USPS Offers Premium Tracking for a Fee

by: DeathFromAbove

Is this from the ebay playbook?  Can't raise the rates any more as your customers are already fleeing, so have to look somewhere else?  

USPS could literally store every tracking number with up to 100 stops, for the last 20 years, on a single modern server you can buy from dell for $1,000.  Clone it on another one or two in different locations for failsafe measures.  Run incremental backups every 5 minutes to yet another offsite location.  $5,000 investment, max, to keep the information forever.  The idea that they can charge for hard drive space occupied by a text record is like a dot bomb startup idea from 1998.  Did they hire another dinosaur with no ideas?  WHY do new people who don't know anything come in and constantly change things when they WORK?!?

Not sure if anyone noticed, but we've hit the tipping point on small packages where USPS is going to get slammed with competition.  FedEx can now BEAT the USPS rate on things under a cubic foot, and charges comparable price for 2-day, which beats priority mail in reliability.  They really shot themselves in the foot with the annual increases, as now they aren't the best price.  Delivering junk mail won't keep the doors open - they act like they don't WANT to handle packages, which is ironically the only path to their future.    

by: Marie

Dang now there is a way for USPS to make serious money!!!  Certainly nothing a regular online seller could utilize as the cost is way too much.

by: comments

Unless they change their current tracking model it is irrelevant. Any high risk item that would require extended tracking would likely be sent with signature confirmation which stays in the USPS system for at least a year. Anything longer is very unlikely to require proof of delivery. Why pay a $2.10 fee when you can just add signature confirmation (if it wasn't already required).

by: FeelingFroggy

We haven't used tracking in over 3 years. If we can't send stuff first class we don't sell it. So we are still at 55 cents.

by: NoMoreEbay

10 years should have been included in the last annual price increase. Scumbags.

by: Life During Wartime

I've never done a transaction, as buyer or seller, where I needed to access tracking information for 4 months.  So can't imagine why I would need the info for longer than that?  

by: iheartjacksparrow

Agree with Life During Wartime. If an item hasn't arrived in three to four weeks, and regular tracking shows no current location, it's lost. JD or Devin must be suggesting ways for the USPS to make extra money, and we all know how that turned out for eBay.  

by: toolguy

The USPS has been Californianized

Another entity just trying to squeeze every last penny from their customers!

Now if they had only charged a nickel for that extra time they might have gotten a few takers!

by: Shanna

What you are paying for is keeping the tracking number active. Tracking numbers are recycled after 6-8 months. Don't believe me, grab an old box and look up the tracking now. It will be to somewhere else.  

For some reason, USPS cannot use anything but numbers for domestic tracking, so they only have several billion numbers to use. UPS and Fedex figured out long ago you include letters and that set increases into the quadrillions.

by: RKTOYS

It sounds to me like this is targeted at clients with more document retention requirements like government.  But even government is cutting corners on former legal requirements like paper forms and telephone service.  It sounds like a solution in search of a problem at this point.

by: Silver Ice King

@Life During Wartime

Unfortunately it is becoming more and more common from what I have been reading on both the discussion boards and Facebook for Scammers to claim the item Was an Unauthorized Purchase and the only way to prove otherwise is to be able to show the tracking information which shows that it was delivered to the Buyers Address.  Paypal will close the claim in favor of the Seller with this information and the scammers know it so they are now waiting until it is almost at 6 months so they are within Paypals 180 day claim period but outside of the Sellers ability to show this information to Paypal as they will only accept electronically submitted information.  At least at this point in time Paypal will close it in your favor if you can show this information even if they lose the chargeback from the bank.  That is part of their Seller Protection which is why everybody needs to keep up with any changes to it.  

Feebay has not made any mention of having our backs when they force everybody into Mangled Payments, so having this information can become a completely moot point.  It also appears that Mangled Payments has no intention of offering a MicroPayments option for those that sell a lot of items under $12 (breakeven point between Micropayments account and a regular account).  It looks like this is what Ebay plans on using to finally show some growth as Sellers will have no option but to allow Ebay to process their sales  so they can dig as deep as possible into the Sellers pockets to grab more money for their incompetently run company.

by: hopeforthebest

My tracking is usually a 22 digit number... just using the last 14 digits makes 22 billion... if you add the next 4 digits - 22 trillion.

They do recycle, but only slowly, and at any time they can add another 4 digits to make a quadrillion.

by: NoMoreEbay

When a label is printed through ebay and paid for by paypal, ebay has the record that it's been delivered. PayPal has the tracking number, transaction ID and the Invoice ID which can easily be traced back to the buyer.

So both companies already have the information electronically at best. At worst, paypal and ebay could mark an agreement to share the tracking history.  I know for a fact that both companies keep this information on servers for at least 10 years.

To then have the seller come back and supply that which is already in their posession when they know darn well it's not available to the seller electronically is yet one more despicable thing that comes out of PayPal.

It's like criminal ping pong. ebay and paypal back and forth. Who can score the highest today for horrible treatment towards it's customers.

As for the USPS, who cares what they do anymore. Does it really even matter. Each increase puts more and more sellers out of business and less shipments passing through. A lose lose for everyone.

by: toolguy

I have a return coming!

Women in Northern California buys some earrings that are price at $10, she begs me to accept $8.75 + $4 shipping

I accept, she gets the (15) pairs and says they do not match the pictures!

They're one in the same! They look EXACTLY like the pictures.

She files for a return and eBay automatically accepts the return.

This item cost $3.25 to mail. But when I look at the USPS details it has a FULL year of tracking included!

Did eBay charge me for this extra time of tracking?

I'm just wondering how much eBay is going to charge me for this shipping label.

If it only cost me $3.25 to ship thru eBay, eBay shouldn't charge me anymore then $3.25 to get it back!

We'll see what happens!

I got the feeling I'm going to go BALLISTIC when I see how much the label cost. . .

by: toolguy

Here's a label from me to a customer:


Your item is eligible for Premium Tracking: Extended History. Purchase the extended tracking history for your item to be sent via email upon request. Choose the length of time you would like to extend access to this tracking history and select for purchase. You can only purchase extended history once so your order will be final. Based on your tracking number, your regular tracking history is available only until June 2, 2020 without this purchase. You may purchase Premium Tracking for only one tracking number at a time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Here's the return label from eBay to my customer:


Your item is eligible for Premium Tracking: Extended History. Purchase the extended tracking history for your item to be sent via email upon request. Choose the length of time you would like to extend access to this tracking history and select for purchase. You can only purchase extended history once so your order will be final. Based on your tracking number, your regular tracking history is available only until February 1, 2021 without this purchase. You may purchase Premium Tracking for only one tracking number at a time.

by: Snapped

“ USPS could literally store every tracking number with up to 100 stops, for the last 20 years, on a single modern server you can buy from dell for $1,000.”

Seems simple, right? But it’s not just a number, it’s the reach into and return from other multiple differently purposed database entities that have pieces of the associated information regarding the mail piece too. Not to mention the ability needed to service literally millions of potentially simultaneous requests for the (different pieces per request) data. Try picturing what happens when one tries to fill a funnel faster than it can drain....

“ My tracking is usually a 22 digit number... ”.

But it’s not just a ‘number’ randomly or sequentially assigned. They actually indicate information such as origin, class, destination, handling requirements, etc. That’s why so many may start with the same 4 digits for example - always - for a given ‘attribute type’ set associated to the mail piece. And it’s not just ‘packages’ being tracked....

“ For some reason, USPS cannot use anything but numbers for domestic tracking...”

USPS Overnight Express numbers are a combination of two letters, fewer numbers, and two more letters (representing country of origin). Same with registered mail/parcels. It’s an international convention, btw. However, using only numbers means it’s also much easier (faster) to input a request from a/the numeric keypad alone. Err...was that a zero, or an oh?....

“ Certainly nothing a regular online seller could utilize....”

Most may not, sure. But this wasn’t some ‘income reach’. It was a service response to a need identified as being requested enough to be worth responding to. And the cost isn’t feeding a profit center. It’s meant to help defray.

It’s also just an option. An offering. A choice. Not embedded and charged to all, and included as ‘free’ for those without need.

by: exdwh

It sounds like they e-mail the tracking details rather than keep it visible online. That wouldn't work as ''online proof of delivery''.

by: toolguy

And the return label cost............................

$3.25 cents (the same as I paid to ship it)

OK, so I can say from personal experience that eBay didn't overcharge me for a return label.

by: industrystones

Retarded. It will never work.
FIRST you need USPS employees to cooperate on data-inputting tracking into the system ( scanning upon arrival) which they CAN"T EVEN DO PROPERLY NOW.
So how is THIS gonna work any better AND at an extra charge?  Fail

by: purpleiris

I haven't noticed it, yet, but I wouldn't use it anyway. I always monitor tracking of packages and print the details of the delivery confirmation once they're delivered. It gets filed with the invoice copy.

I have done this since day one and have never had an issue.