eBay's false estimated delivery dates, now several messages from buyers not happy.

[lincolnshiremarine]

I have been going on about this issue like a broken record.  I have reported it several times and even been on the community chat several times.  Ebay claim the EDD's are working fine.  They are not.

Ebay are giving buyers delivery dates as same day deliveries, next day deliveries.  Even when buyers have  have selected the free, three day delivery, they are including non working days as delivery dates being Saturday and Sundays.

I know that other sellers are being affected by this too, and have reported it too.

However, I am now spending hours replying to buyers whom think their parcel is late based on ebays estimated delivery dates. 

This leaves my business open for negative feedback and the issue of asking ebay to remove it.

The messages I am getting from buyers are:

" Hi not to pleased due to the fact I ordered this part from your company because of the delivery time and it’s not happened! Hopefully this item will turn up soon"

"parcel not arrived yet ??"

Both of those cases where when they purchased over a weekend, and they were dropped of at the parcel shop for collection the same day of purchase. However, this was over the weekend.  Ebay tracking has said to expect the delivery on Monday, which is wrong, as they included weekends as the courier collection and delivery days.

When you look on the couriers webiste the delivery dates are correct and ebays are incorrect.

We have had the same issue with Royal Mail tracked on ebay too.

How many more sellers are now getting messages like this on a daily basis, and what are you telling the buyers.?

I have been selling on ebay for 16 years and we dispatch the items on time, but, this ebay EDD are on another level now.

We look like we are fabricating delivery dates just to obtain a sale, and although we have tried tweaking the postage days etc, it does not help.

marco@ebay

Katie@ebay

Dave@ebay

[ojewellery]

I get why you'd want an EDD disclaimer in your listing but it would be worth considering carefully how you word it.  I was buying some sewing accessories a few days ago - the sort of lower value stuff that wouldn't be sent fully tracked. 

I came across a few listings that read as I wouldn't want to trade with this seller they've got a bit of a chip on their shoulder. 

That's as a seller myself who completely agrees the situation is ridiculous.

Potentially you could add as an FAQ in the new section which shows better than description on the App.  We post items within 'x' days of orders being placed and use service 'y' our average delivery time from placement of order is 'z' days.  You could also add the same to the questions section of messages so buyers should see this before needing to contact you, might slow down some messages.

Ultimate solution for me would be eBay allow seller override to set their own EDD's should they wish.

[johnwash1]

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@a45heaven wrote:

@johnwash1 

I see you are only selling thru Set Sale.

I used to have a few thousand items for set sale along side regular weekly auctions. - In the early days it was a benefit to have the time for a buyer to consolidate any auction wins, with set sales to gain postage savings - ebay killed that one off, so i now have Set Sales on a different platform at just 8% final fees only, no insertion fees. 

With auctions, as you have a dedicate time slot for them, you can attract buyers by self advertising on social media or web sites.

I dont feel ebay are serious about attracting Buyers for me, unless i pay extra for the promoted privilege (morally that doesn't sit well with me, when those offering to sell you a promotion are the same folks who can hide your items), and as you say Search functions are severely flawed. 

Selling despite ebay seems to be the approach now.

---

I'm unfamiliar with the term Set Sale.  I guess you're referring to BIN, i.e. Buy It Now.

Many many years ago I used auctions a lot and in those days there were listing fees except for auctions starting at 99p.  I had a lot of items from WW1 and the inter-war years due to an inheritance.  Some items would go to amazing heights, even 3 figures.  But I have little faith in auctions these days, no matter how low the start price I often end with just a single bidder, so I only do 99p if I really want rid of it.  I list a fresh item as a 7 or 10 day auction, starting at a price that would only slightly disappoint me.  It rarely sells, and then I relist it as a BIN.  However I've not been adding any fresh items at all in recent months, waiting for ebay to see their failure and return to the way it was a year ago.

Yes, truly a triumph of optimism over experience, I admit.

The first sale I'm forced to use SD I'll be converting everything to local collect.  I did it back in early April, believing SD's rollout was fixed.  When I found we'd been mislead I relented and listed with postage again.  All very easy with bulk edit, 5 or 10 minutes work at most.

[chrisswansea]

602 Replies here.

And yet they claim no issue.

I also have this problem.

They tell me to add days to my processing time but that will lose me my top seller status.

They tell me to contact my courier. Royal Mail? Yea right.
They tell me they are looking into this but this thread is a year old.
I will be having every negative feedback removed and every refund refunded back to me.
They will have to listen to me rant on the phone every single time this happens.
I am sick to death of it now.

[custom-giftsuk]

I had a buyer complain that the eBay EDD for an item ordered on Friday afternoon was due to be delivered by Royal mail 2nd class post on Sunday. 

We have our working days set Monday to Friday with a cut off before noon and Royal Mail doesnt deliver on a Sunday, never mind delivering 2nd class on a Sunday

[technthread]

I was looking at a profile yesterday, fairly random as I was searching a price on something. This seller got a neg because the buyer thought same day dispatch meant they would get it delivered the same day haha. 

[custom-giftsuk]

QUICK... to the delivery jet! 🙂

[nutrafituk]

Woke up this morning to be the only account within our seller group to have wach listing advertised with additional £7.99 postage fee highlighted. The first thing we could see was a similar price to others' listings however basically with extra fee to be paid to have it delivered even later than other listings. All of that despite offering free postage and actually delivering faster than advertised.

Now, just discovered that Click & Collect is not also displayed in search results like the others do despite being enrolled, and offered once clicked on our listing. 

Done with it. Obviously no customer would buy from us having compared all offered. Just ended up changing our policies to get some sales in putting more pressure on business. All has been forwarded to Trading Standards as well as Competition & Markets Authority. 

[knit-in-styles]

This issue (EDDs) is going to be great fun when Royal Mail change the second class delivery to alternate days and exclude Saturday deliveries from the 28th July!

From trying to understand the complex RM email, looks like Mon, Wed, Fri one week then Tues and Thurs the following week. How on earth is eBay algorithm going to work that one out!!

[tribalgiftsuk]

They will need to add an extra two days at least but they wont. I had two days 'off' this week weds and thurs and set my holiday settings on with still available to buy and to be back working today. I sold something Wednesday and the buyer was still given arrives by 11th - 14th! 

So even the holiday settings didnt over ride the working as expected delivery dates. So as i wasn't actually away i crumbled and posted yesterday. But Im close to throwing in the towel to all this nonsense.  This has been going on for years and nothing changes.

Why stress out customers and sellers like this, no one gains and if anything the customers get the hump and buy from elsewhere where the delivery dates are more accurate. Or they just go to shops and buy stuff and cut out the issue of delivery all together. 

Had another yesterday saying item not arrived yet posted 2nd class large letter on Monday, was given  7th - 9th July ordering late afternoon on Friday missing my cut off time. So wasnt posting it out till Monday 7th. Should have been shown 9th - 11th. Weekend sales estimated delivery dates are always really short

Royal Mail have already been doing this new way of working in most areas in the last few weeks and thats why 2nd class is getting slower and if Ebay dont start reflecting on that then we will either have to A - use tracked 48 and up our prices by about £1.50 to cover Ebays fee add on as well or B set stupidly long dispatch times. Either way no one wins.

It really would help if the upgraded postage options that customers can pay for actually showed a quicker delivery time than 2nd class or standard royal mail postage.

Hopefully some sort of announcement about it will be made soon by Ebay so that we can consider the best option going forward. I think they will urge us all to use tracked 48 so we will have to up our prices.

[technthread]

This is a Machiavellian thought but perhaps simple delivery for business with greater seller level protections is the end game here.

[custom-giftsuk]

I think the endgame to this particular bit of shenanigans is Simple delivery for all sellers, private and business with zero added benefit to sellers, whilst still maintaining business sellers fees. eBay take a cut or kickback from the postage and eBay is a bigger winner. Obviously the major sellers with their own contracts with eBay would be exempt but everyone else would be paying more cash to eBay and that is the endgame. At the Edinburgh roadshow a few months ago there was a telling slip from one of the execs during his presentation when he said "Simple Delivery is only for private sellers at the moment" so I fully expect once the advertising fee kick has faded a bit from memory, they will roll out SD for businesses and then later hike their fees for some reason or bring in some extra charges. 

[nutrafituk]

It only gets better... After the whole day of fighting with eBay now it says:

- when search for an item our products show: 

Free delivery Tue 15 Jul

+£7.99 delivery in 3 days

Next dispatch day Monday,and free delivery only applies to 48h service meaning it woul dbe Wednesday 16th July, not Tuesday as advertised

24h fast service for extra £7.99 would also be posted on Monday, being delivered on... Tuesday as supposedlu our 'free srevice' - why pay then?

However when postage details are actually checked it states:

Other 48h courier

Estimated by Wed, 16 Jul to PO14 4AR

Postage: Free postage

£7.99 delivery in 3 days

Other 24 Hour Courier

Estimated by Tue, 15 Jul to PO14 4AR

So much for a 'free delivery' on Tuesday. This is simply false advertising, resulting in loss of sales - c. 30% just today. 'All working as intended' says eBay.  

[nutrafituk]

Actual postage details also attached here.