Losing Star Seller badge because Etsy not solving technical issue with Aftership

[RueDeLouvain]

Many sellers, myself included, have signalled that due to a technical problem, tracking data for carrier Mondial Relay and their associated company Happy-Post, is not being read by the Etsy platform (or by third party service provided Aftership). The orders shipped with those carriers are showing up as No Tracking although they numbers can be clicked and take you correctly to the carrier's tracking page. 

This is the case since February. Before then, this problem did not occur. This issue is the cause of many sellers in Europe losing their Star Seller badge, as Mondial Relay is one of the biggest parcel services in EU. 

Etsy is unwilling to correct the figures even though the error is on their side and does not even communicate on it to let sellers know what to expect although no doubt there are a lot of tickets open on this issue. 

[ELGRECOjewelry]

I have the same problem with Elta Hellenic Greek Post office.

I message them many times but so far nothing.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

When you enter the tracking number, is Etsy accepting the tracking number?  Does your postal service scan immediately or is there a delay?  Does it scan outside your processing time frame for posting the item.

How are you contacting?  Through Contact us?  If you get a reply email, reply back to that email that the problem continues.  Do not open additional tickets.

[LAKEandFELLart]

Same with UKS Royal mail which is the main service here , anyone spotting the obvious trend ? 

[MyOrganisedHome]

And using Etsy labels won’t make a difference in the UK as they’re rebadged Royal Mail ones.

Beyond incompetence that no one at Etsy thought to check that their tracking service could follow their own labels!

[ArtDollsbyJD]

@MyOrganisedHome   This is an old post.  Etsy has informed us that some tracking they cannot follow.  The above OP seems to be one of them.  They have no problem with Canada, US, Australia or UK labels.  Etsy recognizes that tracking easily.

The issue with star seller is the package must be in transit not simply have a tracking number in order for it to count.   It also means that the postal service must scan the package.  If the postal service doesn't then it's an issue Etsy cannot solve.  

[MyOrganisedHome]

@JDTotesnDolls I’m sorry, but you are incorrect.

Aftership cannot track Royal Mail. If you search in the Aftership website and filter by country you will clearly see that Royal Mail is missing. That’s because they cannot track it.

Aftership - UK carriers

Further I have first hand experience of Etsy labels being stuck in pre-transit even with a visible RM tracking number on my dashboard. Clicking on the link this generated takes one to the RM website where delivery can be seen, yet Etsy cannot see this itself due to relying on Aftership. If the PO hadn’t scanned the parcel it wouldn’t show up as delivered on their website…

[DesDesVintage]

Same with Swiss post - shows in transit, I already received reviews… I have given up. I just make sure customers are happy and hope the reviews speak for themselves  

[BirdsongEmporium]

This once again proves that the star seller program is a terrible program for buyers to rely on because the program isn't reliably showcasing customer service properly. It has too many issues that eliminate sellers that are meeting high customer service standards. 

As a buyer on Etsy, I don't even bother to look for the star seller status because it means nothing to me. It isn't showing who does or does not have high customer service.

[Octopunx]

Same. I do look at overall stars though. Partly this is because I order from and ship to countries that don't even have tracking, or where shipping is expected to take 6 to 8 weeks anyway pretty frequently. 

[RueDeLouvain]

@ArtDollsbyJD You misunderstand the issue. It has nothing to do with the package being scanned - packages I send are always scanned while I am still there AND everything is in transit within the required shipping delays. I never ship late or without tracking. The tracking number is entered when marking the order complete, it shows up, is clickable and takes you to the Mondial Relay website. However it is not being counted into the Star Seller stats . According to Etsy Support this is due to IT issues between Etsy back-end and AfterShip - Etsy engineering team is supposed to be working on it but they "can not give a time line". 

@MyOrganisedHome RM is not showing up in the AfterShip carrier list - while Mondial Relay does. But...Etsy told just me "the AfterShip list is wrong".

To say the least, AfterShip does not seem to be the best choice for tracking if they do not cover all these large carriers. Makes you wonder how Etsy picked this service (cheapest..?)

[ELGRECOjewelry]

Hi,

excatly same issue with you i have, always send with tracking, always they scan the parcels tracking works in our Greek post office but aftership is a mess! The big problem is Etsy reserve me money because of "not tracking".

[Octopunx]

If the question is Etsy, the answer is Money. Every service provider is the cheapest possible.

[ELGRECOjewelry]

they answer to my problem that i have to read an article.

so i went to this link and was all about OPEN API v3 !!!

Oh my God, this is for programmers and developers, this is not for me, how i supposed to change the carrier i send parcels from "No" to "Yes" in tracking progress?

[MyOrganisedHome]

Look on Aftership for the carriers they support in Greece, you can filter by country. Cross reference with the list on the API page, that should get you the ones that are applicable for your country - not all carriers listed are trackable in all the countries in which they operate.

With any luck you can then enter the tracking number from your chosen courier into the box on your Etsy dashboard and Etsy will be able to pick up the details from Aftership. No need to try and change any settings or computer programming.

This isn’t what Etsy have officially told us to do, but putting together all the info they’ve so far given this seems like the best attempt to try!

[ELGRECOjewelry]

sorry but i really didn't understand the procedure.

i went to aftership, i choose my carrier then under was to choose for businesses, for developers, for shoppers.

I choose for developers  because under was get API key, then i went in to aftership page enter with my google account but i don't know what to do.

I went to settings from that page and i saw an API key. Now what?

[MyOrganisedHome]

Aftership is a tracking service for over 900 courier and carrier companies around the world. Etsy uses Aftership as an automated tracking checker. Unfortunately Aftership doesn’t not have the ability to track all the carriers operating in every country of the world. It also appears that Etsy cannot ‘see’ all of the carriers listed on the Aftership website.

So, to get a list of the carriers for your particular country you need to look at both lists - Etsy’s and Aftership’s.

1. Check the carriers that can be tracked for your country on the Aftership website, filtered for Greece HERE. There are only 7.
2. Check the worldwide list of carriers that Etsy is able to track HERE (that API link that Etsy gave you. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the list of the carriers).
3. If a carrier/courier appears on BOTH lists then that is one you should choose. Choose the one most suitable for the items you are sending.
4. Prepare your order for posting. Weigh it (and whatever else you normally do) and buy your postage on the website of the carrier you chose in Step 3 above. Make sure that you use a class of mail that is FULLY TRACKED otherwise your funds will not be released from reserve early.
5. Go to your orders page and find the order you are ready to send off. Fill in the details as you normally would, adding in the tracking number you obtained when you bought the postage in Step 4.

You do not need to do anything connected with API or development or anything of the sort, you’re just using the list on the API page to work out which carriers Etsy can track.

[ELGRECOjewelry]

ok i have seen before this one and of the list of Etsy carrier concern my country mention:

Our Greek post office is not trackable on Etsy but the post office have a carrier that is Elta Courier and is trackable.

We send with normal Greek post office always registered with tracking number, which is Hellenic Post.

I found by my self a solution few months before when i realise that Etsy don't track Hellenic Post and i put the other carrier even if i didn't send with the courier AND WAS WORKING!!!!

Now it doesn't work any more only mention Pre-transit.

the list of etsy carrier in my country mention:

Elta Courier | elta-courier| Yes

Hellenic Post | hellenic-post | No

Question:

do i have to choose the other carrier and Etsy just mention Pre-transit or choose the normal post which mention notracking?

Can you guess that this is a problem because even today a customer open a help request asking where is his parcel and you know what?

His parcel was already delivered!!!! I send him a link in USPS.COM with the tracking.

Many clients will use this issue for item not delivered!!!

P.S. I DON'T GET IT WHY IN AFTERSHIP HELLENIC POST IS WORKING AND ON ETSY IT DOESN'T!

[SilverDynamicProps]

Do buyers really care about "star seller"?