eBay

wastingtime101 · ‎12-17-2022

In many places such as apartment buildings with concierge/doorman, townhouse complexes with a management office, freight forwarders, buildings with mailrooms, etc USPS will deliver to the building's mail "agent" and this has always registered a "delivered" status on the eBay orders page.

That is it used to until about 2-1/2 months ago. Now those orders are stuck as "shipped" as the system is not recognizing that packages were delivered. When you click the tracking pop-up it's stuck at "it's on its way to the buyer" and "was scheduled" for delivery on X date.

I've reported the issue multiple times, but I'm wondering if others here are seeing the same problem?

Hey devon@ebay - can you get the shipping and/or seller hub teams working on this? If you need order numbers or screenshots to reference I can send an e-mail.

GLORIOUS!

gurlcat · ‎03-12-2023

Thank you so much. And that makes sense about the liability thing with showing the address in tracking.

wastingtime101 · ‎03-13-2023

@gurlcat wrote:
What I'm especially curious about is WHY the USPS started adding the "to agent for final delivery' wording in their delivery scans.

USPS already had variously-worded delivery statuses ("in/at mailbox" "left with individual" "front door/porch" etc) and Ebay has always translated them as 'Delivered' period, for as long as I know anyway. So what is it about this new one that makes it not trigger 'Delivered' translation, and why on Earth can't they program the software to do so???

Hey @gurlcat.

This is by no means a new delivery scan. It has been around for many years.

eBay used to recognize this scan as delivered on tracking pop ups and on the orders page status.

Here's a direct link to post 66 where I provided screenshots showing this. You can see that as of the last week in September eBay's system had no trouble recognizing "delivered to agent" with a "delivered" status.

It wasn't until the first or second week of October this changed and that's when I first reported it to CS - five months ago!

One thing that changed on USPS's end of things is they're now using this scan for all freight forwarders. In the past I would only see it used sometimes for FF. I've seen it for years when packages were delivered to buildings with management offices, mail rooms, etc.

Technically speaking, an "agent" in the "delivered to agent" scan can be anyone from an apartment building door man to your next door neighbor.

Off topic:

The weird thing is when you review USPS Event Codes most recent chart, it says the "delivered to agent" scan was retired in 2020. This is, however, not accurate because I've seen the scan semi-regularly for quite a while now. The chart was last updated Feb 2023.

https://postalpro.usps.com/product-tracking-and-reporting/scan-events-descriptions

When you compare it to the January 2021 chart, there is no mention of that scan having been retired. It wasn't until the April 2022 chart they added that retirement note and I believe it to be in error because I saw the "delivered to agent" scan all throughout 2020-present (and for years before).

Back in 2018 the scan was "tendered to agent for final delivery." In 2019 they changed it from tendered to delivered.

One thing you'll notice on these charts is "delivered to agent" is marked YES as a "stop the clock event."

GLORIOUS!

gurlcat · ‎03-13-2023

Holy cow, how did I never notice it before? Surely my eyes have seen it -I've been selling since 2018 and immediately strove to get TRS status and maintain it thereafter so I watch tracking like a hawk. And even if not for TRS I sincerely care about my buyers -or- before I sound too high and mighty, I also buy a lot online (almost always on ebay) and patience is not among my virtues, so when I get frustrated by constipated tracking of something I ordered, while I understand it's not the selling entity's fault, I'm of the school that it's their responsibility to notice and solve the problem, considering they have my money and I have nothing, also they chose which carrier to do business with, not me. More to the point, EBAY is of that school, and they ultimately control OUR money. I can't believe how many sellers I see with the "my job is done" attitude after plopping a package on a depot counter or their porch for pickup. We sure saw a lot of those chickens coming home to roost in Shipnado Winter 2020, when they were posting here in droves, all panic and bitterness about the barrage of INR losses you inevitably WILL have when shipping flow fibrillates and arrests due to several factors and you think your people (your buyers and your carriers) should sort it out among themselves, while you're out spending the money that isn't really yours yet, LOL!!

Sorry I had no intention of getting on a soapbox; this was meant to be a short reply only to say I can't believe I've never noticed the 'agent' scan before. Oh, and besides my 5 years ebay experience, before this I raised and wild-harvested, sold online, and shipped live fish and aquatic plants all over the country, so I had to obsessively watch tracking, ESPECIALLY delivery scans, because that's the moment the viability clock would really start ticking on that box of water and living things, potentially outdoors in scorching July or frigid January, so it would be the crux of my 'Live Arrival Guarantee.' The aquaria auction platform I sold on ('Aquabid') works almost identically to ebay, so I occasionally had international buyers using FF's as well (aquaria-specializing ones, who would open and re-oxygenate the bags before forwarding).

I'll have to study that link you provided when I get some time. I've noticed some other scan changes very recently so it'll be great to look at that and see what they mean. Thanks so much for providing it! I swear, when I look back on all the stupid jobby-jobs I've had in the past, I wish I could go back and swap a few years for that amount of experience as an actual USPS employee, because I truly adore it (talk about history!) and find it pretty fascinating.

iamalwaysright · ‎03-14-2023

Here’s another one for the list. Not fixed yet. Address is to the FF in Delaware.

iamalwaysright · ‎03-14-2023

I wonder if there are any of these non-delivered status ones where the buyer doesn’t file an INR for. Are these buyers filing INR because they truly don’t have their item? Or they are trying to take advantage of an eBay loophole on the package status?

senoritalambchop · ‎03-14-2023

Hello.

I got through the first 10 pages on this but just couldn't continue......BUT this is still happening as of today.

I saw my package was not delivered yet so i checked on it and saw the DELIVERED TO AGENT message that i have never seen before. I went and googled the address and it is a freight forwarding company in Miami. I called eBay and asked them to change my status to delivered but was told they could not do that on their end. However, after i told him about this address, he assured me that because it is a forwarding company that if they open a case I would win and they are not covered. I also told him that was not happening and about this thread, but he still assured me otherwise that I was covered. Not sure I believe him and very uncomfortable about this whole thing!

Please fix this eBay! Thank you!

wastingtime101 · ‎03-14-2023

@iamalwaysright wrote:
Are these buyers filing INR because they truly don’t have their item? Or they are trying to take advantage of an eBay loophole on the package status?

I assume the majority are attempting to scam but some are honest. Anybody honest needs to take it up with the "agent" whether that's a freight forwarding company, a doorman in their building or whomever.

GLORIOUS!

antebellumannes · ‎03-14-2023

I am having this same issue since the beginning of January 2023. This is my second go round with eBay requesting this glitch to be fixed. I even have an email from USPS stating this is a valid "Delivered" status. This disconnect between eBay and USPS needs to be fixed so that we as buyers aren't stuck in never-never land....First time, the rep told me I would have to refund the customer. Not a valid solution at all. PLEASE EBAY FIX THIS GLITCH!!!

gurlcat · ‎03-14-2023

@iamalwaysright wrote:
I wonder if there are any of these non-delivered status ones where the buyer doesn’t file an INR for.

Well if by "non-delivered status ones" you mean the 'Delivered to agent for final delivery' ones, then yes the vast majority of the buyers DON'T and WON'T file INR because they actually received the item and aren't lying, cheating, low-life pieces of human garbage. I've had at least a dozen of my sold items end up with the "agent" scan since I first became aware of this issue, but so far none of those buyers have filed INR's on me. LOL I probably shouldn't write that "out loud" because by Murphy's Law that will likely cause me to get an INR immediately.

senoritalambchop · ‎03-15-2023

If anything were to happen, I would definitely make some noise - as eBay approved their address and is telling us to ship to this address. We are literally shipping to an address that eBay has approved and is telling us to ship to. A quick Google search shows their website that states that they are a freight forwarding company so those outside of the USA can get goods delivered to them - what a loophole we have here!

I have never googled an address before shipping - I guess that is something i have to do now!

My item is still stagnant today with no change in delivery status. ugh.

iamalwaysright · ‎03-15-2023

@gurlcat wrote:
@iamalwaysright wrote:
I wonder if there are any of these non-delivered status ones where the buyer doesn’t file an INR for.
Well if by "non-delivered status ones" you mean the 'Delivered to agent for final delivery' ones, then yes the vast majority of the buyers DON'T and WON'T file INR because they actually received the item and aren't lying, cheating, low-life pieces of human garbage. I've had at least a dozen of my sold items end up with the "agent" scan since I first became aware of this issue, but so far none of those buyers have filed INR's on me. LOL I probably shouldn't write that "out loud" because by Murphy's Law that will likely cause me to get an INR immediately.

Good to know because I don’t pay attention to delivery and tracking when there aren’t INRs filed. Who knows how many of these “delivered to agent (status: not delivered)” I’ve gotten.

iamalwaysright · ‎03-16-2023

Today was the day for my case that you are allowed to ask ebay to step in. I was curious to see how ebay would rule in this as many have said I would probably lose. Up until now the buyer has either played ignorant or was actually ignorant complaining to me every day to me explaining the situation saying he needs to talk to his FF agent about this.

So today turns out the buyer closed the cases (three of them) himself and used the reason that they received the item. So I didn't get to see how ebay would've ruled it. I hope 3 negatives aren't coming, the buyer seemed pretty upset.

!patman! · ‎03-22-2023

Hi devon@ebay I see your post from january 2023 stating that Ebay changed to show item as "delivered" if tracking shows "delivered to agent for final delivery", why is mine not showing "delivered" , out for delivery is not even showing? Screenshot (434).png

saylesville2003 · ‎03-22-2023

I have the same issue with one of my sales to a freight forwarder delivered this week I will be happy to provide the tracking number if ebay needs it. It is unnerving.

saylesville2003 · ‎03-23-2023

As of this week, the tracking status on Ebay has not been fixed. It remains the same as it was. My sale was delivered to agent in Florida for final delivery and does not show out for delivery or delivered on Ebay's tracking. Very disconcerting.