eBay is costing me dearly with their UNREALISTIC international postage delivery time estimates

[pjh09]

eBay's unrealistic postage delivery times to overseas destinations are costing me big time in 'item not received' refunds.

Two recent cases, one in China, the other in India both resulted in refunds for unreceived items because overseas buyers are using the BS eBay delivery estimates as an excuse to demand a refund. One of these buyers even stated that because the item was not received within eBay's recommended time frame, then they deserve to claim the item 'free of charge'.

Just this evening, a buyer from Switzerland filed an 'INR' case because they had not received the item in the 2 week period that eBay recommended. 2 weeks to Europe!!? COME ON eBay, Australia post, as you well know have decreased their efficiencies to save them from going broke. We'd be lucky if the items are out of Australia within 2 weeks!!

Unfortunately, if this trend continues, I will be forced to sell within Australia only which would reduce my sales/revenue by around 15%. eBay are continually offering me advice via email on how to get better sales. I would think that they need to clean up their own policies so I don't lose money on such a regular basis.

Anybody else finding this a problem?

[jellybirddesigns]

Just set your handling time to more than 10 days to give yourself a "buffer".

I've done that with my listings and if you read my feedback comments, many mention that the item arrived earlier than expected!

I long ago realised that Ebay's estimated times were a joke - you have to look out for yourself, so definitely make the adjustment.

I don't care about any special "perks" that come with 1 day handling - much better to have the item arrive with YOUR timeframe, than Ebay's timeframe.

Plus, I also write to the buyer to tell them that mail from Australia takes around 10-14 BUSINESS days, just to give them a heads up. They still don't know that I've built in the extra days buffer.

[queenslander-1]

I have sent a number of O/S parcels recently and most have taken 7-10 days between Brisbane and showing as processed for O/S shipping let alone arrive at destination. Before the floods. One in particular arrived  after 31 days in transit to Mexico. Another 22 days to the USA. After being charged $28.50 by Aust post for a so called delivery in 10 days not Good enough.

[clarry100]

We have done a very similar thing to what Cushioncovers is suggesting.

We only well within Australia but all our stuff goes out by large letter.

So to avoid the problems with these ridiculous ebay delivery estimates and the associated late delivery problems we have set our handling time to 3-days. This makes sure that almost all our items arrive before the latest ebay estimate.

We also don't care about the bells and whistles that come with a 0-day handling time. So far as we could tell when we did it there was no difference in sales volume.

So I would recommend you do the same to avoid these delivery problems if you wish to continue selling inernationally.

If you want to have different handling times for internal AU Vs. international sales not too sure how to handle that. But you may have to explore Business policies to solve this. Perhaps someone else might have a suggestion here.