neutral feedback

[qualitycardsandgifts]

I was left neutral feedback by a buyer due to late delivery by Royal Mail, who stated this in their comments.     I thought this was removable since it was outside my control, but apparently not.    Today I have received another neutral with the comment "nice card".     I've spoken to CS who say that neutrals won't affect my sales.     Today's sales .....   0.

  I am getting to the point of giving up completely .    

[qualitycardsandgifts]

I messaged the second buyer to ask what the problem was, and yet again it's late delivery.    How are we supposed to sell on here if Royal Mail are unable to deliver on time

[potters_uk]

Do you use a tracked time service.  

I always use Tracked 24 .  Every package ive posted out in the last 12 months has delivered next day.  I assume that this is because it's a contractual thing whereas simply posting first or second class is covered by the " we do our best to"  statement.

It may cost a little bit more but it's nothing compared to geing forced to give refunds for something that you have no control over.

When Ebay specify a delivery date then I wish they could share their information with everyone so we can actually keep with it as they seem to know how to get any item there on time , every time.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

They were £1.79 cards with free postage, so tracked isn't an option.  

[nigewrigh-79]

Tracked is the only option or people say they havent received items.

Its the firs lesson of ebay.

Thou shalt send signed for.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

Second class signed for costs £2.25, the card sells for £1.79

[triple512]

I feel your pain and know you've seen my threads regarding Royal Mail's awful performance lately. On my business account, one of my bread and butter items is a set of lawnmower wheel securing washers. We sell these (depending on size/Qty ) for £1.99 - £3.99 including postage and during spring/summer can sell 20 sets a day.

Because of the postage costs though, sending tracked also not an option.

Around August time we started getting a lot of INRs and messages from buyers asking where their washers were some after 14+ days! We asked a few to wait a bit longer and most finally got them. For others we just wrote them off and refunded, heard no more except for one customer who got theirs eventually and offered to repay but we let them kerp it as it took 5 weeks!

The rest (repeat customers who we had reason to think would scam us) we sent out three using 1st class signed for - 1 arrived, and 6 using RM48. 5 arrived, 1 was very late (10 days) and 1 never did! 
Fortunately buyers didn't leave feedback except for one that was positive and said "very helpful seller who worked hard to get us our items after Royal Mail let him down?".

If you've seen the News, RM are in big trouble. Letters simply aren't being delivered and they've been fined again for missing delivery targets. I think that's why eBay is pushing alternate couriers now as there are more issues with RM than anything else.

So 2 questions:

1/ How can we send out letter, LL if RM service is unreliable and there is no alternative?

2/ When will eBay stop using late delivery as a measure of seller performance which is out of their control.

If it's any consultation I've not had a sale since Wednesday and will be removing all my listings from tomorrow until the New Year. We are TRS with 100% feedback.

In 15 years of trading on eBay I've never known it so dead.

---

[qualitycardsandgifts]

I've been told to use another carrier, and had to explain there is no alternative.   Also told to send tracked, again not an option.    I've had this account for 13 years, and really can't see much of a future unless I completely change my stock and sell more expensive items.   

[butterflybargain]

Hello,

regarding your post, feedbacks don't make a difference to sales or traffic etc, you're also not impacted as a seller on eBay however the impact is your visible feedback to potential buyers and reputation. 

however if the buyer has claimed late delivery, your seller performance can be impacted and late delivery score. 

unfortunately since eBay has changed there feedback policy quite recently, a lot of sellers are experiencing the same issues regarding feedback removals and most feedback removal requests are judged through algorithms. 

although deliveries are late due to the courier, unless you have proof of deliver and proof of postage this wouldn't be qualified for removal.

However if you do have these then you can potentially have these removed through an appeal with an agent. 

hope this helps. 

regards. 

[qualitycardsandgifts]

I have the click and drop report showing when the label was generated.    On buyer has only left a handful of feedback, all negative for late delivery.    I can't believe anyone out there isn't aware of the problems with Royal Mail.

[butterflybargain]

Hello,

I use click and drop myself, did you have delivery confirmation or are these items sent as a letter. 

reason being is that to my knowledge letters do not come with any delivery confirmation. 

if this doesn't have delivery confirmation eBay will not see this as qualifying for removal. 

however if the buyer has left multiple feedbacks for one transaction this may be appealable and reduced to one feedback for that transaction. 

lastly you can submit a feedback revision in the hopes the customer would be kind enough to revise, provided you've helped them to the best your ability. 

hope this helps. 

[qualitycardsandgifts]

No delivery confirmation as they are letters.   First buyer revised their negative to a neutral, and the other is ignoring me.

I'm just at a loss as to what to do.   It's totally outside my control.   I'm putting  holiday settings on  Monday 

[direct.gifts]

Late delivery comes with the terrority of selling on ebay. 

I have had a netural feedback recently for a card arriving late. Outside of my control. I just put in a respnse apologising and leave it at that.

To be honest the occassional netural or negative feedback really doesn't impact sales. If I look at your feedback all you have is 2 netural feedback in the last year and no negative. That is fairly good going to be honest and very similar to mine.

If your sales are currently slower it is probably down to long estimated delivery dates past Christmas, this is the most likely reason for poor sales at the moment.

For the amount of letter post I send out it is only the very occassional netural feedback. It is 2 in the last six months and I send 40-50 a day some days. Most buyers understand that Royal Mail is slow and it is not the sellers fault. You will always get some buyers who do not understand this though and this will result in poor feedback.

[pillarboxred]

Giving up is always an option and could be your best choice if the earnings for the time spent on eBay don't add up to the National Minimum Wage.

[pillarboxred]

If it doesn't make economic sense, don't do it.

[pillarboxred]

Is it economically worth it to sell lawnmower washers on eBay? People want them but not enough to pay you a figure that makes it worth you time.

[pillarboxred]

Let the buyer know that you have added them to your Blocked list. You don't need them.

[the_book_seekers]

I had a similar problem with regards to a neutral. Fortunately when I contacted my buyer I received a revision to a positive and sales restarted almost immediately.

[iew-signed-books]

In that case, I fear you may have to rethink your business model.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

I'm currently running down my card stock, and introducing stock with a higher profit margin.   The way forward is definitely to get away from letters and large letters.