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

[a45heaven]

you lose your top rated status, which has a real impact on displaying ads and sales.

Really?? Have you proof that is what happens. How many buyers only deal with Top Rated Sellers? This is the only real concern you should have.

Just go by what you feel is correct morally and logically, those words seldom appear in ebay schemes.

Extend handling times, take an extra day before marking as shipped, and avoid tracking info - If that means buying postage from RM then, why not.

[your.home.consoles.world.ltd]

I don't think we understood each other. User *theelench* wrote a post that I agree with
Yes, Top Rated can actually increase sales and I am writing this from my own experience, and this status is also helpful in cases related to scams, so it is better to have it.

As for Royal Mail, it's true and I've saved myself with it more than once.

[a45heaven]

Yes, Top Rated can actually increase sales and I am writing this from my own experience,

How? and how is that measured?

Top Rated used to be an elevated status, that received monthly rebates of 25% from ebay on fees charged, times change.

and this status is also helpful in cases related to scams

How?

I thought ebay ignored all sellers that same.

[station13thirteen]

We previously had an INR from an eBay newcomer  (just joined, no feedback) who opened the case the day after eBay's FDD.  We asked them to give it a few more days,  and let us know if it turned up.

We then heard nothing more. We contacted the buyer a few times to see if the item had been received, but never any reply.  Eventually (we now know foolishly) asked eBay to step in and close this INR case as the buyer was not responding, and very likely now was in possession of the item.

We have 100% feedback, are a top rated seller, and eBay in their wisdom, decided to refund this new 'no feedback' eBayer, in preference to us! And of course we get an INR mark to boot. 

When we complained we were told we should send all items 'tracked'.  This was for something standard letter size, for which you cannot get tracked anyway, and something that if sent via anything other than economy post would be profitless.  

[your.home.consoles.world.ltd]

The topic concerns shipments and estimated delivery time, as for sales, I don't know what the difference is in the algorithm, but it is so noticeable that I had the comparison more than once (the topic of 3% late deliver comes back)
As for the topic of fraud, the procedure is the same as for everyone else, it's just that appeals are strangely more efficient.
Many months ago, a customer replaced a part purchased from us, we spent 5 business days filing an appeal and sending the required documents, crime number, confirmation that we did not receive the item ETC.
This week we solved a similar case in a few hours, guess what was the difference between these two cases?

[your.home.consoles.world.ltd]

Oh man, this is all too common.
We can also add users who have been on eBay for years and have 10 opinions, and they only have these opinions because many sellers leave opinions automatically after the sale, and such an account simply makes free purchases from time to time with impunity.

[a45heaven]

This week we solved a similar case in a few hours, guess what was the difference between these two cases?

By dealing directly with the buyer? and keep ebay out of it (thats my way, and im comfortable with it)

[4_bathrooms]

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@theelench wrote:

I haven't checked recently but aren't Late Delivery Defects part of ebays money spinning "Service Metrics"?

One too many and up go FVFs by 4%. (?)  --  Ker-ching for ebay again(?).

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The 4%* is if the "Item not as described" service metric is rated "very high"; the "Item not received" service metric doesn't attract a FVF penalty. There is a separate 4%* penalty if a seller's "seller level" is below standard for too long.

*Note when eBay state a 4% increase what they actually mean is they will add 4% to the existing FVF rate. So, if you were a business selling in a category that attracts a 10% FVF rate you would be paying 14% (i.e. a 40% increase in fees) if you fell foul of one and 18% (i.e. an 80% increase in fees) if you fell foul of both. A non-VAT registered business would also need to remember that is all excluding VAT.

Just to demonstrate the lunacy of eBay's all sticks and no carrots attitude towards sellers:

So, the example I posted earlier of an almost impossible to achieve EDD was actually of an extended EDD due to my INR service metric being evaluated as "very high"! The absolute kicker is the reason so many (5%) of my buyers opened INR cases last month was due to the impossible to achieve EDDs they were given by eBay...

[xxxxxvalkyriexxxxx]

Well I'm not happy doing this, I have been letting my customers know in
advance that I won't be using a helicopter to ensure next day delivery
because of e bays' 3 day obsession with transactions and their belief that
a bought item should be in a customers hand as soon as an item is paid for
as I simply cannot offer one day turnaround.

All my items are hand made to order.

Customers are happy paying for dispatch within 3 working days until they
see the unrealistic estimated delivery date given by e bay once they pay
which is more often than not the day I'm due to post the item out!

I feel as if I'm letting a customer down when I tell them e bay has given a
wrong date to expect an item by, I've even had to refund a few customers
because they were unhappy that their item had to rely on good old Royal
Mail on top of the date given once paid.

[station13thirteen]

You can't keep eBay out of it if the buyer opens a INR case though... can you? The only thing you can hope for is that the buyer is genuine, open to communication, reasonable... and not just out to scam you.  All they have to do is claim they haven't received it, and if it is something standard letter size then there will never be and delivery confirmation (we also find that large letters do not always show as delivered, whether they have been or not). 

[your.home.consoles.world.ltd]

I'm glad you have your own way of dealing with returns.
My communication with the client ends when the client sends back an empty box.

[a45heaven]

Generally i have a good relationship with my buyers - if ive made a mistake, its my fault end of. If not we debate and find a solution. If they go down the ebay system route, i point out timescale of the system and the inflexibility involved (or not).

But as they are members of ebay, they must be responsible 😉

[dch2112011]

Absolutely spot on - there is no reason to involve ebay unless you really have to - I can never understand why sellers ignore buyers or advise them to open a case - it's just asking for trouble.  

We find most buyers will message you first before resorting to ebay - the key is a fast and I mean fast friendly response - nearly all buyers are honest and will work with you as long as you engage and offer realistic solutions to the problem.

Keep telling buyers to open cases / requests via the MBG just penalises the seller  - it is designed to bring disputes to an end and as such the thought behind it must be ' if the seller cannot sort out their buyer's concerns then we will at the sellers cost' 

[station13thirteen]

Why would sellers tell buyers to open INR cases?

As I see it, the only reason a seller would ever ask a buyer to open an INR is if the seller can see that the tracking says 'delivered' and can upload the tracking number. Then the fun can really start if you are dealing with someone out to scam you.  By rights eBay should side with the seller, but even when tracking says 'delivered', this is not always the case.

If the buyer opens a INR case which, in our experience at least, many now do without prior contact due to ebay's FDD dates, then eBay is involved, like it or not.  

Most buyers are decent, will understand that delivery is out of our hands once posted, and will respond politely, but every now and then you get the obnoxious foul-mouth git that is fuming because his package is half a day late according to eBay's FDDs, and they need it NOW!   You can usually tell how things will go when you have someone that can't string an intelligible sentence together and any word over three letters in length is spelt wrongly.

[technthread]

If the item is untracked such as a RM large letter I almost always ask the buyer to open a case. That's because I see the % of them that don't get a delivery scan and I have faith in Royal Mail to deliver, I doubt they have ever lost one of mine even though I have had to refund buyers a few times. 

If the buyer communication is very good I might refund voluntarily but hardly ever. The reason for me is simple, some buyers get refunded this way and realise how easy it was, it didn't even go down as an eBay INR case so they can keep messaging other sellers fishing for a voluntary refund. eBay can't act if they have no numbers on how many cases the buyer is opening.

Genuine buyers won't have an issue with opening a case, it is 2 clicks away and they have nothing to hide in doing it. I see this a bit like unpaid item strikes, sellers complain but they don't strike the buyer using the proper eBay process. 

[a45heaven]

In order to make better judgment on a buyers ethics, would it not be a good step if the number of cliams they make were visible to sellers?

Whilst not directly related to the OP on fantasy EDD's , many times  ebay have been requested to show the frequency of buyers making claims (echoed most recently by the invisible none payment strikes after 4 days) - but thats another thought for a different thread.

[station13thirteen]

Sorry Techno, I really can't understand the logic or your reasoning behind actually asking the buyer to open an INR and actively involve eBay? 

If the buyer does not open an INR case and patiently waits, then if they don't have the item within RM's 14 day 2nd Class post 'delayed' window, we refund.  However, the item usually always turns up within 14 days, and honest buyers will let us know, and eBay remains uninvolved and non-the-wiser.

The key is to get the buyer to give it time to turn up.  Again, in our experience, it is the seemingly very impatient or rude buyers that are usually the potential scammers and the ones that will jump to open an INR case.  But each to his own I guess.

[technthread]

If I could automatically block buyers with X number of item not received cases opened I would.  I would rather do that than block non payers as they don't cost me money and time filling out an RM claim for loss form. 

It wouldn't be a ridiculously low number but if say a buyer has more than 20 purchases and 20% were closed as item not received i'd rather not sell to them. It doesn't necessarily have to mean they are scamming but if they are having so much lost post it makes a sale to them a risk.

[4_bathrooms]

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@a45heaven wrote:

In order to make better judgment on a buyers ethics, would it not be a good step if the number of cliams they make were visible to sellers?

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That will never happen as such information falls under the GDPR's definition of personal data.

[technthread]

I do understand where you are coming from, it is just the way selling on here has scarred me into being. I will usually ask the buyer to give it a few days and then by all means open a case and I accompany that with proof of postage or a

screenshot of the label to assure them that it was sent. 

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.