EDD's, eBay Unrealistic Shipping Targets & Royal Mail

[communique2000]

So .. After 9 years or so of top rated seller status on this account [ we are currently 21 years with eBay ]  we are about to be downgraded in the next couple of weeks to 'above standard'

Looking up the late deliveries they are now they have escalated to around 5.6% somehow - Average numbers on this account is always been around 1% or less For the past nine years.

Speaking with eBay they have checked the same figures that I have and are refusing to allow me to appeal it because the items show 'late scans' even though these packs were sent out on time. Royal Mail have confirmed that eBay know full well that these will not be scanned until the next day yet this seems to count for little

We use Royal mail tracked 48 mostly - we have two collections daily from R Mail -  the collection driver scans the manifest and takes the bags they are then scanned individually at the Royal Mail Depot the following day on this standard service. 

According to eBay this now counts as a defect because they should be scanned on collection from us therefore all of our packets sent in the same way are currently showing as late dispatch

We have had no choice but upgrade to RM Tracked  24 to try and recover the account status which now cost us some something like £1.20 per packet more and this means that we then have no choice but to put up the price of our product to compensate and this in turn makes us less competitive - they seem to be trying to be more ' Amazon'  and are overpromising delivery times to buyers and punishing sellers using a standard service

Examples see attached the picture of an order today which has passed our cut off time. The buyer makes the order on the 27th and his then told at the time of making the order that his expected delivery date is the 28th to the 29th yet?

The sheets shows clearly we expect to dispatch it on the 28th which means it’s impossible that the buyer is going to receive it the same day as dispatched on a  T24 service?

As I said I have escalated this with eBay but so far they refuse to remove any of the defects because of the late scam scans - Feedback score is currently 100%

Once our account is downgraded to above standard, we then lose the top rated seller status and discounts. We also lose visibility and will appear further down the search results,

This week we have upped our Amazon FBA inventory to try and compensate for the lost business from eBay and increased advertising with them however eBay just don’t seem to see the full picture.

Anyone else have similar or am I missing some  something?

[theelench]

I'm a private seller and usually sent my parcels RM 2nd class and guess what??  If I sold something on the 27th my buyer would also be told to expect delivery on 28th or 29th and somehow that includes my 2 day dispatch window!!

"We have had no choice but to upgrade to RM Tracked 24...... which now costs us £1.20 per packet more...."

Which is the whole point of the exercise, ebay will now skim 14.4%(?) off that £1.20 in FVF.  (I'll let you work out how much that will cost you in extra fees)

And that's why the standard answer to any query about this 💩 is "It's working as designed".

It's also why, for the past few years, I've stopped (only on ebay) all selling during the winter and just one of the reasons I don't think I'll be starting again next Spring.   

[wyntersemporium]

Getting the same as you. Print my labels the night before for postie to scan at door in the morning,

 I send T48 but eBay are t taking in consideration that there’s been snow in certain areas in the uk. And have said I’m at 74% in not sending out asap. I had mine in at 5 days, eBay say I have to do next day. I had it at five for a reason as I have horrendous migraines. 

[wyntersemporium]

I got the same etas as you, second class as to arrive the next day. Which I cannot do. I don’t make much as it is. Oh and got a nice letter this morning for them to give me £670 but have to pay it back. Ripped up and went into bin, as they’ve been bothering me with this online as well!!!

[theelench]

No doubt with interest?

I wonder, do they offer you a discounted rate as a thank you for being such a loyal customer for so many years?  🤣

[exponential_developments]

Buyer buys at 4.43pm Wednesday, i have one day despatch so it leaves at 4pm Thursday, sent as advertised 2nd class, Saturday, INR case....lol.

Dear ebay, i like every other person selling on here can just pack it in and walk away.....You can't.

[vonchief]

 

 

Dispatch by 4 Dec at 11.59pm GMT

Make sure you send your order within the dispatch time you specified in the listing.

Estimated delivery date shown to buyer: 2 Dec 2024 - 5 Dec 2024

This is with 2nd class selected.

No wonder cases are opened and we are forced to refund too early.

[exponential_developments]

Yep and my cut off time is 4pm...................You can do whatever you like and ebay will ignore it.

[nutrafituk]

We had a similar issue with Saturdays - five in a row... Despite Mon-Fri dispatch only we were penalised for not shipping on Saturday! Now, this week every day so far, despite having all parcels collected as scheduled daily, Royal Mail decided to scan them onto their network only 3 days after  -and that is with Tracked 48 service. Obviously our LDD shot up through the roof.

eBay & Royal Mail are worth each other!

[jayfive2001]

As long as you despatched it within the stated period the late automatic-based-on-tracking dings will be removed in the coming days - in my experience that includes items that were dinged due to weekends or bank holidays. eBay don't expect you to be responsible for postage delays, only that you sent the item on time. And if you have any late dings left by buyers manually that were despatched on time call ebay and they will remove them manually.

[nutrafituk]

These won't get automatically removed unless your dispatch day is shown correctly. In our case, if items got collected on Monday they were only scanned in on Thursday so it looks like we dispatched them late. Basically RM should have scanned in within 1 working day and that would have solved the problem. As they did not do that, they have covered their backs at our cost.

[communique2000]

Thank you - this was the point that I was making however this is no longer what they have deemed as acceptable - with our business settings at 'post same working day - order before cut off 3pm and send T48 ' - first mail collection at 3.25pm, second at 4.45pm and the packs all scanned next day as expected at the Royal Mail Sorting Office. 

Some packs missed the scan for whatever reason, a low percentage say less than 1% and these ' dings'  I would expect to be counted pending an appeal as you mention

This account has been on the same settings for years, our items are all physical stock and they all get sent on time and collected same day - no issues until now where eBay are suddenly telling me that unless your same working day dispatch pack is scanned that same day then it is regarded as a ' late shipment'

The latest download of  'shipping defects' shows a column  ** Dispatch time missed by (hours) ** [ eg to list a few ] , 40.6, 66.8, 114.3, 90.84  hours late and simply because they were not individually scanned on collection 

My conversation with Customer Service that I mentioned before, and subsequent later checks on the defects and another 2 calls to them since on the same subject confirms that they would not be removed because they were 'not dispatched on time' 

Just poor service all round and the Seller being held responsible for both Royal Mail failures and for eBay misleading buyers by showing unrealistic delivery expectations so that they can maybe appear to be a better shopping solution at that moment in time for that particular buyer than Amazon perhaps 

[nutrafituk]

What worked for us on a couple of occasions was a letter from RM stating the delay was caused by their sites. Once forwarded to eBay (a bit of pain), resulted in having ours removed. Please try to obtain one by contacting your account manager at RM.

On this occasion, the hope is it will fall within the weather announcement and protection promised as it was literally caused by flooding in our area. Just for the last week our defect rate went up by 10%! I cannot remember ever being over 1% per quarter...