Differences between selling and buying

[ione_alm]

Okay so I don't understand the item not received process. 

Whenever I as a buyer opened an item not received case, the standard message I got was that the seller has 8 days to reply and then I can escalate if they don't. As a seller, I just got an item not received and it seems I only have FOUR days to reply instead of 8. Why this huge difference?

Same case, it's an international shipment. Whenever I as a buyer I bought something from another country, the first date that I could open an item not received case was at least 30 days from ship date, which is normal since international shipping is quite slow at times. Now my buyer is on another CONTINENT and they opened an item not received case 20 days since the ship date in conditions where at least half of that period was winter holiday closures and weekends. Basically they want a shipment from Europe to Canada in about 6 or 7 working days when sometimes that's how long it takes to deliver in the same country. Anyway this isn't a question about the buyer but about why eBay's rules are so vastly different for me as a buyer and other buyers. Why can't I open an item not received 20 calendar days since ordering internationally but other buyers can do that to me?

[jennzet-0]

What is the estimated date of arrival?

A buyer can file item not received one day after that date.

[ione_alm]

Hmm, I'm not sure how to check that. Let me see. Could I have put it down accidentally to a very short ETA?

[jennzet-0]

As a buyer the estimated date of arrival is on the "my ebay" page.

[helloandgoodmorning]

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@ione_alm wrote:

Hmm, I'm not sure how to check that. Let me see. Could I have put it down accidentally to a very short ETA?

---

eBay is the one who provides the estimated delivery date. They calculate it based on your handling time + shipping service offered + your history of shipping (3 day handling but ship within 1 day 99% of the time, they will likely use 1 day handling to calculate the estimate).

Go to the completed listing and at the top of the page you will see a bunch of links including "Order Details". Click on that to see the estimated delivery date. Once the item is delivered the estimate will be replaced with the actual delivery date.

[penguins_dont_fly]

@ione_alm

As others have said, a buyer can open an INR one day after the Last Estimated Delivery Date (for up to 30 days past the LEDD).

A seller must respond to the dispute within 3 business days.

eBay recently revamped the MBG timetables:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy...

Your experiences as a buyer are based o the estimated dates from your purchases. If you couldn't open an INR for 20 days, it was because 19 days was the EDD.

As a,seller, you choose a handling time and a shipping method.

eBay uses your handling time plus the carrier's estimate to show the buyer a delivery date. Different carriers/methods will give different EDD.

[penguins_dont_fly]

@ione_alm

I just looked at your listings ... how are you using Royal Mail (carrier in the listing) from Romania?

Your listings should show either a generic "Economy/Standard/Expidited" or the actual service you are using.

This may be contributing to your INR problems ... eBay is using the Royal Mail estimates for your buyer's .... what method are you ACTUALLY using?

[ione_alm]

Thank you all!

Penguins, yes I believe I chose the wrong shipping method, so it's my fault. It doesn't help at all that I'm inexperienced as a seller and the system isn't displaying any warnings when you select a clearly incorrect shipping method. It also doesn't help that this item we're talking about was posted on eBay like 8 months ago so I don't remember what I selected and was even more inexperienced back then. I think I posted it on eBay.co.uk but allowed WW shipping and possibly the system just generalized the shipping method I selected for UK.

Anyway, I managed to look at the order and it looks like the total ETA minus the winter holidays & weekends, minus my handling time leaves just 4 working days to deliver a package from Europe to Canada. I have no idea if eBay's ETA actually eliminates holiday closures from the calculation. When I order stuff locally it takes at least 5 working days to arrive and when I placed international orders my ETAs were typically at least 30 calendar days. Clearly I made a booboo but eBay's posting tool isn't helpful at all if it allows inexperienced sellers to select overly optimistic delivery times like that! 

It's good to know that they made some changes to the MBG, that would certainly explain the differences between when I bought in the past and when I sell now. Thing is, now I don't know what to do since the item is still in transit. I have provided the tracking number but can't escalate to support to close in my favor since it's not delivered as such and it's clearly unfair to the buyer if, say, it gets lost from now on. I'm afraid the buyer may still escalate to get it closed in their favor, is there any way I can prevent that now that I'm caught with my trousers down? 

[ione_alm]

I forgot to add that I'm using standard international tracked mail. In my experience so far I can deliver to UK in about a week since shipping but that's of course never guaranteed. When I deliver outside EU, there are customs involved and I can never guarantee specific arrival dates but I would say I need at least 14 calendar days to deliver to other continents in business-as-usual periods. This may or may not apply to extended holiday periods when I expect that the post is overburdened by transit and likely half staffed, obviously.

[castlemagicmemories]

Have you called CS and asked for an extension to allow for delivery?  If tracking does show movement, you can do this and they may give you ten days as an extension.

[penguins_dont_fly]

@ione_alm

You really need to fix your active listings.

Your Zara pants are showing  4 to 9 Business days via Royal Mail  --- for me in the United States, from Romania -  if I buy today (Sunday)

If you don't know how to set up "Standard from Outside the UK" … please go ask on the UK seller boards before you get more INR issues 

https://community.ebay.co.uk

GBP 10.00

United States

None (Royal Mail International Tracked)

Estimated between Thu. Jan. 17 and Thu. Jan. 24

And --- the changes they made to the MBG timelines actually shorten the time for a seller to respond to a buyer.

[ione_alm]

Thank you Castlemagic, will do that!

Thank you for checking my ETAs, Penguins. Now I know what the problem was in the first place. I edited the pants post only to see that none of the international shipment methods display any kind of transit time. I probably chose Royal Mail in the past because the post was the only shipment type that I thought I knew an estimate for, i.e. my local post and the UK post should be equivalent in terms of shipping times for other continents or countries requiring custom checks - but I'm not familiar with any of the other shipment options. Since there was no shipping time available in the drop down menu, I thought I can guess by proxy. In fact I still find it really weird that the system picked up as default such a short shipping time for Royal Mail since there should be not much of a difference between shipping from RO or UK to Canada, which is far enough away to iron out the difference. 

And there are even more traps! Apparently international tracked delivery is taken as expedited delivery even though it's not explicitly said in the drop down list. I finally selected international standard but now there is no ETA at all even if I go into the listing as a customer and try to select Canada. It just says it varies by location. I guess I just cross my fingers and pray. 

[moxiedrinker]

If I were you in the future I would use the eBay supplied overseas shipping!

[ione_alm]

Do you mean the global shipping program, Moxie? It would indeed be less of a headache but I can offer better pricing with the standard post and I guess that increases my chances to sell.

[castlemagicmemories]

Yes, it can increase sales.  There are some buyers who feel the GSP charges too much.  But others don't have a problem with that because they would not be able to get that item otherwise. 

It's just personal choice for buyer or seller as to what works best for them.