Tracking payment holds FAQs

Tracking payment holds are applied at a transaction level. Here's how they work:

First, we’ll look at which postage service you’ve selected for the item.

• If you’ve selected a tracked service, we'll look for a valid tracking number to be uploaded once the item is sent within your stated handling time.
  • If you upload a valid tracking number, the funds for that order will be held until there is a tracking scan from the carrier showing us the item is on the way to the buyer.
  • If you choose not to upload a tracking number, the funds for that order will be held until 3 days after the latest estimated delivery date has passed.

• If you’ve selected an untracked service, a tracking payment holds won't apply to orders where the selected delivery option is:
  • Local pickup
  • Click & Collect from the retailer
  • Australia Post Domestic Regular Letter Untracked service
  • Australia Post Domestic Priority Letter Untracked
  • Australia Post International Economy Sea service
  • Australia Post International Economy Air service
  • International Economy: untracked service

Using a tracked service can mean:

• Better management of buyer expectations on when their order will arrive
  
• Transactions with valid tracking are 23% less likely to result in a buyer contact*
• If you do not upload valid tracking information for your orders, you are 2x more likely to receive an 'Item Not Received claim'**
• Your listing may appear higher in search results and benefit from better conversion

A tracked shipping service is any postage service except the Australia Post Domestic Regular Letter Untracked service and the Australia Post Domestic Priority Letter Untracked for domestic services.

For International services, this is any service except the Australia Post International Economy Sea service, Australia Post International Economy Air service and the International Economy untracked service.

Yes, the Standard Parcel Delivery service is considered a tracked service. Standard Parcel Delivery is the generic service you can select if your carrier’s service is not listed and should only be used if the carrier you are posting your items with isn’t listed.

We will include all tracked shipping services as a part of your store’s valid tracking %. Valid tracking % is refreshed each day based on a 30 day look back period with a two-week delay. The two-week delay allows you time to pack your items and ensure the carrier scans the parcel. 

For example, if we calculated your valid tracking % on 15 November, the two week delay would be 1 - 14 November, with the 30 day period to calculate valid tracking % from 2 - 31 October. If you had 250 orders between 2 - 31 October and 240 orders had valid tracking, then your valid tracking % is 96%. (240 / 250 = 0.96 = 96%)

For multi-item orders, the tracking number needs to be uploaded on each item. 

• If you package all items in one parcel, make sure the same tracking number is uploaded in My eBay to each item.
• If you package the items into multiple parcels, make sure the corresponding tracking number is uploaded in My eBay for each item. 

Items that are cancelled prior to shipment will be excluded from a seller’s valid tracking %. 

A tracking number is considered valid if all three of these aspects are true: 

• It is uploaded to the order
• The carrier used is an eBay integrated carrier
• At least one tracking event is shown in My eBay
  

We check every order to see which postage option has been selected. If you have selected any of the excluded services below, the funds for these orders will be held even if you have a valid tracking performance under 95% for tracked services.

If you select the below services in the item’s listing and the buyer selects this service when they checkout, the transaction will not be eligible impacted by payment holds:

• Local pick up: 
• Click & Collect 
• Australia Post Domestic Regular Letter Untracked service
• Australia Post Domestic Priority Letter Untracked service
• Australia Post International Economy Sea service
• Australia Post International Economy Air serviceI
• International Economy: untracked service
  

Note: If multiple services are available for the same items, the buyer must select one of the services listed above when they checkout in order for you not be impacted by tracking payment holds.

If you are performing well with regards to your valid tracking % (i.e. 95%+ valid tracking) we will send you an email each month to notify you of your valid tracking %. If your valid tracking % is below 95% we will send you a weekly email notifying you of your tracking status. Please look out for these notifications and action as necessary.

If a buyer selects Australia Post Domestic Regular Letter Untracked service in your item’s listing,  this item is excluded from your valid tracking % calculation and will not be subject to tracking payment holds. If you wish to upload tracking to items where a buyer has selected the Australia Post Domestic Untracked Letter service, we will not swap this to a tracked service and hold funds. 

Your funds will be held until we see the first scan from the carrier or 3 days after the latest estimated delivery date has passed. It will only be held until 3 days after the latest estimated delivery date in cases where you’ve selected a tracked shipping service, have not uploaded tracking or we have not seen a carrier scan.

For more information about all types of payment holds, please see the payments on hold help page.

You may be impacted by other holds before being assessed for tracking payment holds. For example, if you are an Authenticity Guarantee seller, you may have your funds on hold due to the authentication process rather than tracking payment holds. 

Each order will only have one hold applied per order.

Unfortunately at this stage, we do not have your tracking performance visible in Seller Hub. It is something we are hoping to roll out in the near future. For now, please look out for a monthly email from eBay where we will share your valid tracking % performance.

Visit our Tracking page on the seller centre for more information on uploading tracking to eBay. If you are still unsure of how to upload tracking to eBay or require further guidance, email ebayaustraliashipping@ebay.com and we will try to get back as soon as we can.