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

[smick2004]

What puzzles me is when I buy postage online eBay shows the item to have been dispatched whether the postage is purchased at the weekend or middle of the night

[dch2112011]

This is not altogether ebay's decision - the way the api works is when you buy postage online that is linked to ebay it automatically marks as dispatched, this happens whether you have a business account linked to ebay or whether you buy through ebay - RM mark as dispatched - Evri mark as on the way to carrier. they are all slightly different in wording.

The assumption by all the api's is that  once you buy the label it is deemed to have entered the postal system / carrier's system albeit that the post is collected later in the day .

Not at all sure how else an integrated system could work - if you allowed sellers to mark as dispatched then not only could it be abused by those who wanted to delay posting but how you would then automate the rest of the tracking system without reverting to a manual system of entering tracking numbers and relying solely on the carrier website I do not know. 

The idea is to give a delivery trail that can be instantly followed by buyers from entering the system to delivery - it seems to be working very well at the moment - the dates for delivery are corralating to the estimates on recent purchases - of course sellers once purchasing labels that are integrated need to post the same day for it to work well.

[sagr2519]

Sellers can manually mark as dispatched. They can also claim that it's too late to cancel because it's already been dispatched, even if they didn't mark it as dispatched. Even though I requested cancellation minutes after completing the purchase on a Sunday and they only replied on Monday.

[dch2112011]

Yes they can manually mark as dispatched but not when using  API  carrier links to ebay  only when they purchase postage manually seperately -

The API is a link between carrier and in this case ebay where  they communicate information between each other - the order details, item/s weights dimensions and postal service are transmitted from ebay to the carrier - the carrier produces the label and charge and once the label is produced it links to ebay and marks dispatched -  the ebay tracking is all part of the API system and is linked to the carrier and mirrors the carrier - They are not perfect but generally work well  

The buyer cancellation request was designed for a seller to take responsibility of dealing with cancellation requests - unfortunately some sellers take this as a way to refuse.

The guidance to the law covering online transactions is that a buyer can cancel an order at the same time it is placed -  this is to cover mistakes - this is interpreted by ebay as 1 hour (check this I am quoting from memory) but is not enforced by ebay instead trusting sellers to deal with cancellations  which creates unneccessary and unjust refusal.

All online sales are subject to cancellation rights some use 30 mins  some one hour but most these days allow up to dispatch which may mean packing and labelling 

This is a little bit naive by sellers because any buyer can simply open a  fault or non fault return case within 30 days and return for a refund which seems far more work for a seller than simply accepting a cancellation up to  the point of dispatch.

It  is very dissapointing that  a seller did not react to your perfectly legitimate cancellation request -  some sellers do pack and label on a Sunday ready for dispatch on a Monday but they could if they wanted cancel the label and return to stock especially with such a quick request

[sportex-uk]

I rely on what Order Details say (dispatch by date) and use RM Tracked48 only. Not had single issue after sending several hundred items.

Note - I make sure the parcel is physically at the PO by the dispatch date.

[sagr2519]

This isn't really on topic of false EDDs, but in that case the seller considered the dispatch process to start at payment. "Unfortunately, as you had already paid for the item before you requested the cancellation, so the item was already in the dispatch process in line with our postage agreement, and unable to be cancelled. I'm very sorry for any inconvenience caused by this."

[dch2112011]

The only person this seller is kidding is himself, I wonder how many other unsuspecting buyers this seller has caught with those pearls of wisdom !

In the same vein  a buyer on seeing the ebay listing could say 

Unfortunately, as you have responded to  our cancellation request prior to dispatch , the item has entered our defective purchase process in line with our return agreement and unable to be retained. I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused by this.

[smick2004]

How on earth you can claim I'm kidding myself I am mearly stating a fact that the moment I purchase an address label online eBay transfers the item from awaiting dispatch to my sold list stating its been dispatched !!!!!!!!!

[dch2112011]

Think you got the wrong end of the stick - the response you are referring to was to sagr2159

 post 186 

'This isn't really on topic of false EDDs, but in that case the seller considered the dispatch process to start at payment. "Unfortunately, as you had already paid for the item before you requested the cancellation, so the item was already in the dispatch process in line with our postage agreement, and unable to be cancelled. I'm very sorry for any inconvenience caused by this."

My response to your original post 181 was  post 182

[xxxxxvalkyriexxxxx]

Every single ticket I raise is for this matter, I am told so many conflicting things by different admin staff that it drives me to despair!! It's a known bug we will esculate this further/ nothing is wrong and everything is working as it should be / standard replies. I'm then assured that if I get abuse from a customer or negative feedback regarding an item being late because they are 'aware' of this one item now  that i've raised an issue then they will remove it .. that's NOT good enough , i'm left with a customer who won't buy from me again because E Bay are setting us up to fail by using an old algorithm that is 'perfect' in their eyes. 

It doesn't work with the False positive feedbacks such as ' lovely item, took a while to arrive' etc ... when the item has clearly been delivered as intended, but NOT on the date E Bay have given as due i.e the day it's supposed to be posted!

They still can't justify why some of my items have to be posted to certain areas before some of my existing orders are even due to be posted  out, and mumble something about it being based on my current postage 'stats' .. for instance someone living in London who buys the same item 2 days after someone else living in Bolton gets an estimated delivery date with the item due to be delivered before the person who bought it first has been given!

Most of us use Royal Mail , their estimated delivery days for 2nd class large letter post is 2-5 days ... 

[divine0606]

Yeah sameold apparently its all fine in ebay land the amount of money we loose closing INR's on a daily basis only to find that the item is delivered a few days later. 

[your.home.consoles.world.ltd]

I know this is digging up an old topic, but this problem comes back like a boomerang every few months and eBay as a platform keeps pretending that there is no problem.
The worst thing is that this problem occurs from time to time, then everything works fine until the next random day everything crashes again.

You do everything as you should and still receive idiotic messages just because eBay can show the expected delivery date as the next day or even on the same day.

[patrickbegood]

---

@dch2112011 wrote:

... if you allowed sellers to mark as dispatched then not only could it be abused by those who wanted to delay posting

---

The number of sellers who feel like lying in order to delay posting, a problem which everything from feedback to opening a case ALREADY exists to solve, must be vastly smaller than the number of honest sellers getting messed around by this system? Like chopping everyone's hands off to prevent a few people stealing!

"Dispatched" should mean has physically left the seller's possession and entered the post/courier system, so a better notification at that stage would be "prepared for shipping" or something.

The current system is annoying from a buyer's POV as well as seller's, it's daft to eg buy something 20:00 Sunday night, and then get an eager little message from ebay at 23:10 that the item is "dispatched," just because the seller checked in before bed and bought the postage for it.

No, it isn't dispatched: I KNOW it, the seller knows it, ebay knows it, because no post is moving anywhere at 23:10 on a Sunday night, period. No-one's running around in their pyjamas out there - there are no all-night Post Offices, staffed by owls in little postman caps.

I'm not a toddler, you don't need to tell me fairy-tales, thank you very much.

[dch2112011]

Revisit the post and read it in it's entirety -  the paragraph you extracted the few words from refers to API integration and how integrated tracking could not be achieved if you manually entered tracking numbers.

You will also understand that when you open the tracking after purchasing a label with integrated tracking that it does not show as dispatched but informs the buyer that a label has been purchased and that the carrier is awaiting the parcel.

Each carrier has different wording but all give you factual and timed information via the API and via the link to their own website and as you quite rightly state ebay has other ways that exist to solve a problem - and here it is solved !

Below are a couple of examples of carrier tracking showing what information is given when labels are purchased the tracking changes to item received  with the date and time when physically in the carriers possession

Yodel label messages - first one when label purchased - 2nd one from local depot

Mon 27 May 10:16pm Tracking number provided

Mon 27 May 11:00pm We're expecting your parcel from your sender. We will provide updates here once we receive it COVENTRY SERVICE CENTRE YODEL

Royal Mail label messages  to receipt of item

Sun 23 Jun 10:40am Tracking number provided

Sun 23 Jun 10:22pm Sender despatching item

Mon 24 Jun 11:08am Item Received

[dorisboutiqe]

Hello !  I am in same situation. Just posted: 

"I am wondering if any of you facing similar problem. I am shipping my items from Poland. I always set up poastage with Royal Mail 7-13 working days plus 3 days for dispatch.  I recently started to receive more and more messages from buyers asking where is their order, why its still not delivered. After checking what may be the problem I find out that estimated delivery dates shown to buyers are different to what I actually set up on my listings. The difference is 10 days. It is very problematic as buyers expect their orders to be delivered within time frame shown to them and I have to explain them each time why their order still didint arrive.I have reported issue to ebay several days ago however still got no answer and problem has not been fixed yet. Any advice  how would you deal with this issue would be much apprecieted. "

[divine0606]

There not going to fix it, its been going for ages now and they seem to think its all fine

[your.home.consoles.world.ltd]

eBay Support always claimed that the problem is because we change shipping options in that particular ads and that causes problems (which is nonsense because I have been using the same set for years and haven't changed anything in it) ,we have shipments from Monday to Friday, if the customer makes a purchase before 12 p.m. we guarantee shipment on the same day, service we choose takes 2-3 business days, of course we allow the customer to choose another paid service. Many times, system treats purchases made after 6 or even 8 p.m. as shipping on the same day. Very often, the system also counts purchases made on the weekend as shipments during the week.

I can still name these specific errors, but when a customer makes a purchase on Monday using standard shipping and Tuesday is already listed as the expected delivery date... it's inexplicable to me.

[sagr2519]

---

No, it isn't dispatched: I KNOW it, the seller knows it, ebay knows it, because no post is moving anywhere at 23:10 on a Sunday night, period. No-one's running around in their pyjamas out there - there are no all-night Post Offices, staffed by owls in little postman caps.

---

I like your idea of "prepared for shipping".

It is annoying when sellers claim to have already dispatched, as in one of my purchases where the seller claimed that the dispatch process starts when I pay.

On the other hand, sometimes the item does physically leave the seller's possession at odd times. Some packages fit inside a post box, and some courier drop-off points are open 24 hours. The one in my area isn't staffed by owls, but by a human with a night shift.

[station13thirteen]

The other thing that we have noticed is that eBay show the item as dispatched as soon as we provide a tracking number, whether we indicate it has been dispatched or not.

We may pack something on Saturday afternoon ready to dispatch on Monday, but as soon as we provide a tracking number the buyer is informed that the item is dispatched. And we have to do these things at the same time in order to be efficient... and not get tracking numbers and such muddled up.

EBay has far too many of these automated responses, algorithms and 'delivery metrics' that not only interfere with our preferences as sellers, but takes away our control, makes life hard for us, and basically makes us look like idiots!

[sagr2519]

If the algorithms would work well it would make things easier for us. The problem is they don't.

Rather than automatically mark as dispatched, it should mark as "prepared for shipping", "ready to dispatch" or similar.

The EDD is another automation, but it should be based on our settings and the courier's stated timescale not on fantasty.

When checking the tracking, eBay's tracking shows a different estimate to the courier's tracking page.

A delivery metric would make sense if we weren't held to an impossible standard.