ebay 'estimated delivery' wrong..

se2020

I've had loads of buyers recently asking where items are and if the tracking information is correct.
This has escalated to the point of some of them opening INR disputes and leaving me poor feedback.

My star ratings have also dropped and I have a few defects now on my account but I think these might have been left automatically by ebay rather than the buyers.

One issue is that the tracking from evri does not seem to be connecting/updating properly on ebay. The status on ebay might show "tracking number provided" or "processing through the network" yet the tracking on evris site shows its already been delivered. Some of these update just very late, others never show as delivered at all.
With the 2 other carriers I use the tracking does not connect to ebay at all. I am inputting the numbers correctly and choosing the correct carrier from the drop down list but it never shows as delivered.

The other big issue is the estimated delivery date shown to the buyer. 
For example, a buyer bought and paid for an item on Friday 4th Nov at 8.42pm.
My handling time is specified as 2 working days and the postal service as ebay carrier delivery 3-5 days.

To me that would suggest I need to post it by Tuesday the 8th and it should be delivered by the 15th but the "delivery date shown to the buyer" is the 7-9th Nov.

This might be partially my fault as I printed the parcel lable on the 4th and added the tracking to ebay and then dropped it of with hermes on the 5th but it wouldn't have left the drop-off point until the 7th.
The buyer messaged me on the evening of the 7th moaning about how bad hermes/evri were in his area and I did reply telling him that it would probably not be with him until the 15th as I specified in the listing details.
He's opened a IRN on the morning of the 10th and is now constantly hassling me for a refund.
The hermes tracking does show the item being delayed and I was hoping it was going to arrive today but it's not so im going to give in and refund.

I would imagine the item will be delivered within my original time frame so the buyer will get it for free.
I'm not sure if this is what the buyer is trying to achieve or if they are just annoyed that the item is apparently almost a week late already?

How can I stop this happening again?

forgotmyname

Yes delivery estimates are a pain sometimes, wait until someone buys something on a Bank Holiday weekend
and their estimated delivery is Tuesday.  That was the delivery estimate ebay gave me as a buyer. Thought even
if they posted in early Saturday it was highly unlikely to be with me on Tuesday and maybe not even Wednesday.

I just had to tick the box saying yes it did arrive on the earlier date. If a buyer is asking for a refund your making them
wait then your scores are going to drop even lower.

Use a better postage service. 11 days for a parcel is really long, had stuff arrive from China faster than that. Buying
something now gives me an estimate of Monday or Tuesday for delivery. Even bulkier loads like 2.5m long tube or bars
are only estimated for delivery on Wednesday or Thursday.

Use a better service and even though you put 2 days you should be aiming to get it posted before then. Use it as a buffer
for items that get delayed not as a reason to extend posting because any delay will hurt your feedback and scores.

se2020

Another example,

On this item sold at 9.45pm today, the 2 working day dispatch seems to be correct and its showing 3-5 days for the carrier but the delivery date is show to the buyer as the 14th-16th even though I don't need to post it until the 15th!

I don't know of any carrier service that I can use that will get it to them by Monday?

se2020

forgotmyname said:

Yes delivery estimates are a pain sometimes, wait until someone buys something on a Bank Holiday weekend
and their estimated delivery is Tuesday.  That was the delivery estimate ebay gave me as a buyer. Thought even
if they posted in early Saturday it was highly unlikely to be with me on Tuesday and maybe not even Wednesday.

I just had to tick the box saying yes it did arrive on the earlier date. If a buyer is asking for a refund your making them
wait then your scores are going to drop even lower.

Use a better postage service. 11 days for a parcel is really long, had stuff arrive from China faster than that. Buying
something now gives me an estimate of Monday or Tuesday for delivery. Even bulkier loads like 2.5m long tube or bars
are only estimated for delivery on Wednesday or Thursday.

Use a better service and even though you put 2 days you should be aiming to get it posted before then. Use it as a buffer
for items that get delayed not as a reason to extend posting because any delay will hurt your feedback and scores.

99% of my items are posted the next day.
I pack & lable the night of the sale and then drop them off on the way to work the next morning.
But, even the best carriers in my area don't work weekends.  I can drop them off in the depot on Saturday morning but they won't go anywhere until Monday evening when they head off to the hub.

I do offer next day delivery as a postage option on some of my listings at an extra cost but nobody ever selects it.
Although that's not surprising if ebay are telling them they will get it in 2 days anyway for the free postage option!

I suppose I could just use an express carrier for everything and add the cost onto the item but I think I'll loose a lot of sales from pushing the prices up that much.

soolin

Do you have issues with the courier in your area I wonder? Yes there are intermittent issues with eBay estimated delivery times, but you seem to be having a lot more issues than other people. If INR cases were being opened regularly like this then eBay would be collapsing under the weight of complaints.

Whilst the RM strikes are postponed is it worth looking at their RM48 or even RM24 services see if they work better for you in the short term? 

forgotmyname

Sometimes you cannot win with the postage issues.  Put longer handling times and people think its going to take too long and buy
elsewhere or your item does not get there early so they leave poor feedback.

Paid extra because a seller listed a shorter delivery date, even though in the back of my mind the cheaper seller will probably
post it just as quickly.

Even though they paid late on Friday I think it counts as the working day.  Soolin may know if there is a cutoff time but knowing
ebay my suspicion is its midnight. They buy at 11:59pm and you have already used one working day, I maybe wrong but cynical
me thinks that way.

soolin

Working days start from the next working day, so something sold on a Monday with 2 days despatch would have to be posted by Wednesday . EBay seem to vary how they treat Saturdays, they shouldn’t be counted as a working day, but looking at some estimated delivery times I suspect sometimes Saturdays are counted. 

se2020

The dispatch time seems to be correct but, as the screens shot above, if the 'dispatch by' is the 15th how can the estimated delivery date start from the 14th?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

se2020 said:

That image sums eBay up perfectly!

ETAs have been a mess for years, they have gotten better but obviously the above is just stupid.

Worth double checking here

https://www.ebay.co.uk/ship/cutoff

to make sure Sat & Sun and not ticked (if they are eBay counts those days as part of the handling time). You can ignore the cut off time, it only applies to same day dispatch. 

The problem is eBay seem to tweak ETAs based on many factors (location being an example) so they could give the 14th as an early date based on you possibly posting early and they could cut the delivery time based on either your previous delivery times, general delivery times or what the courier is telling eBay their services are currently running at. 

eBay is desperate to get the ETA as short as possible, when they get it wrong it's shoved on the seller to deal with and face the consequences of metrics being affected. 

Personally I'd set dispatch to 3 days and switch to Royal Mail. 

RM Tracked 48 is well priced until the end of the year, it can't do the impossible eBay have suggested above but it's a good service:

https://send.royalmail.com/

Worth noting Tracked can't be dropped off at the PO and there are strikes planned for later this month and probably Dec to consider (although for me that still beats Hermes hands down).