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

[station13thirteen]

Even eBay surely can't be daft enough not to know that low cost items cannot be sent with high cost 'tracked' postage.

To my mind, if anything, eBay would lose more in sales than the fees they would hope to gain as small item sellers and businesses would simply cease to exist.

I think they must have a 10 year old in the IT department that spends most of his time on his phone, and every now an then has a tinker with eBay programming. 

[ett1954]

"Even eBay surely can't be daft enough"

You have more faith than I have.  I am going on previous experience. 

"To my mind, if anything, eBay would lose more in sales than the fees they would hope to gain as small item sellers and businesses would simply cease to exist."

Exactly - and what has prepayment authorisation done to sales  through offers and auctions?

"they must have a 10 year old in the IT department" - and not even a smart one.

[cactuscollarsleads]

This was my reply to someone on a different post - pass the buck back to the source of the problem

I get similar messages at times, I reply saying that I have 5 day despatch, RM 2nd is 2/3 days and then doing a copy/paste from the order - see below - and explaining that this is what I am told and what I work to. I also 'apologise' for ebay giving them unrealistic expectations and getting it wrong - yet again.  It has worked everytime so far

Dispatch by 11 Sep 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: 7 Sep 2024 - 12 Sep 2024

[vintagechinashop]

I've worked very hard at trying to achieve better arrival expectations for buyers but honestly it's like a dog trying to chase its tail 

I've checked on an order which came in yesterday and I would love to know if the buyer can genuinely see the date that I can see because it makes absolutely no sense to me

i have a next working day despatch. Order was placed yesterday morning (Saturday)

so despatch time would be Monday. That is correct on my eBay so happy with that 

here's where it gets a bit strange. My postage time is 3-5 working days so by my estimation posted Monday 9th  should arrive latest Monday 16th at very outside 

so why then does eBay show me that arrival time to buyer is 17-20th   Not that I'm complaining but can I really rely on what my eBay is telling me as opposed to what buyer sees or is that total fantasy 

[theelench]

Keep checking!!

When I've sold something (so long ago that my memories might be a bit vague!)  the FDD Shown To Buyer looks reasonable (or at least possible to achieve).  I post the item and add the RM Reference No. to ebay as "Tracking No." to prove I disptched on time and gues what!

The FDD Shown To Buyer changes, shaving a day or two off the previous date shown so my sale on Saturday, posted on Monday with RM 2nd Class changes from delivery Wednesday - Thursday to delivery Tuesday - Wednesday.

Ebays warped logic takes my two day dispatch Monday - Tuesday and notes that I disptched on day 1 so deducts day two from its calculation. 

I've even seen it said that it's possible (with multi-listings?) that ebay can be showing three different dates at the same time. One on the listing, another on the order details before posting details entered and a third as soon as tracking is entered to the sale.

[dch2112011]

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@theelench wrote:

Keep checking!!

When I've sold something (so long ago that my memories might be a bit vague!)  the FDD Shown To Buyer looks reasonable (or at least possible to achieve).  I post the item and add the RM Reference No. to ebay as "Tracking No." to prove I disptched on time and gues what!

The FDD Shown To Buyer changes, shaving a day or two off the previous date shown so my sale on Saturday, posted on Monday with RM 2nd Class changes from delivery Wednesday - Thursday to delivery Tuesday - Wednesday.

Ebays warped logic takes my two day dispatch Monday - Tuesday and notes that I disptched on day 1 so deducts day two from its calculation. 

I've even seen it said that it's possible (with multi-listings?) that ebay can be showing three different dates at the same time. One on the listing, another on the order details before posting details entered and a third as soon as tracking is entered to the sale.

---

You are spot on with these observations - this is the dynamic system working apparently

The biggest problem is the two tier system carriers have - one for volume account sellers and one for  smaller volume sellers 

Take RM - RM48 with our volume nearly always arrives the day after collection or the following day and we always dispatch same day up to 4pm  - the only time this may vary is at peak times 'Christmas'  so if all the larger volume sellers post arrives on time or early and many smaller sellers report longer deliveries with longer dispatch times maybe ebay see the majority of deliveries arriving early or on time and this becomes the norm ?

[theelench]

You could be right, but shouldn't ebay have taken that into account when writing their dynamic program?

Or is it working perfectly for larger sellers with larger volume, while hitting smaller sellers who don't qualify for that type of service? 

In which case it isn't working right although it might well be working as intended by descriminating against smaller sellers.

[dch2112011]

You have guessed right, the EDD for volume sellers is  pretty accurate, which doesn't help members who are experiancing problems, it isn't a level playing field by any stroke of the imagination.

ebay for a long time have been pushing for same day dispatch and delivery next day to compete with their biggest rivals - it seems they are channeling sellers down this path - the other push for a good while is to get order values up - different discussion but may be linked somewhere down the line

[station13thirteen]

Same day dispatch is not only impractical for most sellers but would still be hit and miss depending on when the items are in fact collected... and of course exactly when the order is placed will make a difference.  Our local Evri collects from the local drop-off point at around 9am, so makes same day dispatch with this courier absolutely impossible. And collection times with any particular courier will vary greatly from region to region.

Items have to be picked, packed and processed so next day dispatch is the only practical and realistic option for the vast majority of sellers. 

And as for next day delivery, you have to take into account that many couriers including Royal Mail do not count the dispatch/collection day when offering 24hr and 48hr deliveries. We have never known a RM 24hr to be deliverd the following day, probably because RM do not pick up from our local PO until 5pm...ish.

With the millions of people using eBay, they are not exactly going to be struggling for cash are they? It's just the greedy fat wallets at the top of the food chain wanting more and more.

[dch2112011]

The problem is that for volume sellers - next day delivery is a reality - Evri collect daily as do RM and Yodel, DHL, DPD from the premises at an agreed time and deliver next day -  (6or 7 days a week)

When you add together all items sold daily by volume sellers (not the number of sellers) and weigh the numbers of items against smaller volume sellers daily sales it might explain the 91% accurate EDD figure given by ebay.

[vintagechinashop]

I buy my packing materials from an ebay seller who uses Amazon to deliver. The service is very quick I'm thinking many other large volume sellers are doing the same so that would explain how this would affect the percentages 

[theelench]

Does that mean that all the 10s  / 100s of thousands of private sellers on ebay who list week-in ,  week-out, in reality only account for 9% of sales.

Why the F are we bothering? 

[dch2112011]

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@theelench wrote:

Does that mean that all the 10s  / 100s of thousands of private sellers on ebay who list week-in ,  week-out, in reality only account for 9% of sales.

I really have no idea or how to find out  but if ebay are claiming 91% correct edd's then they theoretically gather this information from the transaction information to hand  and if  high volume sellers are achieving the edd's  and based on what is reported here it could be that small volume sellers account for a smaller percentage of actual items dispatched via ebay.

ebay are trying to design systems that work for all members under one umbrella but over the years the systems seem to be favouring high worth members -  I have always advocated that this is near impossible to achieve  and maybe the solution would be to completely seperate ebay into two areas with totally different policies.

The problems for personal sellers are unique to those who operate full time - dispatch time, delivery costs, packaging, consumer rights to name a few areas of disparity. Putting all types of seller together  raises expectations for buyers that all orders are  purchased to the same level of service. 

It is a difficult problem to solve but things like delivery estimates could be an opt out for personal sellers with a blanket up to 14 day delivery estimate.

[dwtrading2015]

"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?"

The programmers are in the US. The culture in the US is to be informed every micro movement of the package.  It is believed the constant info flow of info and half glass full estimates gives confidence the item is on its way to avoid people trying to contact CS.  It is assumed that everybody else on the planet has the same insecure panic about online buying.  Hence, estimated delivery is intended to pressure sellers to dispatch early (including same day dispatch sellers who obviously should be dispatching the order a day or two before it is placed), and a load of tracking emails of various quality and accuracy depending on the courier.

UK people are now getting conditioned to expect impossible delivery rates and step by step updates.  No amount of reporting issues will change the program.  The programmers back in the states scratch their heads trying to understand what on earth you are all complaining about.

[chilloutgames]

The IT guys are in UK/EU

https://jobs.ebayinc.com/us/en/c/engineering-jobs

[station13thirteen]

Not really sure what your comment has to do specifically with this latest sent 'untracked' message feature that buyers are now seeing though?

[mod81]

Its good to see ebay are on top of this and resolved this problem since it was first reported. LOL

Ive just had a buyer purchase something at 8pm last night where i had set the dispatch time as 2 working days, and the shipping method as other courier 3 to 5 days.

And when i look at the order on Ebay this morning its showing an EDD of 18th or 19th.

So basically ebay are saying i should be sending it on a next day service even though i had said it was going to be economy shipping.

[exponential_developments]

This morning i have 2ND class Royal mail showing delivery in 1 - 2 days, yet i have 1 day despatch time.........

So according to ebay, 2nd class post could be next day delivery.

[station13thirteen]

And so the madness goes on...  it just shows you how little eBay listens to its sellers, and how little they actually care.

[the-layer-laboratory]

As frustrating as the issue is, I think we’re just all going to have to get over this. Ebay’s unrelenting stance on the matter (working as intended) is not going to change and IMO, is driven purely by their bottom line – It’s cheaper for ebay to deal with this mess they’ve created, than to loose out on sales due to slow delivery estimates.