phake USPS Tracking Numbers in eBay

[jeffweico]

I purchased an item a few weeks ago, it was a small item and could fit in an envelope. Of course, that means no tracking, which eBay does not like. I received an email from the seller:

Your order #2978 (13237) has shipped USPS First Class Mail. Due to the order total and cost of postage/ delivery confirmation, the tracking number used is for internal purposes only. We strive to ship and get orders to our customers quickly, however, this order may take 7-10 days to deliver. Weather and volume delays may occur. If such a delay happens to occur, please let us know. We will look into the details of the shipment and proceed as necessary. Please also note this will be with your regular mail delivery. Any questions, feel free to email us through your online account and order ID, so that we may assist. Thank you for your order.

Shipped on 3/13/2014 using USPS First Class: 0004000074512540273446405215266

Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The tracking number is actually in eBay's system and does not, of course, show up on the USPS website. eBay's status is "In Transit" even though it was delivered over a month ago.

I'm NOT angry in any way. I also sell a couple of small items that I would LOVE to save $1.50 on each shipment and just send it in an envelope. Has anyone else seen or tried this? Does eBay have a huge problem with it? Does anyone know how to generate these tracking numbers that eBay will accept? Why is the sky blue?

[bjammin]

Idk, but I like that idea. Do you think it is an actual USPS tracking number? If so, I would ask usps. I personally have never seen anything like that before.

[TGMT²]

Moved to the Subscribers section, we don't really need the masses doing this and having the door shut.

[mercurial333]

Save 1.50$ would be good here as well. I'm curious too

[plumsake2]

I had a seller do something similar with an item I ordered as well, though he didn't try to spin it like OP's seller. He just put in a nonexistent number that never worked. I'm pretty sure the number was nonexistent because the Post Office website didn't even recognize it.

I doubt eBay notices because the seller I mentioned sold large volumes and more than likely did that for all of his orders (or at least the small ones). However I'm sure all it takes is one annoying buyer to bring it to eBay's attention to cause some problems.

[MM78]

I ordered a new Phone Sim and the tracking number went something like, 9346482738346742NotTrackableNumber. For what I paid, can't really complaint but I'm sure none-vendors would get all pissy faced.

[GoteBay]

I may be wrong, but it seems eBay has a way to checking if your orders show delivered a tracking number is uploaded.

It can easily backbite, just a thought - think about August 20.

[kockedoff]

Question is what do u see on package ? Just a stamp or some numbers which looks like tracking any barcode ..l if there is anything on package we can back tracking

[unkown5454]

It's a tracking number used by USPS internally. It's used on letter sized mailing.

You can get it at the counter at the post office. It can't be tracked online but can be tracked on the USPS intranet.

They will not have a delivery scan, despite the "Delivery Confirmation" notation. This is the reason it still says "in transit".

[oompaloompa]

I would have thought it could back-fire, eg. the buyer looks at tracking, even though it was received ands thinks hmmm this is a clear cut case of INR...

[rsot]

Originally Posted by GoteBay

I may be wrong, but it seems eBay has a way to checking if your orders show delivered a tracking number is uploaded.

It can easily backbite, just a thought - think about August 20.

EB and PP can check

[Omgoozle]

Originally Posted by unkown5454

It's a tracking number used by USPS internally. It's used on letter sized mailing.

You can get it at the counter at the post office. It can't be tracked online but can be tracked on the USPS intranet.

They will not have a delivery scan, despite the "Delivery Confirmation" notation. This is the reason it still says "in transit".

I believe you, and to add - it's probably a numerical value of the meter strip they put along the bottom of the letter.

But.... I don't think the seller is sitting at the PO Window getting numbers for each letter and writing them down on the spot. That's a bit far fetched.

Is it possible this number comes from a postage-printing machine?


edit - I had a spare letter lying around and the meter strip has 65 lines on it. The number Jeff posted has 31 characters, which is almost exactly half that number.

[GhostWhoWalks]

ummmm why bring it up now?

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by GhostWhoWalks

ummmm why bring it up now?

It was just a thought. I sell some items that weigh less than 2 ounces and would be fine in an envelope. That costs .69 cents. But to get tracking, I have to send it as a "package" in a bubble mailer, which costs $2.32. That adds $1.63 to the cost.

These items are cheap and I have competitors. If they are able to mail at .69 and I am forced to mail at $2.32, it puts me at a competitive disadvantage.

I am starting to take a liking to smaller, cheaper items. Previously, I rarely considered them because it was too much work for too little profit. But now, using ShipStation and a couple of programs I had written for me, I have much better automation. What would take me 3 minutes per item to ship previously, now takes less than 30 seconds. Working myself, I can ship at least 200 items per hour. So that makes it more worthwhile. An example of the math would be: Currently, I can make $2 on a $6 item. 200 x $2 = $400 in profit. Saving $1.63 could boost my profit significantly: 200 x $3.63 = $726 in profit.

But you know how competition is on eBay - monkey see, monkey do. It is only a matter of time before others catch on to what I am doing and use those ⊗⊗⊗⊗ tracking numbers to lower their costs, and then the downward spiral for sales prices begins. I would quickly lose the battle if my shipping costs are three times higher than my competitors.

The example above, by the way is based on a real product, but each product is different, most do not have margins quite that high. My thought was to do enough products to be able to hire someone to do the pulling and packing and still make a profit.

[Omgoozle]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

But to get tracking, I have to send it as a "package" in a bubble mailer, which costs $2.32. That adds $1.63 to the cost.

$1.93 with eB shipping discount. And thats for 1-3oz. So you should be marking your items as 3oz even if they're only 2oz.

For some reason I've had less issues since I started doing this.

[GhostWhoWalks]

I'll send you a PM for help.

[Omgoozle]

CC me on that if you can.

[thready]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

It was just a thought. I sell some items that weigh less than 2 ounces and would be fine in an envelope. That costs .69 cents. But to get tracking, I have to send it as a "package" in a bubble mailer, which costs $2.32. That adds $1.63 to the cost.

These items are cheap and I have competitors. If they are able to mail at .69 and I am forced to mail at $2.32, it puts me at a competitive disadvantage.

I am starting to take a liking to smaller, cheaper items. Previously, I rarely considered them because it was too much work for too little profit. But now, using ShipStation and a couple of programs I had written for me, I have much better automation. What would take me 3 minutes per item to ship previously, now takes less than 30 seconds. Working myself, I can ship at least 200 items per hour. So that makes it more worthwhile. An example of the math would be: Currently, I can make $2 on a $6 item. 200 x $2 = $400 in profit. Saving $1.63 could boost my profit significantly: 200 x $3.63 = $726 in profit.

But you know how competition is on eBay - monkey see, monkey do. It is only a matter of time before others catch on to what I am doing and use those ⊗⊗⊗⊗ tracking numbers to lower their costs, and then the downward spiral for sales prices begins. I would quickly lose the battle if my shipping costs are three times higher than my competitors.

The example above, by the way is based on a real product, but each product is different, most do not have margins quite that high. My thought was to do enough products to be able to hire someone to do the pulling and packing and still make a profit.

Expect a lot more lost packages and more messages to answer.

[evicktd]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

It was just a thought. I sell some items that weigh less than 2 ounces and would be fine in an envelope. That costs .69 cents. But to get tracking, I have to send it as a "package" in a bubble mailer, which costs $2.32. That adds $1.63 to the cost.

The example above, by the way is based on a real product, but each product is different, most do not have margins quite that high. My thought was to do enough products to be able to hire someone to do the pulling and packing and still make a profit.

Do not send anything that can BREAK. It's a big no-no. I once shipped 900 iphone lightning cables at once and almost half of them came back damaged. The letters go through a different machine than the packages. The letters, I assume are mashed through and the packages are sorted through.

However, feel free to do with with flat objects, just make sure that you secure them into something that isn't bendable easily.

This also does open up customer cases a lot because of the extended delivery time and the non-trackable info. Not to mention some guys that might wanna get one over on you and you have no way of knowing where the shipment actually is.

[jeffweico]

The number the seller was using is a 31 digit number that is designed to be encoded as a barcode. The USPS calls the service "Intelligent Mail". These numbers are not trackable outside of the USPS.

The number the seller used did NOT conform to what the USPS guidelines are, but he obviously found a way to make eBay accept the number.

Since I first posted this, eBay announced a new way of determining TRS status - basically, many sellers will lose their TRS status as of August 2014.

Most of my accounts are TRS, but I am going to give up that status on a couple of them so that I don't have to use tracking numbers on small items that can be sent in an envelope. The 20% TRS discounts are nice, and I will strive to keep my accounts selling more expensive items in TRS status, but the 20% discounts are outweighed by what I can save on postage. I'm not willing to give up $600 to save $150. It just isn't worth it.

Yes, of course there will be some scammers. But almost all of the items I am sending this way sell for less than $5 with free shipping and cost me less than half of that. So, if I have to re-send a couple of items, or issue a couple of refunds, so be it.

It is a shame that it has to come to this, but eBay's rules just get worse and worse over time. Rather than try to create phake 31-digit tracking numbers, I would rather forego the discount. Yes, I will miss the other benefits of the TRS status, like the higher placement in search results, but I just don't see any alternatives.

Does anyone else sell small items, and if you do, how do you handle the tracking number situation? Do you feel paying more than double for postage to keep your TRS status is worth it?

[Sandy D]

I has seen this more and more lately.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

Does anyone else sell small items, and if you do, how do you handle the tracking number situation? Do you feel paying more than double for postage to keep your TRS status is worth it?

I dont sell small items on TRS unless it's 'just' made bronze.