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I don’t use bulk labels so I’m unsure this will help, but on any of the pages under Orders in Seller Hub there is a link entitled Shipping Labels on the left. If you click that, aren’t you able to retrieve the detailed shipping information for individual orders by item number going back 90 days?
You could also post this question on the eBay for Business Podcast Facebook page. Cheryl’s work-around makes sense but maybe Griff and his crew know of something you’re not seeing.
I would love to put down Junk Man but don’t have the nerve. The occupation is not actually on the passport. I assume it is asked in the application for either statistical data or more likely to assist the State Department with their background check to make sure you’re who you say you are. For that reason I put down what I wrote for occupation where it asked for it in the signature block of my latest previous personal tax return before I renewed mine last time.
‘Sausage, bacon, eggs, tinned tomatoes, baked beans, mushrooms, black pudding, fried bread, toast, butter, mug of tea = full English breakfast.”
That would be quite awesome. But we like a healthy breakfast here in the colonies, so we’d need the kippers too.
That is funny – I was just going through this myself this weekend. I went even farther back for 2021 using an old calendar reference card used by court reporters and came up with 1897, 1886, 1875, 1869, 1858, 1847, 1841, 1830, 1819, 1813, 1802, 1790, and 1779. I spent way too much time in a very deep rabbit hole unsuccessfully looking for 1800’s calendars.
Since the buyer has already filed the case, responding immediately isn’t necessarily the best option. It sounds like you’re looking to wait to the last minute so that if the buyer then escalates it anyway, you’ve got additional time before eBay closes in their favor. Jay recently discussed the eBay temporary policy giving additional days before they will close the INR and refund in buyer’s favor, but there is only a specific date range of shipments that is covered, and also there has to have been a carrier scan with 10 days of the date the buyer asks eBay to step in, for the temporary extension to apply, I think.
I don’t have an answer regarding the exact day that the buyer can contact eBay if you don’t respond. I had to file an INR myself not too long ago and I’m pretty sure the interface in my case didn’t even have a button to request eBay to step in until the next calendar day, Pacific time, after the seller’s three days. But I could be wrong.
The FedEx Ground Shipping Guide at
http://www.fedex.com/us/services/pdf/HazmatShippingGuide.pdf says that Mercury is not regulated as a hazardous material under certain conditions:
“Mercury, when packaged and prepared under 49 CFR 173.164, do [sic] not require hazardous material shipping papers, certification forms, marking or labeling of the package when… [t]he mercury is contained in instruments or articles (i.e. thermometers, barometers or fluorescent lights or [contains not more than a pound].”
So no special outside marking is required, and ground shipping under that CFR provision does not require any special protections or packaging other than standard requirements for shipped goods. This all applies to US only, IFAIK.
“Well I guess the eBay computer doesn’t pick up on the word Mercury.”
Maybe not for that seller, but I prefer not to tempt fate. I should have made clear that I don’t use the word at all in my listing, just the word “fluid” where necessary.
As we all know, simply having an item up without having it taken down is no guarantee, but I’ve had a vintage mercury advertising thermometer up for about 18 months in that Thermometer Collectibles category without a peep from eBay. I would consider that a good indication that it’s pretty safe to list, because usually if I have anything close to being forbidden eBay catches it and takes it down. As for shipping, AF is right about it needing to stay ground. It used to be you could ship some consumer quantity hazardous materials ground via USPS with an ORM-D marking on the outside but now I just limit shipping to FedEx or UPS Ground, no international sales, for something like this.
In bringing Time Away into the conversation I was focused on what ChristineR, Mississippi Picker, and others are doing in not even wanting to put their packages into the stream until after the holidays. So they’re using Time Away as it is typically intended and not shipping until it ends.
Sonia, you’re right. Long handling time is irrelevant to Top Rated Seller status, which is awarded for longevity, sales and transaction numbers, and clean record. Once a seller is TRS, then their listings are eligible for Top Rated Plus status if they have same or 1 day handling and 30 day returns, and MyCottage you’re correct about how the 10% FVF discount works vis a vis Time Away. One could be TRS and never have any TRP-eligible listings and be fine.
I would say that long handling time or Time Away does help a little bit (even though the sale itself triggers the usual short shipping time) because a buyer who is worried about getting something fast hopefully won’t buy the item in the first place because they’ve been warned. It could help avoid excitable buyers who are quick to file INR claims because the buyer reads and buys from a listing that told them they wouldn’t see the item for a while. So your clientele will skew to patient buyers.
There was a discussion on this week’s eBay for Business podcast on that new trading card postage feature. It sounds to me like eBay is getting into the existing USPS Informed Visibility system, the tracking barcode for stamped letters some sellers use, but wants to limit use to trading cards till they work out the bugs. eBay says the new tracking will only be for what USPS classifies as Letters, which is why the weight limit is 3 oz and the envelope can be no thicker than ¼”. It’s only supposed to cost 70 cents.
I find Informed Visibility to not be very reliable for tracking. It doesn’t work for me maybe 10% of the time. It’s its own automated system apparently because USPS’ hand scanners get no reading from the barcode. Also, if a letter does not get the incoming scan when it gets to the post office and goes through automated sorting, subsequent tracking never appears, in my experience. The last tracking update (when it works) is “out for delivery” because the carrier cannot scan it. Informed Visibility is only available for small businesses through third party vendors, and the tracking can only be viewed in the third party’s system. It makes sense that eBay wants to be a vendor to do this, and the $20 limit makes sense based on the system’s limited reliability and the fact that there is not a delivery scan.
I prefer to use the Time Away feature in my TRS store rather than change handling time. A single short stint of long handling won’t hurt TRS status but if there happen to be other issues pop up, all of them together could make them drop the status for a while, I think. And even if the status is not dropped, I don’t get TRS fee discounts on items that sell while I have long handling.
Great tip, MyCottage. Also thanks, Jay, for posting that update and what it means. I’m in the midst of mollifying one buyer (who is quite chill, thankfully, and has not filed an INR with eBay yet) and filed a missing mail query for a Priority package that has not had a scan since December 1<sup>st</sup>. The only response was a cheery note from someone at the destination post office reassuring me not to worry, they checked the tracking and the package is on its way! Query resolved! They said to resubmit the inquiry at the 21 day mark if I want but I’m thinking of filing a lost mail claim instead at that point. Not sure which is better.
But I wanted to remind everyone that the shipper can get the USPS to return a tracked package for a $14.95 fee plus the cost of return shipping. Could be worth it if you have to refund a buyer for a high value item that you feel is probably just stuck and not actually lost.
