Tracking for Letters

[selinaanna]

Etsy has tracking for letter-sized envelopes up to 6x9 through Pitney Bowes, and also for "flats" which are 9x12. It's a fairly new thing (I think about a year ago), and it's been working great. Tracking doesn't appear on the USPS website, but shows directly on the order. You can see every scan along the way, just like package tracking, because it's barcoded. Etsy also has a policy that once an item shows delivered, it's delivered. So if a buyer claims non-receipt, seller will not lose the case if tracking shows delivered. Does anyone know if Ebay will ever have this kind of tracking in place, or who to message at Ebay to find out? It really does work well for someone who sells items that can fit in regular flat envelopes (like myself).  It also lessens the possibility of fraudulent non-receipt cases. Ebay partners with Pitney Bowes, so I'm wondering why they haven't implemented letter tracking at this point, since it is now available.

[wastingtime101]

brian@ebay- Can you ask the shipping team if this letter tracking option is an eBay possibility?

@selinaanna - Does Etsy add a surcharge for the tracking or do they charge the regular USPS rate for Flats?

[rebell45]

It's called letter-track.com. Costs .18 extra. Anyone can use it, I beleive. It uses a baroda that USPS picks up anytime an item goes one of their scanners and reports back to them. Tracking only shows up on their website,  not USPS's. Since the carrier doesn't scan it upon delivery, I don't see how it can be used to confirm delivery.

[brian@ebay]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

brian@ebay- Can you ask the shipping team if this letter tracking option is an eBay possibility?

@selinaanna - Does Etsy add a surcharge for the tracking or do they charge the regular USPS rate for Flats?

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@wastingtime101 I can pass this along 🙂

[simba6]

The issue is the postal service lives in fear of all junk mail senders using tracking. It would take many times longer to deliver it if they did.

[cadbury0007]

Since the post office makes the rules, couldn't they just exclude that type of mail from tracking?  All of the pre-sorted junk?  Or just make a deal with eBay labels on the tracking?

[selinaanna]

I don't believe there is a surcharge through Etsy. I don't notice anything extra on my Etsy billing.

[selinaanna]

I use Lettertrack also right now for Ebay letter-sized, and it's .16 per mail piece when you buy 50 tracks at a time. It doesn't deter buyers from opening INR cases because it only shows "Out for delivery" on day of delivery, and buyers know an item has to show "Delivered." However, Etsy flat letter tracking through Pitney Bowes does indeed show "Delivered" when an item is delivered, and that is what I was hoping Ebay would put into place. LetterTrack is somewhat helpful, but not ideal.

[selinaanna]

I don't believe USPS considers a paid-for tracked item as junk mail. Every mail piece goes through a scanner at USPS and they offer "informed delivery" for customers so that they can see their mail, so tracked flats really aren't a problem for USPS. I was wondering why Ebay might consider it a problem for sellers to be able to track flats. Etsy has a good plan. Ebay is far behind.

[a_c_green]

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@selinaanna wrote:

I don't believe USPS considers a paid-for tracked item as junk mail. Every mail piece goes through a scanner at USPS and they offer "informed delivery" for customers so that they can see their mail, so tracked flats really aren't a problem for USPS. I was wondering why Ebay might consider it a problem for sellers to be able to track flats. Etsy has a good plan. Ebay is far behind.

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I think the main point here is that the carrier does not have to scan those mailpieces at delivery time, and thus while there is tracking, there is no Delivery Confirmation. Similarly, Informed Delivery will show you the mail that you can expect to receive that day, but there is no later scan to confirm that you actually got it.

It's Delivery Confirmation, not tracking, that is your seller protection against an Item Not Received dispute. I seem to recall that this idea for tracking First Class Letters (not First Class Packages) was first floated a few years ago now. It's not a brand new idea, but was shot down back then for the same reasons.

[pascotsman]

I have been using Letter Track Pro for several years and found it a great tool. In the past when I had a problem Ebay would accept the proof showing item was shipped, all of a sudden, they will not accept this and refunded a buyers money.  Not sure what if anything I can do. But they won't budge .

[kh-shakhib]

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.