GSP with no reference number??

[silvercryer]

I have just sold an item via GSP, the customer has paid straight away which is great BUT --- 

I have gone to purchase the postage label and there is no GSP reference number at all.. it just says "REF# Null".. The customer has definately paid for GSP and thats how ebay is telling me to post it so what next? 

Item is over £200 so i dont really want to just send it without being sure.. 

[technthread]

I would message the buyer and explain there seems to be an eBay glitch. Send a screenshot as proof so they know you aren't trying to deceive them. 

I'd then keep an eye on the forum and see if a lot of threads pop up about it over the weekend from other sellers, hang fire until eBay give guidance on what to do. 

Alternatively just agree with the buyer to cancel and re-list with GSP turned off and organise your own international shipping. 

[technthread]

You don't seem to be on your own:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Member-To-Member-Support/Reference-number-on-GSP/m-p/7608341#M209471

[the-panzergirl]

I've just had an international sale with #null reference, obviously can't send as Evri ask for that number for any items to the GSP postcode.

Hoping Ebay will fix the glitch and give me a number....I'll get in touch with chat help later.

[cs-marketplace]

Ahhhh I seem to be in the same boat. I have spoken to eBay this morning and the agent went off to check and came back to say eBay knew of no issues so she has passed it over to the GSP team to investigate. I will receive a call back in 24 hours (heres hoping) with an update but she did say to hang on to the parcel and not to post it yet. Will let you know how it goes

[cocoellieb01]

I am having exact same issue and currently on eBay chat and being told there is no reported issue but they will investigate 

[technthread]

If eBay can retrospectively apply a GSP reference to the order that would solve it.

I have a feeling though that if this is a site wide issue (maybe it is just sales to a certain country), all of your sales with a null reference could end up being cancelled.

I would ask eBay how they are going to protect your seller metrics from defects / negative feedback depending how they advise you to proceed. 

I feel sorry for new sellers who this is happening to who have never used GSP before and are going to post their parcel off to eBay none the wiser. 

[benry89]

I'm having the same problem, glad it's not just me

[waterperry1]

I have exactly the same problem here today. An ovenight payment from NZ has been notified from eBay and the GSP reference that the system coughs out is "Null"

I now have to wait 24 hours for the payment to be processed and become available to be paid out to me as any attempt to cancel before then will mean I get charged with the refund payment almost immediately and well before I receive the net processed funds from eBay. It is a £360 sale so I do not wish to pre-fund the refund.

I chatted with a human agent who mentioned this was the second call he had dealt with this morning concerning this same issue and he reported the matter via an alert to his managers further up the foodchain. He advised that I should definitely NOT ship to the hub at present without a valid reference no..

Ultimately, I feel it is highly likely that nothing will be done to update the the references on these faulty transactions and the transactions that are affected will have to be cancelled and possibly relisted/rebought/repaid for if our buyers are still willing. Until I know that this glitch has been resolved then I will wait a day or two before I do so.

Very frustrating.

[the-almighty-inquisitor]

Exactly the same issue i'm having with my seller ac from an order I just got at 15:20pm 4/5/24, no GSP reference number, just 'null'.  This is really bad form from ebay, as the silence is deafening.  I spoke to a human chat assistant, who said she would pass this on to a technical team and i'll get an update in 24/48 hours,  well, we will see.

In the meantime i've turned OFF GSP to avoid further issues until I know this is resolved.

[vinylmad2023]

Same issue here too. Is someone able to tag the ebay reps for support and to escalate the issue??

[wheelpartsdirect]

We have the same issue here as well. We use the Ebay API to scan for new orders and it seems to have started happening 2024-05-03 21:24:07.

We use the 'shipToReferenceId' field in the 'fulfillmentStartInstructions' array to bring that ID onto the shipping label. When I check the API request through Postman this field is missing.

So it would be great to get this resolved ASAP!

[vintageloveaffairuk]

Same issue here for me.Just chatted to human chat customer service. Got the usual automated type response. I will forward your issue to the relevant team.....

Someone at GSP is going to have one hell of a headache after the Bank Holiday weekend!!!

[bakergirls17]

Same here too 😭😭

[rflo6541]

Same.

So far today I have 3 sales with 'Ref# Null' by them.

I called eBay, the guy looked into it, he said the issue had already been raised.

Disappointing, as the only way I can see out of it, is to cancel the orders and try to explain to the international buyers, why I did so.

[blackdatsun]

Same here. My first use of GSP and no reference number. Thankfully another community member had warned me there was a problem with the reference number or I would not even know there was a reference number. 

I contacted chat this evening and they said they will look into it as a priority and someone will contact me in 24 hours. 

I asked if delivery times would be changed as I'm unable to post it but I didn't get an answer. I wasn't actually told by ebay not to post it but by the same helpful community member (apologies I didn't check the name)

[m25jet]

Given the fact that you are by no means the only person experiencing this problem what I would suggest is that you - and any other sellers currently experiencing the same problem - follow Technthread's advice with regards to sending the buyer a screenshot and explaining that there appears to be an eBay glitch affecting the Global Shipping Programme, then explain that in order to ensure that they can purchase the item you will have to cancel the original listing and relist the item again outside of the eBay Global Shipping Programme so that they can purchase the item again.

If you do decide to go ahead and follow this advice, don't forget to add your own international postage option on the relisted version of the advert, then send the buyer a message to let him/her know that the item has been relisted for sale, quoting the item number of the relisted item.  That way if the buyer really wants the item then he/she may well repurchase the item when you relist it for sale outside of the Global Shipping Programme.

Finally, if you do decide to take this advice, don't forget to end any GSP listings that are currently still live and awaiting buyers.  I would suggest ending the listings citing the reason "Error In Listing" as the reason why, as eBay don't provide a "Ended Due To Site Glitch" option.  However, make sure that you set up the revised edition of the listing first, schedule it to go live at another time - say, in seven days' time - so as to give yourself plenty of time to get the revised version of the listing set up properly and ensure that it all looks as it should, then once you've ended the GSP version of the advert go back to your Drafts section, locate the revised edition of the listing with your own international postage option included, then just manually override the option to keep the item pending for seven days by clicking on the option to list now.

If enough people were to follow this advice and it resulted in a sharp decline in the use of the GSP then maybe eBay would realise that there must be something amiss, in which case it might actually prompt them to do something about resolving the fault, as if their GSP starts becoming something of a liability and people stop using it then surely eBay would feel more inclined to put it right!

[carrier*2008]

May as well add myself to this post, its all gone "null" for me too 🙄

[killer_pumpkin]

This is the email I got back from eBay this afternoon.  I've since replied, suggesting to use the unique order number as the reference. That should be enough for the Global Shipping Centre to do a look up.  Seems logical to me, will see what they respond with.

---

Hello,

I hope my email finds you well. This is Alan in UK Global Shipping team, and your inquiry was forwarded to me from the previous agent. Thank you for contacting us here at ebay customer services.  

This is in regards to your sales order  xxxxxx, I believe you had a questions on your shipment that went through Global Shipping Programme but the reference number has not been generated.

I appreciate you bringing this to our attention, it appears there are many orders out there affected by this issue this morning, and we have already escalated this to our technical team to check this and resolve it for us. I have added your transaction as an example so they can act on this and prioritize.  

While we have no exact time frame on the fix, we have marked it as urgent priority. I can only advise you not to ship the parcel in at this stage, as the Hub might not be able to process it without the reference number. Potentially, this transaction might have to be cancelled and repurchased by the buyer if necessary.

Once we have a response from our technical team on how to proceed, we will let you know - I really appreciate your patience. You do not need to worry about any defects on this transaction, as this is an error coming from our end.

We will be in touch shortly, all the best until then.  

Kindest regards,

Alan

Ebay Customer Services

[technthread]

Also for any seller who has already posted their item out with no reference number on, it could be crucial that they upload their courier tracking to the eBay order. 

That would be the other way that eBay could potentially identify their parcel at the Global Shipping Centre. If eBay won't be able or willing to do that it will at least mean the seller has proof of delivery when it comes to the issue of refunds for loss.