eBay

tyler@ebay · ‎11-04-2020

This week we’re being joined by jen@selling with shipping experts amy@shipping and nate@shipping to talk about the new QR code and shipping during this holiday season amidst a global pandemic.

You can download our holiday shipping guide here and check out the seasonal playbook here for helpful tips to get through peak season.

We’d also love to hear your thoughts and plans about what you are doing or experiencing with carriers.

The Community Team will review each question as it comes in, and will quote the original question in our reply. This quote and the reply will appear later in the thread, so just keep refreshing the page and scrolling down to see our answers.

The chat thread will remain open until 2 PM PT, at which point the thread will be closed from additional responses. After that time, the team will continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered.

**Please note that while off-topic questions will not be removed, they will be answered after the chat closes, to allow priority to remain on the topic for this week's chat. Thanks!

Tyler,

a_c_green · ‎11-04-2020

@donsdetour wrote:

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/ebay-standard-envelope.html

I read that page with interest, but have a couple of questions:

USPS, to my knowledge (and I may be wrong on this) does not support tracking on First Class Envelopes, only First Class Packages. This new method promises tracking and shipping protection at what appears to be FCE prices. Is that correct? Will tracking of an eBay "standard envelope" be available from usps.com?
Why is this limited to only "select trading card categories"? How are the contents of the package relevant to the Shipping method (aside from needing to be no more than 3 ounces in weight)? It sounds like a new flavor of Media Mail (although I do understand that trading cards are not valid for MM).

_____

Edit: A reply to your message can be found here

nate@shipping · ‎11-04-2020

@comics-scifi-collectibles wrote:

nate@shipping Can ebay supply a list of the possible surcharges that sellers will encounter when using Fed Ex and UPS that are not included in the shipping calculator?

I am always so disheartened when OP's come to the community asking for help with their surprise high bills... usually Fed Ex.

The poor OP's thought they were saving money and end up paying MUCH more than expected.

Hey @comics-scifi-collectibles ,

Generally, most of the surprises on carrier invoices I see come through are related to inaccurate weight and dimensions being entered on the listing or label printing pages. It is so important to enter the packaged item details (weight and dimensions) into listings (for calculated shipping listings), and on label printing (for accurate label cost quotes)...but this is often an overlooked element. In general, our calculator supports all surcharges related to delivery address (delivery area surcharges), and to weight and dimensions (additional handling surcharges), and fuel surcharges. However, our calculator isn't equipped to handle package related surcharges...(like these from FedEx Surcharge list - additional handling package related surcharges):

- is not fully encased in an outer shipping container;
- is encased in an outer shipping container not made of corrugated fiberboard
(cardboard) materials, including but not limited to metal, wood, canvas, leather, hard
plastic, soft plastic (e.g., plastic bags) or expanded polystyrene foam (e.g., Styrofoam);
- is encased in an outer shipping container covered in shrink wrap or stretch wrap;

...

We don't have a way to capture on our labels pages this type of non-standard packing additional surcharges.

My recommendation for all users is to enter as accurately as possible (and round up on weight and inches) the fully packaged shipment into our labels pages.

Hope that helps

~Nate

comics-scifi-collectibles · ‎11-04-2020

@dhbookds wrote:
The perennial Christmas question............

At one time, if a seller had an ebay message from a buyer asking to change the delivery address for an item for a gift.....it was ok to do it and ebay would back us up with the usual protections.

Then it was NOT ok and we had to cancel the order (pay PP fees, if still in PP, now pay the MP fee), and ask the buyer to repurchase.

What's the rule this year?

The problem with this is that even IF eBay changes policy on this buyers can still file INR's with PayPal and their bank or credit card. I think the best advice so that a seller is protected is to cancel the sale as problem with buyers address and the buyer buys the item again with the correct address.

At least with MP the seller gets back all of their fees.

Comics-scifi_collectibles Is a Volunteer Community Mentor.
I have been a seller since 2003

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎11-04-2020

I want to second dhbookds on the "Ship to giftee address" issue. This is something ebay should have resolved months ago, because buyers WILL want us to be able to ship to the giftee directly (especially THIS year, when many people will not be getting together for the holiday, and many people are worried about shipping delays). This should be a TOP priority for the Shipping team....I've mentioned it on Weekly Chat before. Either come up with a streamlined way for buyers to set up a giftee address destination, or cover us when we ship to a requested address without screwing around with cancelling the transaction and all the other stuff we need to do now, which wastes our time and the buyer's time 9and tries their patience). I am beyond disappointed that you guys haven't provided this already. (And by the way, another thing I've pushed: ebay should provide an easy way for sellers to indicate (per listing) whether we gift wrap, if its free or if there's a charge, and then have an easy way in the check out flow for buyers to choose gift wrap. This, too, is something we should already have going into the 202 Holiday Season.

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Edit: A reply to your message can be found here

golfingaddict · ‎11-04-2020

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
I want to second dhbookds on the "Ship to giftee address" issue. This is something ebay should have resolved months ago, because buyers WILL want us to be able to ship to the giftee directly (especially THIS year, when many people will not be getting together for the holiday, and many people are worried about shipping delays). This should be a TOP priority for the Shipping team....I've mentioned it on Weekly Chat before. Either come up with a streamlined way for buyers to set up a giftee address destination, or cover us when we ship to a requested address without screwing around with cancelling the transaction and all the other stuff we need to do now, which wastes our time and the buyer's time 9and tries their patience). I am beyond disappointed that you guys haven't provided this already. (And by the way, another thing I've pushed: ebay should provide an easy way for sellers to indicate (per listing) whether we gift wrap, if its free or if there's a charge, and then have an easy way in the check out flow for buyers to choose gift wrap. This, too, is something we should already have going into the 202 Holiday Season.

Back in the olden days of ebay you could get a little gift box icon next to your listing if you offered gift wrapping.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎11-04-2020

jen@selling,

Do you guys really not understand how bad this sort of SNAFU is for ebay? My God, if we sellers screwed things up as badly as you guys do, we'd be banished from the site. For the Love of God, PLEASE learn to PREVENT errors like this. Jen, I really do WANT to have more confidence in ebay, but when you guys do stuff like this......I'm sorry, but it is just so disheartening to see this sort of thing happening over and over again.

_____

Edit: A response to your message can be found here

amy@shipping · ‎11-04-2020

@tsme35 wrote:

USPS has been pretty good, still a little slow BUT how come we who only use the USPS got thrown under the bus and got a holiday rate increase yet UPS and FEDEX dropped theirs, ebay should have had our back.

@tsme35 Unfortunately, USPS has kept holiday surcharges in place for everyone, eBay included. Our Seller News Announcement lists the exact charges now in place:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Announcing-no-surcharges-with-UPS-and-FedEx-when-you-shi...

Hopefully with reduced pricing and no surcharges, the other carriers become more competitive for you if/when you need them.

dhbookds · ‎11-04-2020

Any news on a scan form to be available if printing labels individually rather than using the bulk print option...... I prefer to do it one at a time as I don't mix up the labels to the wrong packages..... Seems like it's been promised a number of times..........

_____

Edit: A reply to your message can be found here

donsdetour · ‎11-04-2020

@a_c_green wrote:
@donsdetour wrote:
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/ebay-standard-envelope.html
I read that page with interest, but have a couple of questions:

USPS, to my knowledge (and I may be wrong on this) does not support tracking on First Class Envelopes, only First Class Packages. This new method promises tracking and shipping protection at what appears to be FCE prices. Is that correct? Will tracking of an eBay "standard envelope" be available from usps.com?
Why is this limited to only "select trading card categories"? How are the contents of the package relevant to the Shipping method (aside from needing to be no more than 3 ounces in weight)? It sounds like a new flavor of Media Mail (although I do understand that trading cards are not valid for MM).

From what has been posted by eBay employee this is premature at this time.

jen@selling · ‎11-04-2020

@ynotmore wrote:

About shipping - USPS has resumed its speed and reliability. The occasional however:

Sometimes the tracking updates on eBay are not updated for 1-3 days. On such occasions, I'll look at usps.com. I sometimes need to do this to assure the buyer than the package has been dropped off and is on its way.

@ynotmore Checking usps.com's site for tracking info as a back up to eBay's updates is a great tip to share with our sellers. It does sometimes take us a little extra time to get updates through. If our updates are delayed, we generally see this happen with a 1-day delay max.

tsme35 · ‎11-04-2020

Thanks but I sell all different size orders and I'm old, easy for me to mess something up lol

_____

Edit: A reply to your message can be found here

nate@shipping · ‎11-04-2020

@golfingaddict wrote:

I'm still seeing regular "delays" in delivery and most of the time, I think it is because ebay gives unreasonable delivery estimates.

For an example: I sold an item on Oct 28 at 8PM I have 2 day handling time. The item was shipped on October 29, which for anyone else but ebay, that would be a good thing and should give me an extra day for delivery time.

The item went to the initial sorting center in Seattle WA on the night of the 29th, then it went to the Federal way Sort Center on the 1st and then it and then it went back to Seattle on the 1st of Nov and then it left Seattle on Nov 3.

The expected delivery date to the Buyer was November 2. Washington to Florida You give three business days and don't even consider that I didn't have to ship it until the 30th.

Just a note so you don't have to look it up, Seattle and Federal Way are about 30 miles from each other.

And because I am "to blame" the buyer opens an INR and my service metrics get blasted (again)

I get 2-3 packages a week that are delayed or late and I guess it is my fault because I use USPS.

Hi @golfingaddict ,

Thanks for the feedback. We are constantly balancing historical performance on carrier deliveries and showing speed to buyers while shopping. Additionally, I applaud you handling the item faster than your stated handling time...it is really clear that you have the customer's best interest in mind. On late shipping defects, if you handle on time, you should be totally protected, even when the item is delivered past the delivery estimate we show to buyers. I do appreciate the feedback on the service metric element, and will share with our teams to see what can be done to address this challenge you raise.

Thanks!

~Nate

a_c_green · ‎11-04-2020

@golfingaddict wrote:
Could anyone please explain why I am still seeing this type of tracking information on all my tracking/shipping info on ebay. Pre shipment sent to USPS after they already have picked up and processed the package. (these are still happening frequently) Buyers are seeing this and it is confusing and irritating to have false information provided to buyers .

Sure... (Normally I would snip the image when quoting the previous post, but in this case I think it's relevant.)

It appears that the out-of-network tracking info, such as what is generated when you buy your label and print it, is being sent to USPS.com without the correct time zone offset for your part of the world. You appear to be in Washington State, which is 8 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time, so I'm going to guess that you generated your label at 7:42 p.m. on the previous evening, October 3rd (or at least, that was the time when your label info was sent to USPS). All the later entries were in-network at USPS facilities, so they got the proper time zone offset for Pacific time.

Unfortunately, when eBay reads back the tracking history for the package and tries to arrange everything in chronological order, this error is what results, because it is not recognizing that the 3:42 a.m. entry is Greenwich Mean Time and not Pacific time like all the others.

comics-scifi-collectibles · ‎11-04-2020

@golfingaddict wrote:
Could anyone please explain why I am still seeing this type of tracking information on all my tracking/shipping info on ebay. Pre shipment sent to USPS after they already have picked up and processed the package. (these are still happening frequently) Buyers are seeing this and it is confusing and irritating to have false information provided to buyers .

I know myself and others have seen the same problem. When I go to USPS.com the tracking displays correctly.

Something is getting "lost in translation" between USPS and eBay

Comics-scifi_collectibles Is a Volunteer Community Mentor.
I have been a seller since 2003

dhbookds · ‎11-04-2020

Has the Puerto Rican problem ever been solved?

I see PR is still listed under Central America & Caribbean countries.....rather than up with US protectorates, etc........ so if a seller excludes Central America & Caribbean, he excludes Puerto Rico.....which he may not mean to do....... Plus PR buyers get upset when they are excluded from US shipment to them.........

_____

Edit: A reply to your message can be found here