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

[technthread]

Just to add, nice buyers will normally say to themselves ok it's been sent that's all I really wanted to hear. They won't open a case until it is getting near to 30 days and they can lose the MBG.

It's the ones that message knowing full well that they have the item in hand and it wasn't scanned delivered that I get tired of.

We all have different boundaries on here. I know sellers who under no circumstances will partial refund, they would rather fund a return because they have had cases before where when the buyer knows no partial refund is coming they suddenly decide they don't want to return the item. 

[station13thirteen]

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@technthread wrote:

In the past I have had buyers claim non receipt and when I say open an INR case they won't do it and keep badgering me over messages to refund on the order. I know it is the minority but it was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me that they were trying to stay off eBay's radar. My guess is some buyers try to get a refund on virtually everything if they can so if they can avoid too many cases that's best for them.

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Wow, we would truly welcome this response from a buyer.  It would be a win-win for us.

In this circumstance we certainly would not refund them at all.  If they themselves are unwilling to open an INR case, then to us that would immediately raise a red flag and make us highly suspicious about their integrity... and we certainly wouldn't be refunding them out of the goodness of our heart.

Also from experience, even the seemingly nicest buyer, with the most sincere sounding message, can turn out to be a most effective, conniving con artist.

[lincolnshiremarine]

Hi

It does not matter how you try and adjust your postage times, it will not help.  I have supplied the ebay shipping team with endless evidence with no success.  I know others have too.

They ask for evidence and you supply it, then they take ages to reply,  then they  ask for more evidence, and the process repeats again.   Even when it is clear it is not the sellers fault ebay now are taking the stance they will not removed feedback as its the buyers experience.  

More people need to complain.

Best wishes 

[theelench]

Ebay has been trying to push sellers into dispatching quicker and using quicker, more expensive, delivery options for years.  Even though they know full well that most buyers will always select the cheapest 'Standard' option and sellers told ebay that raising delivery charges would reduce their sales.

As part of ebay's arm twisting they invented the "Late Dispatch" metric, which bizarrely took the delivery date as its starting point and counted backwards to determine that a seller had dispatched after their stated handling time.  The only proof that ebay would accept that a seller had dispatched 'on time' was (the more expensive) Tracked Delivery, with the tracking number up-loaded to the sale.  It became standard advice on the boards to "lengthen your handling time", it added extra days delivery time to the sale and helped reduce "Late Dispatch / Delivery Defects".

IMO, the objective was always to reap more fees as more expensive postage increased how much ebay could skim off in FVFs.  Ebay didn't like sellers getting round the inflated fees by extending handling time, so invented its Proprietary Dynamic and Complicated Calculation to cloud the issue of how exactly delivery dates were arrived at by hiding behind five different variables plus "Other (unspecified) Factors" which it claims are used to 'calculate' the FDDs we're stuck with now.

So no, extending handling / postage times doesn't make any difference.  IMO nothing makes much difference, ebays 'calculation' just comes up with the date that ebay would like an item delivered by and ignores anything that gets in the way of that.

The fact is that as a seller, I know my buyers,  which ebay evidently doesn't.  Selling for 10 years on two sites, I've never had bad FB for 'late' delivery, in fact quite the contrary, I have plenty of FB praising "Quick Delivery" and when I had DSRs my Postage Cost was always '5'.

So hard-luck ebay, I won't be raising my prices (and fees) to provide my buyers with a service they don't want (and never selected when I did offer it) just so ebay can make a few extra pennies at my expense.

[messier44000]

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@technthread wrote:

I do understand where you are coming from.

Hope you are not turning into the weekly chat team. That is one of their generic copy / paste quotes #kiddn 

[station13thirteen]

To anita@ebay

Others have given examples, well here is an example of the absurdity from us:

It is Saturday 20th July, our listings say 'dispatched withing 24 hours Monday - Friday'. So Monday 22nd July is the earliest time anything will now be dispatched.

We have items listed for these various postage options:

FREE economy delivery (other courier): 3 - 5 working days

Royal Mail 'Tracked 48

Royal Mail First Class

Royal Mail Traqcked 24

Bizarrely, ALL of the above postage options are showing estimated delivery Tuesday 23rd July - Wednesday 24th July!!!

Two main things are the issue here. Firstly, no way on earth will our economy 3 - 5 day postage get delivered by Wednesday 24th July, so that is INR and Late Delivery buyer hassle waiting to happen right there.  And secondly, when eBay interferes and advertises these fantasy delivery dates on our behalf, what must the buyer be thinking?  Why pay for Royal Mail Tracked 24, when FREE economy 3- 5 day postage delivery is just as fast? This is simply madness.

This eBay meddling makes a mockery of postage options, makes them pointless, and if eBay cannot see this and refuses to even acknowledge that there is a problem, then as others have implied it can only be an attempt to force us sellers into buying more expensive faster or tracked postage, whereby eBay get an even bigger cut of our sales. 

Anita, is this the answer: GREED

[xxxxxvalkyriexxxxx]

Oh two of mine that are due to be sent out next Tuesday according to e bays
shipping day (I have a 3 day postage setting) have this Monday as their
expected delivery date...I guess I'll have to send by helicopter after all
...

[station13thirteen]

We are now going to add the following to our listings:

NOTE: Please disregard the ‘Free 3 Day Postage’ and 'Estimated Delivery Dates' shown on our listings. This is eBay interference and out of our control. Estimated Delivery Dates will depend on your chosen postage option and can bear little relationship to eBay’s Fantasy Delivery Dates.

Feel free to use it. 

[dch2112011]

I am not sure that will help your cause very much, you need to tone it down a bit - remember it is the buyer reading your listing not ebay - the buyer is not interested in your 'beef' with ebay

If you want to give the buyer helpful information that is one thing - if you want to have a pop at ebay that is another !

[station13thirteen]

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@dch2112011 wrote:

I am not sure that will help your cause very much, you need to tone it down a bit - remember it is the buyer reading your listing not ebay - the buyer is not interested in your 'beef' with ebay

If you want to give the buyer helpful information that is one thing - if you want to have a pop at ebay that is another !

---

That is our succinct toned down version. 😄

[a45heaven]

Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.

So when ebay includes false information, surely, as the responsible body as ebay point out, the seller has an obligation to advise potential buyers (and maybe indeed future sellers!) , thus reducing Late delivery / INR claims and ill feeling to the platform. 

How does the 'Word of Mouth' reputation generated by sales or communications affect ebay's standing? , i find it hard to imagine many positives to be offered these days compared to the platforms origins.

the buyer is not interested in your 'beef' with ebay -

are they not when the item is late when measured against ebays fantasies?

Its not like they are able to contact a person from ebay to express their concerns. 

[theelench]

"....no way on earth will our economy 3 - 5 day postage get delivered by Wednesday"

To me, as someone who gave up offering multiple postage options to buyers because they so rarely chose anything other than the "basic" cheapest method, this is the most reprehensible aspect of ebays blackmail and arm twisting to get me to send by a more expensive method.

In my case I now only offer RM 2nd Class.  Yet for over a year ebay has been telling my buyers that, if they buy on Sunday with 2 day handling (but with me posting on Monday) and 2-3 day delivery, they will get their item either Tuesday or Wednesday.

RM has NEVER claimed 2nd class is a "Next Day" service, so Tuesday is ALWAYS impossible, Wednesday is possible but the odds are it will arrive Thursday or even Friday.

It can't really be any clearer that ebay is trying to frighten me with the threat of Late Delivery Defects into upgrading my postage so that they can profit from it.  Lying to my buyers by telling them I can achieve what is and always has been, impossible.  How can that be right, in either sense of the word?

[moldosgifts]

The main issue for me is that the estimated time does not match the time displayed on the carriers website,

So for me royal mail claim that 48 should be delivered in 2-5 days  ebay 2 days. so who is right ebay or the people who actully supply the service.

[station13thirteen]

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@moldosgifts wrote:

The main issue for me is that the estimated time does not match the time displayed on the carriers website,

So for me royal mail claim that 48 should be delivered in 2-5 days  ebay 2 days. so who is right ebay or the people who actully supply the service.

---

Hmmm... Ebay or the actual service provider?   Tough question... and something that obviously has all the brilliant, highly trained eBay techies completely baffled! 😀

[theelench]

"Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing."

That's been added to every listing since I first sold here a decade ago, but can it be taken seriously any more?  Can ebay continue to hide behind it as its interference with listings has grown over the years?

I suspect it was originally used by ebay to ensure that they were not held responsible by buyers who bought items inaccurately described by the sellers.  But the boot is on the other foot now, it's ebay adding falsehoods to my listing.

How am I responsible for something that ebay adds that contradicts my stated Handling Time and the Carriers stated estimates.

Something that ebay adds after the listing goes live, changes to suit its own ends as the sale progresses and which I'm powerless to amend or remove.

The classic example:  I post an item on Monday.  Ebay tells the buyer it will arrive Tuesday - Wednesday.  It arrives Thursday (within mine and RMs delivery estimate  --  too late to be given as a gift on Wednesday and the buyer wants to return it.  I will be expected to pay for the return and am out of pocket.

Can I take ebay to the Small Claims Court ?   Ebay caused my loss by giving inaccurate info. to the buyer, overriding my own more accurate estimate.  Shouldn't ebay pay-up for causing this problem.

[vintagechinashop]

Having just ended a relationship with a narcissist and I've been reading at lot on the subject 

ive decided that eBay fits the bill perfectly.   You simply cannot win. They make their own rules and change them to suit.  I loved(love) selling but lately it's become an uphill struggle  sales are poor fees are high and getting higher.  Buyers are becoming aware of how to play the system   Is it me did I imagine this because it seems I imagine a lot lately. But did I imagine that when late delivery metrics were introduced I thought we were told that as long as we despatched on time eBay would protect us from Late delivery defects 

EDDs are almost impossible to achieve  I've currently got 12 in 12 months which I guess isn't too bad but of course in eBay's world it's terrible because somewhere out there I have peers who achieve perfection and I'm striving be beat perfection. I'd love to meet these perfect sellers but alas I guess I never will because. Yes you have guessed it they don't actually exist 

[your.home.consoles.world.ltd]

Ebay just closed the case of not receiving the item and typical for ebay:

Case details

Outcome You weren't found at fault.You weren't found at fault. More detailsMore details We received tracking information from you that shows the item is either in transit or has been delivered to the buyer's address. However, the date scanned is after your stated postal and dispatch time. In the future, please post your items as soon as possible. You don't need to do anything else.

The item was shipped and released for delivery according to the ebay ETA, however it was only delivered on the 3rd delivery attempt.

According to ebay, it's not my fault but still my fault xD

[xxxxxvalkyriexxxxx]

I bet they gave you a late delivery default for it too ... 😎

[your.home.consoles.world.ltd]

The system hasn't counted it yet. Nevertheless, I check the orders for Monday, everything is set to be shipped within 2-3 days and here are the most interesting examples :

Example number 1

Order : 26-11824-58070

Dispatch by 22 Jul 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: 23 Jul 2024 - 24 Jul 2024

1 defect guaranteed unless a miracle happens.

Example number 2

Order :05-11844-71431

Dispatch by 22 Jul 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: 25 Jul 2024 - 29 Jul 2024

Both orders are mainland,same service..

edit :

I checked everything, I have 5 orders according to example number 1, and 3 orders according to example number 2
3 other orders are in the normal range of 24-25
so yes, here we go again.

[the_book_seekers]

But did I imagine that when late delivery metrics were introduced I thought we were told that as long as we despatched on time eBay would protect us from Late delivery defects 

I remember it the same way.  This is taken from the Late Delivery Rate tab on the Seller Levels page - 

If you dispatch on time and upload a validated tracking number, or your buyers tell us their items were posted on time when they leave Feedback, you've got nothing to worry about.