eBay

zamo-zuan · ‎03-04-2021

A few weeks back we discovered an issue where our estimated shipping dates were very late/had 2-3 days added in addition to the normal shipping and handling times.

Long story short, after working with eBay Customer Service, the representative said it looked like we were experiencing the consequences of a Item Not Received: Very High Service Metric penalty.

The problem? We were NOT supposed to be eligible for the penalty as we were under 1%!

As you could see, we were UNDER 1%. And according to the eBay policy, we should NOT have been experiencing any penalties. Even on the Service Metrics graph, it said we were ADJUSTED to AVERAGE!

I shared these problems here on the forum, so others were able to check and confirm that our shipping dates were extremely high.

The Customer Service rep said that graph I showed above was from the Jan 20th review, and that the Feb 20th review came up as normal/not very high.

He had explained that the reviews are on the 20th, and the changes based on the review go in to effect on the 1st of the month. So once the 1st of the month, if the shipping issue is fixed, we'll have 100% confirmation that we did, indeed, experience the Service Metric penalty.

Sure enough, March 1st came, and our listings are now back to normal. Our shipping time is as expected!

So what everyone should do now, is please check your Service Metrics > Item Not Received page, and confirm if you are VERY HIGH and UNDER 1%, that you are not receiving the penalty! If you are under 1% you should NOT receive any consequences, but as I could confirm, eBay DID have a glitch that incorrectly gave people this punishment!

This penalty is no joke. It makes your listings much less appealing and makes a HUGE difference in your daily sales that you could see in our graphs:

Dollar amounts alone don't do it justice. To make it clear, we typically sell ~100 items a day on average. During the penalty period, we were down to an average of 65. Now we're back to normal. So this penalty alone could instantly cost you nearly 50% of your sales.

Sadly, eBay doesn't compensate us for the losses. But I just want to make sure other sellers are aware of this, and if so, please report this issue as soon as possible to make sure others don't experience this glitch! Nobody should have to face losses by enduring the consequences of a penalty they are not eligible for!

I hope this issue is repaired by now. But if anyone is "Very High" and under 1%, please make sure to let us know, and report it to eBay to make sure things are fixed ASAP!

ittybitnot · ‎03-05-2021

@zamo-zuan

I have been thinking about this post for a while. I appreciate your detailed information and graphics provided for this topic. I do have a perhaps stupid question to ask about this.

Do I understand correctly that the "punishment'" for being high in this area is to display a few days extra in your "expected" delivery date to a buyer? Is that the only consequence? They don't demote you in search results to some page that the pagination will never reach or anything like that or take away your TRS, put you in fvf punishment camp, etc.?

The reason I ask is that in light of DELAYS in shipping across most all carriers of late anyway, if that is the only punishment you get, would that not result in a MORE REALISTIC expectation for a buyer? Sellers are extending handling times trying to counteract the most unrealistic delivery estimates ebay provides which are still being heavily weighted in favor of when the seller actually ships as opposed to when an item might arrive.

Just curious.

zamo-zuan · ‎03-05-2021

@ittybitnot wrote:
@zamo-zuan

I have been thinking about this post for a while. I appreciate your detailed information and graphics provided for this topic. I do have a perhaps stupid question to ask about this.

Do I understand correctly that the "punishment'" for being high in this area is to display a few days extra in your "expected" delivery date to a buyer? Is that the only consequence? They don't demote you in search results to some page that the pagination will never reach or anything like that or take away your TRS, put you in fvf punishment camp, etc.?

The reason I ask is that in light of DELAYS in shipping across most all carriers of late anyway, if that is the only punishment you get, would that not result in a MORE REALISTIC expectation for a buyer? Sellers are extending handling times trying to counteract the most unrealistic delivery estimates ebay provides which are still being heavily weighted in favor of when the seller actually ships as opposed to when an item might arrive.

Just curious.

Yeah, that's an additional issue on top of it. As eBay gives buyers false expectations by giving lower estimates than usual.

The problem here is, even though they don't demote you in search results, you sell much less due to eBay sellers usually choosing listings that have faster handling time.

If the items are within a couple dollars of the same price (as many auto parts are), why would they choose the listing that says it will arrive in 6 days ahead of the one that says it will arrive in 3?

In addition, eBay recently changed their shipping display to have these green banners that say "Receive in 3 days, 4 days"... Those listings stand out to buyers, and now that we properly have them, you could see it made a big difference in our sales. 30-40% increase overnight.

It's honestly hard to tell which is worse, the FVF penalty or losing 30-40% of sales. One directly cuts off your profit margin, and one drastically reduces interest in your items.

In regards to extending handling times... That's something that should be done on eBay's side, in a fair way, increasing the delivery times for all sellers equally. That would be a fair way of properly keeping buyers interests in check without hurting sellers.

The way they do it with the service metrics? This gives sellers an unfair advantage/disadvantage... Especially when there's USPS delays causing the INR cases. What use is buyers having their expectations in check, when eBay is telling buyers that all the competitors will give you the item in 50% of the shipping time?

And it's absolutely horrifying that you could improperly get hit with these penalties when you're not even supposed to be eligible for consequences!

(Oh, and there's MORE shipping issues I discovered today after a long talk with eBay, which I'll make a post on later after lunch....)

susanreb1950 · ‎04-30-2024

They F you over even if the item was never returned and if the buyer themselves close the case. It still counts against you. I’m really surprised there’s not a lawsuit about this somewhere. Also your being compared to peers. It’s funny because I have two wholesale customers that sell in the same category as me. BOTH of there “compared to peers” percents are different from each other and mine. Same category same type items. Hmmmm

ebooksdiva · ‎04-30-2024

@susanreb1950

This thread is from March 2021 any information in it is outdated.

kh-stanley1 · ‎04-30-2024

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this 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.

Thank you for understanding.