What's up with all the sellers claiming "shipped" but tracking says "awaiting item"?

[t-man-x]

This is one of the things that royally irritates me about eBay. Sellers are printing up a label and sending emails out claiming items are shipped but the tracking clearly shows that's as far as they went: they printed a label. 

I've had sellers tell me something was shipped and send a tracking number and it never arrived. It wasn't shipped, period. It would've been scanned as accepted if it was. I've emailed sellers before after checking back daily for 5 days and noticing they never actually shipped the item, they reply back that it was shipped on such and such, and the tracking magically updates to "accepted at post office" 3 hours after I send the email. 

I'm at the point I'm getting burned on this with at least one item I buy per week. I'm usually ordering stuff that is labeled "Fast and Free Shipping!" and the sellers don't even bother sending the item to the post office until the next week. 

[takikawa4]

@t-man-x

If a seller uses eBay to print the label, it's EBAY who sends out that message, not the seller.

[bliffin*house]

Some sellers batch process their invoices and labels prior to packing. It may be a few days before that item actually makes it to the post office. When we create listings, we must enter in our processing time (eg same day, 1 day, 2 days, etc). eBay uses that time frame, along with approximately how long it should take to get to you, when it gives you an approximate delivery date. 

However, you are right. If it states "fast n free", we are required to ship the item by end of next business day after receiving payment. If the seller did not do that, you do have the option of giving a low rating on shipping speed. If their rating drops enough, they could loose some seller benefits.

On the flip side, as a seller that is totally **bleep** about shipping same day or next business day and one who stands and watches my post mistress scan every single package, I have had packages NOT show as being scanned for days and suddenly arrives at its destination before anything shows in tracking... Could be a possible glitch with USPS?

[t-man-x]

I dunno. I can't really recall having had a package sent with tracking that took several days and didn't at some point update in the system before arrival. There has been a lag on updating several times, but with the thousands of packages I've bought online with tracking my experience is there's just too much "batching" for the small volume many of these sellers are doing. If a seller has 100 reviews and they've been around for years and it's taking a week for a package to progress from "awaiting item" to "item accepted", it's really hard to not ascribe that to some sort of irresponsibility or laziness. I mean, realistically often we're talking people that have 5 items for sale at a time and they're taking a week to get a package in the mail. 

[bonjourami]

Any seller who is not shipping within his stated handling time is going to receive a defect...a few of those and he will be gone.

[bigwillracing]

We had that happen to us just a little while ago on a package we had actually mailed.  The tracking # said awaiting item.  Whoever scanned the item at the post office we took it to for shipping apparently did not scan it correctly.  We had to place the label on two sides of the narrow box and it didn't scan.  Notified the buyer and a few days later the tracking showed it was scanned correctly at the next facility it went.  Ours was an honest error and we did ship it within the 3 days that our listings say we will.

[Anonymous]

As a Buyer and a Seller , I can say most of the time it is possible glitch with USPS. I have seen trackings for first class not start working till they arrive at my door, All I can say is be patient, And give sellers a few days its not all their fault... I do watch my Mail lady scan all my packages and they do seem to track with-in a hour or so of pick up . Hope this helps.

[t-man-x]

Glitches happen, but "most" of the time just isn't realistic. Fact is, 95% of the time that you get an "Your item has shipped!" email and 3+ days later the tracking says, "awaiting item", they simply haven't mailed the item or have only within the past 12 hours mailed the item. 

Folks are simply printing the label and not getting around to actually taking your product to the mailbox or post office for 5 days or more. There's just no reason for this. The majority of sellers who do this aren't selling in enough volume to justify batching their shipments for a week, and the ones who actually are ought to be able to figure out a better system. 

[takikawa4]

I really don't care when the seller ships as long as it arrives within a few days of the last estimated delivery cost. But, then again, I'm rarely in a hurry to get the item. The few times I was, I asked before bidding/buying if the seller could upgrade the shipping at my cost knowing it may or may not arrive in time.

[7606dennis]

As mentioned, it is eBay's system that sends the message that says the item has shipped, not the seller. Buyers that find this annoying should, in my opinion, contact eBay and let them know of their displeasure with eBay's system.

[kate_lily_cache]

There are one of two options for shipping and tracking.

(1) Using the printed labels generated by eBay, which automatically generates a tracking number. This is the method you posted in your picture. The "Awaiting Item" acknowledges that the Seller printed the label and the post office is awaiting the item to be scanned. Sellers can elect to ship same day, within 24 hours, 2-days, 3-days, etc.

(2) Manual method which is handwriting an address on the package, dropping the package at the post office, and manually entering the tracking number into eBay (whenever the Seller feels like it).

Please note: USPS updates tracking once daily around midnight (somewhere). I have sold for nearly a year now, and most often drop off packages same day. Whether I drop off at 9:00am or 6:00pm, the status does not update immediately; it updates overnight.

On rare occurences, the package sometimes gets delivered, somehow evading the tracking/scanning system.

I have also noticed that eBay's tracking info does not always match USPS Tracking info.

It sucks waiting and waiting on a slow Seller.

[kate_lily_cache]

eBay's Seller Center: Advanced Shipping states:

eBay displays the Fast 'N Free logo when:

- The listing offers free shipping

- Both the buyer and the seller are in the US

- There is a high PROBABILITY that the item will be delivered within 4 BUSINESS days or less.

[deserdog]

There can be all sorts of weird glithces in USPS tracking. Once I got a receipt for 3 pre-paid packages. When it updated, only 2 showed up,even though I had a receipt with scan that showed they accepted 3!

[7606dennis]

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@kate_lily_cache wrote:

There are one of two options for shipping and tracking.

(1) Using the printed labels generated by eBay, which automatically generates a tracking number. This is the method you posted in your picture. The "Awaiting Item" acknowledges that the Seller printed the label and the post office is awaiting the item to be scanned. Sellers can elect to ship same day, within 24 hours, 2-days, 3-days, etc.

(2) Manual method which is handwriting an address on the package, dropping the package at the post office, and manually entering the tracking number into eBay (whenever the Seller feels like it).

Please note: USPS updates tracking once daily around midnight (somewhere). I have sold for nearly a year now, and most often drop off packages same day. Whether I drop off at 9:00am or 6:00pm, the status does not update immediately; it updates overnight.

On rare occurences, the package sometimes gets delivered, somehow evading the tracking/scanning system.

I have also noticed that eBay's tracking info does not always match USPS Tracking info.

It sucks waiting and waiting on a slow Seller.

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I'm not quite sure of what posted picture you are referring to because I have not posted one. However, you are correct in that what I mentioned would apply only if the seller purchased their postage through eBay. If the seller purchased it through the Click & Ship USPS site, which is what I usually do, the seller would have to enter the tracking number manually.

Ordinarily, I message the buyer with the tracking number once the package is delivered to the USPS and is in the mail stream.

[t-man-x]

Yeah, I guess if you're not bothered by buying stuff and waiting two weeks you'd be fine with whenever they wanted to send the item. I personally don't buy many things like that. 

Fact is that sellers only get away with that because they continually convince buyers that it's "glitches" that are causing the problem, but 19 times out of 20 they simply haven't mailed the item out of laziness.