How To Avoid 'Late' Shipping?

[cedarstone_industry]

So, basically, our office is open Monday through Friday; 7AM to 4PM Central. After 3:30PM on Friday, we obviously can not ship any items again until Monday. Through the week shipments are handled nearly on the spot. I can say this because it is me doing the fulfillment. The item is pulled manually from inventory, packaged with its shipping label applied and tracking sent to the buyer via email on spot. It will be picked up the same day by USPS. Yet we have a 7% rate of packages not getting to people on time? How can that be? Worse, while eBay will inform me of this issue and show me what listed item was mailed late . . . there are no details. I can not see when the item was delivered. I do not see which order number is being listed, so I can not go check that tracking to see what went on. I am blown away that 32 items are marked late in this last period. What steps can be taken further?

[myboardid]

What is your handling time?  Even if it is one day, you should have until Monday to ship anything that comes in after 12 Midnight Pacific time Thursday night/Friday morning.  However your item has to be SCANNED on Monday to prove that you shipped on time.  Are you using a SCAN SHEET?  That should correct any scanning problems. 

Also, you should be keeping a record of the tracking number and order number together for the necessary reference.  Also, checking the tracking number will tell you exactly what day and time the package was delivered.  Yes, it may mean more work for you and an adjustment in your record keeping.  With the correct information, you should be able to call eBay and prove ontime delivery or at least ontime shipment and get defects removed. 

One more thing - this is not a 5 day a week, 40 hours a week job.  It is 24/7/365.  To be truly successful, and to not get defects on your account and bad feedback for slow shipping, you need to put in evenings & Saturdays, even Sundays and holidays.  It's just the way it is.   

[fern*wood]

It sounds like you aren't getting any acceptance scans within your handling time frame.  Doing so will negate any hits to the ontime shipping metric even if it arrives after the delivery estimate---unless ebay messes up as they did recently.  Is this a recent problem?

[cedarstone_industry]

ShipStation keeps a record of most all details. I could go back and check the tracking numbers if I knew which they were to check. I can just open every one from the listed order dates I suppose. I don't mind the extra steps terribly. The scanning is something I will have to look into. I package everything, then daily we either take it to USPS ourselves (an employee) or, at times, USPS will pick it up. But I don't know that even then they scan it or it just gets put in a truck and handled much later on, say next day. 😕

[1786davycrockett]

Click on "Go to your dashboard."  On your dashboard summary, under "Late Transactions," you should see an icon that reads "Get full report" -- click on that, and it should show you which transactions and which dates are the problems.

It will also help a great deal if you make your runs to the post office earlier in the day (before 2:30 PM CST Central), rather than afterwards, and actually STAND IN LINE to receive a scan.  Yes, it's time consuming; but at least you KNOW that your shipments are being scanned ON TIME.  (I'm in Central as well, and I make my daily runs as early as possible.)

Delivery issues are a USPS issue; but USPS scans seem to be the MAJOR culprit in regards to the eBay "Late Delivery" formula.

Good luck!

[cedarstone_industry]

Turns out ShipStation also has a very simple system for the Scan Sheets. I can print one off daily and see if after a period of time that decreases the issue. We close here really around 3:30, though some of us linger til the final 4 point. Perhaps we could get pick-ups set up daily before a certain time and since I bring the packages to the truck . . . I can hand the sheet and be sure I witness the scan.

[cedarstone_industry]

Yup. The first item I see on my Late Delivery Report I went and found in my app. So for example: I see the order placed late day Jan 23. I see that I fulfilled the order on the 24th within a 24-hour range. But then? Bam. The tracking's first piece of information isn't til Jan 25, and it is not a scan. It is saying they know we set up the item. Then the tracking doesn't show a single thing again til Feb 8th when it is delivered. That makes no sense! I have a feeling we could prove the majority of these were shipped out on time now. It will just be a mission of manual work. Which really, is fine if it fixes the problem. 

[1786davycrockett]

Sorry -- I meant to say "12:30 PM CST," and not "2:30 PM CST."

[sam9876]

Ship on Saturday.

[berserkerplanet]

► I have a feeling we could prove the majority of these were shipped out on time now

If you don't have an acceptance or other scan within your stated handling time it doesn't matter. You are at the mercy of USPS delivery times. eBay doesn't care that you got it out the door on time unless it is proven with an actual on-time scan.