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

[quartzology]

Funny how many threads there are about this.

I recently posted in the other one but thought I'd chime in here with my latest example which is messing up my metrics as well as everyone else in the same 2nd Class boat as me.

I have dispatch times set to weekdays only, and dispatch cut-off is 10am. So this customer ordered on Sunday 31st, I dispatched on Monday 1st, yet eBay told the buyer the estimated delivery is the very next day?! Customer already opened INR case straight up demanding a refund. Not happy with this eBay!

[4_bathrooms]

---

@tackexpressheadoffice wrote:

here is the change we have seen, the date range has added a week! i.e. As we arite this, today is 4th Sept and EDDs being shown to our cusotmers are now saying delivery 5th - 12th Sept, and not the usual 5th - 6th Sept.

It seems eBay have gone too far the other way in our opinion.

---

Are you rated "very high" in your "item not received" service metrics?

eBay added time to my EDDs due to being rated "very high" (caused by eBay's EDDs). In my case it actually made the EDDs shown to buyers realistic, i.e. 3 to 5 working days rather than 1 to 2 calendar days.

[tackexpressheadoffice]

Sadly, whatever happened this morning was very short lived, and we are sadly back to being expected to deliver everything next day 😞

[izzywizzy6]

I sympathise with you as a seller. It must be very frustrating to get negative feedback when things are outside your control. As a buyer, I am getting equally frustrated. Two items, bought on Monday, are now "running behind". They don't matter much. But the book I purchased as holiday reading took 12 days and arrived the day after I left. 

It's happening more and more.

[nutrafituk]

Here we go again:

- if purchased today with free 1-day dispatch (06/10/25) and 2 delivery option you should expect it on Wednesday (08/10/25) - now showing you get it same day (06/10/25) as its due dispatch

- optionally you can pay extra... to get it later (07/10/25)

Free delivery in 2-3 days

Other 48h courier

Estimated between Mon, 6 Oct and Tue, 7 Oct to PO14 4AR

£7.99 delivery in 3 days

Other 24 Hour Courier

Estimated by Tue, 7 Oct to PO14 4AR

Each additional £5.99

Just spoken to an agent, utter waste of time... because it works as designed - you guessed it. However if there any issues with the customer, please do call us he said. Yes, we will be on the phone all day long because you cannot advertise the correct delivery dates.

Totally useless.

[your.home.consoles.world.ltd]

After years, I stopped fighting a losing battle and extended delivery times by 2 days. Did it help? A little. Unfortunately, when it comes to orders from Saturday and Sunday, eBay completely ignores my settings (exactly as before) — weekend orders MUST be shipped on Monday. So I’m still struggling with a problem that has always existed, and there’s a good chance that I’ve lost potential customers who were counting on same-day shipping (just as I have been doing for years).

So if someone advises you to change the settings, ignore it, the delivery time roulette will keep working at its best anyway.

[claresdesigns]

Does anyone at ebay read these boards?

Just adding my frustration to the (very long) list.

I'm also now getting buyers who are annoyed that their personalised handmade invitations haven't arrived "on time".  I can't get them designed, proof approved by the buyer, printed , posted and delievered in the timeframes ebay is claiming.

If ebay wants to compete with Amazon, they would need to open up warehouses and delivery infrastructure that can do fulfillment.

I think ebay is totally lost at the moment and is trying to be something it's not.

Another day - another ebay gripe 😂

[arc3110]

Like others the company I work for have stopped fighting the losing battle, its a waste of time.

Although there has been some improvements in EDD’s the system still ignores same day cut off times and none-dispatch days at the weekends. Using RM Tracked 48 with same-day and week day only dispatch settings for example, the EDD's are realistic for orders received before cut-off time settings for Monday >Friday.  However the EDD doesn’t change until after midnight and doesn’t take into account we do not dispatch on Saturdays or Sundays, (never have done either, ruling out the past performance issue) so for us that’s where the damage on service metrics takes its toll.

Given the new ‘INR protection’ announcement it’s a bit clearer now, the system is working as designed, its designed to push everyone to use Simple Delivery and punish those who don’t.

[andybrussell]

I think this whole mess is the way the algorithm is working with the data and producing bad data.

For example Royal Mail Tracked 48 is not scanned into the Royal Mail network until the day after it is collected (unless you take it to a post office for an acceptance scan)

So a customer orders from us on Monday and chooses Tracked 48

We print the label, pack the item and it is collected by Royal Mail on the Monday. The tracking is automatically uploaded to eBay.

As the item is Tracked 48 the first scan it receives is the early hours of the following day  (Tuesday) it then travels through the network and is delivered on the Wednesday, so 2 days after we have sent it.

The problem is as the first scan is on the Tuesday, eBay interprets that as the date we posted the item (it even shows this in the tracking updates within the order)

So as far as eBay are concerned item ordered on Monday, posted to buyer on Tuesday and delivered on Wednesday. It only takes enough of these for the algorithm to adjust your delivery estimates to 1-2 days.

This then messes up Tracked 24 delivery estimates as they receive their first scan the same day as collection and are delivered the following day. 

So we end up with a situation where eBay think a Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 item are both delivered within the same time frame.

[nutrafituk]

Ebay are unable to realise how Royal Mail work...

[tagstapeslabels]

I'll agree with you there. According to the postage estimates on my listings, 2nd class post will get there quicker than any other method 🤔

[therockinhardplace]

this is driving me crazy, and for the first time in 13 years of selling on ebay my seller level would be below standard.

one example - item sold via second class large letter with a dispatch date of 07/10/25 at 11.59 BST.

Estimated delivery date shown to buyer: 6 Oct 2025 - 8 Oct 2025.

this is not possible, unfair, incorrect and makes it look like im not dispatching on time, leading to complaints from buyers..

[ojewellery]

When I look 

When I look at your listings - Monday night, I'm seeing estimate of Wednesday ( very optimistic 2nd class) to Friday which seems reasonable.  Is your handling one day so an order tonight would be tomorrow dispatch?  In the case you mentioned, I'm guessing it was a weekend sale and you don't have weekends as working days.  Would you mind sharing what the specifics were as in day of sale, next working day, handling time. I'd love to know if there's a pattern to this

[chrisswansea]

Hi my listings change from day to day and some are different from others on
the same day.

Some say next day, some say 1-2 days some 2-3. Some days are better
than others but can chop and change all the time

I have a one day handling time set, the ones Im looking at say 2-3 days but
Weds to Thurs which for a Tuesday dispatch is 1-2 days so it's never really
right.

Should say 3-4 days for a weekday that doesnt cross a weekend but never
does.

[momamakes]

It’s going to get worse. Royal mail have now said they aim to deliver all second class mail within 2 working days … we all know that’s not going to happen!!
Sent from my iPhone

[momamakes]

I have same day dispatch set if you order before 8am and Saturday and Sunday are unticked as processing days in my settings. According to eBay if you order on Friday you will receive your item wed - Thursday the following week, but if you order it on Saturday you’ll get it by Tuesday! Words fail me!! They also give the same estimated delivery for both tracked 48 and tracked 24 which is completely in correct! 

now royal mail have said they aim to deliver 2nd class mail within 2 days so the estimated deliveries will soon become even shorter - we all know they will not consistently deliver within 2 working days!!! 

[insidethe93]

I aim to be a millionaire by the end of the week 🙂

Anyone can _AIM_ to do anything.

"aim" is often used in corporate marketing B.S.

On "A"nother large platform, 3rd party sellers routinely have under 'About Seller' the standard words: "[seller's name] is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service." - it's a good example of meaningless filler to avoid saying anything informative and avoiding liability for anything.