eBay Package Tracking Tips & Tricks

Hailed by many as the foremost success story of the dot-com economic bubble of the early 2000s, eBay Inc. is one of the world’s best known online marketplaces. As such, one would expect the eBay package tracking offer to be up to par, and match the company’s overall standards of quality. In the following, we’ll try to reveal whether it does so, or not.

The company was founded in 1995 by webtrepreneur Pierre Omidyar, it’s currently based in San Jose, California, but it has operations in more than 30 countries worldwide. In the twenty years that have elapsed since it was founded, the business has expanded to garner impressive revenue and profit and has also acquired several other successful enterprises.

As of this writing, the eBay website network includes a wide range of products and services, among which the most successful ones are

• Gumtree – the largest classified ads website in the UK and one of the country’s top 30 sites overall;
• Kijiji – an eBay Classifieds spin-off available in more than 300 cities in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy, and Canada;
• com – an e-commerce site strictly for SKU, UPC, or ISBN-indexed items, such as textbooks, books, video games, etc.;
• StubHub – an online portal for trading event tickets;
• PayPal – the world’s most popular online payment and escrow service;
• iBazar – a website for free classifieds in Mexico;
• GittiGidiyor – a Turkish online marketplace, whose name translates as “going, going, gone”.

In 2014, eBay generated an operating income of US$3.51 billion and a net income of 46 million. Its total assets were estimated at US$45.13 billion and it employed nearly 35,000 staff worldwide.

eBay official site: www.ebay.com

eBay Package Tracking Options

eBay offers several package tracking solutions to its buyers. If you want to verify the status of your order, you can opt for any of the following:

• eBay Package Tracking via My eBay. My eBay is your personal profile page on the site and it contains all the important info regarding your time on the site—including order history and package tracking. In order to use this feature, you have to be signed into the platform. Click the ‘My eBay’ link, located at the top of most pages on the site, then navigate to ‘Purchase History’, which you can find on the left-hand side of the page. You will then be able to identify the tracking number of the item in question, but only if the seller printed the shipment label via eBay or PayPal. In this case, the tracking number can be found under the name of the item you ordered. Click that number to see where your package is at.

• eBay Package Tracking by Email. eBay typically sends out tracking info via email. The email in question will likely contain a tracking number, which you can then use on the shipping company’s website, to check the status of your purchase. Alternatively (and especially useful if delivery is being delayed), you can contact the seller via email and ask them for tracking information. Bear in mind that buyer-seller communication outside eBay is not regulated by the site, nor can it be used in conflict resolution cases.
• eBay Package Tracking via Tracking Websites. eBay sellers may choose to work with any one of the virtually limitless number of shipping and tracking companies out there. On USPS, for instance, you can simply paste the tracking number into the Search bar, then click Available Actions and enable email updates, to receive information right in your inbox. Another site, TrackItOnline.ru, will ask you to provide the tracking number, type in a security code, and then access both the sender’s post office, as well as your local delivery post office (only available after the package has reached your country).

 

eBay Delivery Estimate

As is the case with most other online stores, the estimated arrival date for your package largely depends on the shipping method you opted for. At the moment, the supported shipment methods on eBay are regular mail, express mail, or courier. eBay provides a rough ETA to users who make purchases via the website, on the Order Details page of their personal account. The site does make it a point to remind buyers that their orders are handled by dozens of people and that seasonal events, such as unusual weather conditions and holidays can significantly delay the delivery of an order.

Another factor that weighs into the delivery estimate aspect of the business is the payment method made by the buyer. Most sellers on eBay will wait for the payment to be approved and/or received before they ship out the package. It’s also worth mentioning that eBay has been offering Global Shipping since 2012, although the website was initially only available to US buyers and sellers. The program allows sellers to opt into making global transactions; should a non-US resident buy an item from a US-based vendor, the customer also has to pay an extra fee to shipping company Pitney Bowes. The seller then relays the package to the third-party shipping operator, who goes on to forward it to the buyer. While this program has made a wider range of products available to buyers worldwide, it has also substantially contributed to extra costs on the part of the buyer.

Extra eBay Package Tracking Features

eBay encourages its sellers to upload shipping tracking information, both for the comfort of the buyers, as well as for the seller’s own credibility. According to the website, vendors who do provide such information tend to receive higher detailed seller ratings. To upload the tracking information, simply watch this video tutorial (it will take about 2 minutes). It’s worth mentioning that you only need to manually upload the info if you use third-party label printing and shipping services; sellers who use eBay or PayPal will have the upload completed automatically by either one of these two services.

What Can You Do If the eBay Package Doesn’t Arrive on Time?

If the package is taking too long to reach you, you can also contact the seller directly. Their email address is available in the automated email you receive from eBay at the end of the listing, as well as on the seller’s profile: just click their user ID to get it. Should either of these methods fail, you can also request the seller’s address from eBay. Go to ‘Advanced’ at the top of eBay’s Home Page, then to ‘Members’, and then to ‘Find contact information’. Enter the seller’s user ID and your ordered item number, then click Search.

Have 10 days elapsed since the time the seller told you your package would arrive? Have 30 days gone by since delivery? You might qualify for eBay’s Buyer Protection programs, which offer coverage in unresolved transactions, or transactions that ended with an item different to the one advertised being delivered to the buyer. As a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to check out eBay’s safe trading tips for buyers before making any purchases off the site. Here are some of the options that eBay offers its sellers for protection in case of undelivered packages:

• eBay Money Back Guarantee. Some unfulfilled orders will be eligible for this buyer protection program offered by the site. eBay will refund buyers both the item’s price, as well as shipping costs, or it will ask the seller to pay for the item. To apply for a refund via Money Back Guarantee, you need to go to My eBay, click on the undelivered item or order, and select Item not received. You can review the status of your complaint off your account page.
• Opening a case with eBay. eBay recommends that you try to contact the seller, should you paid package fail to arrive. If you cannot resolve the conflict this way, you can contact the site, which will then open a case. Cases like these are solved by reverting or canceling orders (and their respective transactions), or by sending the buyer a refund. Most refunds are fulfilled through PayPal and can be found in your PayPal Account Overview tab.

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