Appealing Late Delivery Defect with Valid Proof (Tracking Scanned Within 12 Hours)

[artemisdirectltd]

Hi fellow eBay sellers,

I'm reaching out in hopes of some guidance related to a late delivery defect on my account. Recently, I received a defect for late delivery, which I'm actively appealing.

Summary of my situation in brief:

- Item was shipped within my stated handling time, tracking information clearly shows the item was scanned by the courier no later than 12 hours after the buyer's purchase. To clarify, my handling time is 24 hours.

- Proof provided to eBay along with submitted the tracking details as evidence in my appeal (even though this would have been available to them anyway), along with screenshots from the Evri website and Packlink confirming the timely scan.

- Despite my proof, eBay has so far rejected my appeal twice. They haven't specified the exact reason for their decision just keep saying it is not eligible to be removed. I did speak to CS who said after I had counter argument for all the reasons why the defect should be removed, that it's due to not using eBay labels. What?! 😕 (I use Packlink via eBay - Not sure if that makes a difference?)

I'm frustrated because I shipped the item promptly well within my stated handling time, which makes the defect feel really unfair.

Anyway, to my question, has anyone successfully appealed a similar late delivery defect with clear proof of timely shipment by courier scan?

Any advice from sellers who've faced similar situations would be highly appreciated. Thank you for reading!

[rjwilmsi]

When was the item delivered and what was the Estimated Due Date shown to the buyer in order details?

Even if you posted the item on time it can still be delivered late. Using Evri if you really care about items arriving on time may not be the best choice.

[vinylscot · Accepted solution]

I can understand your annoyance, and there have been a number of similar posts on these boards recently. Although eBay is inconsistent, and sometimes removes defects, the defect is for late DELIVERY, not late dispatch.

This is where sellers throw their hands up in the air and claim "but that's out of my control". eBay's view now seems to be that that is not the case. You chose a courier who has let you and your buyer down.

If eBay were to reverse all defects resulting from couriers delivering late, you would have no incentive to change couriers. Every time something arrived late, you would just claim it was out of your control.

So take it as a signal that perhaps you need to consider using a different courier. One defect won't hurt you too much, but too many will, and these defects can also lead to negative feedback, which is more visible to your potential buyers.

[suelel1968]

"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."

Is a direct quote from Ebay when you drill into defects.  When you appeal it does say something about them automatically removing the defects after 72 hours if you meet the right criteria . I always appeal, have the appeal thrown out, wait 72 hours excluding weekends just to be on the safe side, then contact CS. Never not had one removed. They know the system doesn't work. 

[theelench]

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@vinylscot wrote:

So take it as a signal that perhaps you need to consider using a different courier. One defect won't hurt you too much, but too many will, and these defects can also lead to negative feedback, which is more visible to your potential buyers.

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So ebay wants us to change to companies that deliver quicker and probably charge more?   --  Ker-ching for ebay skimming the postage costs.

I sell glass and from experience, send my parcels by the safest  courier, the one that has never broken or lost any of my items.

Perhaps ebay should take that into account in its dynamic calculation.  Which does ebay think distresses buyers more?  The parcel that arrives "late", but only according to ebays warped 'calculation', or the one that arrives 'on time'  with a purchase smashed and in bits?? 

IMO this whole charade has nothing to do with buyer satisfaction or helping sellers improve their DISPATCH performance.  It's all about ebay maximising its take from every transaction.

I haven't looked at the OPs account status, but with 279 FB I'm assuming they are a private seller, which means (unless it's been changed) they have only 5 defects allowed, on a rolling twelve months evaluation, before the extra fees kick-in.

[suelel1968]

Hi, i just got mine removed. 

The CS operative said that i couldn't have it removed because they check the, in my case, RM website for tracking info and it only showed delivery, not drop off at PO.

I pointed out that Ebay orders shows the drop off date as within the 3 day window. She looked, she agreed, she removed the defect. She also agreed to report the anomaly........ 

Good luck

[vinylscot]

That's good. eBay are very inconsistent with their decisions. From other posts on here, it seems some are removed and some are not. Maybe it depends which CS agent you get.

[jewellery-by-silver-sensations]

Hi

I'm so sorry this has happened to you & hope that yo get somewhere with ebay.

I've been on the love chat twice today. A customer left positive feedback but gave me a late delivery defect. During my 1st conversation today I was told that  the only way I could get this removed was to go down the appeals route. So I did. What happened? Even though I told them I had proof of postage that shows I posted it well within the cut off time, I also told them there was nowhere to upload it, they still rejected it!

So I went on the chat again & was told that once it's been rejected that's it! I told her I knew they could add the paperclip icon for me to upload as I'd used it before for another reason. She completely ignored this & said that is the policy has & it applies to all ebay sellers!!

I'm done with ebay now. Not even giving sellers the chance to provide proof is just disgusting treatment 😞

[m25jet]

Although it's been a long time since I last sold anything on eBay, I do have a couple of suggestions as to how to minimise the risk of this happening to you again in the future:

If the company you are currently using when despatching your items do not appear to be delivering items as swiftly as you would like then perhaps you ought to consider using another courier.  By trying different couriers and comparing the times that they take to deliver the goods after you've despatched them you can get a feel for which courier is best suited to your needs.  The sooner the goods arrive, the less chance there is that eBay will hit you with a defect for late delivery.

Another way to try to minimise the risk of being hit with a late delivery defect is to alter your despatch time.  For example, if you've got it set to state that you despatch within two to three days, try altering your listings to show that you despatch within four to five days.  The reason why I suggest doing this is that the extra two days that I gave in this example is to allow for delays.  One thing that eBay don't seem to take into consideration is that Saturday and Sunday do not count as weekdays, so if you were to advertise items and tell buyers that you aim to despatch within two to three days this could backfire on you.  For example, if a buyer purchases an item and pays for it on Saturday afternoon, then by eBay's (illogical) reasoning this means that you would be despatching the item during the weekend, despite the fact that the Post Office is closed!  Given that eBay now give buyers unrealistic expected dates of delivery this only serves to compound the problem further.

If you were to do what I have advised and give yourself a longer despatch time on your listings, but still aim to get the items despatched as quickly as possible once the buyer has made payment then you will be giving yourself a bit of extra time to get the item to the buyer, as this would push eBay's estimated date of delivery further into the future.  When the item gets delivered prior to eBay's estimated date of delivery they ought to recognise that the item got there in time, in which case you should not end up with a late delivery defect.  If you can repeat this pattern consistently then your late delivery rate should start to fall off and have less of an impact on your selling account.

[jewellery-by-silver-sensations]

Hi

Thank you so much for sparing your time to help me with this & for your suggestios. I take my items to the Post Office & don't usually have any problems, but I've had 2 lately. The most annoying thing for me is that ebay didn't want to know that I had proof of posting & how unfair that is.

I'm currently reducing the amount of listings I have, not sure whether to have a Basic shop or close the one I have.

Many thanks once again & I hope you enjoy your weekend.

Lynne