Ebay estimated delivery dates

[yoda007]

Hi all, just thought i would share a response from ebay about estimated delivery dates. I have just put a sentence on all my listings to NOT rely on the ebay estimated delivery date as they are often incorrect. We are getting more cases opened against us from international buyers because the item had not arrived in expected time, yet we posted same day as purchase.

This is their response

Just to inform you that eBay estimated delivery date, is not incorrect. It is eBay system who calculated this, it is a collective data. We based it on other seller who delivered the same item from the item location, same as to you, posted to the location of the buyer. As long as your listing has the correct handling time, dimensions and weight. Then there is no reason for your item to be posted to your buyer, late.

What a joke, customs and postal delays overseas are plenty of reasons for delay in delivery. Sellers can never be on the right side, no matter if you post instantly, it is still our fault if the item is delayed.

I'm starting to get very tired of their nonsense and we have been selling for 19 years.

[sugarbydesign]

Hahahaha, I wish I could type that fast.
Is it just the one particular item?? The item purchased was a unicorn horn set.
I checked it as you suggested and it stills tells me a Friday date??

[lyndal1838]

Your WA buyer should be seeing a delivery estimate of between 4 and 11 days.....it it takes 10 days by your estimate then she will receive it within the estimated time on ebay.

If you want to remove the Fast and Free you can either opt out of the promotion or you can set your handling time to an extra day, even if you still post the same or next day.

[sugarbydesign]

I can opt out? Fantastic!! I’ll do that once I establish how.
Thank you
Xxx

[yeoldecoinco]

Very simple solution is to get rid of the estimated arrival dates all together and finally stop punishing sellers for things that are out of the sellers control. Rules need to be based on facts and not fiction 

Sorry, not a snowflakes chance in hell.

Not only are they keeping estimated delivery times, they will push hard this year for GUARANTEED DELIVERY TIMES.

Guaranteed delivery time is optional now, but for how long?

ALWAYS keep in mind, sellers mean absolutely nothing to eBay, they are completely expendable and are treated accordingly.

They have FAR more sellers and listings than they need, what they want is BUYERS, they certainly need them; I have made, for example, just one sale on eBay in the last 3 days, usually sell 7-10 items a day, even at this time of year.

[springyzone]

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@yeoldecoinco wrote:

Very simple solution is to get rid of the estimated arrival dates all together and finally stop punishing sellers for things that are out of the sellers control. Rules need to be based on facts and not fiction 

Sorry, not a snowflakes chance in hell.

Not only are they keeping estimated delivery times, they will push hard this year for GUARANTEED DELIVERY TIMES.

Guaranteed delivery time is optional now, but for how long?

ALWAYS keep in mind, sellers mean absolutely nothing to eBay, they are completely expendable and are treated accordingly.

They have FAR more sellers and listings than they need, what they want is BUYERS, they certainly need them; I have made, for example, just one sale on eBay in the last 3 days, usually sell 7-10 items a day, even at this time of year.

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I agree, ebay would not want to get rid of that feature any time soon.

I can understand it in some respects. If  they abolished estimated delivery dates, how would a buyer classify something as 'late'? All systems have to have objective guides of some kind to sort out disputes.

Back in the old days, there were several sellers who had items where they said in the ad that it would not be posted out for 6 weeks as they were ordered from US as needed.

Even a lot of sellers who had no such problems, who had the item at home with them, would not bother getting around to post it for 1-2 weeks. I know there were a lot of times I had to send messages after a couple of weeks  to say please let me know the date it was posted so I will know when to look out for it-just as a hint. Back would come the reply-yes, yes, will be posting it out tomorrow.

That doesn't happen now. From a buyer's point of view, things are much better now. I'm not unreasonable, I don't expect things to arrive in 24 hours, but I do like items to be posted within the week. They often never used to be so the ETA system has tidied things up a lot. It was a bit of a turn off for buyers the way things were before, and ebay needs to keep buyers onside to some extent.

Other sites have tidied their delivery time frames up dramatically over the last 2-3 years too. Those that haven't tend to get a lot of neg reviews and in some cases, it has been enough to help send them under.

So I think ebay needs to keep some sort of estimated delivery date system, just make it more realistic, take into account public holidays etc

[clubesquire]

Off topic just a wee bit, but mentioning how Sellers these days are expendable, it would be interesting to know some seller/buyer ratios from say 5/10 years ago as opposed to now.

Melina

[padi*0409]

Melina, I've had at least 8 - 10 sellers in my saved searches that have pulled out of eBay in the last few years, and they were all pretty large sellers as well.

[digital*ghost]

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@clubesquire wrote:

Off topic just a wee bit, but mentioning how Sellers these days are expendable, it would be interesting to know some seller/buyer ratios from say 5/10 years ago as opposed to now.

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I think a statistic like that would be both very difficult to calculate, and probably a bit misleading due to the fact that (I presume) the majority of sellers are also buyers, but there would be a greater percentage of people who are buyers only. This means that (at least theoretically) there would now be more buyers than sellers. 

Several years back, I would have wagered on the ratio being pretty close to 1:1, if not exactly that, since most ebay members bought and sold, and the primary source of goods was from personal accounts selling off household items, old collectibles, or whatever rare thing they snagged somewhere, or on clearance. Now that there are big retailers here who wouldn't do any shopping (personal or otherwise), as well as many more business-oriented accounts that may purchase once in a blue moon, the pool of seller and goods is larger (if not more diverse), but I suspect the number of buyer-only accounts is larger, as well, as people no longer find it worthwhile to list items they once would.

I think more than anything else, what is decreasing is the frequency of purchases made on eBay***, because they're now very far from being the only circus in town, for buyers and sellers. (eg the two biggest categories here were once CDs and clothing, I was a big buyer of the former, and a small seller of the latter a few years back. CDs still sell [I still buy 'em from time to time, anyway], and clothes do as well, but with so many individual retailers having now jumped online, and with access to retail sites worldwide, the desire to win that unusual purple dress that bidders have never seen the likes of before and are having a war over because they're worried they never will again, is fairly well diminished to "eh... I'll just get what I want from XXXX". After a couple of years of particpating in auctions for things, I got that way about stuff I knew was rare, to the point where it didn't seem so rare or urgent at all, because if I missed out on one, I just resigned myself to getting the next one, or the next).  

***I got carried away with a digression there, lol. I meant to include the contrasting notion that frequency of sales to buyers was declining, while frequency of listings from sellers is ever rising. It's mostly conjecture / theory, but based on my own observations from the last 5 years.

[springyzone]

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@clubesquire wrote:

Off topic just a wee bit, but mentioning how Sellers these days are expendable, it would be interesting to know some seller/buyer ratios from say 5/10 years ago as opposed to now.

Melina

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I'd agree with all DG said.Ebay isn't the same animal it was back in the early to mid 2000s.

There are more online sales sites people can use, ebay has gone over to more of what I consider professional or semi professional sellers rather than the home seller, wanting to clear out a few household items.

For home sellers, the fees are a big turn off & if they get caught in a situation where the buyer makes unreasonable claims, is refunded in full & the seller loses out, they probably won't be back.

I think that is sort of what ebay wants, to tell the truth. Big retailers can weather the occasional loss but little sellers remember the hurt. 

My guess is there are just as many items for sale on ebay now, but not the same range. Often you're scrolling through loads of the same thing. So there's been a massive change in the type of seller most likely to be on ebay. Haven't a clue about the buyers but I guess from an ebay viewpoint, the bottom line is their profit.

[jonahquigley]

Got an Items that is an hour away and I

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@yoda007 wrote:

Hi all, just thought i would share a response from ebay about estimated delivery dates. I have just put a sentence on all my listings to NOT rely on the ebay estimated delivery date as they are often incorrect. We are getting more cases opened against us from international buyers because the item had not arrived in expected time, yet we posted same day as purchase.

This is their response

Just to inform you that eBay estimated delivery date, is not incorrect. It is eBay system who calculated this, it is a collective data. We based it on other seller who delivered the same item from the item location, same as to you, posted to the location of the buyer. As long as your listing has the correct handling time, dimensions and weight. Then there is no reason for your item to be posted to your buyer, late.

What a joke, customs and postal delays overseas are plenty of reasons for delay in delivery. Sellers can never be on the right side, no matter if you post instantly, it is still our fault if the item is delayed.

I'm starting to get very tired of their nonsense and we have been selling for 19 years.

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was told it was expected 4 day's later... they haven't even sent it yet.