108 Responses

1. I know my postmaster well enough to give him the parcels and £XXX cash. I collect the change on next drop off. I don’t use any of the services above because they are just too time consuming. I go to the PO drop off my parcels give him the cash and leave. Been doing this for 9 years now.

2. Sadly it still fails to address the issue that RM are rubbish at updating their tracking, with it often taking days or not at all.
   I know of some sellers that purposely don’t add the tracking as when they do their late delivery metrics rocket… Despite actually being delivered on time!
   You can add all these extras… But every part of the system has to work first, and sadly it doesn’t.

3. Since Covid I changed my eBay dispatch time to 10 days. It has not affected my sales at all and I no longer endure any eBay anxieties. But I do sell collectibles. My customers don’t seem to mind waiting longer for their purchases to arrive.

4. If its a smooth as managed payments refunds i cant wait as it will be smooth and perfect

   NOT!!!!!!!

5. whats possible
   then what actually occurs are miles apart

6. Well this annoyed me when I saw it – again before it was announced!

   We use Linnworks to process our orders and print shipping labels. It automatically identifies multiple orders to the same address and merges them, or we can do so manually.

   The trouble now is that all addresses are now made completely unique with these new codes.

   These should not be in the address!

   I now have to manually edit many of our order addresses to remove this code before orders can be combined.

   Also it is adding the codes even though we specify “Other 3-5 Day Courier” so it is not limited to listings specifying Royal Mail. So this now goes on all our courier packages too.

   I already spend enough time every day tidying up customer addresses to improve the chances of delivery but this code appearing on the addresses now makes the address less clear when it appears on courier packages.

   Just wonderful!

7. Ah, that explains why the order reference field moved to the top of the Click & Drop form last week. Bit nosy of ebay perhaps, but I don’t have any problem with them realising just how rubbish Royal Mail has been this year.

   While they’re getting cosy, perhaps ebay can link up to the Royal Mail address database and sort things out once and for all, so we sellers get correct addresses, rather than what ebay or the buyer thinks is relevant.

8. What’s the point?
   RM are often useless at updating their tracking. Many sellers don’t even use RM any more.
   On a brighter note it may actually highlight to ebay just how ridiculous the Delivery metrics are, though obviously that’s the sellers fault and nothing to do with RM or any other courier at all.
   Honestly, you just couldn’t make it up.

9. It’s a start I suppose, but won’t improve RM’s service. I foresee many headaches and frustrated people!
   If they hurry up and get other carriers on board it would be a lot more valuable.

10. Anyone knows why is this “unique number” in the address? Apart from eBay feeling exceptional.

11. 90% of our packages are RM48 which do not get scanned until delivered. So the system will not work…

12. I noticed this code a couple of days ago and knew absolutely nothing about it – well done eBay that we have to find out on here. We use a franking machine and use 2nd class small parcel so not tracked. This code just adds to our workload as I assume we need to remove it?

13. Thankfully doesn’t affect me, as I don’t use Royal Mail, but as an auction seller, I would say 60% of my orders wish me to delay sending, so they can combine shipping, and 70% or more of my buyers are repeat buyers. It causes many problems with eBay’s shipping metric. I always ask the buyer to please wait before paying, but few actually do (many are just being courteous and paying asap).
    If I was using RM with this new vtin number, it would mean I’d be onto customer service every single week getting them to remove the defects that shouldn’t be there because my customers requested delayed shipping.

14. I have two orders from one customer. I can put both in one parcel to save on shipping, but they both have a different eVTN. Royal Mail doesn’t scan the barcodes anyway (nothing is ever showing up as delivered, even after the buyers have confirmed delivery), except when I specifically ask for proof of postage, which is not worth the time for smaller orders anyway.
    Would there be an issue if I just ship both orders together using the one eVTN?

15. How do we remove this from our Linnworks labels as it complicates the address totally when we print a label via Linnworks.
    We use Royal Mail for posting and it is now appearing on all our labels.

16. I’m using Royal Mail OBA with Linnworks.

    This VTN is, as the article says, displaying on the second line.
    Does anyone know if we’re supposed to leave that on the address label like that?!

    Little concerned a postie will look at that and return to sender.

    I was under the assumption it is not supposed to print but still be a part of the tracking, e.g. for RM24 RM48 and whatever other tracked services used.

17. My orders come from ebay to my woocommerce website where i keep stock & also sell on my website… they then all go to click & drop

    it does not remove the new code… so now i have to go through and remove each one…

    No worries though… another bit of extra work, for a marketplace that keeps take take taking..

18. Good work from RM’s Click&Drop that it does not “transfer” those stupid ref numbers onto RM labels. Or it could be eBay API not issuing them. Either way good to not have addresses spam’d with some random “brilliant” idea from eBay.

19. If you sell two items going to the same address but only use one label this probably means you only have proof that one parcel arrived.

    If the buyer opens an INR case would you have sufficient proof for PayPal and eBay to prove was delivered?

    I doubt it.

20. Were quite happy to leave the code on the address
    Gives the scammers something to think about

21. @gerald Nicholls unfortunately I received several purchases from the same customer a few times and they all had the code on the address.

    Sometimes the code is missing, but most of the time it is there, even though we don’t even list with Royal Mail as the carrier!

    I’ve spent the last hour or so removing the code from the address where it makes it look a mess, and gave up on the simpler addresses. Linnworks is not removing the code when printing shipping labels, whether Royal Mail labels or not.

    I think I will have to try and learn how to write macros/scripts in Linnworks just to be able to remove these useless codes. That on top of having to find another way to send PDF invoices to customers because they all get blocked now with the email address change to …[email protected]

22. I thought the point of these codes was was to prove delivery but I suspect eBay has done this in order to make more money on postage for multiple item purchases. It seems you need a label for every item not every order. If someone buys three or four items there is no way for them to do so without paying postage on every item which will generate three eBay codes. eBay actively try to eliminate the possibility of combined postage and this seems to be just another way. What happens if you only use one label for three purchases?

23. It never ceases to amaze me that people are shocked that eBay have implemented yet another system that is not fit for purpose or built totally to make more money for them.
    Just look at buyers email addresses now. they are gone.
    This is another system failure. When a buyer has no mobile number all thre tracking information is entered to their email address. So our courier emails them the 1 hour window can i ask how many people in the world check their ebay messages evry 20 minutes or so or even every day.
    What use is a tracking update sent by a courier saying your item will be delivered today between 1300 and 1400 when the person got up raced around getting kids off to school ran for the bus and then worked all day doing a job where they have no ebay access.

    we should all add an extended shipping time to our products and sod their system

    They are the online joke site now.

24. Yep I agree Mark.

    I changed my shipping to 10 days back in March. Has not affected my sales at all.

    Customers expect delays during a Pandemic. It’s not worth busting a gut to please eBay’s cockeyed metrics and algorithms on their uneven playing field BC or AC.

25. Thanks eBay for making our life even more difficult!

    Attach pdf to ebay message – no, forget it.

    Email a pdf directly to customer – no, forget it.

26. Btw eBay – if the message contains a Toyota part number then it is NOT a “contact info” FFS. Have you heard of good programmer able to compose a smart regex formula ??

    “Please remove contact info. If you proceed, you’ll be charged a final value fee, even if the item does not actually sell. See Policy.”

27. What if I need “Order Reference Field” for my own use ?!?!

28. Just found this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/tracking-items-youve-sold?id=4088

29. Found this as well: https://tech.ebayinc.com/product/ebay-virtual-tracking-number-now-live-in-the-u-k-and-australia/

30. If you think that Ebay have done this for anything other the THEIR own benefit, financial or other, then your naive.

31. This is really annoying, we have buyers who are buying multiple items and they are all having to go out in separate packages (all to the same address) as to be covered by the eBay money back guaranteed eBay (I called them today) the code for each order needs to be included in each label.

    Surly all we need to do is prove the item was delivered to the address provided, not that the address includes an eBay code too?

32. as usual, they have taken a snapshot of ‘how our sellers ship parcels’ and tried to implement a change without consulting the wider groups.
    So, if you sell on eBay and DON’T integrate your eBay store with C&D you’re heading for a headache, I’ve told them directly today on the phone and via email that I am not paying my packing staff to sit there and edit out a tracking code from 1200+ parcels a month, we’re simply not doing it.
    This is SO SO SO SO SO typical eBay and I’m tired of it, we’re gradually moving our business off the site to Magento because they’re going down a route which is not going to fit with our business in the long term and that’s a shame.

33. Royal mail trackIng??
    Says it all

34. These things are never inline with real world behaviours.

    I use click & drop (was on OBA) so I take my sacks to the post office a mile away or the depot and in ebays robotic eyes this is what a lot of business sellers do…

    but in the real world where RM sacks are like gold dust, and post offices are closing around me (my usual post office closed a few years ago and the other ones around me don’t accept sacks at all!), my postal behaviour is not so straight forward.
    If I have 20x 2nd class parcels but 1 person has upgraded to 1st class (or an expensive order that needs signed for), I am not going to put that one parcel in 1 sack (waste of a sack).
    Additionally, when I go to the post office that does still accept sacks, I feel a sense of guilt if I waltz in, drop sacks and leave without giving the postmaster & staff a coin or two, so this fits perfectly in doing that one/two/three awkward parcels over the counter (while dropping the main bulk of orders off in the sack. Hopefully the daily banter and custom is appreciated.

    So when ebay look at my orders they will start to see most are sent when I say they are, but the 1st class / signed for parcels won’t tally up in their system…

35. Finding out about eBay’s new ways to trip us up and extort even more money from sellers is like finding out about your redundancy in the media before your boss tells you!

    Since Managed Payments has been a total and utter joke, this is the last straw and I will now be using multiple private accounts instead. Greedy eBay can shove my business account up their arse!

    I can’t understand why eBay are so anal about postal and delivery metrics, shouldn’t this be monitored by buyer complaints instead? Of course, eBay want to make it as expensive and complicated as possible for the honest business seller.

    Well, eBay…. you can go to Hell. I’m posting my items using a method of MY CHOICE on a day THAT I CHOOSE, but within the handling time and will always message the buyer with the tracking code as well as manually uploading it. I get postage far cheaper than the eBay link anyway, so why should I fall for yet another one of their tricks?

36. we produce click n drop labels by sending a csv file to RM. we were told by RM (click n drop support team) that this info should NOT appear on the address line of the label so needs to be removed before submitting.

    Ebay concierge says it should stay “as it is part of the address” which is in direct conflict with RM (and logic), also implied that if the label did not match the ebay checkout details then we might have a problem on any non delivery claim also.

    Channel advisor rep says they don’t understand why I don’t like the information appearing in the address field – totally missing the point completely.

    we cannot overwrite the order field with the code as ebay suggest as this would remove our connection to the customer when updating normal tracking and order handling generally. This is clumsy coding and has not been thought through for sellers that are not integrated with Royal Mail direct or use ebay labels. To remove the code means manual interference on an otherwise fairly automated order run system.

    I despair as to the lack of thought given to this by ebay and the lack of support following its introduction

37. This is how it is appearing for us, we use the ProShipping API integrated into our back end.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/8o0aw8lt1sqpnl4/Photo%2015-09-2020%2C%2020%2041%2021.png?dl=0

    Seems to work reasonably well for us, though I am concerned about needing to waste time and money on multiple labels for individual items.

38. I finally stopped being a control freak and integrated ebay with click and drop, having previously had it set up for manual entry (so the addresses could be checked against RM database)

    There’s a few things I don’t like about it, but overall, it’s easier, it’s quicker and ebay aren’t going to make more money out of it. Nor are Royal Mail.

    If there are any purchases that come through as separate deliveries, it’s just a case of delete the ones you don’t need from click and drop, use one tracking number and manually copy and paste the tracking onto ebay. Not hard to do.

    This hypothetical scenario people are worried about, where a buyer purchases items separately, gets them shipped together by the seller using only one eVTN, then falsely claims INR for some items and has it upheld by ebay because although RM tracking says delivered, some of the eVTNs weren’t used, is like something Angry Frank from The Fast Show would have come up with.

39. We send (vat) invoices to customers when requested, and our custom software gets the data from eBay API. Now, this stupid “ebay235834” is not a separate field on the addresses. Sometimes it comes as alone address in the “Street2” field of their API, sometimes it mixed with what the buyer has as 2nd street address. Such a simple change (if they really insist on having this) yet the implementation is lazy and useless.

40. I don’t know if other people notice or not, but when I look at previous orders that were dispatched several weeks ago, a good double digit percentage of orders are still awaiting delivery, even though the buyer has left positive feedback and comments on how great the product is.

    Some royal mail posties are still not scanning parcels when they deliver them, and now according to ebays new code, ebay will think all sellers are lying 20% of the time.

    This is on top of problems such as Posties scanning the item delivered (before placing order at doorstep to stand back for covid guidelines) but not rescanning the parcel when they take it back to the sorting office, or giving the parcel to a random neighbour, but not scanning that either. Well I guess I should thank them for scanning it as delivered at all, saving me losing future cases,.

    When I worked as a courier 10 years ago, we had the facility to log the parcel delivered/safe/neighbour or even abducted by aliens If I really wanted to. So why in this day and age have RM not got the ability to scan the parcel when it gets sent back to the depot?

41. Click & Drop has dropped this message:

    “As part of the changes to eBay’s tracking requirements for shipping via Royal Mail, shipping updates for your orders will now be mandatory for orders imported through Click & Drop eBay channels. This means for:

    Scenario 1 – New eBay channel integrations:
    The Shipping Updates checkbox will automatically be selected with no option to de-select it.

    Scenario 2 – Existing eBay Channel integrations:
    The Shipping Updates checkbox will remain unchanged, but if the channel is updated for any reason shipping updates will become mandatory.

    If you do not want order Tracking/Item IDs to be provided to eBay please disable your eBay channel integration(s) and import your orders either (a) manually; or (b) via the desktop app (having first removed any unique 11-digit eBay codes from the Address fields).”

    import manually? you’re joking? 1000 orders per week to be imported manually haha good one!

    wow eBay – there’s massive delay with delivering the RM mail yet you insist on tracking for ALL orders in the middle of national pandemic.

    we do not add any tracking for items below 20 quid… as plenty of buyers were asking why the tracking “doesn’t work” (well, it’s delivery confirmation) or some brave ones saying that I can wipe my **** with such a tracking info. well, if you buy something for 6.95 do NOT expect free next day delivery with full tracking info.

    time to change handing time to 2 (or 5?!) days to accommodate this stupid change. and leave ebay for good in the near future.

42. As of this morning, I have closed my business account. Goodbye Managed Payments and lack of FVF offers – good riddance! I’ve just opened 3 new private accounts using independent credentials and let’s see how that goes.

    I think eBay should be fairer to sellers (they pay their wages FFS!) and add a “Mark as delivered” option to sold items. The buyer will soon kick off if an item is not received. I’ve not had one sing;e tracked/signed item shown as undelivered according to RM and Collect+ Websites.

    One thing I cannot stand are buzzwords like “data” and “metrics”, all I want to see is the sodding results, I mean a happy customer!

    I think that I’ll be telling eBay to go do one before the year is out.

43. Hay Guys.

    Latest response (5th) from eBay yesterday was “If you use Click & Drop and import your orders from an eBay order using CSV you will need to make a manual change to each address provided and remove the eBay code from address line 2 and paste it into Order Reference Field 2!

    That would be really good advice if there were in fact an ‘Order Reference Field 2’ on Click & Drop! I see there is now a ‘Special instructions’ Field but the documentation doesn’t say exactly what this is for apart from saying: ‘Alphanumeric’ and ‘Max. Length (characters) 100’.

    For now I have coded our system to remove the eVTN in its entirety until we can get some sense from somebody. I have just contacted Click & Drop Customer Support so I will be back with their response when I can and in the meantime it may be worth emailing the CEO in the States and or the UK Directors. You can find their email address on this very handy website: https://www.ceoemail.com

44. eVTN only started showing up this morning for me.

    I am one of the old school sellers who, when a sale has been made, I print out a packing slip which has their address on. I then copy and paste their address, exactly as they have entered it, and print it out, cut it out and stick it to the parcel.
    Now heres the bit you wont believe……….I physically go to the Post Office and hand my parcels over one at a time, having weighed them to make sure they are within the limits for Second Class Small parcel. When it is processed iam given a slip of paper with a tracking number on, which I then enter onto the items sales page so the buyer can also see the tracking number.
    Yes, every so often the Royal Mail dont update their website when delivery has been made, but so be it. It has never been a perfect system, but its good enough for what I need it for.

    Now the question is, being old school, do I need to have the eVTN in the buyers address when I post, as I dont have one of the 2D barcodes on the postage label.

45. So Royal Mail who are regularly delivering late, (especially 48 items up to 8-10 working days ), have partnered with eBay to make sure tracking is uploaded so people can see if their parcels are late?

    Freakin hilarious ! !

46. Response from Royal Mail Click & Drop abut eVTN:

    Thank you for your email.

    We were made aware the eBay were making some changes to their platform but were not informed what these changes were. I have forwarded your email onto our developers so they can look into this and get back to you.

    Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused and for the late response to your email.

    Regards

47. Every address now looks like this regardless of what mail service I ship with. But is this code tracked via every RM service including mail dropped off at the Post Office? I don’t think so – what’s the point enforcing this code on every seller? So now all sellers who don’t have a drop & go account have to delete this code from every address label if we use a courier. Typical blanket solution from eBay that inconveniences millions of sellers… and buyers when their parcel goes astray.

    Mr Redacted
    11 Redacted Close
    Leyland ebayn697fgx
    Preston Lancashire pr26 7ab

48. People sound so surprised at this. I’m not surprised, I’ve been on the ebay platform for nearly 21 years and it’s just another example of their “take it or leave it” approach. No consideration, consultation or foresight, just the thought that if your unhappy go elsewhere. What perhaps had started out as a genuine idea by eBay has become so poorly orchestrated that you can only think it was implemented by primary age schoolchildren.

49. As long as who ever delivers the package
    Can read the delivery address
    We dont care if ebay adds the National anthem to the label

50. I’ve said it before and I will say it again – if ebay are serious about ensuring buyer satisfaction re: delivery then they should either 1. have their own delivery network or 2. franchise/contract a delivery network.

    This is obviously easier said than done however it is possible (Amazon have done it) and they would be able to cater for the vast majority of items sold on ebay. Their drivers would scan an item upon collection and ebay would know where the item is at all times and could efficiently integrate with their platform to ensure buyer satisfaction.

51. Latest Reply from Click & Drop:

    “Thank you for your email.

    Our technical team have confirmed the eVTN code will now be removed from the address data before an order downloads into Click & Drop, so you shouldn’t see any further orders download into Click & Drop with this code on.

    You are correct that there is no Order Reference Field 2 on Click & Drop so this information was incorrect from eBay unfortunately. As far as we are aware this is part of some changes eBay are making to provide increased tracking functionality, unfortunately I can’t answer any further on future plans from eBay.
    I hope this helps.
    Kind Regards
    ”

    I replied asking for more information especially for users of the upload file method rather than the Integration Method.

52. Hi 2oolz,

    I have the same situation and have been trying to find out what Royal Mail would be doing with the data in the Order Reference Field and why it would make any sense to put the VTN in there ? Also this Order Reference Field is currently used by Royal Mail Click n Drop as the indicator to combine orders together for the same buyer into one package so that would break if we added the unique VTN.

    Received a similar reply from Click n Drop See Below :-

    “….Thank you for updating your enquiry with Royal Mail.
    Firstly, I apologise for the delay in responding to your query.
    You do not need to add the VTN code to your order reference field, this will be removed from the orders coming into Click and Drop. Royal Mail have now stopped the VTN from downloading into Click and Drop.
    I hope this answers your question…..”

    I’m still not clear if she is talking about the Ebay Integration with Click n Drop or what I was asking about i.e. independent system importing data in. They never give a clear and proper answer. I guess that is because the support agent doesn’t really understand it and are just relaying from “The developers” who are an outsourced team and probably should be given notice based on their software solutions…

53. If you are using Excel, try this: Ctrl+H, in the find box:

    ebay*

    leave replace blank and click Replace All

54. Just seen this on Click & Drop Updates (https://help.parcel.royalmail.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115004554734-Latest-release-information-Online-Business-Account-customers-):

    “So that shipping updates occur more frequently throughout the day, we have changed the frequency of eBay shipping updates so that the updater can run every 30 minutes between 09:00 and 17:00, and every 105 minutes between 17:00 and 09:00.”

    Maybe something to do with the eVTN?

55. When I spoke to an eBay agent yesterday he told me that the eVTN is being used on every Royal Mail service including parcels paid for at the post office. I’m pretty sure he was wrong and I told him that. He said he would get back to me today or ask a manager to call me today. So far no call back. I don’t expect one either.

    I can’t see how eBay would have a better tracking system than Royal Mail. Can someone help me understand the benefits of this eVTN if any?

    And has anyone managed to find out if we are still covered if we dispatch 3 items to the same address but only use one eVTN? What happens if the buyer claims they only received one item?

56. @Jonah
    The eVTN code is more trouble than it’s worth for multiple purchases. Totally wrong headed thinking by eBay.

    I think this is a daft experiment by eBay that will be more trouble than it’s worth. It can not be applied to any other service other than click & drop so what’s the point?

    If we remove the eVTN are making matters worse in the event of an INR case?

    They remove the email address of buyers and sellers yet they display the buyers phone number in the address field.

    The more draconian they become the more militant sellers will be. eBay should try fixing what needs fixing instead of putting so much effort into breaking what works.

    Hey eBay… have you forgotten that what works best for business is a good customer relationship? Your customers/sellers no longer respect or trust you. eBay has become a necessary evil. Dealing with eBay can be psychologically damaging. That’s why I no longer jump through the hoops.

57. Dont get it.
    Is it a part of the address if you put your own label on and post at post ?

58. after speaking to somebody at ebay they tell me it is to catch the ebay scammers whenther it is or has been delivered so is this going to be the end of the scammer days according to ebay they are saying this is to catch the scammers saying they have niot receaved the goods.and have given me a website they use to check

59. The only way this makes any sense to me is that the eVTN is an idea from Ebay to get around the problem that both Amazon and Ebay have with Royal Mail 24 and 48 deliveries that have got a long tracking code that provides only “Scanned Proof Of Delivery”.

    The problem is that for commercial reasons, the Royal Mail tracking API does not expose the result of the Scanned Proof Of Delivery. Therefore both the Amazon and Ebay internal tracking systems cannot see whether the item has been “Delivered” or not so cannot inform within their platform.

    Currently Amazon has no solution to this and its internal tracking just displays to the buyer that the item has not yet arrived and then eventually says the item must be lost. However, if you look up the long tracking ID on the Track n Trace website you see it has clearly been delivered.

    Assuming Ebay has this same problem this eVTN may well be Ebay’s attempt to get their own tracking number integrated with Royal Mail so they can detect when the package has been scanned and update their own internal tracking system.

    If you are using the much more expensive Royal Mail Tracked service, there is no problem because then the normal full tracking number is available to be seen programmatically via the Royal Mail API.

    On the basis this API exposure limitation is in the commercial interest of Royal Mail, I cant understand why Royal Mail would participate together with Ebay and the eVTN number to get around this. Perhaps Ebay had found a loophole and now Royal Mail have decided to close the loophole by automatically removing the eVTN. If this is the case then the eVTN will quietly fade away.

    However, the alternative is much worse if Ebay decide on the Amazon solution to the same problem which is to simply put the onus on sellers by insisting that ALL items are posted with a full tracking solution. They have just introduced a new metric system showing this information with a note saying this will not YET affect your seller status…..

60. For people who just print Invoices/Labels directly from eBay there is no issue with the eVTN because eBay remove it before it generates the print view. I checked this the other day.

61. I have just been checking an have received a late defect already since the new eVTN number has been in use. It was stated on the policy page that all orders automatically tracked with this eVTN would be protected against any late defects. Seems that is not the truth here.

62. Mmm I trade in collectable postage stamps and send using Royal Mail letter post. I hand write my envelopes and avoid any reference to Ebay to make them look innocuous to avoid in-post theft. I take advantage of certificates of posting (compensation £20.00) and utilise “signed for” services only on high value items going overseas. My incidences of lost post is very low. I see these codes as more of a hinderance than a help and will continue to disregard them.