Item Not Received case when no estimate available.

[dariudaudery_0]

So buyer has opened item not received case.

Buyer from USA, Seller me from EU.

Buyer sees "Estimated delivery Varies"

Sale in an international sale and there should be 30 days before buyer can open the case for international and 7 for domestic.

Buyer has opened the case 14 days in which should not have been possible... How does that work? Were there any changes to the policy?

[wastingtime101]

Shipping "varies" is because you chose "flat rate freight" which is non-specific to carrier used so the system can't calculate an estimate.

When you purchased a shipping label, was there tracking? If the system was able to read the carrier, service and tracking then it would be able to come up with an estimate.

Go to your Orders page and find the transaction. Under the actions column select "Order Details" - when you pull up that page, do you see an estimated delivery date?

If you don't see an estimated delivery date there then I would assume the system is defaulting to let the buyer open a claim after 2 weeks because there is no estimate. It's hard to determine without more information.

[dariudaudery_0]

Tracking uploaded, there is no estimate and never was when shipping to USA. For some reason almost every other country gets estimates but not USA and since there is no estimate it has always been 30 days after purchase that buyer can open item not received case. 30 days international 7 days domestic, but not this time. Buyer managed to open case after 14 days.

There is no estimate on order details and never was for USA buyers. You could pull up any of my listings and see the same thing.

[santamonicajeweler]

Somehow, we're back in COVID mode these days. Mail from outside US, specially EU, is being delayed and dates are all mixed up 

Maybe, it's to clear packages from Virus. Virus's life span is 9 days. So, we see delays because Virus dies in time.  All retailers and public offices going to be wearing a mandatory and specific N95/KN95 mask in US  major cities soon, if not already here. So, you need to consider delays due to Virus and everyone knows it but no one is talking about it

So, impatient Buyer, opened a request.  It wouldn't matter if an INR request is opened, once tracking shows movement, request will be extended. In this case, 16 days for sure! 

What does the tracking show? Is it showing a certain date for more than a week?  I'll be worried about delivery more than request time

[stainlessenginecovers]

There was never a 30 day or 7 day timeline for opening a 'not received'. I've received them 2 days after the order and I have 5 business days before we ship noted all over the listing. I just wait until the 'date' I have to respond, then respond with the tracking number and have never heard back from it again. 

[wastingtime101]

I think I'm seeing an issue with your shipping section @dariudaudery_0. You chose "flat rate freight" as the service, but what you should be using the option that says "economy shipping from outside the US" like this:

That would solve your estimated delivery date problem.

I'm tagging tyler@ebay to see if he can answer your question about INR timelines. When there's no estimated delivery date for an international shipment, should the buyer be restricted from opening an INR for 30 days or is the timeline 14 days?

[wastingtime101]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

There was never a 30 day or 7 day timeline for opening a 'not received'. I've received them 2 days after the order and I have 5 business days before we ship noted all over the listing. I just wait until the 'date' I have to respond, then respond with the tracking number and have never heard back from it again. 

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I always thought it was that the buyer couldn't open the INR until the day after the latest estimated delivery date.

[dariudaudery_0]

I see tons of forum threads saying that there is 30 day international wait time before buyer can open a case by default if there is no estimated delivery.

I know that it is how it worked as not 1 item not received case was opened before 30 days when there is no estimate provided by eBay. Even case from last month for item not received was opened 31 or 32 days after the purchase was made.

Also i remember reading somewhere long ago on eBay about 7 and 30 days, but currently can't find it. 

[pjcdn2005]

You're correct. When the delivery time is stated as 'varies' and both seller and buyer are in the same country, an inr can be opened after 7 days. If they are in different countries, the time is 30 days. But as @wastingtime101 pointed out,  the rules must not be the same if you counter the service 'flat rate freight'.  If you used economy shipping from outside of the US there should always be an estimated delivery time.

[pjcdn2005]

I couldn't find where it states the 30 days either but at one time on .ca there were quite a few 'estimated arrival time varies' for international locations so I've looked it up quite a few times in the past.  I suspect that most or all of the 'varies' options are gone now so perhaps that's why they've removed the wording.  But even when the wording was there, my guess is that it didn't apply to 'freight'.

[dogchow747]

I got hit with a INR case a few years ago when Paypal was calling the shots.

Had a international surface mail item take 32 days to arrive.

Buyer was yelling and howling at day 20, claimed I never shipped it and was ripping him off.

Had all of the info, proved I shipped it the day after the sale etc.

Sided with buyer on day 31, buyer was nice enough to tell me on day 32 he just got it.

Can not imagine it is much better today.

You may have to follow up with USPS if it fails to arrive.

[tyler@ebay · Accepted solution]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

I think I'm seeing an issue with your shipping section @dariudaudery_0. You chose "flat rate freight" as the service, but what you should be using the option that says "economy shipping from outside the US" like this:

That would solve your estimated delivery date problem.

I'm tagging tyler@ebay to see if he can answer your question about INR timelines. When there's no estimated delivery date for an international shipment, should the buyer be restricted from opening an INR for 30 days or is the timeline 14 days?

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Thanks for the tag @wastingtime101! 

Hi @dariudaudery_0 - WastingTime gave you some great input on how to properly set up your listings going forward so that an estimated delivery date is generated for your buyers.

If a tracked shipment does not update for 7 calendar days a buyer could open an Item not Received request because it may be considered lost in transit. 

I'd recommend continuing to work with the buyer or considering contacting CS so they can review the request in detail and discuss your options with you. 

[dariudaudery_0]

I see... Guess i should not have changed it then as i used to have Economy 11-23 but thinking Freight will give a longer estimate as some packages were fairly late i changed it...

Appreciate the input. It seems i was wrong about how some things work.

[wastingtime101]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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If a tracked shipment does not update for 7 calendar days a buyer could open an Item not Received request because it may be considered lost in transit. 

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Thanks for weighing in here tyler@ebay. I know the OP was about orders that don't display an estimated date, but since that's already resolved I'm going to ask a slightly off-topic question.

You said that INRs can be opened when there is no tracking for 7 calendar days.

• To clarify, you mean the INR can be filed after the ETD has passed first, right? If the estimated delivery is two weeks out, then no tracking scans for 7 days wouldn't be a factor unless the package remained off-grid when the ETD came around?
• Isn't the policy that it's considered potentially lost when there are no tracking scans for 7 calendar days on domestic shipments and 10-15 days international? (I will look for my source on that if you need it. I'm pretty sure it was either you or the departed Trinton that posted it.) Has that timeframe changed?
• Is the shipping team aware that the USPS system will not allow someone to file a missing mail claim on a domestic shipment until there are no scans for 10 calendar days? Just pointing it out. 😁