The estimated delivery dates are an insult to our intelligence. For example, these are showing on my sales for today (I offer 2 days dispatch as have a lot going on in my life at the moment so aimed to give myself a bit more time):
Dispatch by 15 Sep at 11.59pm BST
Make sure you send your order within the dispatch time you specified in the listing.
Estimated delivery date shown to buyer: 13 Sep 2025 - 16 Sep 2025
So, the delivery date shown to the buyer, for a 2nd class item to be posted by 15th September, is 13th to 16th September. First of all, that's not allowing me the 2 days to dispatch, secondly, 13th September is a Saturday and Royal Mail do not deliver 2nd class on a Saturday, and thirdly, if I dispatch on 15th September 2nd class it will take AT LEAST 2-3 DAYS to reach the buyer and is almost 99 per cent certain not to get there the next day.
So frustrating and WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.
So, is there a solution to this problem you ask? Countless sellers have spent many hours talking to Customer Service agents and complaining that the EDDs are wildly incorrect and causing stress and anxiety at the least, but also late delivery defects on metrics and early INR claims that then have to be refunded when it would have been impossible in some cases to get the item to the buyer on the date they are able to open an INR claim.
The BEST SOLUTION would be that Customer Service and IT listen to their sellers and adjust the way the EDD is calculated to take into account fully the seller's dispatch time and Royal Mail's expected delivery times.
Until this happens I am trying this - I had my dispatch set for same day dispatch but EDDs were showing as delivery on same day as dispatch or even the day before (that pesky time machine again) with no wiggle room at all. In other words, MAGIC (or a time machine) would be the only way to get a 2nd class letter delivered on the same day as it was posted, even on a Saturday.
So, I have changed my dispatch to 2 days (which doesn't put people off as much as changing it to 4 days that was suggested by customer services). This gives me a little more wiggle room (not that you would think so from the example at the beginning of this post!).
The other thing I am doing is NOT MARKING MY ITEMS AS DISPATCHED UNTIL THE DISPATCH DAY.
This is because after numerous conversations with CS, although they maintain that the system is working correctly (but when pushed admit that only magic would get an item sold on a Saturday afternoon to a customer by the Monday morning), it seems that the MAIN algorithm used is SELLER PERFORMANCE. Therefore, it appears that the result of my stress and anxiety and working until midnight to get packets ready to post first thing in the morning to try and beat the 'into the past' time machine calculations of EDDs, I have shot myself in the foot and made matters worse because the algorithm shows that I am performing so well I must be a magician therefore the EDDs are calculated accordingly.
Hopefully, the algorithm will soon recognise that I don't actually post my items earlier than advertised and will therefore calculate some realistic EDDs for me.
I also send every buyer a message explaining that EDDs are incorrect and to please allow up to 7 working days for 2nd class post. The response to my message is good and so far I have avoided a huge influx of INRs (just had a few) and late delivery defects.
Hanging on by a thread - but still hanging on!
PLEASE, PLEASE EBAY, HELP US OUT HERE
