I get sick of impatient buyers immediately opening an "item not received" case for books not delivered Media Mail on time. And opening it in the unrealistic time parameters Ebay sets for delivery. 12 days. Bam! You've got a case. When I first started selling books on Ebay it often took two to three weeks for Media Mail.
No one at Ebay is in control, moderation, or observation of USPS delivery times or record of performance. Performance varies by region. They don't have the statistics. They don't know what is going on at the Post Office because they don't work there and they don't like sharing information about their operations. So how can they make those decisions? And the time element Ebay sets is static. Never varies with changes in circumstances or national events. Hurricanes? Winter storms? Doesn't matter. The delivery time expectation is written in stone.
Amazing that the Post Office keeps raising the cost of shipping everything so that now the cost of shipping a small 2LB book is almost $5 just for postage. But now since hiking rates their performance has hit the skids. Their performance on updating tracking is on a steady slide. It's always late, if it appears at all. So it's a service that now costs more, but performs less well.
That's the modern American trend. You work harder for less actual pay even if your pay increases because of the skyrocketing cost of living. You pay more for less quality. You get less personal customer service from just about every entity under the sun in the modern "communication era." You don't reach people on the phone any more, you wait for call backs or spend an hour on hold to ask why your power bill doubled. But you pay the same fees and costs even though you can't even communicate freely with the people you're forced to do business with.
And here's what happens when the USPS delivers a package a little late and the customer has already been automatically refunded. The customer keeps the merchandise. And ignores messages. Except for one occasion that's the way it always turns out. And each time I must talk to multiple people at Ebay to complain and recover my loss. Wait on hold to be connected to the proper department, etc. And they act as though they're doing me a big favor by refunding my money. Lke, "We'll do it this time, but don't always expect such grand largesse." When they're the ones that took my money with a knee jerk!
I guess Ebay doesn't mind paying these costs for their members to get free stuff because the USPS is no longer competent to get packages delivered on time. And if you read the news reports, you'll understand why. All kinds of troubles at the USPS. It's an absolute mess. But Ebay still has these unrealistic shipping time expectations. Not even taking into account what happens when packages cross multiple time zones. And having no knowledge of specific regional USPS centers where long-time sellers know for a fact they are incompetent. Where we know from decades of experience things get smashed and disappear.
