eBay

arcoiris7979 · ‎08-01-2021

Since July 27th, some of our order's USPS tracking numbers can not be uploaded. After we process the order batch from ShipStation, some orders show "Failed marketplace notification" alert. These orders are marked shipped but without tracking. Then I tried to upload tracking manually but it won't let save it.
Last several days I have 8-15 per day out of about 50 orders without tracking.
ShipStation told me that eBay recently does not accept USPS recycled tracking numbers. But I believe that USPS has been doing the same practice (recycled numbers over 120 day old) for years maybe. Not sure why this issue (not able to update tracking on eBay) happened since last week.
I also talked to eBay, they said they were aware of this problem, and they acknowledge that it's a eBay site issue and it's affecting some other sellers (don't know to what extend).
It's kind of frustrating since these orders show "tracking not uploaded" even though they were shipped on time with USPS tracking. And we don't know if and how long will it take for eBay to fix this problem.
If it's only affecting a few sellers, it could take a while for eBay to identify this issue, or they might not even find the issue and fix for us.

hk-resale · ‎08-01-2021

TLDR;

This was the same issue we had earlier this year. It was supposedly fixed by Stamps.com not recycling tracking numbers. But looks like they are it again. Although it's not as bad as it was earlier this year.

We had this exact same problem earlier this year. This is not ShipStation (SS) per se. It's Stamps.com. All USPS postage purchased through SS is provide by Stamps.com.

We were told by SS support that this was resolved because Stamps.com would not use recycled tracking numbers. Well looks like that was not the case. We had 100's of shipments that had this problem. After multiple calls to eBay we finally got someone to listent to us. We had to provide a spreadsheet with the order number and the corresponding tracking number. This was a real pain because SS does not use eBay's fulfilment API they use an older one. So we had to manually reference eBay and SS to build the spreadsheet.

eBay's position seems to be that it's not their problem and that we need to purchase labels through them. Unfortunately their bulk shipping tool is simply unusable for larger sellers. Since we ship 50+ items a day we need to provide a scan sheet to our mail carrier. But with eBay's bulk shipping tool you have to print all of your labels at once to get the scan sheet. But with 50+ orders that's just not realistic especially on Mondays when we have over 150 orders to ship.

comics-scifi-collectibles · ‎08-01-2021

@arcoiris7979 I know this won't help for now but have you checked out Pirateship.com? I am pretty sure you can create an end-of-day scan sheet. Also, I have heard from other sellers that if you ask they have special rates for international shipping that are lower than the prices they list on the site. I have only used their site on occasion when labels act up since I am a small seller.

Comics-scifi_collectibles Volunteer Community Mentor
Member since 2003

arcoiris7979 · ‎08-02-2021

Thanks for your reply. How did you get the issue fixed earlier this year? Or did it just go away after certain days (or weeks) by itself? Are you having this issue in the past week?
I have talked to eBay support multiple times. Even though they acknowledged this issue, but I don't know if they are actually working to fix this issue.
I also talked to both ShipStation and Stamp.com , they told me it's eBay's issue that eBay recently not accepting USPS recycled numbers.

The eBay support team member I just spoke to today said it's because ShipStation (or Stamp.com) is using recycled numbers too soon.

So are you experiencing this issue currently?

I am hoping that this is a temporary issue for us to go through. I am ok if this only lasts for days or even 1-2 weeks. But I can't deal with this issue for weeks or months with 20-30% of tracking number not uploaded. Then we have to appeal the shipping defects constantly, and likely more negative feedback and upset customer's messages, all not due to seller's fault.
The best case, this is just a bad traffic area (pool of recycled tracking numbers) on the highway and we can move over this pool of tracking numbers.

wastingtime101 · ‎08-02-2021

@arcoiris7979 wrote:
Since July 27th, some of our order's USPS tracking numbers can not be uploaded. After we process the order batch from ShipStation, some orders show "Failed marketplace notification" alert. These orders are marked shipped but without tracking. Then I tried to upload tracking manually but it won't let save it.

When you click the add tracking link on an order, is the tracking showing on the next page or not showing on the next page? I know when you click save that it's not showing on the order. I'm asking what it looks like after you click add tracking and before you click save - does it show a prefilled tracking number on that page?

GLORIOUS!