Tracked shipping requirement

[misprintmagiccards]

I sell a lot of $5-10 items that ship in a First Class envelope for 60 cents. Real tracking starts at $4, considering that a different envelope is required. 

I don't need tracking on this stuff, even at the newly announced cheapo rate. Factoring in the cost of a printer to support tracking of first class envelopes, and the additional labor involved, I probably would stop selling rather than deal with this on every order. 

That said, they just downgraded my seller rating solely due to the on-time tracking rating, which means higher fees on my high end items. I was looking at an offer on one listing that I might have accepted until I read this email which means an additional $70 in final value fee on that one sale. Keep in mind 100% of my items ship on time, and 100% have arrived on time, just the very low value ones ship without tracking. 

It seems like my options are to move my high end business off Ebay to platforms with better fee structures like Facebook Marketplace or tcgplayer, stop selling the low end stuff, or buy a label printer and see if the market will bear higher prices on listings that are only making $2 in the first place.

What I want to know is:

- Does the envelope system even satisfy the requirement to upload tracking? It's a very hokey tracking system that I wouldn't accept as tracking at all in any context where I actually wanted tracking.

- Assuming yes, what is the minimal printer needed to support it, and what is the actual cost of operating it?

- Has anyone ever had success reasoning with Ebay about exempting $5 sales from the metric when the $100 sales ship with tracking and 100% of sales end with positive feedback, or are they just not to be reasoned with? Last time I talked to customer service they claimed to have no ability to manually review an account.

[buyselljack2016]

@misprintmagiccards 

Many in your situation just use a different selling account for the items that can not withstand the cost of tracking.

Keeps your regular selling account from falling out of "top rated".

Reasoning with eBay? Save the stress. There is no reasoning with eBay, and in the situation that you presented there is no reason for trying.

[no_zero369]

The new "cheapo rate" is only available in some categories.  BUT  it does come with Insurance for lost stuff.  Insurance you don't have to pay for.

There is no requirement that you use tracking, it is just your only tool to use for successful INR cases.  Many ship with first class stamps and then work the occasion refund into their business plan.

Are you marking your items as shipped?

I would get on  the phone with CS and see if they can't make adjustment to your seller ratings based on FC shipping and no tracking.  Might take a few calls to get a USA based rep and one that is knowledgeable!

[misprintmagiccards]

We can say it's "not a requirement" to use tracking, but they're raising fees by several hundred dollars a year for not meeting the requirement, so it really is. I don't care about INR cases, I'm happy to self-insure that. I do mark them as shipped. Years ago that was all that was required, but now it's tracking or GTFO. I pretty much only sell in categories that the cheapo rate was designed for, but it just doesn't seem like a good deal.

I'll give customer service a try and report back.

[southern*sweet*tea]

There is NO requirement to use tracking. There never has been.

If you don't use tracking, there is no late ding UNLESS your buyer physically marks the item as late.

If there is no tracking, and the buyer does not mark the item late, it doesn't count AT ALL toward shipping metrics.

I have an account where I ship small booklets in an envelope with a stamp. My tracking upload percentage is zero, my on-time is 100% and it is above standard.

[no_zero369]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

There is NO requirement to use tracking. There never has been.

If you don't use tracking, there is no late ding UNLESS your buyer physically marks the item as late.

If there is no tracking, and the buyer does not mark the item late, it doesn't count AT ALL toward shipping metrics.

I have an account where I ship small booklets in an envelope with a stamp. My tracking upload percentage is zero, my on-time is 100% and it is above standard.

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@southern*sweet*tea 

Thanks for that!  One bit of clarification.... does the above depend on the seller marking items as "shipped" when in fact they do place the item in the USPS hands?   The point is that isn't "on time shipping"  measured against one's stated handling time? 

[babe4days123]

Ebay is tracking the delivery times on your items that don't have tracking by a buyer's sole word of feedback. The feedback gives the buyer the option to say "yes" it arrived on time or "no" it didn't.  Some buyers will wait days to do their feedback and click "no" just for the heck of it.  You should always use a tracking number for all your packages because now with people out of work or just not working there's more buyer's that will claim it never came and they have it in their hand. I would stop selling the low value goods on eBay. If you go to Facebook your still at the mercy of a buyer being honest that your non tracked item arrived. 

[kh-ornesh]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began, we have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread HERE.

Thanks.