eBay delivery estimates screwy again!

ballisticbrian

Anyone else here have this problem? Everyone who bought from us over the weekend (after Saturday cut-off) and was offered either 2nd class large letter or RM 48 expected their item Monday morning! I'd be laughing inanely if it wasn't so distressing and all the ramifications!

soolin

ballisticbrian said:

Anyone else here have this problem? Everyone who bought from us over the weekend (after Saturday cut-off) and was offered either 2nd class large letter or RM 48 expected their item Monday morning! I'd be laughing inanely if it wasn't so distressing and all the ramifications!

Yep, Stuff sold today 2nd class with a 3 day despatch is showing an estimated delivery of tomorrow. I was going to complain to ebay but they either don't care or don't understand and I'm fed up of wasting my time.

I usually send same or next day and had someone message me just a few weeks ago asking me why their item hadn't arrived as they needed it urgently - I was still within the time frame for sending it- although I had actually sent it that morning. 

I have actually switched a few of my LLs over £15 and over 100g to SD on my private account as perhaps if ebay start getting these 'where's my item' questions (and yes for SD items I always ask them to redirect their enquiry to ebay) then ebay might take notice. 

I have just finished an ebay listing, again 2nd class LL 3 day despatch - the listing shows as 'Estimated between Sat, 15 Nov and Wed, 19 Nov'

ballisticbrian

So, follow up information form eBay, it's official: it's not a glitch, it's a feature! Buyers apparently should be aware that the dates are "just estimates" not a tangible date! Us sellers can always add on days to our same day dispatch time to adjust the date! What do you make of this?

soolin

ballisticbrian said:

So, follow up information form eBay, it's official: it's not a glitch, it's a feature! Buyers apparently should be aware that the dates are "just estimates" not a tangible date! Us sellers can always add on days to our same day dispatch time to adjust the date! What do you make of this?

Ebay customer service at their best, it would be a good excuse if it wasn't for the fact that an INR can be opened one day after last estimated delivery. So in some of my examples above an INR could technically be opened the day after I had to send an item. Since I'm using 2nd class that can be slow at this time of year. 

soolin

Just trawling through some recent eBay announcements and found this recent one.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Announcements/Understanding-how-estimated-delivery-date-is-calculated/ba-p/7959408

goodfella66

ballisticbrian said:

So, follow up information form eBay, it's official: it's not a glitch, it's a feature! Buyers apparently should be aware that the dates are "just estimates" not a tangible date! Us sellers can always add on days to our same day dispatch time to adjust the date! What do you make of this?

A large number of buyers think the date is set in stone. I'm sure some buyers think it's a game where if it doesn't arrive in time, they've won and get to keep the item and a refund.

Ebay need to make it clearly obvious that the dates are estimates and not guarantees.

Money_Grabber13579

I’ve noticed that estimated delivery dates now seem to be much longer than they were previously, and actually now more realistic. Perhaps I’m too cynical but not really a surprise eBay might do this when it’s now them on the hook for missing deliveries rather than the seller…

soolin

Money_Grabber13579 said:

I’ve noticed that estimated delivery dates now seem to be much longer than they were previously, and actually now more realistic. Perhaps I’m too cynical but not really a surprise eBay might do this when it’s now them on the hook for missing deliveries rather than the seller…

Mine are not really much better, just looked at one of my current listings, 3 day despatch , 2nd class Royal Mail

Wed, 26 Nov and Thu, 27 Nov to

technically I could post that as late as Wednesday so can’t possibly meet the EDD

Money_Grabber13579

soolin said:

Money_Grabber13579 said:

I’ve noticed that estimated delivery dates now seem to be much longer than they were previously, and actually now more realistic. Perhaps I’m too cynical but not really a surprise eBay might do this when it’s now them on the hook for missing deliveries rather than the seller…

Mine are not really much better, just looked at one of my current listings, 3 day despatch , 2nd class Royal Mail

Wed, 26 Nov and Thu, 27 Nov to

technically I could post that as late as Wednesday so can’t possibly meet the EDD

Is that on simple delivery or custom postage? I had one on simple delivery that I had to post by Friday 21st (final posting day) and it gives 27th as the final estimated delivery date (going by Royal Mail).

soolin

Money_Grabber13579 said:

soolin said:

Money_Grabber13579 said:

I’ve noticed that estimated delivery dates now seem to be much longer than they were previously, and actually now more realistic. Perhaps I’m too cynical but not really a surprise eBay might do this when it’s now them on the hook for missing deliveries rather than the seller…

Mine are not really much better, just looked at one of my current listings, 3 day despatch , 2nd class Royal Mail

Wed, 26 Nov and Thu, 27 Nov to

technically I could post that as late as Wednesday so can’t possibly meet the EDD

Is that on simple delivery or custom postage? I had one on simple delivery that I had to post by Friday 21st (final posting day) and it gives 27th as the final estimated delivery date (going by Royal Mail).

The ones I checked were custom, I’ll check a SD one now.

Edit; SD is worse, this is one I just checked

£2.94 delivery in 2–3 days

Estimated between Wed, 26 Nov and Thu, 27 Nov . 

sonearandyetsofa

Ran into the exact same problem but with large, bulky items requiring installation that go out via our own delivery team. Delivery estimate should show a date 1 - 2.5 weeks ahead, but I just lost a sale because a customer was shown a 2 day delivery window. It's happened before, last time I was told their AI calculates it based on a mix of factors including how fast we've delivered in the past. As we'd just had a customer who was able to get next day delivery because of very unusual circumstances (basically had a booked route to their area with a space free that just happened to line up) I figured that was it.

They usually sort it in a few days. Do a bulk blank revision of your listings (i.e. from active listings page go "edit all listings"), don't make any changes and save it. Usually resets the delivery estimates back to normal if any are still playing up.

Still not as bad as that time they managed to make half the listings in the furniture category disappear if they had free delivery...