eBay's "item not received" deadline is ridiculous

[speed_racer]

Is it my imagination, or are these arbitrary deadlines becoming shorter and shorter? I have an item shipped from China that has an estimated arrival date as late as June 12. Yet eBay removed it from my purchase history more than a week ago. They won't allow you to open an "item not received" case before the final arrival date, so why did they end that option long before that final date? If you're going to impose a hard deadline like that, eBay, then do the same to the seller so they can't give a fake tracking number and say it will arrive in three months or whatever is obviously after the deadline.

Also, how about some transparency? Show us when the deadline is. Don't make us guess and worry that it's going to pass before we know it.

[sjcr123]

Estimated arrival date is all that is disclosed when you buy something. I am looking for deadline dates and can't find anything on it...it use to be pretty clear, seller has X days to respond to your message before ebay steps in. It is frustrating enough to be looking for answers without someone getting hateful. Perhaps you weren't but it came across that way. I have looked over the invoice countless times and cannot find this disclosure...Did you read it...now sorry but that was hateful.

[sunnysouth1]

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@sjcr123 wrote:
Estimated arrival date is all that is disclosed when you buy something. I am looking for deadline dates and can't find anything on it...it use to be pretty clear, seller has X days to respond to your message before ebay steps in. It is frustrating enough to be looking for answers without someone getting hateful. Perhaps you weren't but it came across that way. I have looked over the invoice countless times and cannot find this disclosure...Did you read it...now sorry but that was hateful.

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I don't see that you posted to this thread until now so I don't know what you mean about "It is frustrating enough to be looking for answers without someone getting hateful."

eBay doesn't step in on messages. Not sure where you got that idea. What invoice are you looking at to see the answer to your question? The answer is not on an invoice.

The buyer can ask eBay to step in on requests and that can be done on the fourth full day from the date the request was opened.

This information is easily found in the eBay Money Back Guarantee which is shown in every listing.

From that Guarantee:

"If you have a request that has been open for more than three business days, go to your open request in My eBay and click “Ask us to step in and help.”"

https://pages.ebay.com/ebay-money-back-guarantee/questions.html

[mudshark61369]

@Anonymous,

You wrote in your reply;

  "a buyer can still open a request as long as they are within 30 days of the latest estimated delivery date or the actual delivery date, whichever is applicable. eBay simply cannot access the transaction to process a refund in some situations where the payment was made more than 60 days before we are asked to step in". 

Do you realize that what you are saying is that it is basically a waste of a buyer's time waiting for the reply from ebay, and it is better to just open a dispute through Paypal if the last EDD is 60 days or more.  Those sellers know a dispute cannot be followed up on after 60 days.

What I would like to know is, does the seller get a defect if their EDD is longer than 60 days, and an INR has to be filed?   If not then no wonder certain sellers use the extended delivery time.

  "Our help pages/policy pages are designed to address the majority of situations and it is not possible for us to specifically speak to every unique scenario".

I do realize that not every situation can be covered. However, the practice of sellers posting an EDD of 60 days or more is no longer Unique. There was another topic posted yesterday about the same thing.  The policy is being abused more and more often, as a loophole by sellers to avoid non-positive feedback, and possibly defects, and to bamboozle the less experienced buyers into thinking they have lost their money. 

  "As for an estimated delivery date, we do require that shipment occur within 30 days of payment. Anything outside of this time would be considered a violation. If a buyer is presented with an estimated delivery date like the one the OP was presented with, we can look into the listing to ensure that it does not violate our policies on how long a handling time can be".

I should not have to point this out, but the same sellers who give 60+ day EDDs, often avoid a 30 day shipment policy violation, by uploading a tracking number within days of receiving payment.  However, the tracking info rarely shows any updates showing receipt by a shipping service, only that a label has been created. 

  IMO, if tracking does not show acceptance by a "shipper",  (not to an intermediate delivery company from seller to shipper) A dispute should be allowed to be opened based on the seller missing the 30 day shipping deadline. Period! 

Funny, but not one of the  topics about longer than 60 day EDDs causing buyers problems, is about a true domestic seller having an EDD of 60 days or more. They all are about sellers from one country.

[reda3615]

Hi @Anonymous here's a quick search.

Today is Jun 5: Notice the last EDD on the search results.

[Anonymous]

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@mudshark61369 wrote:

@Anonymous,

You wrote in your reply;

  "a buyer can still open a request as long as they are within 30 days of the latest estimated delivery date or the actual delivery date, whichever is applicable. eBay simply cannot access the transaction to process a refund in some situations where the payment was made more than 60 days before we are asked to step in". 

Do you realize that what you are saying is that it is basically a waste of a buyer's time waiting for the reply from ebay, and it is better to just open a dispute through Paypal if the last EDD is 60 days or more.  Those sellers know a dispute cannot be followed up on after 60 days.

What I would like to know is, does the seller get a defect if their EDD is longer than 60 days, and an INR has to be filed?   If not then no wonder certain sellers use the extended delivery time.

  "Our help pages/policy pages are designed to address the majority of situations and it is not possible for us to specifically speak to every unique scenario".

I do realize that not every situation can be covered. However, the practice of sellers posting an EDD of 60 days or more is no longer Unique. There was another topic posted yesterday about the same thing.  The policy is being abused more and more often, as a loophole by sellers to avoid non-positive feedback, and possibly defects, and to bamboozle the less experienced buyers into thinking they have lost their money. 

  "As for an estimated delivery date, we do require that shipment occur within 30 days of payment. Anything outside of this time would be considered a violation. If a buyer is presented with an estimated delivery date like the one the OP was presented with, we can look into the listing to ensure that it does not violate our policies on how long a handling time can be".

I should not have to point this out, but the same sellers who give 60+ day EDDs, often avoid a 30 day shipment policy violation, by uploading a tracking number within days of receiving payment.  However, the tracking info rarely shows any updates showing receipt by a shipping service, only that a label has been created. 

  IMO, if tracking does not show acceptance by a "shipper",  (not to an intermediate delivery company from seller to shipper) A dispute should be allowed to be opened based on the seller missing the 30 day shipping deadline. Period! 

Funny, but not one of the  topics about longer than 60 day EDDs causing buyers problems, is about a true domestic seller having an EDD of 60 days or more. They all are about sellers from one country.

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Hi @mudshark61369, you've provided some great suggestions here and I will be happy to pass them along for consideration. I do want to clarify that when a buyer opens a request, the seller is still able to respond and resolve their concerns, so this would not be considered a waste of the buyer's time in most situations. We also use this information to track seller behavior and record it appropriately on the seller's service metrics, with any relevant defects also being recorded. I also want to be very clearly, that we are able to access funds in some transactions beyond 60 days from payment, it just isn't always possible. 

I'll be sure to share the examples provided here with the appropriate teams to work on improvements. As we work towards managing payments for our marketplace, these kinds of situations with time frames will likely cease to be an obstacle.

[windss_lou]

I agree with you, what I have experience is that as soon as I informed the seller that didn't receive the product, he started stalling and buying time, changing emails, wrong address, asking several times if my address was correct, never gave me a tracking number and finally the period to contain was over. Now I can't do nothing. I believe you're right, there are fraudulent sellers using EBAY with total impunity.

[outdatedrecreated]

I stopped reading as soon as I saw "purchased an item from China."

[auntred0716]

So let the buyer at least leave a negative feedback up to 90 days then EBAY is causing the problems.

[angwjea]

be careful buying from china they are running scams lost 90 dollars to a scammer from there ebay is clueless and not banning the scammers from china .

[di2360]

I have this going on for me, I go to the purchase history and at the top to the right, click see orders from and put in 2020. Your purchase history will only show items from the last 60 days, so you have to change  for orders from 2020. Then go through your purchase history and when u find ur item go to contact Seller and click did not receive my items. It should be there.  Hope that helps. 

[kh-jean]

Hello Everyone,

Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies.  Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic. Thanks for understanding!​​​​​​​