Estimated Delivery Dates - Incorrect

[milly*fiory]

Just noticed that one of my listings has Next Day Delivery against it (from a Buyer's perspective.)

I don't offer this service up front, so I checked behind the scenes.

My postage options under my business polices are set up correctly, i.e.

- dispatch within 1 working day of sale

- default option - 2nd class Royal Mail - delivery in 2-3 days

- 2nd option - 1st class Royal Mail - delivery in 1-2 days 

But when looking at my listings from a Buyer's perspective, 2nd class and 1st class options both say delivery in 1-2 days. (Although 2nd class postage price is obviously less.)

I've just contacted eBay Customer Support about this and they're going to raise with their IT Dept, but has anyone else solved this problem?  

[johnwash1]

---

@vinylscot wrote:

I think it was established some time ago that eBay does not base the EDDs on when and how you SAY you are going to post something, but on how and when you have actually done so in the past.

So, if you set a three day despatch time, but generally post on the next day, your EDDs will start to reflect that.

It's a punishment for performing better than you agreed to.

---

Yes, and for that reason I buy postage direct from RM, post quickly, but don't enter tracking and mark as dispatched on the last possible day.

What I don't know is: if I were to enter tracking then as well, is ebay smart enough to look at that and say "Oh, he actually posted it back on such and such a day, so we'll adjust his future EDDs".

Anyone know?

[krafty-kreations]

I asked about this yesterday and was told it was a site issue the tech team are working on. 

I have 3 day dispatch and my postage states

Free delivery - Arrives by Father's Day

Royal Mail 2nd Class

Estimated between Wed, 4 Jun and Fri, 6 Jun to B9 5jq

Royal Mail Special Delivery (TM) 1:00 pm

Estimated by Fri, 6 Jun to B9 5jq

Postage: £8.00

Royal Mail 1st Class

Estimated between Wed, 4 Jun and Fri, 6 Jun to B9 5jq

Postage: £0.80

[bravergrace]

I've taken a couple of days off - marked eBay as not posting today or tomorrow.   A buyer has asked me nicely if I will post an urgent item tomorrow, as a favour. 

If I do it, of course, eBay will adjust my ETAs and promise buyers that I will ALWAYS post stuff on my days off, because I did it this time.  So I can't ever take a day off without eBay slamming me on future delivery estimates, and letting my buyers down.

[marco@ebay]

Hi milly*fiory, thanks for your patience on this.

I just wanted to let you know that we were able to replicate the issue from our end, and indeed that wouldn't be working correctly. However, this is currently being looked into, and as soon as it is resolved, I will let you know. 👍

Thank you,

Marco

[vonchief]

Another case opened Today for item not received .

Neutral feedback already given.

Dispatched
Label created – ensure courier has the package by 5 Jun to meet promised dispatch time.
Estimated delivery date shown to buyer: 2 Jun 2025 - 6 Jun 2025

Buyer selected 2nd class and expects it to be delivered 3 days before I post it.

Thank you ebay.

There is no point me contacting ebay again , as nothing ever changes.

Apparently all is working as intended.

[wmcollectors2012]

I agree...

All my post is 2nd class and I offer to post "next working day".

However, I often post same day if item bought before I go to post office.

Just sold an item at 3pm today( Sat. 7th) and the following is shown by ebay ...

Dispatch by 9 Jun at 11.59pm BST

Estimated delivery date shown to buyer: 9 Jun 2025 - 10 Jun 2025

When I post on 9th, it is unfair of ebay to expect Royal Mail to deliver it the SAME day or even the NEXT day for 2nd CLASS post.

So maybe I need to stop posting same day, and by performing WORSE I will get BETTER EDD Metrics!

Shaun

[vwpartsuk]

I reported this issue well over a year ago on the phone to eBay, followed up a couple of times but heard absolutely nothing... 

Most of my stuff goes 2nd class - I regularly get buyers chasing me and raising disputes when things don't arrive in a few days. Second class in the UK takes an average of a week I have found and 1st class doesn't seen to be any better.

[jma3691]

Thank you for your post,  I had an INR request from a buyer who only ordered Thursday today which i thought odd, but then noticed on all my 2nd class 1 day despatch listings ebay were saying "next day delivery".  I've changed my settings to 3 day despatch and now showing delivery 2-3 days.  The tracked listings are OK.

Worried now how long this has been going on and if I'm going to get loads of late defects, INR requests and bad feedback!

Hope ebay sort this out ASAP

[johnwash1]

---

@jma3691 wrote:
...

Hope ebay sort this out ASAP

---

Hope you believe in miracles.  Ebay have been saying for years that it's working "as designed". 

[vwpartsuk]

Yep - it's unreal the amount of money they make and the amount of unresolved issues there are...

It doesn't help that that are constantly changing stuff in production without testing from the looks of things!

[milly*fiory]

Thank you marco@ebay

I appreciate you looking into this. 

As you can see from the comments on this post, I'm not the only one who is having problems with estimated delivery dates. 

Some Sellers are even saying that Item Not Received cases are being opened by Buyers and Neutral Feedback left because of this issue. That is very unfair for Sellers. But also unfair for Buyers as it is falsely raising their expectations of when their item will arrive.   

Other Sellers are saying they have raised the issue long ago or on numerous occasions but it still keeps re-occurring. 

I think the algorithms must be very complex to cope with all the various couriers, the different services available and the multiple locations items are delivered to.

I wonder .... perhaps, as it seems not be accurate, eBay could stop publishing their EDDs for a while ... and leave it up to Sellers to advise Buyers the EDD based on the Seller's dispatch time after purchase and the couriers' service standards.

[jma3691]

I think I replied to the wrong post.  Obviously ebay's EDD's have been wrong for so long I just ignore them now.

My problem was and I think the OP was too, is that they are putting "next day delivery" on the listings visible to buyers, which is giving them wrong information before they even purchase it. 

On the plus side I've had an increase in sales this week, but have also had a few buyers message "where's my order".  I thought they were being unreasonable, but now understand they were expecting next day delivery!