Dear eBay, please sync shipping deadlines with the timezone that the seller is in.

[rcmbullion]

I don't understand why ebay doesn't use eastern time for sellers in eastern time (or central for central, etc.).  My mail comes between 8am and 11am most days.  It comes so early that I usually have to put my packages in the mailbox the night before.  Every so often, something sells after midnight EST but before 3am (midnight PST), so it still counts as sold the day before.  Then I wake up the next morning to a shipment that needs to go out that morning because I have 1-day handle time and it was dated the day before.  But then my mail has already come half the time, so I either get to run it to the post office or take the late shipping hit.

I understand that may just be a weird combination of timing for my situation, but I have stuff that sells and needs to be packed and in the mailbox  within 6 or 8 hours (almost all of which I am sleeping) to make the mail pickup even though I am supposed to have a business day to handle it.  The alternative is losing my TRS+ discount and switching to 2 days.  I usually stay up past midnight, so it's not a problem to have stuff sell later in the evening and get packed before I go to bed.  It's really only a problem when stuff sells at 2:59am.

I wish we could set business hours for our account so that stuff selling after 8 or 10pm starts the 1 day handle the next day.  Maybe I'm getting my terms mixed up, but I think ebay is calling it 1-day but really holding me to a next day standard.  I don't think 1-day shipping and next day are the same thing.  To me, next day means it's scanned and in the mail by close of PO business the next day.  I offer 1-day and therefore I think I should have 24 hours from the time of sale to handle and then it must be scanned in during PO business hours after my 24 hours has passed.  Meaning that stuff selling after midnight would need to be checked in after midnight the following day= the day after that.

Before anyone suggests getting up earlier, please substitute sleeping for any other obligation that makes it hard to have packages ready between 3am and 8 am.

Thoughts?

Does anyone else have a situation like this?  I'm curious if anyone has a good solution that works for them.

[luckythewinner]

---

@rcmbullion wrote:

Then I wake up the next morning to a shipment that needs to go out that morning because I have 1-day handle time and it was dated the day before. But then my mail has already come half the time, so I either get to run it to the post office or take the late shipping hit.

Thoughts?

---

If your 1-day handling time is causing a problem, stop offering a 1-day handling time.

[this*old*attic]

Actually, I think he has a legit point.

[luckythewinner]

---

@this*old*attic wrote:

Actually, I think he has a legit point.

---

I didn't say his point was or wasn't "legit". 

The OP asked for thoughts and for solutions that worked for others with this issue. 

My thoughts - and the solution that worked for me - was to stop trying to offer 1-day shipping. 

[this*old*attic]

Yes, but I have 2 day shipping, print postage and mail within 1, and have a TERRIBLE percentage of late shipments!

 I’m generally what folks call a cheerleader, but this system appears not to work as promised.

 I can roll with annoying policies and too frequent changes... I lean toward the belief that EBay needs to meet modern Ecommerce expectations and we can’t roll  time back to the minute the site was new.

But I DO expect a large corporation to 1.)  Follow their own policies so we aren’t shooting at a moving target and 2.) As the ORIGINAL site of this type know how to accurately code by now.

[luckythewinner]

---

@this*old*attic wrote:

Yes, but I have 2 day shipping, print postage and mail within 1, and have a TERRIBLE percentage of late shipments!

---

And I have 100% tracking uploaded and validated and 0% late shipments on both my selling accounts. 

Is it possible that the problem lies with your post office and not with eBay's "coding"?

[eunster1313]

eBay has to have something to go buy so by default it is set to Pacific Time.

You can change it here.

https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf

Scroll down and look for (Set same business day handling times)
and click on the edit link to the right.

[slippinjimmy]

---

@eunster1313 wrote:

eBay has to have something to go buy so by default it is set to Pacific Time.

---

That only works for SAME DAY shipping not for 1 day.

[this*old*attic]

I probably wasn’t clear - I don’t just mail it, it’s SCANNED.

 I have 2 items scanned and in the system 1 day after purchase when my handling is set at 2 days... they both show late.

I have a buyer labelling a delivery as late in one field, and empty for buyers describing any shipment late in another section - both describe the same 5 shipments. Well, they can’t both be true.

[this*old*attic]

And one item tracks as never delivered even though it was back in December! No complaint - thank goodness! How scary is that?

So some breakdown is obviously post office, but the rest is EBay registering activity in a way that doesn’t make sense.

[gamersbaystore]

Ebay can keeps its discount and worthless TRS, I only offer 2 day handling because of all the nonsense defects ebay gives sellers for shipping everything on time. The discount is a joke to begin with, why make yourself suffer with defects and headaches for a few extra cents, not worth it.