eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎02-07-2016

So yesterday I checked my dashboard and found two new shipping defects (on non-tracked items). I ship Economy Mail from Outside USA as my shipping choice which gives the buyer 11-23 estimated delivery time, with day 24 they can either file a dispute for INR, or I get a defect for late shipment. Keep in mind the buyer has to admit the item is late for this to account, and in my experience, the senior buyers who do volume don't bother with questions and stars, and the new eBayers who don't know how defects work will answer honestly as they see fit with no one to educate them on what this means for the seller.

So I called eBay CSR to discuss the defects, and this is how it went.

me: I've got four defects for late shipment on my dashboard, and none of them were caused by me shipping late.

CSR: Which one do you want to discuss first?

me: Sept 19 shipment to India, he asked me to hold the items and ship to the USA (note to reader, he's a repeat buyer since 2013 and I value his business very much, and yes, I will do what he asks). You told me when I called in December that you wouldn't do anything because it "wasn't a defect yet" and to call back when it's part of the dashboard. It's there now, please remove it.

CSR: I'm sorry, the date this happened is in September and I can't see the details of the transaction. It can't be removed past 120 days.

Me: OK, what about the one from Oct 25, that's less than 120 days, I got the same reasoning in December. In this case the parcel went surface post to Russia, that takes 10 weeks to get to Siberia, you gave me a late defect because tracking said it arrived late (note to reader, I did not ship this within one business day because the buyer was combining auctions over several weeks, I only got one defect beause I only put tracking on one item). Please remove it.

CSR: I'm sorry I cannot see the details on this transaction. (Wait a minute? I thought she said 120 days it was gone). I cannot remove it.

Me: Okay well last week I got a defect on a parcel to Germany. It got stuck in customs for two weeks (I am assuming, there was no tracking, but long delays in Customs is normal in Germany), that's not my fault, I cannot control what German Customs does with my letters. Your shipping estimate gives me only 23 days to have items reach International locations and 28 days is par for the course in Germany. Please remove it.

CSR: I'm sorry if you want that removed, you need to ship with tracking and obtain an acceptance scan within your one business day handling time so that the buyer cannot give you a defect for late delivery.

Me: I'm shipping from Canada, we don't have such a service without passing a very large expense to the customer. I'm trying to encourage people to buy from me by not overcharging on shipping just to comply with eBay's silly metrics when the seller has no control what happens to a package after it's left at the post office.

CSR: You can ship to the shipping centre in Kentucky and they will take care of your International packages for you, then it's their responsibility for making sure they clear customs and you won't be held responsible.

Me: I just told you, I'm shipping from Canada. It costs me $16 to ship a coin to Kentucky and then have it reshipped will be the customer's exepense. For $23.40 I can ship it directly with tracking to the buyer. (Note to reader, I only use this service for my more expensive items... On the under $20 items we ship Light Packet for $8.78, still better deal for the buyer than the shipping Centre in Kentucky).

Me: What about the last defect, it was going to Israel and took 30 days to get there. Do you realize that Canada Post Estimated Delivery Times to the Middle EAst right now are 28 to 35 days and my package arrived in reasonable time?

CSR: You might want to consider reaching out to your buyers and tell them that you'll get defects from answering that question that their item was late. Explain to them to indicate their shipment was on time, and you won't get a defect.

Me: You know there are customers that will leave feedback that says "seller asked me to lie". Will you remove that feedback once left?

CSR: (A bunch of noise explaining how to approach the buyer and ask such a thing)

Me: Can't eBay kick off members who ask buyers to lie to avoid getting defects?

She didn't have a good answer for this and quickly wrapped up my call.

I was entertained even though I still have 4 defects, thought I'd share it with all of you too.

Cheers, C.

rednarlenes · ‎02-07-2016

YUK. What a mess. That's the new metric. Same as the old metric. "Nothing we can do."

sin-n-dex · ‎02-07-2016

@rednarlenes wrote:
YUK. What a mess. That's the new metric. Same as the old metric. "Nothing we can do."

The call lasted about 15-20 minutes, so I summarized it succinctly.

One thing I did point out, is that in order to get a credit for on time, they have to say that yes, it arrived on time. Saying nothing doesn't mean it was on time, and the likelihood in those metrics is that the people answering are going to be complainers, so it's a lot easier to fall below standard on the late shipment metric.

I didn't get a useful response to that being pointed out, but I do hope someone who makes decisions reads the boards and listens to feedback so that when the next update is done improvements can be made.

Cheers, C.

jkrt2001 · ‎02-07-2016

Ya I hear you same boat as you.

When you look at ebays expediated shipping from outside USA eBay states 3 to4 days, and yet if you ship USA tracked its 10 business days or if you ship expediated USA its 6 buisness days, but always takes longer.

This new system puts anyone shipping outside of the US at a big disadvantage, San Jose simply cant see this!

eBay CSR are never any help, talking to them is as bad as placing an order at a Tim's drive through!!!

eBay continues to go down hill and after two Letters to the new CEO Devin Wenig, still nothing so eBay continues to struggle

After I sell off my collection I am out until I move close to the 49th again and use the much cheaper USPS.

I do most of my sales outside of ebay as i cant trust them any longer

Good luck

yikes-its-scubadiva · ‎04-08-2017

Buyers use cell phones to order and do not read shipping policy.

eBay seller customer service is now that all the workers are supervisors.

mr_lincoln · ‎04-08-2017

@sin-n-dex I am impressed you kept your cool ... I would have politely asked for their supervisor after item 2 and the fact that it was UNDER the 120 days. And if the rep would have challenged me I would have politely replied, "what part of my request to speak to your supervisor don't you understand?"

I have read more than one post from Canadian Sellers who fight the high cost to track items ... this might be a really good topic for the Weekly Chat asking if there is anything eBay can do to negotiate something better, more cost effective, with the Canadian Postal authorities. I mean GEE, look what they did for China right?

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor

mg152 · ‎04-08-2017

If the buyer doesn't answer the on time question, it's supposed to count as on time. This was asked in a weekly chat when they started this non sense.

Patricia
eBay member for 25 years

papermoneyforme · ‎04-08-2017

Been there, done that and CS says tough beans.

All of my late defects are from the US and all are senior buyers, one with over 15,000 feedback as a buyer. They don't care either. Said it was not my fault but still answered the question that it arrived late.

They will only do it once, because I block them from future purchases. A few have not liked it because they have bought specific items from me. I told them to take it up with Ebay as nothing I will do.

Even if the buyer admits in writing parcel was held up by customs, Ebay could care less.

They are trying to weed out all the bad sellers from Canada that do not use tracking even if Customs holds up the shipment.

Ebay US thinks we need to fit with US policies even though we are in a different country, with a totally useless and expensive postal system.

sin-n-dex · ‎04-08-2017

@mr_lincoln wrote:
@sin-n-dex I am impressed you kept your cool ... I would have politely asked for their supervisor after item 2 and the fact that it was UNDER the 120 days. And if the rep would have challenged me I would have politely replied, "what part of my request to speak to your supervisor don't you understand?"
I have read more than one post from Canadian Sellers who fight the high cost to track items ... this might be a really good topic for the Weekly Chat asking if there is anything eBay can do to negotiate something better, more cost effective, with the Canadian Postal authorities. I mean GEE, look what they did for China right?

I can't comment much on how to speak to the CSRs since I know if you do not speak nicely to a CSR you might find your call transferred into lala land. There's a dispatcher who works for the police in my former city in Canada, whom if she didn't like your tone, she would transfer you to the fire department or ambulance bay, or some random officer's desk. She was older with lots of seniority, so this went on for a long time because those who would complain were the type of people the police do not treat with any respect. That being said, be polite to the CSR, being condescending won't help with good results.

As for shipping from Canada... I pay $12-14 CAD twice a week to ship a box (it contains envelopes with coins/tokens/mint sets, etc) to my cross border courier (mine is Chit Chats Express, but there are lots in my region). Then after that, it's 65 cents a package, if regular mail, to get it across the border.

So let's do the math... I have a USA coin that sold for $100 USD with $3.70 in shipping. If I ship it from Canada, I will pay $14 CAD to get it there with tracking. If I use CCE, I pay $14 to get it, plus a bunch of other items, to CCE's office, and then the 65 cent per package is built into the cost the customer pays (the customer's cost includes eBay's 6%, 65 cents cross border, and 2.61 shipping). There are usually 5 to 20 items in each box.

We cannot charge the customer $14 in shipping, because as we've proven with the increased rates for International mail, no one wants to pay that. So you need to be creative.

Also CCE does not require people to go in person to use their service, anyone who can courier stuff to them can use it, I believe I scanned my signed agreement to them and applied online. The problem is, if I courier from another province, the ground service is not guaranteed and USPS won't push out the ship date far enough to allow me this time. This is why we don't ship Fridays.

Cheers, C.

sin-n-dex · ‎04-08-2017

@mg152 wrote:
If the buyer doesn't answer the on time question, it's supposed to count as on time. This was asked in a weekly chat when they started this non sense.

This thread is ancient... so I'm guessing at which parcels we're talking about. But IIRC, the tracking is what showed it late, the buyer didn't answer anything. The metric showed the courier said it was late.

Cheers, C.

sin-n-dex · ‎04-08-2017

@papermoneyforme wrote:
Been there, done that and CS says tough beans.

All of my late defects are from the US and all are senior buyers, one with over 15,000 feedback as a buyer. They don't care either. Said it was not my fault but still answered the question that it arrived late.
They will only do it once, because I block them from future purchases. A few have not liked it because they have bought specific items from me. I told them to take it up with Ebay as nothing I will do.

Even if the buyer admits in writing parcel was held up by customs, Ebay could care less.

They are trying to weed out all the bad sellers from Canada that do not use tracking even if Customs holds up the shipment.

Ebay US thinks we need to fit with US policies even though we are in a different country, with a totally useless and expensive postal system.

I answer stupid questions to eBay CSRs all time...

Q; Why don't you use the Global Shipping Program?

A. Why would I ship it to your country when I can send it to the desination directly for less money?

A. Why would I ship it to your country if it's coming back to my country?
A. Why would i ship it to the GSP when it costs the same to send it to the buyer, who is in the same country as the GSP?

Q. You should ship with tracking.

A. When you can get Canada Post to offer such a service for a price buyers would like to pay, I will be happy to do that. For right now I make more money doing it this way, even if occasionally an item doesn't arrive.

Q. A buyer can just say they didn't get your item because you can't prove it.

A. Most buyers aren't jerks.

Q. You should get an address in the USA.

A. I live in a different country and US Customs doesn't like it when I cross the border to do my businesses there without paying taxes.

(I do have a USA address, but that's a function of paying for a courier... and that's a recent thing)

That's all I can think of right now, dealing with this gets me steamed.

Cheers, C.

klevier · ‎07-08-2017

So sorry I can't believe they don't have an exception for people who are shipping from Canada .

I am a small seller and I suddenly wound up with for defects per leg shipping because I had been taking the lightweight packages and just putting them in the mailbox outside the post office but you don't get an acceptance scan when you drop it off that way .

I'm thinking maybe I should just sell someplace else my post office only has a 90% on time shipment goal this year. If I am unable to just drop my packages in the mailbox or at the post office without waiting in line to have an excepted and scan done I will not make any money because the amount of time I'm spending going to the post office and standing in line .

I don't understand since I print my postage through the eBay system why they can't count that as a mailing date because the post office doesn't except it if it's past the date .

timemachine777 · ‎07-09-2017

eBay does this kind of stuff to push their product. In this case it would be the GSP. I f eBay puts unrealistic markers in place which result in a negative experience for you and your account, they figure you will eventually abandon that method and adopt their method...GSP.

It's Operant conditioning Your being trained. Reward and Punishment. The entire eBay system is set up this way. Sellers are punished for pretty much everything on this site now to drive them in the direction that eBay wants them to go in. Like mice in a maze.

smr1290132 · ‎06-05-2019

I could not agree more, I ship smaller inexpensive items from the UK to the USA via Royal Mail standard airmail service which is not tracked and get a defect every time for "no tracking uploaded" Ebay fail to understand buyers will not pay the extra for tracking.

Customer asks for item to be held back as they are on holiday, no problem, but I get a defect and when I phone to point it out, they do not check out the request, just refuse to remove the defect.

It used to be the customer service was very good now it is complete c--p.

kh-stanley1 · ‎06-05-2019

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began, we have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread here.

Thanks.