Question about eBay's Estimated Delivery dates in Feedback

[zanadoo_56]

I'm not a seller so I am just asking about the question in Feedback about sellers meeting the delivery date.

IMO eBay's estimated delivery dates seem to be pie in the sky more than ever.  Not just for overseas purchases but for Oz ones as well.  So what is the purpose of buyers answering whether the delivery was 'on time' on not?  Is it for eBay to get their delivery estimates better or is there some penalty to the seller if items arrive 'late'?

I'm happy to say Yes if my purchase arrives on or before the estimated date but I'm not so sure about saying No when Blind Freddy can see the expected date was bound to be unachievable.  If it's for eBay stats there's no problem but if it affects sellers I'd rather leave it blank.

[davewil1964]

it can impact on a seller. If they get too many 'late' deliveries, sanctions are available.

If I get something within my required timeframe I mark 'Yes'. But I'm mainly a seller and have a seller's perspective.

[clarry100]

If you mark it NO then the seller will be awarded a late delivery point.

Too many of these and restrictions will be applied to their selling account.

So if in doubt certainly leave it BLANK. That way you don't have to lie about it.

However, if the item has tracking and the tracking status shows a scan event which is inside the handling time stated by the seller then ebay will readily remove that late delivery point on request by the seller. So best to lodge tracked parcels over the counter at AP and get a lodgement scan event. If you drop them into one of the street post boxes then they may not get scanned until delivery and this is likely to be outside the EDD, thus resulting in a late deivery point.

If the item has no tracking then no such scan event will exist and the seller will be stuck with the point if you answer NO.

In our particular case we send everything by untracked large letter so we have extended our handling time to 3-days thus compensating for the unachievable estimated delivery dates (EDD) given by ebay. The EDD is calculated by ebay as seller handling time + ebays estimated delivery times.

We still mail out our orders on the same day we receive a confirmed order. So we rarely get these points now. In fact most of our feedback staes how quick the delivery was compared to the estimated date.

[maranock]

I have always left that question blank. As long as they allow us to not answer it then I won't.

[shoppingbag*]

"Estimated" delivery dates are just that..."estimated" The Seller has no control over what is put up by eBay, usually some fanciful date that is plucked out of the air. No one can guarantee a "set in stone" delivey date unless they have a crystal ball.  I have been searching for one of these for quite some time, but I suspect that anyone out there who has one, is not about to part with it. As long as a Seller posts within the time frame they have stated, then I have no problem. I once had Australia Post take two weeks to deliver a large letter to me from two suburbs away (clearly postmarked with the date posted) How could you hold a Seller accountable for this?  Yet I have had deliveries from the USA and also Uk in as little as 6 days.  One of my items from the USA went off the radar for a month, then suddenly got delivered. Another got misplaced in a sorting centre local to me. At the end of the day, I consider the important thing to be that the items arrive, not if they are late. When a Seller takes too weeks to post an item that was supposed to be sent in two days, then that is a different matter and something the Seller IS accountable for.

[wide-world-of-stamps]

Unfortunately some people think they have to answer the question, and are not allowed to leave it blank.

Many buyers don't realise that their answer could impact the seller, and answer it without giving it too much thought.

We leave it blank if we can't answer yes - we would be unfairly impacting the seller in many cases, as we only have mail delivered twice a week, which quite often means that the item is "late" in eBay's terms.

Most of our items are sent in letter format, without tracking. We originally had 3 days handling (as we generally post twice a week), but since we have changed to 5 days, we're getting quite a few comments about "quick postage". Of course, we can't do anything about the 2 weeks Australia Post sometimes takes to deliver an item, but it's certainly helped our postage stars.

To answer your question, yes the seller can be penalised for late delivery and it's probably best to leave it blank if you can't answer yes.

[springyzone]

You've had a lot of aspects covered already in the replies. Here's my take on it.

Yes, if you mark a delivery as late, then a seller will get a late delivery point.

But I don't accept the estimated delivery dates as random. Sellers have some control over them, by varying their handling times.

This doesn't mean that Aust Post gets it right all the time either. I can recall a package we sent to another Melbourne suburb taking 3 weeks once, but that was very unusual and the most extreme case I can think of in over a couple of thousand sales or so.

There's also the point that estimated delivery dates need to be in the ball park. If you are a buyer on ebay, you need to be able to feel confident that your parcel is highly likely to arrive within the expected time frame.

I can't see any way that ebay will adjust their time frames if buyers tick yes, even if the answer is really no. I can't see that sellers will realise they need to extend their handling time either unless they realise which parcels are taking longer than expected to arrive.

So what do i do? I find that 99.9% of my items arrive within the expected time frame. I think most regular, professional sellers have fine tuned their systems.

If an item arrives eg a day or so outside the expected range, then I probably would not answer the question if I could see it had been posted fairly promptly.

If, however, it arrived a few days after the expected date, then I would tick no. I realise that may be hard on the seller but perhaps if ebay notice a trend over time, with items from A to B often running over their estimates, they may extend those estimates. It is in their interests to have the ETA fairly accurate.

If an item is weeks late, seriously delayed in the post, then I don't think the question of what to tick arises as surely most people would file an item not received claim, which automatically confirms a problem.

[*tippy*toes*]

I highly doubt that ticking no is going to alert eBay to a trend, as most of it would be automated. You tick no, system issues a strike. When you accrue enough, the system shuts you down.

If people want to leave it blank instead of ticking no, that's great, but ticking yes, instead of leaving it blank regardless, can help bump down the percentage rate for the seller. It's not a 3 strikes and you're out type of thing, it's a percentage of your overall transactions (can't remember what it is now). By ticking yes, it adds another positive and shifts the defect percentage down a notch.

If a seller has 1,000 untracked transactions and 50 people tick no because their parcel was late, and no one ticked yes because they prefer to leave it blank regardless, then the seller is history, even though majority of their parcels arrived on time. If all the yes people ticked yes, then the 50 late ones would barely be a blip on the seller's account.

[clarry100]

Correct Tippy.

We sellers do need the YES votes to help stave off the NO votes.

[zanadoo_56]

Thanks for all the replies.  Gosh I'm glad I'm not a seller. 

It's one thing to chose how long to send an item, and though Aust Post hasn't lost anything of mine lately, the time they take to deliver is sometimes really weird.

I'm glad I've left 'late' deliveries blank. It hadn't occurred to me to lie, but I'll keep it in mind. LOL

I prefer to allow weeks (or for overseas purchases a month or so) before I worry about a missing item...and even then I contact the seller first, not eBay or PayPal.

I've learnt a lot from asking ajust  simple question.  Thanks.