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

[theelench]

You may well be right in your assumptions and that ebay can't change how the algorithm works but if that's the case how can ebay claim that it's "Dynamic"?

Doesn't that imply that it's self-adjusting and taking into account all the variables for all sellers.  They don't say it's dynamic for the majority but not for smaller sellers that ebay can't be bothered to work-out how to get the algorithm to show accurate DDs for?

In the mean time smaller sellers are meant to put up with FDDs that are consistently overly optimistic to the point of impossibility and all the drawbacks that follow from them.

If ebay can't tell the truth to buyers, it should not tell them anything.  That would be far better than deliberately and knowingly misleading them? 

[dch2112011]

I am guessing again but it looks like the EDD is linked to the carrier API link between ebay and the carrier and when this changes the EDD changes .

I also guess that info gathering  is updated fairly constantly - ie if deliveries across the sector suddenly become delayed - weather, industrial action, Christmas for example - the system recognises this and adjusts the EDD to the average.

Dynamic - fluid are simple terms to make it sound wonderful - my take is that the automated system gathers and updates  itself based on information gathering from other linked computer resources within the parameters set within it's programming -

[johnwash1]

Don't use ebay postage.  Set your expected performance very conservatively (mine is 5 days to despatch,  using "other courier 5 days").  Buy your postage elsewhere, mostly I use RM's Click and Collect.

Tell your buyer when the postie collects their parcel.  Don't enter tracking into ebay.  If it's tracked postage, e.g. RM 48 tracked, tell the buyer the tracking number.

Wait until the very last day before marking the item despatched.  Or sometimes, even the day after.  As a result, very often my happy buyers have left feedback even before I've marked it despatched!

Ebay don't screw around and my delivery estimates remain conservative.  Simplez.

Admittedly sometimes I get buyers asking me "has it been despatched yet?", even though I've told them it has.  But if everyone had more than fluff between their ears we'd be living on a very different planet.

[dch2112011]

Deceiving buyers  may well be manageable for very low volume sellers but certainly would not be a practical solution for anyone handling even a relatively small volume of orders a day.

The number of buyers who will not place an order would be noticeable due to the declared extended dispatch and delivery time  (the number one concern with nearly all buyers is delivery time and plays an important part of the buying process )

Those who do order will initially be uncertain about when they will receive their order even if you message them telling them you have dispatched their order -  most buyers feel more comfortable when dispatch is confirmed and tracked via ebay.

This will undoubtedly cause customers to raise their concerns with the seller - as you have found out with the number of orders you handle. 

It would be also very likely that when an order is delayed beyond the false delivery dates  an INR case and negative feedback would swiftly follow.

I believe that this would be a recipe for disaster for most sellers in the long run.

[johnwash1]

"The number of buyers who will not place an order would be noticeable due to the declared extended dispatch and delivery time (the number one concern with nearly all buyers is delivery time and plays an important part of the buying process )"

I guess I'm fortunate because I'm mostly selling rather niche items and my buyers are rarely worried about speed of delivery.

"This will undoubtedly cause customers to raise their concerns with the seller - as you have found out with the number of orders you handle. "

A couple or so.  In many years.

"It would be also very likely that when an order is delayed beyond the false delivery dates an INR case and negative feedback would swiftly follow."

One neg.  For a totally different reason, from a buyer who didn't read the title, let alone the description.

But ok, different sellers work different ways, appropriate for their circumstances.  I'm simply mentioning what I do, and I feel it works well for me.  Others must make their own decisions, I'm only throwing an option into the mix.

[dch2112011]

With unique or niche products this would work but for more common items the buyer would look at the estimated delivery and look elsewhere unless it was dirt cheap and the price outweighed delivery inconvenience.

The admin if you sold in number would be a burden imagine manually entering information 200 times a day 7 days a week you would soon get frazzled

It is a real shame that any seller should need to think outside the box but the box doesn't fit smaller sellers - I wonder what percentage of smaller sellers say up to 50 items a day that are being hugely inconvenienced with the way estimates are calculated ?

ebay reckon about 9% are inconvenienced  which is hell of a number.

Your solution is the only one that works around it but it certainly wouldnt be foreverybody  - so well done for finding something that is working for you  and I am sure some sellers reading it will undoubtedly benifit 

[artpoint2000]

I have been battling with ebay on this topic for around 18months after initially being told it was a system glitch (then to be told it was "dynamic estimates". 

Its absolute bull, i cant understand for the life of me how a multi national business can operate in such a shoddy manner and not realise the issues it causes between sellers and customers.

For the record, the only way ive found to accuratley display the correct delivery estimate for my listings is to set an "other 24hr courier" and change the handling time to 4 days. This seems to work and gives the customer the correct timescale that i need and have set within listing (2days handling & 3 days delivery) and my items usually turn up a day early. 

[lincolnshiremarine]

Hi

I  agree with everything you have said.  Last week we supplied the shipping team with 10 examples that the delivery dates were wrong and still nothing is being done about it.  I have spent hours as have other sellers providing the shipping team with evidence.

I am pretty certain that if we wanted to remain top seller and have the ebay discounts, we have to meet the ebay criteria, which is we have to offer the next day or same day dispatch, so this would not work for us.

Best wishes  

[a45heaven]

ebay paid their highly skilled designers to make this situation to ebays instructions - they are not going to change what ever the users say, unless there was  a dramatic down turn in site usage maybe.

Simply extend your handing time, avoid integrated delivery times so as to limit late deliveries, and ignore Top Rated status.

TR status used to have a reward of 25% rebate each month - that's gone down to , zero maybe?

What is the stated benefits of TR? Improved visibility ! Wheres the measure of that.

Selling despite ebay.

[bazinga-games]

On a slightly different note - although still to do with postage - I see this this morning against a purchase I made:

"Dispatched (Untracked): Est. delivery Tue 27 Aug - Wed 28 Aug"

I guess it could be an 'experiment', but fear it's something they've now updated to.  For a buyer who is so inclined, that really is a red rag to a bull, IMO...

Not very good for sellers who don't add tracking to try to avoid eBay's over-enthusiastic EDD 😐

[2099doom]

i have been banging on about this ince they installed this *bleep* autmated system it does not work ther system does not remove non late deliveys. i am sick of loosing my top raed seller levelcbecause of this you cant get out of the whole i ship 12 times a week twice a day. and i hve just had 57 late delverys drop in all at once who kidding us. 

[dza-4617]

I constantly have issues like these with international delivery. For instance, one order to the US and one to Canada placed on the same day, same hour, same delivery service. According to ebay package sent out to some backwater village in the middle of Arizona should arrive a full week before a package sent to Toronto Canada... An ebay rep was flat out told me that if ebay provided real delivery dates nobody would buy anything, so go figure.

[outbounce_1290]

I may be being overly cynical here but...

Posted a number of items this morning using my usual posting method (RM Tracked 48 )

As usual ebay's FDD tell the buyer to potentially expect delivery tomorrow

As usual I went to "contact buyer" to advise them to COMPLETELY IGNORE the uselss false information they had been given by ebay

Only to find that i am unable to contact any of my buyers - I continually receive an "error message" saying we ran into a problem, please try again later, so i have tried later, many times and still keep getting that same error message.

Am i being cynical or....

[a45heaven]

to advise them to COMPLETELY IGNORE the uselss false information they had been given by ebay

put the narative in the items descriptions  - messages are severly flawed as noted on the boards, so dont always blame a buyer / seller for not responding, assume they dont get the message.

[darth_baggins]

More evidence (not that it's needed) that eBay simply can't get delivery estimates right.

I bought something on Monday, I've just looked at it now tells me it's running behind, was expected September 4th-5th. It's 11:50am on the 5th, so how is this running behind? And can an estimate even run behind, give that it's just an estimate?

This is a very negative thing to show customers and it will immediately get them thinking their order is late, when it's really not. At least wait until the 6th before showing that it's 'behind'.

eBay, please stop giving estimates that you then claim are guaranteed delivery dates.

[chilloutgames]

dza-4617's post above makes some business sense:

"An ebay rep was flat out told me that if ebay provided real delivery dates nobody would buy anything, so go figure." 

But my guess is that the "Running behind" and "Arrives Today"(the day after posting 2nd class)  are OUT OF CONTROL madness coming unfiltered from the IT department.

[darth_baggins]

And my order just arrived, within the EDD window, so it was never 'running behind'.

[station13thirteen]

It's like eBay are just going out of their way to make life as dificult as possible for sellers. 

When we already have to try to compete with items sent from China via FREE POST  and delivered in the UK for less than it costs us to just post the items within the UK, we really don't need this additional pressure and accompanying nonsense. 

If there was another selling platform to compete with eBay then they would have to seriously re-evaluate some of their 'great' ideas. Mind you if there was another selling platform to give eBay a run for its money, we'd be off eBay before you could say, 'Estimated Delive.....' 

[station13thirteen]

---

@bazinga-games wrote:

On a slightly different note - although still to do with postage - I see this this morning against a purchase I made:

"Dispatched (Untracked): Est. delivery Tue 27 Aug - Wed 28 Aug"

I guess it could be an 'experiment', but fear it's something they've now updated to.  For a buyer who is so inclined, that really is a red rag to a bull, IMO...

Not very good for sellers who don't add tracking to try to avoid eBay's over-enthusiastic EDD 😐

---

We see this too now. 

Not sure what to make of this yet.  Obviously it highlights to the buyer that the item has been sent 'untracked', but what the consequences of this will be it is too early to say. What will the buyer seeing this highlighted now be thinking?

In our case the buyer always has the option to purchase 'tracked' postage, so what the purpose of eBay highlighting the fact that they haven't done so after the purchase seems to me to be more eBay mind games. It's hard to fathom the thinking behind this... mind you trying to fathom the thinking behind so many eBay interferences is an enigma in itself. 

I'm wondering if entering the postage item number  (or any other random number) in the tracking box will prevent this being highlighted?

I'm concerned that this is another eBay pIot that only serves them, as I just can't see what the benefit is to either buyer or seller highlighting that the item has been posted 'untracked'?

It just never ends, does it...?

[ett1954]

This is probably all part of eBay's drive to push sellers to use a tracked delivery service; even on low cost items.

A higher cost service = higher prices + more fees to be taken by eBay.

eBay's prime only business plan these days - an increase in fee take from a diminshing number of sales.