Weird USPS Tracking on eBay Item. (selling, deals, present, China)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
When I ship my ebay sales, I take them to the PO and ask for a receipt; they scan them right then. If I just drop them off, I don't know what happens to them.
Corrupt software might be reading only partial tracking #s or some other problem.
As long as the tracking number is on the receipt, then it'll show up online within minutes. If the tracking number is not on the receipt, then it may get hand sorted and won't get it's initial scan until it gets to the USPS Regional Facility.
I agree, that's a great service, I get an email showing what will be delivered every day and if there's nothing that's on the list that's important I just leave it in the box for the next day, probably saves me from walking 50 steps a day
"Informed delivery" photos are sent to you from the USPS Regional Facility that feeds your PO and not from the PO itself. Thus it does not get scanned before being placed into a mailbox. If you are getting the email version it states at the end of the photos "Mailpieces may arrive several days after you receive the notification. Please allow up to a week for delivery before reporting missing mail". So depending on what time it get delivered to the PO, how much they get and the cut off time for the delivery carriers to leave it may sit there for a few days before getting sorted. Your PO is limited by it's sorting staff. "Informed delivery" is only supposed to send photos of letters, but sometimes it does scan post cards. Everything else goes through a different process. Thus many times there will be more mail in your mailbox than the photos you received.
The only stuff that doesn't show up on my informed delivery list are bulk mailed ads, like grocery circulars, everything else has been correct. I've never seen a note on mine that delivery may take several days, what's on the list is always in the mailbox, but I will take a closer look next time I get an email to see if that notice is actually on mine.
Why? I do that. I don't lie and tell the buyer it was shipped though. But why wouldn't the buyer want the tracking number as soon as seller knows what it will be?
USPS tracking is unreliable. I wouldn't waste time trying to decipher what happened with the OP because it could be any of a dozen things. It can be frustrating. A few weeks ago I sold a small item and 3 days later teh buyer was upset with me because tracking was still showing only the label created message and wanting to know when I was actually going to ship it. It was delivered the next day. Two tracking entries, label created and delivered.
What does giving the customer a tracking number before the item is shipped accomplish? There is nothing to track at that point. The tracking number should be given to the customer at the time the item is picked up by or dropped of at the shipper. That's when the customer can start tracking the item.
I get fed up with buying items, and five minutes later I get a email with a tracking number. Then a week later the tracking is still showing “Shipping Label Created”.
Update: The Post Office had returned my item. The clerk at the Post Office, couldn't or wouldn't give me an explanation of why it happened. I suspect that it was probably some extra seasonal help that they hired. Because this is the first time I have ever had a problem like this, at this Post Office.
So I sent the seller a message and asked them to re-send it to me when they receive it back. I haven't got a reply back on what their intention is.
The USPS seems to be a mess right now. I'm currently tracking six different items that I'm waiting for. Three of them were supposed to be delivered Friday. Only one arrived. Despite all three of them being scanned at the Regional Destination Facility at about the same time. The tracking updates seem to be running about six hours late. I finally got the delivery notice for the one item, almost six hours after the time it was delivered. So out of four items, one got wrongly returned, two are delayed for no apparent reason, and one was delivered on time. Not great service.
If you are using Informed Delivery, Sunday morning the comment should read "Arrived at Hub" instead of "Arrived at Post Office". It's coming from another PO in a different zip code that is slated to cover your zip code on Sunday's. It will contain only Amazon mail.
I'm just going off what Amazon tells me. Bought it on Friday and with 2-day shipping, that falls on Sunday.
I will be gobsmacked if anything shows up on my doorstep on a Sunday in Mississippi.
I'm guessing that if USPS is having tracking software issues, Amazon's software is just posting whatever is being fed to it. I'll look to see what the tracking history is once I get the package on Monday.
If you are using Informed Delivery, Sunday morning the comment should read "Arrived at Hub" instead of "Arrived at Post Office". It's coming from another PO in a different zip code that is slated to cover your zip code on Sunday's. It will contain only Amazon mail.
Due to increased competition and Amazon hiring other Sunday carriers our district has transferred half of its Sunday Amazon crew to doing large priority parcels. Perhaps just for the Christmas rush which has not seemed to have started yet. The UPS drivers already have their holiday second crewman on trucks but their load also has not increased yet due to new players like uber drivers taking market share.
I'm just going off what Amazon tells me. Bought it on Friday and with 2-day shipping, that falls on Sunday.
I will be gobsmacked if anything shows up on my doorstep on a Sunday in Mississippi.
I'm guessing that if USPS is having tracking software issues, Amazon's software is just posting whatever is being fed to it. I'll look to see what the tracking history is once I get the package on Monday.
Actually the Amazon software will be correct in it's postings, but the USPS software will be incorrect. For example, when the Amazon software shows it's been transferred to USPS and states to be delivered on Sunday, the USPS shows Monday on Saturday night. Sunday morning around 8am it all updates. The only problem I've had with Sunday deliveries is that it's not being done by my local PO, so sometimes I have to search to find where they dropped off the package (for some front doors are not in their realm of existing).
What does giving the customer a tracking number before the item is shipped accomplish? There is nothing to track at that point. The tracking number should be given to the customer at the time the item is picked up by or dropped of at the shipper. That's when the customer can start tracking the item.
I get fed up with buying items, and five minutes later I get a email with a tracking number. Then a week later the tracking is still showing “Shipping Label Created”.
Given that USPS often doesn't scan intermediate processing, that can happen in any scenario. My thought was to let the buyer know the order was received, accepted, and tangible action taken in processing. I wish that I could read the minds of the buyers and know their pet peeves.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
