Fed up with ebay Estimated Delivery Times!

moonpenny

Have just checked my listings (Tues 7 Feb) and all the ones with RM delivery are listed as Free delivery 2-4 day Thursday 9 to Saturday 11.
I listed them with Free delivery 3-5 days?The earliest I could post is tomorrow morning (Wed) so there is no way it could get there even if it was 1st class postage.

I have just revised one listing as I thought maybe I had put the wrong info in but no, i have definitely put 3-5 days RM 2nd class 
What can I do as all my 3-5 days are showing 2-4 and in green ink if that means anything?

jon81uk

What’s your despatch time set at?

moonpenny

3 working days

soolin

This has been going on for months now. I posted about it here a few weeks back, I have a 2 day dispatch and 2nd class yet a lot of my items show estimates of only 2-4 days. 4 days is probably possible, but 2 isn’t but strangely I have no late warnings so I think there is some difference in what eBay say and what the algorithm picks up on.

What is even stranger is that despite all my listings being the same , 2 day dispatch 2nd class, they don’t all show the same estimated delivery dates. I even have different ‘send by’ dates on items sold yesterday . 

jon81uk

I noticed the same as Soolin recently, two items both with three day dispatch and both second class small parcels, had different delivery time estimates.
I get that they are showing a range as you could despatch earlier, but I think the issue is it updates at midnight when the last posting time is around 5pm.
So in theory on a Tuesday a second class item could reach somewhere on Thursday if posted before 5pm. But at 10pm at night as you say, it’s not possible as if you post Wednesday the earliest will be a Friday arrival on second class and with three day despatch the latest arrival would be Monday or Tuesday not Saturday.

tightauldgit

To be honest I've never paid much attention to delivery dates on Ebay and fingers crossed never had any issues. 

I post when I can in a reasonable time-frame (usually next day but sometimes maybe up to three days) and use the cheapest way so generally second class or if Yodel or Evri a 72 hour option. If I feel like it's going to be a little off (maybe I've gone away for a few days and dispatch will be next week) then I will message the seller and let them know it will be slightly late and apologise.

Touch wood, I'm unaware of it having affected me or my account in any way. 

It would be different i think if i was a business seller and promising quick delivery but from a private seller my attitude when buying or selling is always 'it'll come when it comes' as long as it's reasonable. 

MikeJXE

I'm not a seller on eBay I'm a buyer 

When I am informed of the delivery date I take it with pinch of salt 

It will get here when it gets here or not 

soolin

tightauldgit said:

To be honest I've never paid much attention to delivery dates on Ebay and fingers crossed never had any issues. 

I post when I can in a reasonable time-frame (usually next day but sometimes maybe up to three days) and use the cheapest way so generally second class or if Yodel or Evri a 72 hour option. If I feel like it's going to be a little off (maybe I've gone away for a few days and dispatch will be next week) then I will message the seller and let them know it will be slightly late and apologise.

Touch wood, I'm unaware of it having affected me or my account in any way. 

It would be different i think if i was a business seller and promising quick delivery but from a private seller my attitude when buying or selling is always 'it'll come when it comes' as long as it's reasonable. 

You need to be careful, ebay are quite strict with dispatch dates so if you ever do leave it 3 days before posting you need to reset your dispatch time when you list to cover that.

At the moment I think they are giving us a bit of leeway with arrival dates and they take those automatically from the delivery numbers uploaded on parcels, if they start penalising us again you could run into issues.

moonpenny

Today "some" of my RM delivery times are now showing Sat - Tues.   (What does the green ink mean?)

I have a 3 day dispatch time to cover myself for any delays but I always post same day or day after.

tightauldgit

soolin said:

tightauldgit said:

To be honest I've never paid much attention to delivery dates on Ebay and fingers crossed never had any issues. 

I post when I can in a reasonable time-frame (usually next day but sometimes maybe up to three days) and use the cheapest way so generally second class or if Yodel or Evri a 72 hour option. If I feel like it's going to be a little off (maybe I've gone away for a few days and dispatch will be next week) then I will message the seller and let them know it will be slightly late and apologise.

Touch wood, I'm unaware of it having affected me or my account in any way. 

It would be different i think if i was a business seller and promising quick delivery but from a private seller my attitude when buying or selling is always 'it'll come when it comes' as long as it's reasonable. 

You need to be careful, ebay are quite strict with dispatch dates so if you ever do leave it 3 days before posting you need to reset your dispatch time when you list to cover that.

At the moment I think they are giving us a bit of leeway with arrival dates and they take those automatically from the delivery numbers uploaded on parcels, if they start penalising us again you could run into issues.

Other than the little red 'dispatch overdue' text next to my sold item I don't think I've ever been penalised or seen anything to suggest i would be. That's probably going back to late Spring early Summer time with selling stuff. Other than one piece of feedback saying 'took a while to arrive but otherwise great' i've never had any issues. 

 I always kind of assumed they were nonsense anyway due to the reasons previously discussed - item ends at 5pm on a Friday doesn't get paid until 8pm and I'm supposed to somehow post it within 3 days on a bank holiday weekend, etc.

I'd say 8/10 if I sell something Fri/Sat/Sun it'll be posted on the Monday but it's not unknown for it to be Tue/Wed. The odd one it will be worse than that if I suddenly find I've nothing to pack it in or if the collection doesnt turn up or whatever. 

The dispatch time can easily be fiddled anyway. Just mark it as dispatched without any tracking.  

soolin

Do you regularly check your seller dashboard as although there seems to be leeway at the moment if they do go back to automatic strikes you might face issues. The first thing that happens is that a seller drops to just standard or even below standard and at that point private sellers lose the FVF promotions.