eBay currently mis-use the delivery confirmation number giving rise to a poor dispatch performance rating on their site if it is passed to them. To resolve this currently you have to turn off the storing of the delivery 2d barcode as a tracking number on a service level.

I would like this to be changed so we have the ability to turn it off on a sales channel level and still show the 2d Barcode in the tracking field.

This enables easy access to the tracking details when dealing with customers claiming non-delivery as currently (with 2d Barcodes used as tracking numbers turned off) you have to discover when the item was shipped then dig the information out to the filed manifest.

Hi Phil, 

We have been asking linnworks to do this for over a year. there are some work around but none is very practicle. We have had no choice but turn of despatch note and then manually mark each order as dispatched on eBay. This is currently only way you can avoid data going to eBay and still keeping a record of the barcodes. 

Suggest you look at other discussion about this: https://help.linnworks.com/support/discussions/topics/7000011064

Kind regards, 

Navid

Hi, Guys, I think this is possible. If you go to Shipping Integrations and Royal Mail OBA. In the services tab, you can select the service that is affected and remove the 2d barcode info that is sent to the marketplaces. In most cases, RM only supplies the Shipping ref which looks like a tracking number but starts with AAA which is useless.

Hopefully, this is what you are talking about and is of some help. You can still get the ref number in the processed orders section if you need it for a customer. As far as I know, the 16 digit tracking number for 2D barcodes is not provided by RM which is a failing.

 

Hi Mark, 

For Royal Mail 24 and 48 services, Royal Mail does provide a 21 digit confirmation 2d barcode. This is not tracking but is useful to prove that item is delivered, waiting at local depot or returned to sender. 

If you disable this using the option you explain, you can no longer view the number in the tracking field. Then, only place you can see this would be in manifest which is manual (scroll for hours when you've 1000s of orders) and are only available for 30-40 days then disappears forever. 

We got our developer to design a basic program 100 quid utilising Royal Mail API so we can get status of multiple orders with one click. So it is important to have these numbers saved under a field which can then be exported to csv. 

A single programmer can make a useful program that tracks and gets the status of 1000s of order at once for £100 but linnworks with all their resources and staff .....

Kind regards, 

Navid

Hi, can you clarify how eBay currently mis-use the delivery confirmation number? We send the number to eBay then it gets marked as shipped.

Regards

Craig.

Hi Marc/Craig,

The error only happens when the customer is not available to receive the item when Royal Mail attempt delivery. 

Royal Mail update the tracking as delivery attempted - awaiting customer pick up. When the item is picked up by the customer this gives rise to a delivery successful tracking update and eBay assume the 1st delivery attempt was when the item was dispatched creating a late dispatch error in their mind. This they translate into a 'Tracking indicates late delivery' mark against us in their late delivery rate report/Metric.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Phil Rendell.

Gents, 

Let me elaborate on top of what Phil explained. 

eBay will only mark orders as late dispatch if tracking number is not provided and customers feedback suggest late delivery (2 star or less), or tracking number itself indicates late dispatch. Furthermore, unlike other metric they don't calculate the percentage by  number of late order over total transaction but rather total transactions that are confirmed to have been dispatched or delivered on time. 

eBay policy with this regards states that if you dispatch on time with tracking number showing this, then they will not count the order as late if courier company is at fault and delivers it late.

The problem with 2d barcodes for 24 and 48 service is that the first scan is usually either actual delivery date or what Phil explained previously. 

Therefore, if the delivery date scan is outside the estimated delivery time for whatever reason e.g. failed delivery attempt, unexpected courier delays etc., eBay automatically marks this as late dispatch even though the item was dispatched on time but there is no proof of this from the 2d barcode. 

However, if the number is not sent to eBay it won't automatically mark these type of orders as late. eBay then can only rely on customer feedback to mark orders as late if customer gives a poor score. 

So if you like to keep your top rated status or wondering why you're not top rated then don't let eBay have 2d barcodes for standard services because it will unfairly mark many of the order as late dispatched. 

It is worth mentioning that if you contact eBay and explain, they will remove these. However, we found that we had to explain the problem every time to a new eBay representative so its just not worth the headache. 

Trust this informs. 

Kind regards, 

Navid

Hi Phil,

I wonder whether you found a way of removing the 2d tracking number at sales level?  We would like the 2d tracking info to continue to be passed to Amazon but exclude it from Ebay transactions.

It appears that we can only disable 22 tracking at a service level from within the Royal Mail integration.

Kind Regards

Matt