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

[trustnature]

I've woken up this morning to find all my listings are showing 'Free Next day delivery" when i ship using 2nd class. So sick of this.

[daytona-500]

Some buyers live in cloud cuckoo land!

I had a buyer open an INR case today (Tuesday) when he had purchased his item on Thursday and had selected free 2nd class delivery and he now wants a refund!

Given that RM have only had 2 business days to deliver it so far, Friday and Monday, what was he expecting?

Also, RM allow 10 business days before an item can be declared lost but ebay ignore that and will refund the buyer after 7 days or so. What happens when the item is delivered between then and the 10 day period? The buyer gets their item free, that's what. In the meantime the seller is out of pocket yet again due to unscrupulous buyers and eBay's increasingly ridiculous polices. 

[lincolnshiremarine]

Hi daytona-50

I made the original post about this, I've spoken to endless eBay representative, even had a point of contact with the eBay shipping team supplying evidence weekly to them. 

I've passed over a folder of evidence to management at an eBay show too.  All you will get from eBay is, they base the delivery dates on dynamic formulas.

It does not matter if you alter your postage dates etc, eBay will still give false delivery dates to the buyers. Once you hit the button you have dispatched the item, eBay thinks you have dropped it off and the courier has it within that hour and being delivered.

We have resorted to putting a paragraph in all our listings about the estimated delivery dates and how we cannot override them.  Lots of buyers presume sellers calculate the delivery dates, then understandably they are disappointed with the buyer, just because eBay have given them a unrealistic and impossible delivery date.

We don't send anything 2nd class, but use tracked 48 hours for large letters, obviously it is more costly and depends on the value of your item as to whether this is cost effective for you.

I tried my best for all the sellers that raise this issue, and despite spending hours supplying evidence eBay of our own false delivery dates, eBay are just not interested.  I was pre warned that eBay would not listen, but felt I needed to try.

 Best wishes 

[inchi69]

Something else that needs looking at is sellers advertising they are uk based yet postage on packaging comes from overseas mainly china. When you do tell eBay you get no action guess its no different with delivery dates. Ive had delivery dates change when ive bought an item that said they were uk based and the delivery time increases and you find out there from china which according to Ebay rules is illegal but they do nothing about it when reported.

[daytona-500]

Thanks for your reply and well done for chasing it up with ebay. I have phoned ebay numerous times over the years about different issues and used to get through to a CS rep in Ireland who were generally pretty helpful but more recently I get put through to someone in the Philippines who just reads from a script.

I have resorted to messaging buyers after their purchase informing them of the unrealistic EDDs and to please be patient waiting for Royal Mail to deliver, especially now under their reduced 2nd class service.

[tagstapeslabels]

Oh no, I've just reported the same issue to eBay and looking at these messages, I guess it's not going to be resolved. I too had to refund a buyer last week because they didn't receive the item before eBay's incorrectly calculated estimated delivery date and I wanted to avoid negative feedback, but I obviously can't keep doing that going forward...

I'll put a note in the Item Description about this issue but it seems like very few people actually read the Item Description!

[bojangled]

@tagstapeslabels try adding an image with a text box (from Canva or similar) to the images. We all know people rarely read descriptions, but are quite likely to scroll through the images. 
Jo

[tagstapeslabels]

Great suggestion, thanks. Yes I'll do that 😊

[ett1954]

I should mention that text in photographs is not allowed.......  But then the site is full of them - 'photos to follow' (they seldom do), business cards, even website addresses; so I don't think you will have anything to worry about.

I would add that I did report a business card photograph on a 'private' seller's listing but eBay messaged me to say they could find nothing wrong - so go ahead.

[nutrafituk]

Here's a new one. Having listed an item yesterday we noticed it showed a free 2-day delivery rather than 3 just like any other listing. Following our report eBay's response was that we have always had 'same day dispatch' offered in our postage policy. 

Just wonder how much more useless can customer service be when the facts and records literally contradict what they say? 

[theplaceforlace]

Yes they are certainly including Saturday and Sunday as dispatch AND delivery days.  I have had three long conversations with customer services.  One lady suggested extending dispatch time (already tried that and it does not work because the EDD are mainly based on seller performance, not on delivery company estimates or handling time).  Another said 'Wouldn't you rather have unrealistic estimated delivery times to encourage you to get the item out quickly and try and meet the estimate?'  I said no because I am not a magician and however hard I work, staying up late and getting orders ready to post next day, it is impossible for an item sold on Saturday night to be delivered on Monday morning so I would rather the tech team get it right not me try to work around their impossible EDDs.  I was told they would get a member of the tech team to ring me for a chat about it - still waiting.

[bojangled]

@ett1954 I appreciate you mentioning that and you are of course quite correct. 
On the back of the weekly chat last week re home baked goods being sold by incorrectly registered sellers, I saw one such seller with full business details and website address in the first image. It’s unbelievable.
Didn’t bother reporting as it’s a waste of effort. 
Jo

[ett1954]

"Didn’t bother reporting as it’s a waste of effort." - I certainly agree there.  Reported two private sellers listing food over a week ago.  One with a potentially fatal product and both illegal listings.  Never heard back at all from eBay and both listings still active.

Hilariously I received an offer on both listings from the sellers and my watch list is now interspersed with sponsored products from the more serious of the two.

Now considering contacting the Food Standards Agency.

[diythecraftypanda]

I had quite a lot of complains from customers due to items being delivered  (2nd class Royal Mail) after estimated time. I decided to increase handle time to 2 days and selected Other courier 5 days. It was fine for 1-2 weeks now ebay shows that my items will be delivered withing 3 days. Base on 2 days handle time and 5 days for delivery it should be about 20 -21.