How bad is the estimated delivery times eBay give us? Late postage rates are a joke. 0 rating ebay!

[ecoins.australia]

I rate eBay 0 on all stars for this one.

[digital*ghost]

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@clarry100 wrote:

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

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@springyzone wrote:

Does it penalise a seller?

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Yes, it gives the seller a defect.

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Late delivery is not a seller defect like we know them for out of stock or an unresolved dispute.

It's a percentage rating that if it gets higher than 10% they will likely take away your power seller status which in turn could affect your search rankings.

You need to maintain better than a ratio of 10x No answers for every 100x Yes answers to keep under their radar.

But they don't issue defects for these.

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Just a minor note - a seller will lose Top Rated status at 5% late shipments, and at 10% eBay might make you have a longer handling time, but they can't have any other effect on an account standing. 

It's not just eBay that needs to re-evaluate the ETAs (since 'standard shipping' options were unchanged when the two-speed letter service was introduced, they are currently based on the priority service. I find weekends are usually taken into account when ETAs are calculated on my items, but public holidays often aren't. Although Christmas seemed to be last year), but it's Australia Post as well. They're the ones responsible for providing 1-6 days when reality often won't match that, especially if the package is travelling to and/or from a more rural area. 

eBay can also push all they want for tracked shipments. Penalising sellers for not shipping that way won't do anything to make it a more viable option for the majority of sellers who choose not to use it. If I could send all of my shipments tracked in a cost-effective way, I'd be doing it already - for many more reasons above and beyond what eBay may or may not think or do - so the only thing that would have a chance of getting me to use tracking on everything, is making it mandatory, and if that happens I'd likely stick around, but probably only with bulk lot items, narrowing my appeal on eBay and broadening it elsewhere. 

eBay already 'penalise' sellers with longer handling times, in a way (you can't get 'Premium' badging with anything over 1-day handling, and anything longer than 3 days is supposed to have an effect on best match rankings....allegedly, anyway, as thus far I've seen little evidence to suggest the effect is anything other than negligible). 

[clarry100]

Thanks for that correction DG.
Appreciated.

[4green2000]

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So... my recommendation is to increase your handling time.

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i see a few are saying increase handling time. i did this to my other accounts and sales drops by approx 30-50% due to stating 3 days handling time. went back to 1 day and sales came back up to normal. i would say by increasing handling time it could jeopardize sales. just my findings.

[lyndal1838]

I am afraid you are the only one who has posted on the boards who has found the increased handling time has been detrimental.

Most other sellers have found it to be an easy fix for the problem.

[digital*ghost]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

I am afraid you are the only one who has posted on the boards who has found the increased handling time has been detrimental.

Most other sellers have found it to be an easy fix for the problem.

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I guess it depends on your definition of detrimental. I think the degree of the effect will also depend on your market, and whether there's a common sense of urgency to the items they're buying.

My handling time is 2 days - I like the middle of the road  - and having this slightly longer handling does affect sales. 

I know I miss out on sales because buyers who would normally be told an item will arrive in 2-4 days are being told it will arrive in 4-8 days, and it only shortens by one day if they choose express. I also know it affects sales because I get messages asking if there's any chance I can post sooner, or when will I post, can they pick up instead, or to post ASAP (I know a lot of sellers get these kinds of messages, so it's not always directly tied to ETAs, but I know they often are because they refer to it in some way, and I'd be interested in knowing the average frequency of such messages to sellers with 0-1 day handling time).

At the moment, I certainly don't consider these to be detrimetal compared to the alternatives -  by which I mean, I'm quite happy for the most part with my sales volume (i.e. wouldn't say no to more, but I'm in no position to complain), and although sometimes the messages can be annoying (due to perceived rudeness in tone), and/or time-consuming to respond to, it's less practical to change my handling time or try to mention anything about my longer handling time being there to make dates more realistic, when it a lot of cases it can actually make them less realistic, (eg most of my buyers in the same state get their orders next-day, while the ETA remains 3+ days). 

[thecatspjs]

I changed my handling time to 4 days some time ago.

I have just started the process to bulk edit stores and change them back to 1 day and see if any issues arise, or if prompts an increase in sales ... think thats wishful thinking though.

[4green2000]

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@thecatspjs wrote:

I changed my handling time to 4 days some time ago.

I have just started the process to bulk edit stores and change them back to 1 day and see if any issues arise, or if prompts an increase in sales ... think thats wishful thinking though.

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spoke to my sister yesterday relating to handling times and she said she did notice a large drop in sales when she had 4 days handling times. we put it down to the drops because buyers were going to sellers who had 1 day handling time instead (she sells baby clothes etc etc) .. she now has gone back to 1 day and sales picked up considerably.

[clarry100]

We have had a 3-day handling time since this late delivery point system started.

Just prior to the Xmas rush we decided to see if going back to 1-day would prompt any change in sales.

Not as far as we could see. Still about 65% down on the same period last year.

However, it certainly did prompt an increase in "where is my item" complaints. This included a few where we thought they should have arrived prior to Xmas but failed to do so.

Our stuff is almost all large letter rates with no tracking. Luckily we did not receive any NO answers so our late delivery rate is still on ZERO.

As a result,  we have dropped it back to 3-days again and we will leave it there now.

[brerrabbit585]

A lot of sellers seemed to have a drop in sales around last November so if you changed your handling time around then it may not have been due to your handling times at all. My sales always fluctuate from one week to the next, and one month to the next, but they haven't changed overall in about the last three years so changing to 3 days hasn't harmed me.  If it's helped me weed out impatient buyers then that's all to the good!

[lyndal1838]

OK, I'll bite?   It is late and my brain is already in sleep mode but nothing stands out as being wrong with the listing, apart from what could possibly be some damage to the clear packaging in one of the photos.   I would clarify that before buying.