eBay's Tracking Percentage Policy: Same Buyer, Need Two Tracking Numbers To Comply.

[everard6920]

Look, I understand why they brought it in, HOWEVER, lately I've had buyers make a habit of buying multiple items under different guest accounts (eg: a buyer buys two items: one under fred-060 and one under fred-071)

Same name. Same address. Purchased two minutes apart.

Guess what? Due to eBay's policy, I can't put them in the same envelope because I need two separate tracking numbers (because the buyer used two different accounts).

Prior to the policy's introduction, I would've just put the tracking on one, marked the second item as sent, refunded excess postage, and notified the buyer that the second item was in with the first. Can't do that now, because simply marking the second item as sent lowers my percentage.

Spoke to eBay support about it and was told never to combine the postage in these cases, because it will lower my percentage (which I already knew).

Common sense dictates that if it's the SAME buyer at the SAME address in a short time frame, postage should be able to be combined. Not only is this inconvenient and (regardless of cost, it requires more packing materials, and I'm not trying to kill the environment any faster), but it's surely worse for the buyer, who now has to pay for 2 x postage (and track/collect 2 envelopes instead of one)? Can't wait 'til someone buys 6 or so items and does this ... looking forward ...

[danieh_6]

Our valid tracking performance is 1% , I would not worry about it. Because our tracking does not show tracking events on eBay regardless, been an issue for almost 2 years now, Nobody cares at eBay to fix it.

All our funds get held and usually released about 2-5 business days after marked sent regardless if there tracking upload or not and also regardless of the delivery timeframe.

[everard6920]

Thanks for your reply - that's interesting - but doesn't affect your search standings? The hold on funds is not really my concern, because my understanding is that, if you don't meet the percentage, funds get released when you upload tracking, and I do, for every transaction (except the ones as above, which are a small proportion of overall sales). So I don't think that'd be a problem for me - it's more the fact that such transactions (I feel) should be recognised by eBay as being OK to combine (both for tracking percentage purposes, and for dispute purposes).

Even though I've just combined in the past prior to the tracking % policy, I'm pretty sure that I'd need to produce two tracking numbers in the event that the buyer claimed INR, and that's silly (imo), because if it's the same buyer at the same address within a short time frame, it should be acceptable to put them in one envelope/box. As stated, it's also better for the buyer.

I'm expecting common sense, which I should know better than to expect, I suppose. 🙃

[janeababe]

In all honesty, if the buyer wants combined postage ….. or…. If you wish to combine postage, then the buyer needs to just use one account.

If the buyer purchases multiple items over separate accounts, then they can fork out the extra postage costs! 

Why should you risk breach of selling policies because your buyers don’t have enough brain cells to power a potato? 

It’s not coming out of your pocket……… 

[jellybirddesigns]

Why would a buyer use 2 different account for purchasing in the first place? My spider senses are tingling...

In 20 years I've never had this happen personally, so it does seem weird that you're talking about multiple occasions. 

I tend to be fairly cynical and I'm wondering if they are doing that so that you cannot enter the same tracking number due to two different accounts, and therefore they can open a case for "Not Received" from whichever one doesn't have the tracking.

[eol-products]

I only get them every few years or so but it is common. Recently someone made an offer, not long later a new account from the same suburb made an offer. Messaged first person and they did not know anything about the other offer. I accepted the first offer and just ignored the second and sent the item.

[padi*0409]

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@jellybirddesigns wrote:

Why would a buyer use 2 different account for purchasing in the first place? My spider senses are tingling...

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Wasn't there a thread a while ago where people were signed into a guest account if they used Google to get to eBay ?

[countessalmirena]

Yes; from what I understand, if a person signs in using their Google/gmail or Facebook or Apple account, it does NOT log them in to the same account as that used when they created their account with their email address or mobile phone number. We were seeing a proliferation of people posting on these boards with complaints that their purchase history was gone, their watched items had vanished, their feedback - pffffff! - and I remember that a handful of us thought that this sort of logging on was the culprit.

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[everard6920]

Right, but I think it's because these are guest accounts. I've never used one, but I don't think you can use the same guest account twice?

It's more that it's inconvenient and nonsensical - if it's the same person at the same address, you should be able to combine, regardless of which account(s) they use, imo.

[everard6920]

Possibly, which is why you should be able to combine. As I said, if someone comes along and buys 6 items in quick succession and they're all the same person at the same address - I mean okay, I can post them all separately but that's a lot more time + materials than putting 6 in the same package. It's just a silly (and inconvenient) policy.