Projected Delivery Dates

[cascarole]

This morning, I happened to look at one of my listings, and noticed a projected delivery date of June 11th-15th. I figured it was a glitch, and then noticed it on all my listings. I have 5 day handling, usually ship in 1-2 days, and ship either 1st class or Priority. I would say, on average, my packages arrive in 5-7 days, from date of sale. 

I called CS, and explained the issue. I was asked if I wanted to be in on the Guaranteed Delivery Program. Asking for more specifics than I read in the last update, I was informed I'd have to shorten my handling time to 1-2 days, which is a pressure I don't want or need. 

When I asked why my projected Delivery Dates were over a month out, explaining that it was 1-ridiculous and 2-detrimental to my sales, I was told that this is the delivery projection that will now be given on ALL listings, as of May, that are not part of guaranteed delivery. I was told that the "actual" projected date will change, once a purchase is made, and they will estimate based on the buyers zip code. My response was something to the effect of "They are not going to buy based on those kinds of dates, so they will never SEE the real date". Has anyone else noticed a change in their estimated deliveries? This seems crazy, no?

[dhbookds]

Where is the logic in that?

I'm guessing that you couldn't/didn't answer Trinton's request for item #'s since you changed the handling time which apparently corrected the problem.

If I were you, to get a clear answer....... I would change one to the 5 days and see if the eta was the 30 days and if so, leave it up and send him the item # so perhaps they can find the problem. 

It seems none are going to answer the CS info......

[cascarole]

Hi~

I did reply to Triton in a private message. I still have no response regarding the automatic opt-in, or the later etas.

[mam98031]

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@cascarole wrote:

Hi,

Maybe "manipulative" is not the correct word, so lets take the GD program out of the equation.

I've had 5 day handling for most of the 6 years I've been selling, and have never had ETAs that were 30 days out until this week. By moving my handling time up 2 days, my ETAs were moved up 20 days. Where is the logic in that? I ship 2 days earlier, and my items are delivered over 2 weeks earlier?  I'm not taking it personally, I just think that the lengthening of ETA dates, coinciding with the updated GD program, seems more than coincidental.

 The written response from the CSR person specifically says that the ETAS can only be changed by opting in to the program. It does not mention handling times at all, nor did the letter that went out informing us that we'd automatically be opted in, in May, and we'd have to opt out manually. By the way, even the automatic opt-in with a manual opt-out was ridiculous. I read these boards, Ina's Blog, and all emails from ebay, but Im sure there are many sellers who don't. Yes, being informed is our job, but an automatic opt in is an overeach. Just my opinion.

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I have no idea what is going on for some sellers such as yourself.  I suspect it is a glitch, not by design. 

There are lots of sellers that would not be able to comply with the rules for GD just due to the type of products they sell.  So if Ebay were trying to encourage everyone to be in GD by doing this, Ebay would be significantly hurting themselves by doing this as well.

I have no answers for you, but I would not take what the CSR said at face value.  We far to often find out that the advice of a CSR was incorrect.

[buyselljack2016]

I'm going with glitch.

Just tried one of mine.

Changed from 2 day handle to 10 day handle.

2 day says on or before May 14th.

With 10 day the estimated delivery is May 26th- June 1st

As for the CSR part, well..............   that is really strange.  We might expect to hear most anything over the phone as a CSR tries to merge eBay policies, and apply them to some situation, coming up with their own answer that may not   does not make any sense,  but a written reply,.......  it would seem............  should adhere to some actual written eBay policy:)

[mam98031]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

I'm going with glitch.

Just tried one of mine.

Changed from 2 day handle to 10 day handle.

2 day says on or before May 14th.

With 10 day the estimated delivery is May 26th- June 1st

As for the CSR part, well..............   that is really strange.  We might expect to hear most anything over the phone as a CSR tries to merge eBay policies, and apply them to some situation, coming up with their own answer that may not   does not make any sense,  but a written reply,.......  it would seem............  should adhere to some actual written eBay policy:)

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You have a VERY good point and I thought of that after I posted.  I'm honestly at a loss here.  I just can't imagine doing this on purpose.  It is so short sighted.  

The additional time on your test could be because of weekends, but at least it isn't 30 days out.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@flyinhawaiiangirl wrote:

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

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That cut off time is only relevant if you offer same day shipping.  One day handling means that an item purchased before midnight pacific time should be scanned before midnight PT the following business day.  2 day handling gives you an extra day but but it is still based  on a cut off time  of midnight PT.

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Thank you for the clarification! And here I thought I was being all tricky but at least changing to 2 day handling cleared up any late scans, I guess it's better to under promise and over deliver, right?

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I think so.  Better someone is pleasantly surprised and thrilled they got something so fast, rather than expecting it to be beamed to them instantaneously and they are disappointed and/or angry.

[necessaryindulgencejewelry]

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

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@flyinhawaiiangirl wrote:

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

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That cut off time is only relevant if you offer same day shipping.  One day handling means that an item purchased before midnight pacific time should be scanned before midnight PT the following business day.  2 day handling gives you an extra day but but it is still based  on a cut off time  of midnight PT.

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Thank you for the clarification! And here I thought I was being all tricky but at least changing to 2 day handling cleared up any late scans, I guess it's better to under promise and over deliver, right?

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I think so.  Better someone is pleasantly surprised and thrilled they got something so fast, rather than expecting it to be beamed to them instantaneously and they are disappointed and/or angry.

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The problem is that someone has to bother to purchase, first, and getting that person to make the purchase is much harder when they think it'll take a month to get their item instead of a week to ten days.

I looked at my listings after reading this, and I'm in much the same boat as the OP: I've had 5 day handling times for years, with standard shipping, so the longest estimated time ought to show 10 days, but instead, it was showing 3 weeks.  I changed my handling time to 4 days with First Class shipping, and the 4 day handling helped to reduce the estimated delivery time by several days, but the First Class shipping method hasn't shown up on the listings, yet. It's been about 4 hours  since I made the changes.

[necessaryindulgencejewelry]

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@jonathankirkland wrote: It seems sill to me to have a 5 day handling time if you always shp within 1-2 days anyway.

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The reason that I chose 5-day handling on everything was because awhile back, a lot of sellers found that ebay kept shortening their estimated delivery time if they shipped earlier than the handling time that they chose on their listings. The faster a seller shipped on most items, the shorter ebay made the estimated delivery time, so that sellers found that they often couldn't deliver within the time frame that ebay was telling the buyer and they were getting their account dinged for it. However, that was only true for sellers who chose 1-3 day handling periods.

Soooo... that's why I put everything on a 5-day handling time, even though I usually ship within 3 days. That way, I could ship early on a regular basis without ebay shortening my EDT unreasonably. Now, however, ebay seems to have gone off the deep end in the other direction!

[mam98031]

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@necessaryindulgencejewelry wrote:

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@jonathankirkland wrote: It seems sill to me to have a 5 day handling time if you always shp within 1-2 days anyway.

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The reason that I chose 5-day handling on everything was because awhile back, a lot of sellers found that ebay kept shortening their estimated delivery time if they shipped earlier than the handling time that they chose on their listings. The faster a seller shipped on most items, the shorter ebay made the estimated delivery time, so that sellers found that they often couldn't deliver within the time frame that ebay was telling the buyer and they were getting their account dinged for it. However, that was only true for sellers who chose 1-3 day handling periods.

Soooo... that's why I put everything on a 5-day handling time, even though I usually ship within 3 days. That way, I could ship early on a regular basis without ebay shortening my EDT unreasonably. Now, however, ebay seems to have gone off the deep end in the other direction!

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I have had 1 day handling for years and I've never ran into the problem as you described.  But I do imagine it could be very frustrating to deal with.  Good to know it was not site wide.

[ted_200]

Now, however, ebay seems to have gone off the deep end in the other direction!

The whole thing has been a ridiculous disaster from the get-go.  They're all over the map.  They were shortening the estimate if you shipped too soon, more recently they've been claiming they aren't doing that anymore. 

On my listings, I've seen everything from nearly a month on First Class domestic mail (way too long) to 2 days for First Class International Parcel to Europe (Express won't even arrive that fast!). 

This one was pretty neat... apparently Priority Mail is 2 days slower than First Class? 

[cascarole]

Hi All~

I'm the OP, and it seems that now dates are changing with no rhyme or reason. As mentioned earlier in the thread, I had 5 day handling and etas were 30 days. Then I changed everything to 3 days, and my etas shortened to 10 days. Today they are all at 12 days. I'm thinking (perhaps) that is because today is Saturday, but seriously, can't there be SOME kind of standard?

That eta estimate (First vs Priority) above may be true, but a buyer might be confused.... I find that most of my First class packages DO arrive before my Priority packages, unless they are in a very far-away zone so I ship First Class for under a lb and Priority for over. 

I notice that nobody from ebay has addressed the issue here, other than by looking in to specific items. I'd like to know IF there is a defined formula for estimated (pre purchase) eta dates? 

Thanks!

[mam98031]

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@cascarole wrote:

Hi All~

I'm the OP, and it seems that now dates are changing with no rhyme or reason. As mentioned earlier in the thread, I had 5 day handling and etas were 30 days. Then I changed everything to 3 days, and my etas shortened to 10 days. Today they are all at 12 days. I'm thinking (perhaps) that is because today is Saturday, but seriously, can't there be SOME kind of standard?

That eta estimate (First vs Priority) above may be true, but a buyer might be confused.... I find that most of my First class packages DO arrive before my Priority packages, unless they are in a very far-away zone so I ship First Class for under a lb and Priority for over. 

I notice that nobody from ebay has addressed the issue here, other than by looking in to specific items. I'd like to know IF there is a defined formula for estimated (pre purchase) eta dates? 

Thanks!

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If the eta stays the same amount of days every day of the week, anytime you look at it, then it would definitely be wrong.  It has to move a little or it is NOT accurate and it would NOT be taking non business days into consideration.  

I have no idea why you had the 30 day issue.  I've heard of it before, but I don't have any answers on that, sorry.

[packratville]

I just noticed mine have different projected dates for the same service (First Class Package). Right now it only differs by one day, but the projected dates should be the same for the same service. The only difference in regards to the listings themselves is that the newest listings are projected to arrive a day earlier than older listings. And one thing that concerned me is the projected date for a video, Friday by First Class Mail and Saturday by Media Mail. I know Media Mail can be delivered sooner, but the projected date seemed too early for Media Mail. I entered the information into the usps.com website, and projected delivery is Thursday by First Class Package and the following Monday by Media Mail. I posted in another thread overnight how the projected date for something I was buying changed within the span of minutes. It could be the seller was up late (or early) revising handling times, or it could have been a glitch. I subsequently purchased, but the seller almost lost the sale because the longer projected delivery date was the first date presented to me and because of that I looked at other listings for an earlier delivery. But less-than-stellar feedback for the others took me back to the original listing and that's when the projected delivery date was two days earlier than what I first saw. 

[solarshift7]

For what it's worth I had something similar happen to all of my accounts a few months back.  Unfortunately I can't say what the cause was but I did have to get a CS rep involved for a fix. 

I had everything set to same-day handling yet my estimates were something like 15 days!  I called ebay and after pushing the issue to a rep that at first minimized my concerns, I was passed on to another who finally saw what I saw and he became speechless.  He took down a few items from each account on a "ticket" to report things.  About 36 hours later the estimates were fixed.  I have no idea what was wrong but now I periodically checklistings on each account to make sure it's not happening again as I'm sure it hurt my sales for possibly weeks.  Stay on them until they fix it for you!  Best of luck!

[ted_200]

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@solarshift7 wrote:

For what it's worth I had something similar happen to all of my accounts a few months back.  Unfortunately I can't say what the cause was but I did have to get a CS rep involved for a fix. 

I had everything set to same-day handling yet my estimates were something like 15 days!  I called ebay and after pushing the issue to a rep that at first minimized my concerns, I was passed on to another who finally saw what I saw and he became speechless.  He took down a few items from each account on a "ticket" to report things.  About 36 hours later the estimates were fixed.  I have no idea what was wrong but now I periodically checklistings on each account to make sure it's not happening again as I'm sure it hurt my sales for possibly weeks.  Stay on them until they fix it for you!  Best of luck!

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That's pretty much what was described up in Post #20... take a few item #s and we'll look into it...   So, you're saying this is a glitch, and it's something eBay CS knew about "a few months" ago?  Swell.