I have received a message from Ebay to say that I have too many 'Item not received' cases being opened by buyers due to late deliveries and if this is not rectified then my account is at risk of being down graded.
As the items we sell are only very low in value £2-£4, we send everything out by Royal Mail 2nd class letter post. There are options for the buyer to upgrade the postage for a small fee if they require their item urgently. (But this very rarely happens). Because of the price we are not able to stand the cost of a tracked service, there are some items we only make 30 -50p on
On my seller dashboard the late delivery rate is 1.06%, so well below the 3% thresshold. However we do seem to be getting more buyers opening cases against us for late delivery. I explain to buyers that the delivery dates quoted are only 'estimated and not guaranteed' (These were the exact words of a RM advisor I spoke with a week ago). and I ask them to wait a few more days and sure enough the item usually arrives. but more often than not they don't let you know the item has arrived and don't close the case they've opened.
How can Ebay downgrade my account when the delivery date 'is only estimated not guaranteed'. They also don't take into account the buyers who open cases and have put the wrong delivery address on!! (2 in the past month). It well documented in the press about the problems Royal Mail are having and that their priority are the parcels, not letters, even our local postie has told us this. Ebay need to take some ownership that the delivery dates Royal Mail are putting on their site are acheiveable, otherwise buyers are being mis-lead.
I am really frustrated with this, we have traded on Ebay for 14 years now but its just becoming increasingly more difficult and the general public seem to want everything now!
Is anyone else in this same boat?
