Late delivery defect

[customcontrollermodz]

Hi all,

So with ebays unachievable estimated delivery dates and royal mail becoming more and more useless by the day my late delivered defect rate is just rising higher and higher.

For years i have sat betweem 1-3% yet this past month its gone from 9% to 10% and now its 11% and still seems to be rising.

I post everything same day or next day if orders after 1pm so i know its not me at fault and with the postage costs i certainly cannot afford to upgrade postage to 1st class to try and counteract this as most of my items are of a large letter size.

Is anyone else experiencing the same issues here? 

[typo_lee]

Feel your pain. Yes we are the same. EBay's est delivery dates are crazy and un achievable. Some dates even show 2nd class should be delivered within 48 hours including a 1 day working turnaround! Our late delivery rate is 10% and I guess it's so eBay do not have to give out the trs discount 

[typo_lee]

Plus our orders are massively down so it looks increasing like we will be ditching our eBay shop as it's no longer profitable selling on here due to the fees and royal mails increased postage costs. 

[theelench]

Even my faith in RM is getting a bit dented.  True they still haven't lost or broken any of my parcels but getting a delivery confirmation scan seems to be more erratic than ever on 2nd class parcels, which is how I send most of mine.

Amazingly I haven't yet received a "late" delivery defect although with ebay regularly "calculating" that buyers should expect delivery the day after the sale or the following day means that as next day is totally impossible and the day after is 50 / 50 at best.

I put my good luck down to two things.

Very few buyers leaving Feedback, so they don't answer the "Did this item arrive on time" question.

I also send buyers a "Thanks for your order" message acknowledging payment and follow that up with a second message letting them know that "Your parcel was accepted at the post office at 10:42 on xx/xx/xx".  Hoping to jog their memory that I did post their purchase within my dispatch window. 

If they read the messages (🤞) it does show them that I did what I said I would do on the listing and gives them a reference point to perhaps wonder how, if I post on Monday, why ebay thinks a 2nd class parcel should reach them the next day, on Tuesday.

It also re-enforces my belief that many buyers of collectables are also likely to be (at least) occasional sellers and having seen this 💩 from both sides of the transaction,  know it for what it is.

[suelel1968]

Do you use printed labels or stamps. Do you take them to the PO & get proof of postage? 

Ebay State:

"If you dispatch on time and upload a validated tracking number, or your buyers tell us their items were posted on time when they leave Feedback, you've got nothing to worry about."

If you upload a tracking number and get POP  but the delivery is late, they will remove the defect although probably not automatically. 

The system, like so many is flawed, but worth as you don't get any opportunity to send a copy of POP to prove you did nothing wrong, but you can't let that rate get any higher. 

[bravergrace]

If you don't use a tracked service (or don't tell eBay the tracking number), then eBay won't know when an item was delivered - unless the buyer leaves feedback AND marks the item as delivered late.

Other solutions - like upgrading your items to a faster service than the one specified, or quoting an extra day or two for dispatch, to give yourself some leeway - don't work any more.  The reason is, that eBay no longer works out the "estimated" delivery date from figures you supply - it works them out based on your past performance.

In previous years, this is how the estimates were calculated:

Date of sale + quoted dispatch time + normal delivery time for postal service chosen by buyer (+ bank holidays or seller holiday if eBay remembered about them).

eg Sold on Saturday, dispatch time 2 working days, seller doesn't work Mondays, 2nd class post - ETA was based on posting Wednesday, and about 3 days for delivery - so Saturday delivery.

That system has been ditched now.

It's based on how quickly your last few weeks' sales got delivered.

If you had a run of expensive sales in the last month, so you posted them the same day, and upgraded to special delivery at your own expense - eBay will tell your customers to expect NEXT DAY DELIVERY in future - even though eBay will tell you to post in 2 working days by 2nd class post.

If you mess around with upgrades and posting on your days off, you are making a rod for your own back, because eBay will promise your future buyers that you'll do the same for them - and if the items don't arrive by this Fantasy Delivery Date, you will be penalised and possibly told to refund and let the buyer keep the goods for free because you "let them down".

There are disadvantages if you don't fill in the tracking number when you post, of course - or if you mark the stuff as posted on the day you were DUE to post it instead of the day you actually posted it - it depends how serious the current problem (ie your "late" delivery defect rate) is for you, and how many of your customers are likely to open frivolous and fraudulent Item Not Received cases.  This will obviously vary between sellers.

[theelench]

I don't think even your excellent explanation reveals the full extent of ebays fantasy DDs.

I've always sent 99% of my sales Rm 2nd class.

I last changed my dispatch window when late delivery defects (yellow blobs) were first introduced.

I rarely upgrade my postage, as I rarely sell anything with a high enough value to warrant an upgrade, so only do so at the buyers request, usually because they need the item quickly.  Last time that happened was before Christmas last year.

I always add the RM reference number as 'Tracking' on the day I post.  I did try adding the reference number on ebays last dispatch date for a while, but found it made no difference to the FDDs.

Essentially, for at least the last twelve months, I've changed nothing.  RM has had problems during those months which, if anything, would have made deliveries slower.  My guess that, on a 50/50 basis, half my deliveries would be judged 'late' by ebay.

Even when I was caught up in the forgotten Bank Holiday debacle and one parcel was definitely delivered late, nothing changed with ebays 'calculation' and consistently throughout the year ebay has been telling buyers who purchase and pay over a weekend, that I should dispatch by Tuesday and the buyer should get their item on Wednesday / Thursday.

The whole FDD situation doesn't make any sense in the real world.

[florriestoys18]

Yep. And have been penalised financially for it from eBay. If it puts you into below standard they can take an additional fee for each sale. This happens a lot, as Royal Mail only deliver when they feel like it. Bit of a joke when they keep upping the large letter prices!! I've seen my percentage increase recently, I even tried to extend my dispatch window, yet ebay still stated delivery within 2 days. Even at 11pm. Which is impossible with 2nd class!! Complete joke. Christmas used to be exciting, I'd make 1/3 of my income in December. Yet now it's terrifying. I gave out hundreds of pounds in refunds last year. And lost stock thanks to Royal Mail. This combined with all my other issues with eBay, I've packed it in this week. No more ebay for me, Atleast I can get my sanity back. 

[padanpcparts]

Yes, we are in much the same boat. Royal Mail deliveries are very erratic. We switched all our parcel post over to couriers at the start of the year which has helped. Letter/Large Letter services are terrible. I have a customer who ordered a part 17 days ago. LL sent same day 2nd class post. Nothing. Sent a replacement 7 days ago. First class LL. Nothing. Customer now wants me to send a 3rd replacement via Special delivery...Whatever happens now I'm losing all over the place. 

[the--repair--guy]

Yea i purchase all of my postage through ebay labels. 

Majority of my post is large letters so only about 60-70% actually get scanned by royal mail and thats if they even bother to deliver it! 

I am in a situation currently where i also have 3 outstanding replacements that i posted for missing items that have now past an additional 7 working days and also have not been delivered / scanned yet. One buyer is asking for a refund and luckily the other 2 are still patiently waiting.

I am terrified of whats to come in the next couple of months if this is how it is now currently. With the postage increases i can't afford to send  replacements / refunds for hundreds of orders.

Trouble is delivery confirmation does count as valid tracking though does it? As there is no data to show a first scan of when the item was posted? it only shows a delivery scan if royal mail actually scan it

[superchallenge]

In a word, no. I don't know what I'm doing that's special, but I have a 0.26% late delivery rate from 1,901 transactions. So...5 items.

Because my postie turns up to collect at any point between 7:30am and 2pm, my cut off-time for same-day dispatch is set to 5am. 

Postage options for small items are Royal Mail 2nd Class Letter/Large Letter (free) or Royal Mail Tracked 24 (£1.50.)

For small parcels, I've got Royal Mail 2nd Class Parcel (free) or Royal Mail 24 (£1.50).

Dispatch time is set to "Same working day" for all items.

[suelel1968]

If you go to the PO counter they scan in the tracking number on the ebay lable and give you proof of postage. So as long as the POP slip is within your despatch window then late delivery is never your fault......however, currently the system notes if RM have not scanned for delivery within time and even if it is delivered a day late you get a delivery defect. This should be removed, but only through CS. The Bot does not work for me anyway.

Sounds like you have a problem with customers though. If they complain you can get your money back from RM up to £20 quite easily, but it has to be over 2 weeks late and i don't know what happens if it gets delivered in the mean time. I imagine you just lose. 

[the-nutwood-collection]

I used to send a replacement, but I don't now.  If the buyer's a scammer, they've got two for the price of one.  If there's problems at the DO, the replacement won't get delivered on time either - unless I upgrade to T24 or SD - and the buyer will get two for the price of one, because the original will arrive eventually. 

Now, I wait until the third day and, if it isn't scanned as delivered, I refund and block.  Much easier.

[magpiecorner1]

I'm taking the blunderbus approach - come up with as many ideas as possible, implement them and hope some of 'em work!  Over different business accounts we offer everything from free special delivery to free and paid for 1st and 2nd class standard and large letter postage.   If I knew what i was doing I would be dangerous!

Free postage determines same day or next day despatch, so most of the time where we offer second we send first class (luckily bought loads of stamps two or perhaps 3 increases ago!)  Where we offer paid for postage we generally do 2 days despatch, send same day or next day, but only mark as despatched on the date ebay determines is the due date for despatch.  We send most items first class, cos i have no bottle, but the low value items 2nd class.  Can only be done I suppose because we have those stamps and we don't print postage labels. 

Our take on under offer and over deliver!  Seems to work and I can't see it being against ebay rules. 

If you are dangerously high, bite the bullet and send 1st class, or even tracked, until you see those numbers falling -  if you are penalised it shows as a 4% increase in fees, works out as about a 40% increase in fees in the 12.9% categories, you need to work out the figures in your categories cos I'm not sure how many can recover from that!

[global-es]

Yes, we to feel this pain every single day. 

Ebay is simply incapable of using common sense and adapting the ETA to follow the current climate.

Even most of our requests for defect removal go unsresolved with the same scripted responses.

We argue that we sent the item on time and is clearly shown in any tracking info that RM can be bothered to update. Ebay say it arrived late and hit us with a late delivery strike.

I would not mind so much but ebay actually indroduce sanctions on your account and it is highly damaging as many have experienced.

We have tried to state a 2-3 day despatch time to try and push the ETA back to give us some wiggle room and it does show this later ETA in the listing before the purchase however upon despatching the item (the same day for example) eBay then (not so helpfully) brings forward the ETA, effectively cancelling out the "wiggle" room you tried to achieve.

Sadly RM is the most convenient and cost effective service, i just wish they would get their act together, it's not 1635 any more, and ebay need to start supporting sellers instead of punishing them; it's the absolute least they can do for taking 20% of our sales revenue.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

Panorama tonight 8 pm on BBC1 "Royal Mail - Where's My Post".    Definitely worth a watch.