Congratulations. Some or all of us may have been forced into 3 day Guaranteed delivery...

[futuretomorrow]

I called eBay yesterday because I noticed the language at the top of the seller hub no longer had opt-in to the 3 Day Guaranteed program but instead said "More Visibility, More Sales". As a read the body copy in horror I realized what eBay had done.

There was no longer an opt-in  CTA (Call To Action) to do so, it said "learn more", signaling this was a done deal. Not believing this was the case I clicked it and scanned the page multiple times for an opt-in or out but there was none. Only more "learn more" CTA's in specific sections.

See the attachment (first screenshot).

I called eBay and spoke to an exceptionally great CSR who articulated himself well and knew I understood a little more in terms of technology than his regular callers almost immediately. He swore eBay hadn't changed my settings back to offer guaranteed delivery (I've told many of you that have read some of my past comments this story before), which we could both see. I reminded him that "site preferences" was one of the older legacy pages and many of the settings there have been updated but a few no longer do anything with how today's eBay works. I also reminded him information doesn't always get to him and other departments as readily as eBay rolls out the changes. Here's a bit of proof of that. 

Oddly, he couldn't see what I saw on my account and he was seeing the old opt-in language. Yesterday in speaking with him was the first time I learned that there is up to a 24hr lag between what a CSR can see on your account and what you're seeing if the change was just rolled out. Yes, I'm back here selling again to expedite getting rid of more things that would sell faster on the eBay platform.

We went through a number of scenarios, including my recommendation he ask a supervisor for information he may not yet have had and we got nothing on all fronts. After I suggested I'd simply need to call back in 24hrs he asked me to check my listings for any language that said Guaranteed or 3 Days. I couldn't find any so we left it at that. It's now Sunday, August 12th 2:09 AM EST and I decided to list the last pair of shoes for the evening/morning before turning into a bat again, hanging upside down and getting some shut-eye. It's the same brand as another one of my listings to I go into one to click "sell similar" and what do I spot in bright red that wasn't there earlier when he asked me to check? 

"Free delivery in 3 days". (see the second screenshot) Not believing what I'm seeing, even though any person with a good grasp of the English language already knows by the way the first screenshot language has been changed where I'm going with this. 

"Your eligible listings now feature delivery dates guaranteed by eBay" - Almost all of my listings now display "Free delivery in 3 days". I did find one that said 4 days and there may be one or two more but I have yet to check all of them. 11 of the 12 I did already check now says 3-day with only one saying 4-day but it does state "eligible listings" in the new seller hub language.

Offer eBay Guaranteed Delivery is still turned off in site preferences - see screenshot 3.

This follows a disturbing pattern I've expressed to many of you in the past and was one of the reasons why I left a month ago or so but I needed to come back to expedite the sales of some items as I already stated above. I'm not here to argue with people that believe this is their site and/or business. That's your right to believe that and I'm going to kindly ask you to refrain from derailing this post. I'm here to find out whether other people are aware of this since this all went down earlier yesterday (at least for me) and trailed into the early hours of the following day (today) on my end.

Is anyone else seeing this? More so if you were already meeting Guaranteed Delivery on your own? Not looking for advice but just sharing and curious. No one forced me to come back and/or sell here so I definitely don't need to hear any lectures or opinions about leaving if I don't like it, why I came back or that this is somehow my fault. I just had a feeling this was going to happen based on how they made the switch "in my best interest" when the program first started and they failed to meet their pilot. That's not a guess or far-fetched opinion, eBay admitted to what they had done once I questioned why they did it the first time around. Now it's another useless feature in the site preferences that doesn't do anything and this falls under eBay's TOS for them to do it.

I plan to call them tomorrow morning to politely discuss this with them since they can most likely see what I'm now seeing and it's undeniable what they've forced through the system. Thoughts, please.  

[pjcdn2005]

I don’t think that free delivery in 3 days is the same as guaranteed to arrive by  a specific date.  When I look at your listings on my iPad using a zip in your city, I see an estimated delivery date, not a guaranteed one so I don’t know why you have that wording on sellers hub.  Also, if I use any of the guaranteed delivery search options, none of your listings come up.

[dhbookds]

I'm in Pa.......near enough to you for guaranteed delivery to show.......when I use the guaranteed delivery filters for

2/3/4 day, I'm shown NO listings........so  I don't think you are in the program........

[m1991_4]

@futuretomorrow

I believe the only work around is to list with shipping within 3 days.  EB message, when you ship within 1 day they will opt you in and not allow you to opt out. The opt out was supposted to reappear 5/1, but didn't for me.

I haven't listed on my seller account for 4.5 months because we no longer have control over anything.

[futuretomorrow]

@pjcdn2005

Thanks for checking and taking a moment to comment. I'll call them later for added clarity around the messages I'm seeing and what's going on. 

[futuretomorrow]

@dhbookds

Thanks for checking and commenting. Based on your response and that of another member it's seeming like I may not be. I'll still call them later today to try and better understand the messages I'm seeing. 

[mam98031]

When Ebay opened up Guaranteed Delivery to all sellers a couple of months ago, they sent emails to sellers letting them know if they qualified for the program.  And that stated for sellers that qualified for the program they were going to auto opt them into the program.  Possibly you overlooked that email.

Just because a seller is qualified to offer GD does NOT mean any of their listings state GD.  Each listing would have to then also qualify.  It is easy for a Seller to be qualified and yet none of their listings qualify to be in GD or maybe just a few of them.

If you want to make sure GD does not appear on any of your listings, then go to your Site Preferences and turn it OFF.

As to what you see when you view one of your own listings.  It is important to remember that Ebay's search will show you ETAs on delivery based on the Zip Code of the account doing the search.  So when you are logged in with your account searching your own listings, then it is using your Zip Code to determine the ETA.  If you want to see what others may see, you would need to have someone else with a different Zip Code view your listings and report back to you.

[gopetersen]

When I got the message from eBay opting me in I immediately increased the handling time on most of my listings except prepackaged items I know will go out the same day or the next morning.

I do not want buyers to be misled by the mistaken idea that eBay can do what Amazon does. They can't.

Amazon has fulfilment centers and storage lockers in every corner of the country. Their sellers can pre-send their items to these fulfilment centers and Amazon will ship to the customer for them. Amazon also has special arrangements with shippers to expedite delivery times.

eBay does not offer any of these services. They are making promises to buyers based on something they can't control (e.g., USPS shipping times) without having the infrastructure to support those promises.

[gateswood-ranch]

They slammed me into the 3-Day program earlier this year. The bite of that was none of my listings qualified to pass the 3-Day GD filter in search. Mine were 4-Day GD. Another bite was I use labels from another provider because of their FCP insurance program and that provider was not listed as qualified for their GD failure compensation program even though they're linked to my ebay accound and tracking is uploaded automaticaly and immediately.

Needless to say, I opted out immediately.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

I also opted out by changed my handling to 2 days, but I still got this message last week which read in part "We’re contacting you today to share the exciting news that you have earned a spot in eBay Guaranteed Delivery because of your consistent on-time handling performance. In September, your listings that meet Guaranteed Delivery requirements will feature a guaranteed delivery date backed by eBay. We’ll contact you again in September when this change takes place. "

So it looks like they are determined to opt sellers in even if they have no "eligible" listings. They're using my "usual" same/1 day shipping and ignoring my 2 day handling apparently.

[poppyswag]

Interesting. Noticed they were touting 3 day delivery on my listings but just ignored it, everyone doesn't care anyway. I don't sell anything that will save a life.

But when listing a few days ago,  my listing form was changed to 1 day handling when I've had 2 day handling for at least a year now. Thought it was a glitch but...? So I bulk edited everything just in case, smdh.

[jason_incognito]

How many CSRs do you know by name? 

I seriously wish that eBay would start to charge all users $10 per call after the first.

[zamo-zuan]

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@jason_incognito wrote:

How many CSRs do you know by name? 

I seriously wish that eBay would start to charge all users $10 per call after the first.

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Because eBay does not have enough ways to charge the seller already?

Or because their system has so many glitches, bugs, and policy issues that require you to call them, which would make them a fortune?

[terrycanarsky]

We were opted in without notice or asking.

But eBay can't seem to track this very well --- ours only shows 2 things shipped ever, all went went perfect, but we just haven't provided enough data (shipped enough) for eBay to accurately calculate our metric any further according to our report(s).  ::rolls eyes::

~M

[mam98031]

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@gopetersen wrote:

When I got the message from eBay opting me in I immediately increased the handling time on most of my listings except prepackaged items I know will go out the same day or the next morning.

I do not want buyers to be misled by the mistaken idea that eBay can do what Amazon does. They can't.

Amazon has fulfilment centers and storage lockers in every corner of the country. Their sellers can pre-send their items to these fulfilment centers and Amazon will ship to the customer for them. Amazon also has special arrangements with shippers to expedite delivery times.

eBay does not offer any of these services. They are making promises to buyers based on something they can't control (e.g., USPS shipping times) without having the infrastructure to support those promises.

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You didn't need to increase your handling time.  Just turn it off in your site preferences.