any way to actually get help from eBay support?

[deusteacompanhe]

I have a longstanding problem where eBay does not correctly pickup acceptance tracking updates from CTT (Portuguese postal service), along with providing incorrect descriptors to other sorts of updates. eBay's support refuses to acknowledge the problem I just described, telling me: "Once, the items are delivered you can write back to us and we will investigate if any late shipment defect is applied to your account for these items", which is a pain to have to do and further adding: "I suggest you to contact the CTT shipping service and inquire about this issue happening with the tracking updates." How would this help or what issue I would inquire about with CTT is anyone's guess given there's nothing wrong with CTT or the updates they provide...

What I would expect is that the issue would be forwarded to some technical team that would sort out the tracking updates on eBay. Any chance of this happening? Is this kind of unhelpful nonsense response usual with US companies? I honestly can't get my head around to this shocking level of support.

[santamonicajeweler]

Here is a good read on CTT;

"Foreign mail often comes by plane, normally in passenger aircraft. Since the pandemic obligated air companies to reduce the number of flights, therefore the mail that comes from abroad will not be delivered as fast as before ... "

www.theportugalnews.com/news/what-is-happening-with-the-mail-in-portugal/55203

It makes sense. Packages from Portugal to U S , 3 weeks and even more in some cases

[deusteacompanhe]

I appreciate the effort but that's neither here nor there.  The problem is eBay's tracking not picking up half the tracking updates that are posted, namely the acceptance one, has nothing to do with delivery times.

As an aside, even if it had, that's referring to what happened during the worst of the pandemic, packages take 3 days to get to the US currently. If USPS was as quick to deliver them after they reach the US instead of taking 3 weeks to 3 months and losing a third of packages, that would be great. As mentioned, that's an aside, the problem is the tracking updates, nothing to do with delivery times.

[downunder-61]

More of an internal tech issue, maybe post this is the technical board, not much we can do here.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Share-eBay-Technical-Issues/bd-p/technicalissues-db

[santamonicajeweler]

Great

Then I leave you with another good read from Economist, published 6 days ago 

www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/09/26/travellers-are-eager-to-fly-to-america-again

"FOR 18 MONTHS America’s borders have been shut to foreigners from 33 countries, including Brazil, Britain, China, India and members of the European Union. The ban, which was imposed by Donald Trump when he was president and maintained by his successor, Joe Biden ..."

However, things are on the upswing

[deusteacompanhe]

How that has anything to do with anything is anyone's guess. Your previous link is totally unrelated even to the point you were trying to make (the article comes in the context of CTT using cargo planes when passenger ones are not available, foreign operators don't reciprocate, hence your conclusion is comical) but I see how one could be mistaken. This one seems purely hijacking

[pjcdn2005]

Ebay has also had the same problem with Canada Post updates in the past year. They keep saying that they are working on it.

[deusteacompanhe]

I would love to at least get that response tbh, that they acknowledge there is an issue and are working on it. All I get is them pretending not to understand the problem and as a result giving totally unrelated and oftentimes patronising answers

[pjcdn2005]

It can be very frustrating dealing with customer service, especially when it is a non US related issue.

[deusteacompanhe]

Actually, it's very much a US related issue as this is pretty much only a problem with sales to US buyers, which are about 50% of my sales. Reason being that USPS sucks in their delivery times for incoming international shipments, meaning eBay's wishful delivery dates are invariably missed and their record (due to the tracking problem) shows the item being posted outside the declared handling time. As a result I have to contact them regularly to remove the transaction defects that arise from that. Additionally, the listings are on eBay.de, German support telling me to contact US support about this since it's a serious issue specifically with US sales, as explained.

Oh, and eBay doesn't have a problem charging me Portuguese taxes on everything, even charging 23% VAT on payment processing related fees, where the applicable tax would be Stamp Duty at 4%. Luckily on that front I can sue them in Portugal, definitely way easier to handle than this seemingly much minor problem. They've chosen a German firm to represent them, probably the same one that told them to charge VAT on everything. It's bound to be fun😉