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

[ojewellery]

I get why you'd want an EDD disclaimer in your listing but it would be worth considering carefully how you word it.  I was buying some sewing accessories a few days ago - the sort of lower value stuff that wouldn't be sent fully tracked. 

I came across a few listings that read as I wouldn't want to trade with this seller they've got a bit of a chip on their shoulder. 

That's as a seller myself who completely agrees the situation is ridiculous.

Potentially you could add as an FAQ in the new section which shows better than description on the App.  We post items within 'x' days of orders being placed and use service 'y' our average delivery time from placement of order is 'z' days.  You could also add the same to the questions section of messages so buyers should see this before needing to contact you, might slow down some messages.

Ultimate solution for me would be eBay allow seller override to set their own EDD's should they wish.

[johnwash1]

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@a45heaven wrote:

@johnwash1 

I see you are only selling thru Set Sale.

I used to have a few thousand items for set sale along side regular weekly auctions. - In the early days it was a benefit to have the time for a buyer to consolidate any auction wins, with set sales to gain postage savings - ebay killed that one off, so i now have Set Sales on a different platform at just 8% final fees only, no insertion fees. 

With auctions, as you have a dedicate time slot for them, you can attract buyers by self advertising on social media or web sites.

I dont feel ebay are serious about attracting Buyers for me, unless i pay extra for the promoted privilege (morally that doesn't sit well with me, when those offering to sell you a promotion are the same folks who can hide your items), and as you say Search functions are severely flawed. 

Selling despite ebay seems to be the approach now.

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I'm unfamiliar with the term Set Sale.  I guess you're referring to BIN, i.e. Buy It Now.

Many many years ago I used auctions a lot and in those days there were listing fees except for auctions starting at 99p.  I had a lot of items from WW1 and the inter-war years due to an inheritance.  Some items would go to amazing heights, even 3 figures.  But I have little faith in auctions these days, no matter how low the start price I often end with just a single bidder, so I only do 99p if I really want rid of it.  I list a fresh item as a 7 or 10 day auction, starting at a price that would only slightly disappoint me.  It rarely sells, and then I relist it as a BIN.  However I've not been adding any fresh items at all in recent months, waiting for ebay to see their failure and return to the way it was a year ago.

Yes, truly a triumph of optimism over experience, I admit.

The first sale I'm forced to use SD I'll be converting everything to local collect.  I did it back in early April, believing SD's rollout was fixed.  When I found we'd been mislead I relented and listed with postage again.  All very easy with bulk edit, 5 or 10 minutes work at most.