topic Re: Late shipment defects in Selling

Late shipment defects

jimmyjoejoe_jnr — Thu, 19 May 2016 10:24:20 GMT

I just looked at my seller dashboard and I have 7 late shipment defects,it is ticked as carrier says late not buyer.How does what the carrier says count as a defect.Five arrived within the time and two the buyers asked me not to post until they returned from holidays.

Can someone enlighten me to how this works.Thanks

Re: Late shipment defects

davewil1964 — Thu, 19 May 2016 10:31:58 GMT

If the delivery date is after the eBay estimate, it is a defect. The carrier doesn't report it, it is taken from the tracking data.

The trick is to counter lodge within your handling time (not chuck it in a red box) and get a lodgement scan, then you won't get a defect.

Re: Late shipment defects

rocket2retro — Thu, 19 May 2016 10:36:53 GMT

I can't answer you question as to the carrier, however many sellers (myself included) have extended our handling time to 4-5 days to allow more 'grace' with this ridiculous system. I still post every day (sometime twice) and so far it seems to working.

If you have the emails from the buyers requesting you defer posting I'd say this would be evidence for these defects to be removed.

Unfortunately buyers don't realise that answering 'no' to the question 'did your item arrive by date/date/date?' results in the seller receiving a defect.

Re: Late shipment defects

collect247 — Thu, 19 May 2016 12:23:31 GMT

If the head of ebay had a brain then he would get rid of the **bleep**en stupid defect system all together.

Why would a business hand out defects thus resulting in a seller eventually being restricted or suspended,

when the seller is ebays bread and butter.

You might say well if the seller goes with the flow then no defects will be issued,but why put sellers through this **bleep**?

I will never fathem ebays defect system,but as they say easy come easy go.

Re: Late shipment defects

amber-eyed-girl — Thu, 19 May 2016 13:36:49 GMT

Because the defect system was conjured up to retain buyers.

Which is where the money, ultimately comes from.

seller standards = increased buyer confidence = increased eBay sales, would be the gist of it.

on paper, anyway.

Re: Late shipment defects

clarry100 — Thu, 19 May 2016 20:47:08 GMT

There are really few options available to guard against these late delivery defects.

First and foremost you MUST have tracking.

Then with that tracking you also need one of two other things (or both).

FIRST... (this is the best option)

Lodge the item over the counter inside your stated handling time. Some sellers cannot always get to a PO to do this. But avoid dropping into the red street boxes as most often no scan events happen until delivery.

Lodging over the counter gets a lodgement scan event and trumps any late delivery after that.

It should even trump any item not received claim. ie lost and never showing as delivered.

SECOND...

If you do not have the lodgement scan event HOPE that your item is scanned as delivered inside the ridiculous ebay estimated delivery dates. You can push out your handling time to 3-days or more to help offset this one.

Even if after the above your buyer still ansers NO to the delivery date question you should be able to use your tracking status to get them to revoke the late delivery defect. But do this within 90-days (maybe 60???) or they will not remove it even if the tracking evidence is good.

If you are using Aust Post (other carriers to be added later I believe) as your carrier then given that you upload the tracking number onto the order your buyer will not even be asked the delivery question if the tracking shows it was either lodged on time or delivered on time.

If the tracking shows late delivery (ie after the ebay estimated delivery date) with no on time lodgement then you will get a defect that says the carrier said it was late. And you will not be able to have this one removed by ebay.

If you are using large letter without any tracking (registered mail gives tracking on these) then you are totally at the mercy of the buyer's answer to the delivery date question. If they answer NO then you will get a non-removable defect. Again, you can push out your handling time to 3-days or more to help offset this one.

Re: Late shipment defects

collect247 — Thu, 19 May 2016 21:58:04 GMT

It works both ways,no sellers then no buyers,no buyers then no sales.

So to be much fairer sellers shouldn't have to stress out with defects hanging over their heads.

Late shipment defects is just the same as the fees on postage,both unfair on a seller.

There are so many unfair policies in place on ebay and I hope the day comes when a member can fight

ebay on issues that are unjust towards them.

Re: Late shipment defects

davidc4430 — Thu, 19 May 2016 23:03:33 GMT

as we small sellers have noticed, ebays focus has changed, they are now looking at 'the big picture' of big players in the bricks and mortar world for the future ebay growth.

bigger stores bigger sales bigger ebay profits

maybe in another 5 or 10 years there will be a split in the ebay world where small time sellers will be forced off ebay and over to a revamped gumtree, also owned by ebay.

has anyone notice ebay and myer joining forces to open a 'virtual reality' store.

look it up on google, and its not april 1

Re: Late shipment defects

amber-eyed-girl — Fri, 20 May 2016 00:31:04 GMT

No buyers = no sales.

That is what sellers, need to think of, too.

If the newish rules are harsh, they are here due to the sellers that were slipshod, fraudulent, or otherwise not providing a good environment for buyers...who left in droves.

That is unfortunately, why the sellers still here have now to abide by far more stringent rules than before. As a lot of them, were previously a courtesy to a buyer. So up to the seller to decide...and these days, it is more than a neg or two that puts off buyers. Bad experiences taint eBay as a whole on social media, more people hear bad news and it travels faster than before.

Posting, quickly.

Providing good communication.

Providing, what was paid for.

These are all things a good seller will do, anyway. eBay has made it difficult to keep those standards up...for a reason. If it's too hard, for good sellers...eBay, if it cares to keep them, will make adjustments. I believe it already has amended what is and isn't regarded as defects since introduction.

The more sellers who take their reasoned arguments against the way the defects system works, to eBay, not just here, the more chance of any changes.

But don't blame eBay entirely for the system. If self-regulation is seen to fail, rules happen.

Re: Late shipment defects

collect247 — Fri, 20 May 2016 01:34:52 GMT

I was an excellent seller and it was the fraudulent buyers that ruined it for me,where's the safe environment for the seller?

It only takes a buyer to lie to ebay and the seller gets the boot.

I'm at the stage of complaining to ebay on a daily basis but am banging my head against the wall as it's falling on deaf ears.

Re: Late shipment defects

amber-eyed-girl — Fri, 20 May 2016 02:02:47 GMT

Yes, I can understand that.

But you need to see why, this is happening.

I've been on eBay as a buyer (and a little while, seller) for around ten years.

In the early days...I paid by bank deposit and Western Union (for overseas purchases).

I generally, received my items how I expected them to be.

It was great- some amazing things from amazing sellers.

When something didn't arrive, there was an eBay guarantee that cost 20$ to file a claim and it was a nightmare to do.

If I believed a seller had sent, and the item had gone in the post, I was out of pocket as I didn't think the seller should be.

After a few things went missing, I paid for insurance/signature on everything to ensure (as best I could) stuff wouldn't disappear in transit.

Before parcels were pretty much routinely trackable.

This cost me a bundle, but I kept buying.

After a while, I was now and then receiving items just this shy of rubbish from sellers. With increasing frequency. So not as described, to put it mildly. Or nothing at all and no communication. Sellers who decided that eBay buyers were fair game.

This kind of stuff ruined it for buyers- sure, there's Paypal, the new eBay MBG and credit card chargebacks. All of these take hours on the phone etc. ... just because there are people who are cheats and liars. They ruined it for everyone.

My buying here has shifted mainly towards the Big name sellers and away from those I used to buy from. eBay is trying to get people like me, back into buying from any seller.

Yes it's very flawed if just one or two cheating buyers can ruin a good seller. That's not right, at all.

It might be worthwhile, to compose a detailed letter, and send it to the eBay bosses and post it on eBay's Facebook page. The more who do the more the chance eBay will see the system has swung too far the other way if this can happen.

Re: Late shipment defects

collect247 — Fri, 20 May 2016 04:33:41 GMT

I have been on ebay for a long time.

I never ever had any problems until all these new policies came into play that allows a buyer to lie and then get away with it.

And then a seller gets suspended without any evidence as to why they received defects and there isn't really anything that

can be done about it.

Well I'm trying to do something about that as it's not fair.

For example a seller gets suspended due to too many defects and the ridiculous part about it is that all other family members

are also suspended,now this is in no way justifiable and ebay should not be allowed to do this.

Buyers can buy anywhere but sellers don't have to many choices with a great platform like ebay(one good thing about ebay) so something needs to be done.

Sellers should be given a better chance than they are getting at the moment,fair enough if it's a sellers fault then ok but when

it's 100% a buyers fault that a seller gets defected then ebay needs to look into a better way than just taking a buyers word.

Re: Late shipment defects

amber-eyed-girl — Fri, 20 May 2016 05:58:06 GMT

Yes, they do. I agree with that 100%.

Re: Late shipment defects

mystical4573 — Fri, 20 May 2016 23:33:56 GMT

I just noticed the same on ebay after I had a customer in Perth complaining she did not get her item within the 4 days suggested on my items listing page which was put on by Ebay.I noticed that it was my buyers making the complaints not the carrier.

I thought to myself how can this be 9 times out of the 10 I do post within the 1 day handling time I have put on my listings.

When looking into it because I also list with free listings I get put into the fast and free category so what that means is that buyers are under the understanding that they will receive their item within 4 days of purchase.

.IMPOSSIBLE!! We live in Cairns FNQ there is no way we can get a parcel from here to Perth in 4 days it would even be pushing it even if it was posted express post and I have marked all my listings as posted standard post.

Got in touch with ebay and their defence is they go by Australia Post's recommended postal times and it also does not include extra time needed during public holidays.

So sellers make sure you increase your handling time because the Australia post/Ebay estimated postal times are way out and we the sellers are the ones who get to deal with our upset customers.

Re: Late shipment defects

*tippy*toes* — Fri, 20 May 2016 23:59:54 GMT

I've had absolutely no issues since blowing out my handling time to 5 days. The only difference I've noticed with the extended time is buyers being really happy that their item arrived before the first estimate date (I still post same or next day).

Are you posting parcels or letters? If you're posting parcels, make sure you get a lodgement scan at the PO and upload the tracking into eBay. That way the buyer doesn't get the choice of answering whether it arrived on time or not.

Re: Late shipment defects

negron18 — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 00:59:42 GMT

I recently also had a late shipping defect but marked carrier only. I got it erased from ebay only because the tracking number showed that there was an attempted delivery made 10 days earlier. I had to call to get this removed. Was told over the phone that the tracking information ebay only read when the parcel was delivered. They don't read when the parcel arrived or if there was an attempted delivery before that date. That is why their is an appeals process.

I tried to to explain the logic of these defects to the trust and safety ebay phone assitant asking how can a seller be responsible for a late delivery when it is out of our hands? One thing which is fair game is if we post something outside of the time frame which we promise but to punish a seller for something that is out of our control and in the hands of the courier is wrong and i'm sure the more this continues the more the department of fair trading/ombudsman will be contacted.

The assistant was understanding and said they are always trying to improve their methods but basically agreed that we don't deliver the goods, we don't drive the trucks or fly the planes to manage the parcels arrive by a certain date therefore how can we be held responsible!

Re: Late shipment defects

*tippy*toes* — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 01:41:48 GMT

I'm expecting 3 defects. Not sure if I should have got them already if I was going to get them. 3 items to 3 different buyers, posted well within my handling, but never scanned as being delivered. Last tracking event shows their local sorting centre. They were all repeat buyers (that don't usually leave feedback for sellers), so I'm sure I would have heard if they'd not arrived by now. One had an ETA of early May, the other 2 towards the end of May.

Re: Late shipment defects

clarry100 — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 03:15:24 GMT

When you say posted well within your handling time....

Was this over the counter with a lodgement scan event?

If this is the case then you will be protected against any late shipment defect as after that it does not matter when it actually arrives.

The fact that you lodged inside your handling time is good.

If they do issue the defects they ought to be easily removed with the tracking evidence.

Not too sure how you would go up against a claim of INR when the tracking does not show delivered tho.

You would have to get AP to find out where it went.

Re: Late shipment defects

*tippy*toes* — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 06:58:19 GMT

I always lodge over the counter because I pay as I go. I don't use eBay labels or C&S. The rare occasion I use a satchel I'll wait for a lodgement scan.

I'm sure if these parcels didn't arrive, the buyers would have been onto me now. I would hope so any way!

Re: Late shipment defects

samjess54 — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 09:20:51 GMT

@jimmyjoejoe_jnr wrote:
I just looked at my seller dashboard and I have 7 late shipment defects,............Five arrived within the time and two the buyers asked me not to post until they returned from holidays.
Can someone enlighten me to how this works.Thanks

I had two defects several months ago due to buyers requesting delayed posting of items - I phoned ebay and had no trouble getting the defects removed - the ebay rep checked the emails from the buyers while on phone to me. Only downside was that both buyers had left positive feedback which was deleted along with the defects.