Hope this experience helps any sellers out there.
I shipped a package ($20 value) to my US buyer and it took only 3 days to be delivered.
I had full tracking (Lasership) and it was confirmed delivered and signed for.
The buyer's address was a USPS post office where the buyer has a box number, so when the package
was delivered to the post office, it was signed by USPS.
The buyer opened case on me claiming they had not received the item. I told the buyer that tracking information shows it confirmed delivered and signed by your post office USPS. The buyer says when they checked 2 days in a row, it was not there.
I told them that since it was signed by your post office, after that point, I don't have any responsibility as it was delivered. Whoever was working in that post office and signed for the package either didn't put it in the correct box number in the post office or just didn't even put it in at all and it's still sitting around somewhere in the backroom of the post office. I told the buyer, you need to sort that out with your post office and I no longer have any responsibility for it (once it's delivered and signed, my job is done).
The buyer escalated it and ebay reviewed and closed the case in the buyer's favor citing the reason: "no valid proof of delivery was provided".
Of course I was shocked because in my experience, when tracking shows it's delivered and signed for, it's nearly 100% unbeatable case for seller.
How could they say I didn't provide valid proof of delivery when I did. Now of course, ebay is not a person. There is no god figure named ebay who knows you and everything about you. It's just a random human worker who picks up your case to review and depending on who the worker is, they may either be experienced or a newb, maybe they had a good day or a shitty day, all these factors come into play and you might get one decision one day and a completely different from someone else.
But the biggest issue is this: Lasership has tracking numbers that all have a dash (-) just before the second last digit of the tracking number. For example it might be: 1LS123456789-0, but as soon you upload it to ebay, ebay automatically changes it to 1LS1234567890. It removed the dash. Apparently ebay doesn't allow for any special characters in a tracking number. That is got to be fixed because some shipping carriers DO use a dash in their tracking numbers and if you remove the dash, the tracking number doesn't work and it's not searchable or found if you do a search. So on ebay site, it doesn't show any updates on the tracking even though it was delivered. It'll just show blanks and look like it wasn't delivered with no tracking updates.
So I imagined the reason why the case was closed in the buyer's favor for reason not providing valid proof of delivery is because of this reason. But what the ebay reviewer is SUPPOSED to do is read the notes in the resolution where I clearly wrote that you have to search the tracking number on Lasership tracking website and make sure you include the dash in the tracking number. Without the dash, the tracking number doesn't exist and is not found.
So instead of using my one appeal, I decided to just go to help and contact ebay and email them. I explained it again in the email and gave them my case number.
To my amazement, they actually responded in 24 hours or less. Usually I never receive any response from ebay when I send an email or inquiry or report etc. Not only did they respond, the new agent that took my email ended up overturning the closed case and now refunded the money back to me, and closed the case in my favor, confirming that I had shipped it out and it was confirmed delivered and signed for.
Not only did the agent tell me that, the agent went on over 2 or 3 paragraphs praising me for my spectacular record and positive feedbacks and saying how I was one of the best ebay sellers out there and praised me for my spectacular performance. Dang. That was a nice email, especially coming from ebay. I had never once received any thing remotely like this in the 17 years I've been on ebay. I felt validated and felt like I finally got some much needed praise and affirmation that I am a good seller and I do my best to keep everyone happy, even though the ebay system and their strict standards makes you feel like a criminal seller because you can't even afford 3 defects in a year without being suspended. I'm not even a big time seller. I make about 1000-1500 sales per year and to think that if only 3 of them go bad, you are a bad seller and get suspended from selling. I've already talked about this in past posts, but a 99.7% excellence rate is the cut off point. If you fall below 99.7% you are suspended from selling on ebay, possibly lifetime for being 99.6%. Think about how ridiculous crazy that is. It's just crazy pressure to keep the defects off, so I always refund my buyers and take the loss when they open a case and I don't have tracking that confirms delivered (even if it's still on the way which is the case 90% of the time). I can't afford defects.
Anyways, I'm glad I didn't have to use my appeal but simply sending an email to them got this case overturned! If you use a shipping service like Lasership or others that have dashes in the tracking number, be aware that it won't show tracking details on ebay as they remove the dashes and therefore render the tracking number incorrect.
You'll just have to make sure that ebay reviewer checks the actual shippers website to track it and show all the proof.
I shipped a package ($20 value) to my US buyer and it took only 3 days to be delivered.
I had full tracking (Lasership) and it was confirmed delivered and signed for.
The buyer's address was a USPS post office where the buyer has a box number, so when the package
was delivered to the post office, it was signed by USPS.
The buyer opened case on me claiming they had not received the item. I told the buyer that tracking information shows it confirmed delivered and signed by your post office USPS. The buyer says when they checked 2 days in a row, it was not there.
I told them that since it was signed by your post office, after that point, I don't have any responsibility as it was delivered. Whoever was working in that post office and signed for the package either didn't put it in the correct box number in the post office or just didn't even put it in at all and it's still sitting around somewhere in the backroom of the post office. I told the buyer, you need to sort that out with your post office and I no longer have any responsibility for it (once it's delivered and signed, my job is done).
The buyer escalated it and ebay reviewed and closed the case in the buyer's favor citing the reason: "no valid proof of delivery was provided".
Of course I was shocked because in my experience, when tracking shows it's delivered and signed for, it's nearly 100% unbeatable case for seller.
How could they say I didn't provide valid proof of delivery when I did. Now of course, ebay is not a person. There is no god figure named ebay who knows you and everything about you. It's just a random human worker who picks up your case to review and depending on who the worker is, they may either be experienced or a newb, maybe they had a good day or a shitty day, all these factors come into play and you might get one decision one day and a completely different from someone else.
But the biggest issue is this: Lasership has tracking numbers that all have a dash (-) just before the second last digit of the tracking number. For example it might be: 1LS123456789-0, but as soon you upload it to ebay, ebay automatically changes it to 1LS1234567890. It removed the dash. Apparently ebay doesn't allow for any special characters in a tracking number. That is got to be fixed because some shipping carriers DO use a dash in their tracking numbers and if you remove the dash, the tracking number doesn't work and it's not searchable or found if you do a search. So on ebay site, it doesn't show any updates on the tracking even though it was delivered. It'll just show blanks and look like it wasn't delivered with no tracking updates.
So I imagined the reason why the case was closed in the buyer's favor for reason not providing valid proof of delivery is because of this reason. But what the ebay reviewer is SUPPOSED to do is read the notes in the resolution where I clearly wrote that you have to search the tracking number on Lasership tracking website and make sure you include the dash in the tracking number. Without the dash, the tracking number doesn't exist and is not found.
So instead of using my one appeal, I decided to just go to help and contact ebay and email them. I explained it again in the email and gave them my case number.
To my amazement, they actually responded in 24 hours or less. Usually I never receive any response from ebay when I send an email or inquiry or report etc. Not only did they respond, the new agent that took my email ended up overturning the closed case and now refunded the money back to me, and closed the case in my favor, confirming that I had shipped it out and it was confirmed delivered and signed for.
Not only did the agent tell me that, the agent went on over 2 or 3 paragraphs praising me for my spectacular record and positive feedbacks and saying how I was one of the best ebay sellers out there and praised me for my spectacular performance. Dang. That was a nice email, especially coming from ebay. I had never once received any thing remotely like this in the 17 years I've been on ebay. I felt validated and felt like I finally got some much needed praise and affirmation that I am a good seller and I do my best to keep everyone happy, even though the ebay system and their strict standards makes you feel like a criminal seller because you can't even afford 3 defects in a year without being suspended. I'm not even a big time seller. I make about 1000-1500 sales per year and to think that if only 3 of them go bad, you are a bad seller and get suspended from selling. I've already talked about this in past posts, but a 99.7% excellence rate is the cut off point. If you fall below 99.7% you are suspended from selling on ebay, possibly lifetime for being 99.6%. Think about how ridiculous crazy that is. It's just crazy pressure to keep the defects off, so I always refund my buyers and take the loss when they open a case and I don't have tracking that confirms delivered (even if it's still on the way which is the case 90% of the time). I can't afford defects.
Anyways, I'm glad I didn't have to use my appeal but simply sending an email to them got this case overturned! If you use a shipping service like Lasership or others that have dashes in the tracking number, be aware that it won't show tracking details on ebay as they remove the dashes and therefore render the tracking number incorrect.
You'll just have to make sure that ebay reviewer checks the actual shippers website to track it and show all the proof.
