Tracking Numbers
 

Why do eBay, Amazon, Dean's Cards, COMC, and everyone else who commercially sell cards always notify you that your cards have been shipped when the shipping label has been printed out? This is not shipping. It's not shipped until USPS, FedEx, UPS or whoever has it in their possession. I find it downright annoying when tracking info is provided when it might be days until the seller can get to the post office or have the item picked up. Does this bug you, or am I the only one?

Yes, I've had that long delay happen and it is annoying for sure.. I'm a dinosaur who ships by handing packages to the USPS clerk, so anyone who buys from me won't get a number until the carrier has it.

I like the tracking info ASAP. The USPS updates are usually wrong anyway. I have had many packages arrive before they are even updated to USPS receiving the item.

Interesting... that has not been my experience. Perhaps this varies a lot based on location/specific post office?

With FedEx the tracking info is basically useless. The last 5 packages I've receive from them have been significantly delayed, with most having their "tracking" updated 4-5 separate times. They've all eventually arrived, albeit 3 - 8 days tardy.

I recently had three cards on eBay show the tracking number and marked as shipped in eBay. When I would click on the link to see the tracking it would only say that the tracking info was provided. This went on for almost two weeks with no updates in eBay. I messaged the seller to ask if they had actually shipped the cards yet, but they never replied. These were for a Secret Santa gift I was preparing (not for Net54 SS) and it was getting closer to the final date for me to ship before Christmas. Then one day, weeks after the tracking number showed up in eBay, the cards arrived and there was never an update to the tracking info in eBay. At least they showed up eventually but there is definitely a flaw in the tracking system at times.



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No this doesn’t bother me because I am a reasonable person.

Haha, yes, but that doesn't win you any points on Net54.

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Doesn't it depend on how people are generating the shipping label? If you create one through PayPal, doesn't an email get sent automatically to the buyer telling them the tracking number?

I find it much more annoying when there are no updates to the tracking information after it has been received by the shipper.

Even as a seller, it annoys me a little bit...not that the tracking info is given out when it is (because it absolutely should be), it's the wording "Item Has Shipped".

It should read something similar to "Seller is preparing your shipment, here's your tracking number".

That would be more accurate.

It's purely a function of the shipping software, and not much that individual sellers can do anything about.

I think they do it because that initial piece of information, when you first print out a label, and a tracking number is created for you...is the most likely to actually populate correctly back to the various tools that track your package for you.

All the other various scans may or may not show up on 3rd party software, throughout the course of your packages journey, including the "Acceptance" scan.

Here's an idea. How about, "here's your tracking info" when the seller actually gets off their ass and takes it to the f#$king post office! Who gives a flying f#$k that a shipping label has been printed out? Big f#$king deal, mail the damn thing already. If you can't bring yourself to mail it, don't sell it. If I'm paying for it, mail it!

I don't see the issue. If you want an update, put in for updates from the USPS or whoever.

I was blissfully unaware of this issue until this thread

A shipment message I receive from several different sellers can be beyond frustrating as you never actually know if your item shipped.

The message: "SHIPMENT RECEIVED ACCEPTANCE PENDING."

Ebay sellers using multi-order shipping can generate a "USPS Scan form" with a buyer's shipment's tracking number included with it and then present it to their carrier at pick up time. The carrier scans the form and all of the tracking numbers associated with the form now receive the "SHIPMENT RECEIVED ACCEPTANCE PENDING" message. As a seller myself, I only put mailings I am actually shipping out on my scan form, so when a buyer see's this message it really means the carrier now physically has the mailing. From there, if my pickup is made early enough (by 5PM), the mailings will later in the evening show a scan at the local sort center ("ORIGIN ACCEPTANCE"). If the pickup is made after 5 PM, the scan showing the ORIGIN ACCEPTANCE will not show until the following evening.

In regard to ebay's expectations of meeting shipping time expectations, a seller meets ebay's expectation with the use of a scan form, even if the carrier does not physically take possession of the mailing.


One large ebay seller, at least with every order I have ever had with them, the message "SHIPMENT RECEIVED ACCEPTANCE PENDING" appears on the 1st business day after payment, however the "ORIGIN ACCEPTANCE" message does not show up until a 5-7 days later.

After using the scan form myself, what this means to me is that even though this seller meets eBay's expectations for shipping time, they are actually taking their sweet time to ship by providing a scan form with my tracking number on it to their carrier who scans the form but does not actually take possession of the mailing.

I agree with Peter and do that everytime. Sometimes I don't want to see the tracking like is the case with one I have coming - Went to P.O. in IL, then to Chicago then to Nashville then to Knoxville (90 miles from me) then to Jacksonville, Fl and now on it's way to me (I hope). However, by getting the tracking updates, I can normally see when I should get it. I like the feature that it tells me when it has been delivered, especially when it is left at the front door.

You seem fun.

LOL. Same here. Seems like people are reaching for things to complain about.

Do you have a general issue with the tracking number update or a specific issue with lazy sellers?

If you’re agitated by sellers who print a label and then wait for days until they actually ship, I totally understand that.

If you’re annoyed with sellers who print a label and then ship the following day, I don’t quite follow.

^^^^^ this! ^^^^^

It sounds to me like you're annoyed by shipping delays, which is a different issue than when you get a tracking number.

It is very annoying to me. Creating a shipping label, and being notified at that point that the item has shipped when in fact it has not, and may not for days on end for whatever the reason, is very annoying to me. Sometimes responsible sellers take the item in a reasonable manner to the post office. Some don't. If I am paying for shipping with the purchase of an item, I expect reasonable, courteous follow through in sending it out. If the seller doesn't, yes, I get annoyed, and it seems, to me anyhow, that with eBay and Amazon especially, more and more sellers are becoming lackadaisical after payment received. All is well when the item FINALLY arrives, and I have yet to have an item fail to arrive at all after many hundreds of transactions, but I will make every effort not to buy from that seller again.

That hopefully clarifies my annoyance...notification of shipping (label creation) does not at all mean the item has been shipped. Instead of being notified of shipping when the label is created, I would rather be notified when the item is actually in the possession of the shipper.

Well it's your right to be annoyed at whatever you want, but it doesn't make sense to me. I am concerned only about when the item ships, not when I get a tracking number. Suppose a seller waits 5 days to ship. Is it somehow better if he also delays sending the tracking number? SMH at this one.

You know you can check the tracking info to see updates right?

This might be one of the most nonsensical complaints I’ve ever read on a forum and forums are a cesspool of whining about stuff that doesnt matter.

So, ebay sellers have to commit to ship within a certain # of days, which is listed in the selling page somewhere. If you are late, you get a mark against you.

The way ebay's system works, though, is it records the item as shipped as soon as you print the label. So if you are out of town for a few days and forget to change your status to "away" and someone buys something from you, no problem! Just print a label from your phone, and you're covered until you get back home.

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[QUOTE=notfast;2299994]You know you can check the tracking info to see updates right?

This might be one of the most nonsensical complaints I’ve ever read on a forum and forums are a cesspool of whining about stuff that doesnt matter.[/QUOT

Here's something else nonsensical for you, eat s#&t and f&$king die, a$#hole!

This seems right in line :p

[QUOTE=jingram058;2300002]James, you need to put yourself in timeout for a few days.

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:D

To answer the OP's question, I would wager the tracking # is created as part of the packing/shipping process. It's all done automatically so time does not have to be spent at the post office/UPS/Fed Ex etc. but can just be dropped off.

Yes I get the frustration but if you think about the process in that way, it makes more sense for all concerned who actually, ahem, work for those entities

Rich

No, it doesn't officially record it as shipped from the seller until there is an acceptance scan.

....Even though they send out an E-mail that says "Package Has Been Shipped" to the buyer.

Again, the wording choice is poor.

The Postal carrier "SHOULD NOT" be scanning a scan form, unless the accompanying packages on that scan form are in their possession.

What should happen:

That email should say a shipping label has been created for the package; not that the item has shipped.

I think partly, shipping has become less reliable. And I can see that I compare it to my dinosaur perspective of how shipping used to be back in the good old days. Yet I realize that the quantity of the packages shipped today are exponentially more than the quantity of packages shipped back in those good old days. So the reliability could be better, yet the number of problems have increased.

Whining. Whining about the misleading emails is whining. Whining about the cesspool on threads and boards is whining. Being verbally offensive to someone with an alternate view is abusive and inappropriate (I have experience from both sides of such).

I find the "shipped" emails annoying because they're inaccurate.

Don't tippy toe into the cesspools if you don't care for the content.

Let's nudge 2023 onto a better path, a higher moral route.

Like Ringo says, Peace and Love.

I have signed up for "Informed Delivery" with my local USPS. I am automatically texted when the USPS has in its possession and then also texted on every progress step the item makes. I can probably count on one hand the number of times that a seller has not dropped off an item in a reasonable time frame.

Never really paid attention to the wording, but I got one of these notifications from eBay this morning, so I took a look. it says "Order Update: Your item is being shipped". A small but subtle difference from saying the item "has been" shipped. It gives the tracking number and says the tracking data will be updated after it has been shipped.

I get that it can be annoying if the item isn't actually shipped right away, though.

That's what mine say and I think always have said? And they also have language that Your order will ship to: Which implies it hasn't been shipped yet.

In any event, I don't see the issue unless there is a long shipping delay which almost never happens.

I sign up for text alerts from USPS for the important stuff. They are far from accurate but way better than nothing. Last week I had a $13K card delivered. The last tracking update was from 2 days earlier 2 sorting facilities away. Then it showed up at my door. Luckily the mailman showed up just as I was leaving so I could sign for it.

I get some stuff from SE Asia so I am used to waiting. I just like the tracking # so I know where it is setting.:)

Agreed.

You are right, the carrier should not be scanning a scan form unless the package is physically included with the shipment, but with this happens every time with the seller I regularly buy from. While I don't agree with what this seller does, I now simply expect it and realize it is nothing more than part of the transaction.

Years buying on ebay -- 24.
Number of items purchased from US sellers that did not arrive -- 0.

Wish I could say the same!

Over the years, a few from Europe did not show up, but I cannot recall a single U.S. one.

I am not sure why people are dancing around "this seller." This is what typically happens with Greg Morris Cards, who ships a large volume of cards on a daily basis. What is likely happening is that the USPS is scanning in the scan form upon pick up of the shipment because it makes no sense for a driver to be scanning hundreds of packages on Greg Morris' dock. The individual packages don't get separately scanned until later at the sort facility where they, you know, sort things based on destination.

It is typical with cards from Greg Morris that there is 3-5 days between when the actual shipment is processed by GMC and when it gets it's first individual scan inside the USPS network. The history will often look like some variation of this:

Attachment 550639

To blame this on the seller doesn't make sense. It is, as i believe Rich K said earlier, an artifact of the USPS process and the fact that GMC is located in the second largest city in the nation.

I have been on eBay a little longer and can say the same thing. I have also sold a lot of cards over those years and only had one not get delivered. Sometimes it took months but they eventually arrived.

Again, not naming the seller, but when a shipment requires multiple packages and only a single label is created the next business day (which appears on the next day's scan form) with the remaining labels being created several days later and subsequently all packages hit the USPS sort center at the same time, then that is on the seller, not on the USPS.

I've been on maybe a little longer? I think since 98?

I've had one package that didn't show up. And I'm not even sure about that one. It was a strip of those gumball machine cards in the plastic capsule. The seller said it was it in a box that was just big enough. It also likely showed up on a day the crappy contractor I had was working... so maybe lost, maybe stolen?

On outgoing, I did have one that maybe didn't arrive. A 400ft film in a steel can inside a reinforced bubble envelope.
Sent it out, and a couple months later I got a portion of the envelope back in one of those "sorry we wrecked that package" bags. (The stamp collectors call them body bags... )
The buyer never complained, and never replied when I asked and offered a refund. So I have to assume he did eventually get it.