topic Re: Postage TImes in Selling

Postage TImes

mitsfix — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 07:15:26 GMT

We are a top rated seller, generally we send an item out the SAME day as sale despite having the items listed as sending the following business day

Have noticed Australa Post have really dropped the ball since Christmas and items are taking a lot longer to reach the destination. We have changed nothing at our end at all to cause this

Despite a valid tracking number being entered into the sale details the SAME DAY as the sale, the tracking showing the item being scanned by Australia Post the SAME DAY we have noticed on our defect rate that we are being penalised for this occurance to the point we are about to lose our Top Rated Seller status

Has anyone had any similar issues and if you have worked out how to resolve please let me know as I can not see why we should be penalised for doing the right thing and sending items out early.

We have looked into other methods of postage however have found that there is no 1 simple solution as we send car parts all over Australia and most other companies do not have the coverage Australia Post has.

Any help would be great, have tried to contact eBay help chat twice today alone and just a blank window stating they will be with me in under a minute

Re: Postage TImes

twyngwyn — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 07:19:43 GMT

you have great f/b....are you sure you're not 'jumping the gun'?

Re: Postage TImes

mitsfix — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 07:25:23 GMT

I am very sure

I have recevied a "warning" today that my shipment rate is about to fall below standard so I will risk losing my Top Rated Seller status

In the month of Jan (and looking today I know that not ever item sent in Jan has been delivered) there are 19 tems "tracking indicates late delivery"

3 of these items were at the Post Office awaiting collection for 4 days roughly (all are slightly different) The date they arrived at the Post Office was within the eBay time for estimated deliery but as the people picked up the items later eBay do not see this as being delivered until tracking show so

I am used to 1 or 2 items being delivered late, it is Australa Post after all. Compare the above to December where there were 3 items "delivered late" all of which were again sent either same or following business day of sale. November had 4 items in the same case

Re: Postage TImes

davewil1964 — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 07:42:31 GMT

My understanding is that if you upload tracking that shows a lodgement scan within your handling time you won't get a defect. Letters are at the mercy of the buyer ticking 'yes' for delivered within eBay's estimated dates, but with parcels it is proof of postage that counts, not delivery.

Are you sure they are parcels causing the problem, not large letters?

Re: Postage TImes

mitsfix — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 07:47:09 GMT

This is how it should be but clearly it is not this way at all.

Shows items not sent in time however when I look at those items, you can clearly see for example purchased on 30 Jan and sent on 30 Jan

The time they look at is when the person has signed for the item and Aust post tracking shows it as having been delivered

eBay call it items not sent on time however EVERY item there was sent within the required time

Re: Postage TImes

imastawka — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 08:00:24 GMT

Late shipment rate

Transactions where you didn't send the item within your handling time or the item was delivered after the estimated delivery date.

Requirements	All Sellers	eBay Top Rated Sellers
Maximum percentage of transactions sent late	10%	5%
Maximum number of transactions sent late	8	5

Meeting these standards means that your buyers consistently receive the item they expect, when they expect it, and that you resolve any customer issues promptly.

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-performance-policy?id=4347

Scroll down to 'read our full policy'

Personally, I'd extend the handling time to allow for late delivery by Apost. but still post

the next day ( or earlier if poss)

Re: Postage TImes

digital*ghost — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 09:21:40 GMT

If you call eBay, you should be able to get every defect removed where you can prove lodgement within your handling time.

In a perfect world, you wouldn't have to - according to eBay, they only track and automatically remove defects if their postage labels were used, not really sure how accurate that is, though.

Re: Postage TImes

mitsfix — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 21:12:13 GMT

Just for an update, it has now jumped upto 32 items overnight and we have lost top rated seller due to this

Checking each listing, out of the 32 listings, 21 of them were sent on the SAME day as the sale......

Re: Postage TImes

chameleon54 — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 21:46:41 GMT

Not good, but it does seem a bit strange that AP are taking so long to deliver your items. Do you mail in a street box ? Is there a problem at your local PO ? Many of the post offices are privately owned and run and the mail boxes are emptied by private contractors.. Occasionally there can be a rogue operator who doesnt follow correct procedure. ( Yes - I have seen a child emptying the mail box while dad sat in the van. A gust of wind and the mail went everywhere ) . Does tracking give any indication of where in the system the problem is ?

That asside there are two things worth trying. The first is to phone ebay and go through each defect showing tracking and ask to have them removed. If the CS rep is not helpfull, ask to speak to a superviser.

The second thing is to extend your handling time. I have mine set at five days, but usually mail the following day after purchase. If I go any more than three days into my 5 day handling time, I send items express post. I have a bit of fat built into my postage costs to handle this so it doesnt actually cost me anything. The buyers pay. .

Using this system, I am not having any problems with defects for late postage and would be running at under 1% of items sent. Changing the handling time has not affected sales volumes at all, but I do sell unique items and are not in competition with other ebay sellers. Ebays estimated postage times may be an issue if you sell generic items.

Re: Postage TImes

performance_parts_clearance_centre — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 21:44:31 GMT

First thing I'd be doing is extending your handling time to three days, maybe even five.

Re: Postage TImes

performance_parts_clearance_centre — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 21:49:09 GMT

@chameleon54 wrote:
Not good, but it does seem a bit strange that AP are taking so long to deliver your items. Do you mail in a street box ? Is there a problem at your local PO ? Many of the post offices are privately owned and run and the mail boxes are emptied by private contractors.. Occasionally there can be a rogue operator who doesnt follow correct procedure. ( Yes - I have seen a child emptying the mail box while dad sat in the van. A gust of wind and the mail went everywhere ) . Does tracking give any indication of where in the system the problem is ?

Having dealt with Mitsfix (online and in person) a couple of times in the past, I can tell you that the majority of their stock are motor vehicle parts, most of which tend to be on the large side - I'd think they'd be over-the-counter items.

Re: Postage TImes

pawnbrokersworld — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 21:51:24 GMT

Same here.

Always post by the next day at the latest with tracking yet our shipment report shows a huge increase in late postage.

Must be an ebay issue.

Re: Postage TImes

chameleon54 — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 21:58:27 GMT

I just checked out the items you sell. Nice items and a very proffesional store. I would still be extending handling time. Perhaps try 3 days and if that still doesnt stop the problem, is it worth moving to 5 days ?

I would then add a line to your shipping details, right at the top, stating something like " We usually mail your item within 24 hours of payment. Ebays delivery time estimate is only a guide and items often arrive several days before the estimated arrival date "

Its probably worth noting my stores stock products that are in many ways similar to yours with similar buyer demographics. With 5 day handling time, I,m not having any problems.

Re: Postage TImes

mitsfix — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 22:54:43 GMT

We use the business centre with EParcel. we have looked at the tracking, often they sit at the sorting centre in Sunshine West for several days, some items have been moving back and forward between 2 or more post offices. 1 item for example spend 10 days going between 2 post offices in neighboring suburbs until the enquiry was lodged.

I have already been onto my account manager about this but as expected there is not much in the way of answer or reply

Re: Postage TImes

mitsfix — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 23:00:45 GMT

Ok,
Have been on the Chat system for about an hour with eBay, we downloaded the .csv report

here is the clincher

Item purchased on the 4th January at 15.45 Sent and tracking uploaded on the 4th January at 17:07 and recorded as being scanned at Australia Post on the 4th January at 17:32 is showing as having been sent 132 hours late (ie hours past the handling time we have spefified of 1 day)

This is just one example of many. 21 items out of 37 were sent within the 1 day and show N/A on being handled too late. 12 items were purchased on Thursday 28th December, Friday was an Australia Post holiday so these were manifested on the Friday but were not scanned into Aust Post until Tuesday the 2nd Jan. The escallation person looked at all of these and advised will hopefully remove them all by the end of the day. There were a couple items we did send a day late which is our fault, 3 of them were sent late at the buyers request as they were away etc however eventhough we have messages asking this as far as eBay are looking at this, it was sent late

I am happy to cop a couple but not 37 odd items.

I have changed everything to 3 days now too see if this will alleviate but there is clearly an issue with the metrics from eBay which the rep saw so I would adivse everyone to keep an eye on this, down load the report and look to see how many are legitimate and how many are not

Re: Postage TImes

performance_parts_clearance_centre — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 23:33:58 GMT

mitsfix wrote:

Item purchased on the 4th January at 15.45 Sent and tracking uploaded on the 4th January at 17:07 and recorded as being scanned at Australia Post on the 4th January at 17:32 is showing as having been sent 132 hours late (ie hours past the handling time we have spefified of 1 day)

Wow - purchased, sent, and tracking uploaded all on the same day, yet showing as sent 132 hours late - something's well and truly borked in eBay's system...

Extending the handling time to three business days will hopefully kill ost of the problems on eBay's side, but there's sod-all anyone can do about the black hole at Sunshine West; it's where parcels go to die.

Re: Postage TImes

davewil1964 — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 00:44:42 GMT

Maybe the problem is with eParcel. Even though eBay's bots should be able to track a valid number, maybe the tracking updates aren't getting through to eBay until days later.

Re: Postage TImes

mitsfix — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 02:59:47 GMT

Did think of that and then did a comparison over several of these items. The date delivered shows up the same on Aust Post as it does on eBay

There were a couple where there was an attempted delivery say on a Wednesday and then the customer finally lobbed into the Post Office on the Saturday and collected, system shows delivery date as Saturday

Ebay have removed 16 so far, will keep onto them however as I can still see at least 11 out of the 17 which are rubbish, the other 6 are delays mostly due to customers wanting delay and a couple still from the friday before New Year where Aust Post was closed

I know it is a little thing BUT if we lost Top Rated we move down in the search results, we work very hard to make sure our customers are happy and return which many of them do. Sure we get the odd idiot which can not be pleased but this is fairly rare

Re: Postage TImes

clubesquire — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 03:18:26 GMT

Mitsfix, may I ask where you access these stats please?

Thanks,

Melina.

Re: Postage TImes

stickerswa — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 03:56:38 GMT

If you click on your own feedback number next to your name it will take you to your feedback page. In the top right there is a link to take you to your seller dashboard ...thats where you can see your stats.

Hope thats what you meant.

I got zapped the other day with a 'Tracking indicates late delivery' defect. Got onto live chat and got it sorted but it seems the 'system' can monitor when an item arrives - then if its late zap you (like you have some control over delivery speed).