eBay

buyselljack2016 · ‎08-10-2020

My sales dropped off after last Monday. Basically flat in two accounts with the exception of 1 sale.

Not a big seller, but generally at least 2 items each 3 days in each account.

Had sales today, and have now discovered the reason for the lull.

Potential buyers are being shown an estimated delivery date 23 to 29 days out for 1st Class mail in the same state.

In a chat with eBay CS I was directed to contact the courier, as the courier is setting the estimate. The CSR quickly ended the chat while I was typing suggesting that I must have left. Basically a "hang up".

CSR did ask if I could revise the handling time, so that led me to see that is where the issue lies.

My handling time has been 3 days for a long time. More than a year.

Now suddenly a 3 day handling time is causing an estimated delivery date 23-or more days out with the yellow warning that the estimated delivery is over 15 days. Revising to a 2 day handling drops the estimated down to 10 - 17 days.

I do not believe this has anything to do with the "courier", but is a direct result of eBay coding.

I suppose that I will have to revise my handling time. Buyers do not want to purchase from a seller that has a month lag time.

We need some help from eBay where they show unrealistic short estimated delivery, but 3-4 weeks is not the answer.

Even Priority is showing delivery in state 3 weeks out. The "courier" is not doing that.

buyselljack2016 · ‎08-15-2020

@gwzcomps wrote:
Ah so you got hit with the same nonsense I did. Funny with how eBay likes to screw things up.

yup, it was their attempt to provide some relief in the expected delivery dates, but done (coded) in such a way as only to be a determent. Things won't be late in delivery mainly because sales will, as mine did, go flat, when the warning shows up giving the now, unrealistically long wait time for a buyer.

I dropped all my listings back from 3 days to 2 days handling. Not a big issue for me. Just sometimes it will only be 1 day when there is a pre 3 AM west coast time sale.

Now being back at 2 days I basically have no seller relief from INR as the expected delivery times, while not unreasonable for "good times", are not enough of a cushion from a buyer that is unaware of the current situation, or bent on taking advantage of the current situation.

The expected delivery does not extend daily, or by "business days" as it should, but jumps out weekly, and then dwindles daily until it jumps out again.

The next thing I am working on is trying to get rid of the eBay applied GD on my listings. We know eBay claims to take ownership of GD issues when we ship
on time", but we also know that we the seller can still be on the short end of the stick with the options that are given to the buyer.

I cringe when I get a California, or Michigan sale. One Priority was 15 days to L.A..