EBay’s over the top delivery estimation

[wp_extras]

I’m a seller on eBay and have been complaining to CS because the estimated time they show to buyers are over inflated. What I mean is that if a customer buys something from me now (10pm local on a Tuesday), it is showing that it would arrive by Friday of the same week. Now even AusPost doesn’t give those types of delivery estimate. They give 4-6 working days as rule of thumb.
They problem is when you have an irate buyer because they didn’t get their order within two days, as a seller I have to deal with that. When I try to talk to CS, their excuse is that it’s an “estimate only”, and I have to explain that to the buyer. By this stage, the horse has already bolted, and eBay was the one who left the gate open. Now they are telling me to go get that horse back as it’s my responsibility.
I have a perfect strike rate for getting my orders out same day but eBay is causing the problem by giving buyers the wrong impression.
Got chat records about my complaints and when I ask for a solution their incorrect estimate, they quote algorithm that even CS can’t explain, let alone fix.

[eol-products · Accepted solution]

Atleast when you loose a sale due to handling time you never know so no real loss.

[padi*0409]

---

@wp_extras wrote:

Now I changed to two business days handling time and still the same estimate.

---

I looked at a couple of your listings and they are still showing as same business day handling, and ETA for me in rural WA is 7th - 15 march.

[wp_extras]

Almost all the time the items arrive quite quickly in WA so I have never had a complaint from my brethren out west. In fact I had two day turn around in some cases.
The funny thing is the further they are away from sydney, the faster they arrive. The biggest issues are Victoria and QLD.
The other worry I have is if I delayed notifications on shipping by say two day (in reality I sent on the same day), the buyer could in theory cancel the order while the item is already on their way to them. Basically, I got no leg to stand on as I never said that I have sent it out already.
Opinions?

[digital*ghost]

Buyers can only formally request a cancellation within one hour of purchase, though they can still send a message and ask for cancellation.

I personally have a 2-day handling time, but mark the items as shipped same or next day and never get complaints about items not arriving on time, though taking a look at ETAs both before and after purchase, it does look like they update according to when it's posted (they never used to).

This would suggest, though, that if a buyer takes notice of ETAs, the vast majority of the time it is at the point of purchase, rather than after it's shipped, meaning they don't check back on things unless the original ETA comes and goes. 

[springyzone]

I don't know if I am a typical buyer or not, but I always look at the estimated date range for delivery before I commit to buy but I am rarely even aware of the seller's handling time as I don't look up those details. The delivery date is the bottom line for me.

I don't buy all that often so the delivery day sort of sticks in my mind. My last purchase I think said around Thursday & it actually arrived Tuesday.

I'm finding that is fairly typical and anything I buy usually arrives on or before the due date, so for me, ebay estimates seem reasonably accurate. That no doubt is because sellers adjust their handling times to suit.

On the whole, I think these estimated delivery dates are a good thing & have led to a massive improvement and a lot more peace of mind.

It might not just be the ETA driving that improvment though as compared to a decade or so ago, most of the places I buy from now are small shops/businesses, compared to home sellers.