eBay

autopiacarcare · ‎12-26-2019

We were closed on 12/24 and 12/25 for the holiday. To prepare for that, and make sure we didn't risk any late shipment strikes, on Monday morning I changed our handling time to 2 business days, so that all orders from that point forward would have a ship date of 12/26 at the earliest.

We use business policies and only have 1 policy set up for shipping that applies to all of our listings. All orders that came in after the change on Monday were showing the appropriate handling time applied, so I believed everything was set up correctly and we wouldn't have any late shipments.

Today I came in to find that 2 orders are listed as Shipping Overdue - Ship by Dec. 24 . All other orders from that time correctly show 12/26 as the ship by date. The time stamps on these 2 orders were 5:11 PM PST and 9:50 PM PST on 12/23. I had changed the business policy earlier that morning and both of those listings show in the revision history that "Shipping Terms" were revised at 7:50 AM PST on 12/23, so they should not have been required to ship on 12/24.

I called CS and they confirmed they could see the listings had a 2 business day handling time at the time of purchase and that should have made the ship date 12/26. They have noted our account and said if we see those counted against us as late shipments to call back and they will try to remove them.

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up to carefully check to make sure your handling times are being honored and you aren't getting unfair late shipment dings.

Anonymous · ‎12-27-2019

trinton@ebay wrote:

I still don't think the ship-by date should reflect anything other than our handling time. Is this a new change, because I haven't seen mind doing that?

Hi @fern*wood and @autopiacarcare, happy to clear up any confusion - there has been no change, but the details described here could only be explained by either a technical issue (which has been reported to Customer Service for investigation and addressed here), or factors related to the estimated delivery date. A seller is still protected if they ship within their stated handling time or if the item arrives on time.

Thanks trinton@ebay but that doesn't really clear up the confusion. As far as I have ever experienced before this, and consistent with the eBay Seller Center page I quoted above, the only factor used in determining ship by date has been the handling time stated on the listing at time of purchase.

The policy clearly states we must have an acceptance scan by 11:59:59 PST on the last business day of that handling time and every order I can remember dealing with on eBay through multiple years and across multiple large business accounts has shown a ship by date consistent with that policy, except the two orders which are the subject of my original post.

Your previous answer and this answer - "the details described here could only be explained by either a technical issue (which has been reported to Customer Service for investigation and addressed here), or factors related to the estimated delivery date. " (emphasis mine) - indicate there are other factors that eBay may use to calculate the ship by date besides just the seller's handling time.

If that is true, that would constitute a major change, in which case I would like to see where that change was documented/announced to sellers and if it wasn't documented and announced, why not?

And if the ship by date is or can be determined by more than just the seller's handling time, why even have the option to extend the handling time or advise sellers that is the proper way to make sure they don't have late shipments when they are not going to be able to ship in their usual time frame? That's pretty bad advice if there is even the remote possibility that those settings will not be honored because eBay takes other factors into consideration.

Hi @autopiacarcare, definitely want to clarify that there has been no policy change. You've shared some details of an unusual situation and I proposed the only logical causes I could think of. Your handling time should determine the ship-by date, but as you have showcased there are two examples where this did not happen as expected. When I stated earlier that varying estimated delivery dates could be why you are seeing varying ship-by dates, I didn't mean to indicate that this is the intended design; I can see how my "either/or" statement gave that impression and I apologize for giving the wrong idea. I should have said that this could be explained by either a technical issue that may be incorrectly calculating factors related to the estimated delivery date, or factors that go into the estimated delivery date that were incorrectly input or recorded (specifically referencing the handling time). Since you've confirmed with Customer Service that these two shipments had the 2-day handling time that you submitted, either the calculations are not working as they should (which we would address if this lead to a negative impact to your account) or there is a cosmetic issue with how the ship-by date is being displayed (which would not negatively impact your selling account, but definitely could cause some understandable alarm on your part).

No matter the cause, Customer Service has received your report and we will review for any technical issues. Again, if there is any negative impact to your account that shouldn't be recorded, you're eligible for protection as outlined in my previous posts and the resources I provided to our Help Pages. Changing your handling time to account for delays in processing shipments is the right step to take and you will continue to be successful as long as you keep meeting the expectations you have set in your listings.

solarshift7 · ‎12-27-2019

My big account does not use business practices but does do same day shipping. Last weekend I changed my handling time-added a few days just to be safe. Through the afternoon I kept spot checking my listings and noticed Ebay's shipping estimate never changed! On Monday I double checked my listings-extra handling time was still right but the ship estimates were still based off same-day shipping! Fortunately a few lates won't hurt the account but eBay really failed on this!

autopiacarcare · ‎12-30-2019

@Anonymous wrote:

Hi @autopiacarcare, definitely want to clarify that there has been no policy change. You've shared some details of an unusual situation and I proposed the only logical causes I could think of. Your handling time should determine the ship-by date, but as you have showcased there are two examples where this did not happen as expected. When I stated earlier that varying estimated delivery dates could be why you are seeing varying ship-by dates, I didn't mean to indicate that this is the intended design; I can see how my "either/or" statement gave that impression and I apologize for giving the wrong idea. I should have said that this could be explained by either a technical issue that may be incorrectly calculating factors related to the estimated delivery date, or factors that go into the estimated delivery date that were incorrectly input or recorded (specifically referencing the handling time). Since you've confirmed with Customer Service that these two shipments had the 2-day handling time that you submitted, either the calculations are not working as they should (which we would address if this lead to a negative impact to your account) or there is a cosmetic issue with how the ship-by date is being displayed (which would not negatively impact your selling account, but definitely could cause some understandable alarm on your part).

No matter the cause, Customer Service has received your report and we will review for any technical issues. Again, if there is any negative impact to your account that shouldn't be recorded, you're eligible for protection as outlined in my previous posts and the resources I provided to our Help Pages. Changing your handling time to account for delays in processing shipments is the right step to take and you will continue to be successful as long as you keep meeting the expectations you have set in your listings.

@Anonymous - Thank you for the additional clarification. It's good to know that this is not the intended design.

Those two orders are still showing as "uploaded late" in the "Tracking uploaded on time and validated" metric. How long should I expect to wait for them to be removed or do I need to call CS to make that happen?

I've gone ahead and extended the handling time again as of this morning to account for our schedule this week and will hope for the best.

zamo-zuan · ‎12-30-2019

Something has definitely changed, because ship by dates never used to behave this way.

In addition, eBay has started giving those messages about "Arrives on this day if you order within X hours", which typically only shows up for 0 handling time orders. But this now shows up for ANY handling time.

I've also reported issues with delivery dates not being accurate, and eBay insists there's no issue saying their script about dates are "estimated based on many factors". Meanwhile, it's telling customers that a FedEx Ground package is going to get across the entire country and delivered in 1-2 days past handling time, which is 100% NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

And then sellers are the ones who have to deal with upset customers when it doesn't arrive within the time span.

I don't know why they keep messing with this type of thing. Giving buyers unrealistic expectations doesn't make eBay more appealing when compared to Amazon, it just makes it an upsetting experience when things don't arrive on time.

If anything is tweaked, they should just give the honest dates, and better yet, show buyers the expected shipping date! Every Monday we come in to messages about "Why is the item shipping late?!" because eBay no longer shows the customer an expected shipping date, and we have to explain that it's on time and "any eBay ETA's should still be accurate"... when in reality they actually are not accurate often times.

Anonymous · ‎12-30-2019

@autopiacarcare wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

Hi @autopiacarcare, definitely want to clarify that there has been no policy change. You've shared some details of an unusual situation and I proposed the only logical causes I could think of. Your handling time should determine the ship-by date, but as you have showcased there are two examples where this did not happen as expected. When I stated earlier that varying estimated delivery dates could be why you are seeing varying ship-by dates, I didn't mean to indicate that this is the intended design; I can see how my "either/or" statement gave that impression and I apologize for giving the wrong idea. I should have said that this could be explained by either a technical issue that may be incorrectly calculating factors related to the estimated delivery date, or factors that go into the estimated delivery date that were incorrectly input or recorded (specifically referencing the handling time). Since you've confirmed with Customer Service that these two shipments had the 2-day handling time that you submitted, either the calculations are not working as they should (which we would address if this lead to a negative impact to your account) or there is a cosmetic issue with how the ship-by date is being displayed (which would not negatively impact your selling account, but definitely could cause some understandable alarm on your part).

No matter the cause, Customer Service has received your report and we will review for any technical issues. Again, if there is any negative impact to your account that shouldn't be recorded, you're eligible for protection as outlined in my previous posts and the resources I provided to our Help Pages. Changing your handling time to account for delays in processing shipments is the right step to take and you will continue to be successful as long as you keep meeting the expectations you have set in your listings.

@Anonymous - Thank you for the additional clarification. It's good to know that this is not the intended design.

Those two orders are still showing as "uploaded late" in the "Tracking uploaded on time and validated" metric. How long should I expect to wait for them to be removed or do I need to call CS to make that happen?

I've gone ahead and extended the handling time again as of this morning to account for our schedule this week and will hope for the best.

Hi @autopiacarcare, Customer Service can review late shipment defects for removal where appropriate. Tracking uploaded and validated on time misses could not be removed or appealed, but if these were recorded in error and that leads to a loss of Top Rated Seller status, Customer Service can manually adjust your Top Rated Status accordingly. Tracking uploaded and validated by a carrier misses that were recorded in error would only be removed if automatic protections were applied for a widespread weather event, service outage or technical issue.

gramophone-georg · ‎12-30-2019

@zamo-zuan wrote:
Something has definitely changed, because ship by dates never used to behave this way.

In addition, eBay has started giving those messages about "Arrives on this day if you order within X hours", which typically only shows up for 0 handling time orders. But this now shows up for ANY handling time.

I've also reported issues with delivery dates not being accurate, and eBay insists there's no issue saying their script about dates are "estimated based on many factors". Meanwhile, it's telling customers that a FedEx Ground package is going to get across the entire country and delivered in 1-2 days past handling time, which is 100% NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

And then sellers are the ones who have to deal with upset customers when it doesn't arrive within the time span.

I don't know why they keep messing with this type of thing. Giving buyers unrealistic expectations doesn't make eBay more appealing when compared to Amazon, it just makes it an upsetting experience when things don't arrive on time.

If anything is tweaked, they should just give the honest dates, and better yet, show buyers the expected shipping date! Every Monday we come in to messages about "Why is the item shipping late?!" because eBay no longer shows the customer an expected shipping date, and we have to explain that it's on time and "any eBay ETA's should still be accurate"... when in reality they actually are not accurate often times.

It's just incredible how eBay can take the simplest of tasks and turn them into brain teasers.

Chaos is NOT an "industry standard".

zamo-zuan · ‎12-30-2019

@gramophone-georg wrote:
It's just incredible how eBay can take the simplest of tasks and turn them into brain teasers.

I just worry that it's misleading customers. It lets them think they will get the item earlier than they do, making them upset. The "Order within 2 hours" message gives them the impression that the item will arrive earlier if they order early, when this is NOT true because the item has a 1-2 day handling time.

In the eyes of a buyer, it would seem very shady if they notice any of these things and it would be blamed on the seller. But sellers aren't in control of this.

If sellers are going to receive negativity, they should at least have some form of control of the issue, otherwise they don't deserve the headache as they did nothing wrong.

Sellers have to listen to upset customers complain about the problems, but when you tell eBay they will say "Don't worry, the shipment estimates are working as intended! We have a lot of data and take many factors in to consideration!". EBay has the ability to fix the issue doesn't want to hear that there's a problem. But sellers have to hear the complaints. It's not very fair.