Stupid eBay delivery estimates

soolin

I know I am always whinging about the eBay delivery estimates, but an item I sold last Sunday with a 2 day despatch 2nd class postage is now apparently 'lost' as it is after the latest delivery estimate.

I have had to refund the buyer (and block them obviously) . The buyer responded to my initial 'can you wait a few more days' email with a curt 'eBay on the phone told me this is now considered lost as it should have been with me on Thursday at the latest and said you must refund'. I've checked the delivery estimates and yep, it is a day past the latest delivery estimate.

So although I didn't actually need to post it until Tuesday (I posted Monday) the delivery estimate was also Tuesday-Thursday. On what planet are eBay?

iammumtoone

But after you raise a case don't you have to wait a certain amount of days before you can escalate it? The number of waiting days before case can be referred to ebay for a decision would be enough to give RM the chance to deliver it.

soolin

iammumtoone wrote: »

But after you raise a case don't you have to wait a certain amount of days before you can escalate it? The number of waiting days before case can be referred to ebay for a decision would be enough to give RM the chance to deliver it.

Holiday and work mean I don't have time to watch for the deadline, and I was perhaps a tad firmer than I should have been in my initial response which put me at risk of poor feedback if i delayed. The 2 nd response (all via email) was a very firm, 'I have phoned eBay and checked.....' That I thought there was very little point in delaying the inevitable.

It is a low cost item and not worth sitting brooding over and worrying about the deadline , in terms of cost - refunding now and perhaps getting the buyer to feel a little guilty is worth it. I do hope though that eBay seriously take tally of how many cases a buyer opens within ridiculous time frames.

iammumtoone

soolin wrote: »

It is a low cost item and not worth sitting brooding over and worrying about the deadline , in terms of cost - refunding now and perhaps getting the buyer to feel a little guilty is worth it. I do hope though that eBay seriously take tally of how many cases a buyer opens within ridiculous time frames.

I hope they do, I thought that was why it now automatically opens a case when you report a non delivery, I assumed that if a buyer opens above a certain percentage of non-delivery cases then action will be taken against them, at least I hope so.

celestius

I had a case opened last night for non delivery, item was posted on 29th November 2nd class so not terribly late. The message just said 'wonder where my item is' - I think RM has been slow recently as I am getting a lot of queries

campdave

soolin wrote: »

The buyer responded to my initial 'can you wait a few more days' email with a curt 'eBay on the phone told me this is now considered lost as it should have been with me on Thursday at the latest and said you must refund'.

I doubt anyone from ebay said any such thing.

Leave a follow up feedback comment on their profile apologising for the delay/loss of item.

It may be worth removing second class from your items for the time being, as I have read RM are overloaded with parcels due to time of year and these are bottom of the pile as they don't have enough van drivers and have to prioritise first class parcels.

soolin

campdave wrote: »

I doubt anyone from ebay said any such thing.

Leave a follow up feedback comment on their profile apologising for the delay/loss of item.

It may be worth removing second class from your items for the time being, as I have read RM are overloaded with parcels due to time of year and these are bottom of the pile as they don't have enough van drivers and have to prioritise first class parcels.

The 'I spoke to eBay' line always frustrates me, she may well have done but it changes nothing and it was pointless. it all boils down to the stupid delivery estimates that suggest a 2 nd class item can arrive the day it is due to be posted. That was on my private account BTW , I seem to have more issues there despite tiny sales than I do on my business account.

I've put holiday settings on now and I'm having some time away spending all my lovely eBay earnings on a bit of 5* luxury.

I would not have refunded this early, but reading back on my initial response I may have been ever so slightly sarcastic, and that was a mistake I should have known better than to make.

iammumtoone

As its your personal account for future could you change the dispatch time to 5 days? this is what mine states however I never leave it that long I always post within one or two days but it gives me some leeway if anything goes wrong and customers are always happy as they appear to get their item early.

I appreciate that wouldn't be possible on a business account but alot of private accounts have long dispatch times.

bxboards

You should always request that anyone reporting lost items raises a Case as this allows them to track this.

I do not believe the buyer phoned Ebay - there are notoriously hard to contact, and why would a buyer contact Ebay before contacting you? The answer - they didn't.

Always ask buyers to raise Cases - you can refund immediately if you choose to with no impact to your metrics, but this allows Ebay to keep track off these things. Royal Mail say to allow a full two weeks before items are counted as lost - I had an item (from China) post marked 23th October arrive only today and two Amazon items - both sent on the same day arrived 3 days apart just this week.

Giving away freebies just encourages them to try the same thing with someone else.

soolin

bxboards wrote: »

You should always request that anyone reporting lost items raises a Case as this allows them to track this.

I do not believe the buyer phoned Ebay - there are notoriously hard to contact, and why would a buyer contact Ebay before contacting you? The answer - they didn't.

Always ask buyers to raise Cases - you can refund immediately if you choose to with no impact to your metrics, but this allows Ebay to keep track off these things. Royal Mail say to allow a full two weeks before items are counted as lost - I had an item (from China) post marked 23th October arrive only today and two Amazon items - both sent on the same day arrived 3 days apart just this week.

Giving away freebies just encourages them to try the same thing with someone else.

A case was opened in ebay as the system showed it was 'late', that's why the clock was ticking with the deadline for repayment. As I said above I hope ebay do take note of these cases, especially if a buyer makes a habit of opening them 5 days after purchase on a 2 day despatch 2nd class.

I don't think changing my despatch time will help at all, we all know buyers disregard what the listing says and expect ti all next day.

soolin

Update; just got back from a lovely break to find a glowing positive from this buyer ' absolutely bargain and a great seller' .

Hmm, do I assume thy are being funny, or trying to be nice?

It is too early yet to see if my stars have been affected, but odd feedback don't you think?