i'm being penalized for late shipments when scheduling shipments on customer-requested days

[aquadreams1]

My customers often request that they receive their package on a specific day.  I sell live, perishable marine-life for aquariums, shipped Fedex next day air.  I have a high late shipment rate, that i was only recently made aware of.  AFter a sale, we always contact the customer to find out when they will be home to receive the package etc.  Since we are shipping live items, the customer needs to be made aware of the arrival day, and often they ask for a later shipment.  Such as "please ship it on thursday, i have friday off and will be home to receive it".   So we oblige the customers request and end up with a late shipment defect. I've since adjusted my handling time to 10 days, to account for customers asking for us to wait before we ship.  However, how do i get the late shipment defects removed?  I don't have any negative feedback or poor ratings.  I was incurring these defects by working with the customers to get them their delivery on their desired day, and i'm now penalized for this.   My customer service is the best there is, and i'm being penalized.  please help!!  there must be someway to appeal and get this rating improved, since it's due to my customer's requesting specific delivery days.  IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT I COMMUNICATE SHIPPING TIMING WHEN MY CUSTOMER IS HOME SINCE I'M SELLING LIVE DELICATE CORAL & MARINE AQUARIUM FISHES.  I SHOULD NOT BE PENALIZED FOR THIS AND NEED THE DEFECTS REMOVED.  Thanks for helping

[jamestowngirl52]

Contact ebay after looking up your specific supposed late shipments, then have them check each emails sent to and from customers. It is a headache but they can be removed

[aquadreams1]

Could someone from Ebay please address my issue, why a perfectly good seller is being penalized like this?  Not every selller's product falls into the ebay mold.  When someone is spending a lot of money on my live saltwater fish, coral and sea anemones, it's up to me to ensure a safe delivery of this live item to the customer.  This usually involves scheduled deliveries.  Please Ebay fix this issue, we don't all sell electronics or cell phone cases.  You are penalizing a seller who has 100% positive feedback and 5-star ratings across the board.  You are taking fees from me and making money off my efforts but your not supporting me as a seller and you need to step up to the plate and fix my account immediately.  

[clarkphilatelics]

I have asked eBay customer support for a checkbox to indicate a customer requested shipping delay. One regular customer moves twice a year and cannot receive mail at the new address while moving from the old address because the mail will be forwarded back to the old address before he arrives at the new address. The idea of having to call eBay custome support after the fact each time a customer requests a shipping delay does not scale very well.

[*eponymous*]

You should be penalized.  You are also a very low-volume seller so every ding to your account is a big deal.

The shipping metric was announced in the Fall of 2015, approximately 1.5 years ago, and went into effect February 20th of 2016.  That means you have been below standard for the past year, and you must know how to check your seller standing since you say you are "below standard"...are you still allowed to list? It is absolutely your responsibility to keep up with policies - a copy is sent to your eBay messages and to your email address..and posted in eBay updates as well as the announcements section...and we're talking a year and a half since eBay announced the changes.

The seller performance requirements that went into effect in February 2016 are absolutely 100% within the seller's control...in direct response to seller demands for just that!

The nuns at Catholic school refused to change a grade as much as one point higher and told us that changing a grade (giving a kid a "break") would be unfair to other students who worked harder or were simply more capable - or both.  They were right, and the same thing applies here.  There is no chance eBay is going to change your earned below standard shipping metric.  Other sellers learned the new requirements a year and a half ago and have met them - and exceed them - since then.

The 4% fvf surcharge for below standard sellers goes into effect on May 1, 2017.

[labs118]

@aquadreams1

Because your business model seems to require late shipping due to customers request I would hope someone from ebay has an answer for you
@greg_shipping
@raquel_bayarea
who can this seller contact about the shipping & type of items they ship
I would love to know the answer myself

[aquadreams1]

I will try to call them again.  The fish will die if i just ship them out the next day without contacting the customer.  Then i'm on the hook because the fish are dead on arrival.  We just can't ship this stuff unless the customer has approved the arrival day.  Like i said, i've changed my handling time to 10 days to accomodate for customer requested shipping days on all current and future listings.  I am going to contact ebay (AGAIN).  IF the customer gave five-stars on shipping, plus positive feedback, plus we have an ebay-message track record of discussing shipping & arrival days,  I am still hopeful they will remove (at least some) of these defects.   I will post my results here.  Thank you for your comments and support.  It's a learning experience, and it appears ebay supports the customer better than the seller.   

[labs118]

@aquadreams1

I would stay with this board today in hopes someone from ebay shipping will answer you, it's a better chance then just calling random CS
@greg_shipping
How does this seller handle their shipping with live items? and late shipments

I really would love to know the answer also

[raquel_bayarea]

---

@aquadreams1 wrote:

My customers often request that they receive their package on a specific day.  I sell live, perishable marine-life for aquariums, shipped Fedex next day air.  I have a high late shipment rate, that i was only recently made aware of.  AFter a sale, we always contact the customer to find out when they will be home to receive the package etc.  Since we are shipping live items, the customer needs to be made aware of the arrival day, and often they ask for a later shipment.  Such as "please ship it on thursday, i have friday off and will be home to receive it".   So we oblige the customers request and end up with a late shipment defect. I've since adjusted my handling time to 10 days, to account for customers asking for us to wait before we ship.  However, how do i get the late shipment defects removed?  I don't have any negative feedback or poor ratings.  I was incurring these defects by working with the customers to get them their delivery on their desired day, and i'm now penalized for this.   My customer service is the best there is, and i'm being penalized.  please help!!  there must be someway to appeal and get this rating improved, since it's due to my customer's requesting specific delivery days.  IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT I COMMUNICATE SHIPPING TIMING WHEN MY CUSTOMER IS HOME SINCE I'M SELLING LIVE DELICATE CORAL & MARINE AQUARIUM FISHES.  I SHOULD NOT BE PENALIZED FOR THIS AND NEED THE DEFECTS REMOVED.  Thanks for helping

---

@aquadreams1Thanks for sharing this with us. You are absolutely doing the right thing by waiting to ship the orders per the request of your buyers. Continue doing this. 

I do understand that in your situation where you are shipping marine life, the actual handling time for you varies widely since you receive more requests from buyers to wait than average on the marketplace. We have resources available to protect you in your unique circumstance.

@aquadreams1 and anyone who is experiencing an also unique situation where the Top Rated and Top Rated Plus program as a whole is not a perfect fit for your business, I recommend in your situation to take a look at what we do in protections today - this includes what information to have with you if you need to work with customer service directly. http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-protection/index.html

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone,

This topic is being discussed here: Performance standard change

Thanks