to stick in my mind that it was not that long ago that I was there to drop off my "online label" packages, and the employee tore off a strip of paper with a duplicate sticker for the customer ahead of me.

a_c_green · ‎04-20-2023

@buyselljack2016 wrote:
Have not done any small office tracked package shipping label purchases in quite a while. I will have to ask next time I stop by. Just seems very off to not have the duplicate sticker for the customer.

Seems to stick in my mind that it was not that long ago that I was there to drop off my "online label" packages, and the employee tore off a strip of paper with a duplicate sticker for the customer ahead of me.

Just as another data point along those same lines, about how small-time POs cope with the Modern Age, from a posting to another group that I made a couple of years ago:

Back in 2021, I had to mail a last-minute eBay sale that had come in while we were packing for a vacation trip, so I mailed it from the United States Post in downtown metropolitan Union Pier, MI (population 600), which used to be the United States Post Office until the "Office" fell off:

It's open on Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. all the way through to 11:00 a.m.

None of yer newfangled printers here. My receipt in the photo came from a tear-off pad with a little tracking number sticker and an official rubber datestamp (showing the previous day's date by mistake). I believe I can use it as a vaccination card as well. (Yes, that is a duck peeking over my hand. His name is Laszlo, according to our daughter, and he rides in the corner of the dashboard in our Sienna.)

buyselljack2016 · ‎04-20-2023

600, that's the big time compared to the closest (not my PO) one to me.

In my area the hand held scanner, and a credit/debit card receipt printer is as fancy as it gets for many offices. They have a scale that at one point was updated with a new chip when there were rate changes to tell the employee the cost of the item mailing, but in what I suppose was a cost cutting effort, at one time they stopped doing the chip updates, and the employee had to pick up the printed rate fold, and Zip Zone chart to figure out the postage. They do have a printer that spits out a postage label, but the tracking sticker is a separate sticker.

That was a few years back. From my occasional observations it seems that they must have them (chips) again as I don't recall the employee checking a rate fold for a customer's package when I have been there for my dropoff's.

1st 4 offices in my line of travel are manual offices. then I hit one with a Point Of Sale (POS One) terminal. Other direction 4of 5 are manual with the 2nd being POS One.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎04-20-2023

@buyselljack2016 wrote: ... they must have them (chips) again as I don't recall the employee checking a rate fold for a customer's package when I have been there for my dropoff's. ...

Or maybe the clerk is looking up the postage cost using the shipping calculator at usps.com on his phone.

buyselljack2016 · ‎04-21-2023

I suppose that they could do that, but the clerk was not doing that when I was there 😁

glgenterprise · ‎04-21-2023

I have nothing productive to add for OP, but d*mn if I'm not completely shocked that there are post offices that still have nothing but rolls of tracking stickers and a credit card machine.

Learned something new here today.