Ebay technically telling buyers they may get their items before I actually send them

[a-touch-of-sparkle]

I am pretty sure that this is a technical issue, as it seems to be a problem with the way Ebay uses an algorithm to estimate delivery times.

I only post on Mondays and Thursdays due to other commitments. (every 3 days)I have set 3 day dispatch in my settings.

I only post RM 2nd class (2-3 days)

Please tell me how the algorithm decides that I need to post items purchased this afternoon after my cut off time (Mon 24th)  by Thurs 27th (correct), but the buyer should expect delivery from the day before I post it, to the day after I post it???

Some of my listings proudly display   "2-4 day postage"   In what world? In the world that I inhabit, 3 days (dispatch time) plus 3 days (delivery time)= 6 days. CS rep suggested that I change my working days to only Mon and Thursday only- but I had to explain that Ebay will then say I need to dispatch on my 3rd working day, which would be a  week Thursday, and EDD will be the end of next week. Or I could shorten my dispatch time  to 2 days.......erm,  pretty sure Ebay will then give an EDD of the same day they buy it (or earlier).  

My other technical gripe is something I asked in the weekly chat in March, that Dave@ebay  said he would look into it offline, so I uploaded examples of my problems to private message for him , I have had one apology a month or so ago about him "dropping the ball" but nothing since, I do send a reply every few weeks to see if he is listening, but apparently not.

I sell some buy 2, get one free items. All priced at £1.90, somebody buys three, gets a £1.92 discount. I got told by a CS agent that it was an average - not sure how they work out averages, but it's not like that. Somebody else bought 6 @£1.90 , got £3.84 discount. Another one only got one free when buying 6........ If you are going to miscalculate freebies, at least do it systematically. I am not holding my breath for an answer on either of these, as Ebay seem to think that their flawed way of doing things works as designed, perhaps it is, but I think that the powers that be need a new calculator for Christmas. I just feel sorry for the CS agents having to try and convince sellers that  3+3=4 and   3 x £1.90 /3=£1.92. I certainly would not be able to do it with a straight face. 

I am quite expecting my sales to drop to zero after this, or my edds changing to 6 weeks time, like they have done each time I have  (politely I may add)  queried things like EDDs.  But hey ho, I am getting to the point where I am past caring.

OMG- put some tags, and got told off for including "the" and "to" which are apparently not allowed in this community. Definitely Losing THE Will TO Live. lol Didn't like "HELP" either

[ms.rodriguez*]

You are in the UK. These are the Ebay boards.

[a-touch-of-sparkle]

Yes, I am aware that I am in the UK. We also use Ebay here, I am not sure what you are trying to say? The Ebay boards are for discussing things in the UK, are they not????

[wastingtime101]

Hey @a-touch-of-sparkle. So there's this thing eBay does that's by design and not a tech issue. Most sellers (including myself) really hate it.

What they do is calculate estimated delivery dates based on historical shipping times as opposed to a seller's actual handling time.

So if you have 3 day handling, but you ship most of your packages within 1 day, eBay will use 1 day to calculate estimated delivery dates.

We (sellers) submit FB to eBay all the time and you'll see hundreds of discussions on this board about the topic.

[a-touch-of-sparkle]

Lol. Yes, I know that is what most people are being told by cs. My argument is that as  I only post 2 days a week, some items are sent on the day they are supposed to be sent by, some the day before, some the day after purchase, and a few the day of purchase, so how does Ebay decide that I need to post them all on the day they are purchased in order for them to arrive within Ebay parameters?

I put it in tecnical issues as I was hoping a different set of eyes in customer services might actually look at it and realise that the system is not working therefore it is a technical issue. I just kept getting told to post them earlier or send them 1st class, which would make their estimates even more unachievable. 

Basically I was having a rant, as nobody seems to be able to give a reasonable explanation, and it is peeing me off somewhat. 😵‍💫

[wastingtime101]

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@a-touch-of-sparkle wrote:

some items are sent on the day they are supposed to be sent by, some the day before, some the day after purchase, and a few the day of purchase, so how does Ebay decide that I need to post them all on the day they are purchased in order for them to arrive within Ebay parameters?

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If the majority of your sales are shipped in less than 3 biz days, eBay's going to look at that to determine estimated delivery dates.

You don't have to post anything before the "ship by" date determined by your actual handling time, regardless of the estimated delivery date shown to buyers.

[a-touch-of-sparkle]

I know, but if I don't post some early, by my next posting day they would be sent late.  I just wish they would let us set our own dispatch times, that work for us. 

[wastingtime101]

Yep. Like I said, many of us sellers dislike eBay's EDD algorithms for setting unrealistic buyer expectations.