Shipping Defects

[somanypcs]

On March 21 one of my best customers won 3 auctions.  I have a 2-day handling time.  This customer was also high bidder on additional auctions that ended in the near future, just after the end of the handling time.

I thought I understood eBay's policy (see at bottom) so I emailed my customer asking if I should mail the 3 items on March 22 in a letter or wait until the other auctions ended and mail all together in a package with tracking.  The customer told me to wait and send via a package with tracking.

Here are the problems:

1.  I now have defects for late shipping of these 3 items.

2.  I am unsure on how many transactions have defects.  On Seller Dashboard it says I have a Late Shipment Rate on "1 of  375 transactions."  On my Late Shipment Report Summary it says "Transactions that weren't shipped on time:  3."  This was a combined order, but does it result in 1 transaction defect or 3 defects?

3.  I was unable to use the online "Request to remove defects" as none of the 5 choices applied.  The available choices were:  Shipped on time (shown in tracking), Delivered on time (shown in tracking), Severe weather caused shipping delay, Technical issues on eBay, and Disruption outside my control (examples:  illness or hospitalization, fire or flood, etc.)  eBay needs to add a 6th choice of either Buyer request or Other with an area to explain the reason for the request.

4.  I am now unsure of eBay's policy about customer requests.  Is the information below still correct?

In the Q&A of the Fall 2015 Seller Update eBay's policy was explained:

  "We know this happens sometimes, and that you’re doing the right thing by adhering to your buyer's wishes. Just make sure you have proof of your customer’s request through member-to-member communication. If your shipping performance is negatively impacted as a result of the delay in shipping, you can contact eBay Customer Support and we will review and remove the late shipment if we find that it was a result of the buyer’s request.  "

[kare-bearb]

These were auctions, not BIN's, correct?

Your buyer should not have paid until all auctions were completed.

Then they could have sent a combined payment.

The count down to defect time does not start until after the buyer has paid.

eBay needs to add a 6th choice of either Buyer request or Other with an area to explain the reason for the request.

If they did, this option would soon be abused by delinquent sellers, just like the "buyer requested to cancel".

[somanypostcards]

While I agree that buyers should not pay until all auctions they're bidding on end, it is not a perfect world.  It is amazing how many buyers pay sooner than needed, some paying after each auction they win ends.  I do email some of these buyers explaining how waiting to pay helps keep my costs down and thus my prices low. 

On the other hand, eBay emails buyers to pay quickly, as that helps eBay's bottom line.  Here's a worst case scenario:  buyer is bidding on and winning 40 auctions.  If they pay for each immediately eBay earns $12.00 in transaction fees ($.30 x 40) while if they pay for 1 combined sale of 40 items eBay earns $.30 in transaction fees.  That's a significant difference.

[kare-bearb]

I looked at your ended auctions ... those individual 30¢ fees could kill most of your profit.

For the future, can you add a statement to your description about waiting to pay until finished bidding ?

Give them a time period ... all auctions ending within x number of days.

This would be the only way to avoid the defects & not go broke.

You don't have your preferences set to automatically cancel (for non-payment), correct?

If you do, consider turning it off or adjusting the wait time.

You can set it to cancel between 4 & 30 days.

[somanypostcards]

Thanks for your thoughtful comments.  I do not automatically cancel for non-payment.  

Before being forced into Managed Payments I had a PayPal micropayment account with a transaction fee of $.05, so multiple payments didn't hurt too much.  Now that I'm in Managed Payments with fees over 200% higher I know I need to adjust my business model to remain profitable. 

One of my former principles was to keep my listings user friendly, rather than seeming like a legal document, so I purposely did not include statements about waiting to pay for auctions.  I see that many other high volume, low cost sellers now have done away with free shipping and charge $1.00 shipping for the first sale and no additional shipping fees for additional sales in a combined order - again requiring dull purchase info in the listing...  And so it goes.

My business model was successful.  I had a sell-through rate of 90% or more on auctions, a very high number of repeat buyers, and all positive feedback.  I was in the top 5%-10% of sellers in every category I sold in.  Now any changes I have to make to remain profitable will increase buyer costs and require dull technical purchase info in the listings.  It's a shame and I've been putting it off...

[div_style]

You get defects for out of stock and for cases closed without seller resolution.  You do not get defects for late shipments.  Late shipment are noted on your performance page, but even if EVERY shipment was late it would not affect your rating as "above standard" or whatever it is.

[somanypostcards]

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@div_style wrote:

You get defects for out of stock and for cases closed without seller resolution.  You do not get defects for late shipments.  Late shipment are noted on your performance page, but even if EVERY shipment was late it would not affect your rating as "above standard" or whatever it is.

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I just looked into this further.  You are correct that late shipment does not cause a seller to be "below standard" or impact seller rating, which is only determined by the Transaction defect rate and Cases closed without seller resolution.

However eBay considers Late shipment a defect and the Request to remove defects showed I had 3 defects, listing the item number of each, the reason (Late shipment), the date sold, and a button labeled Request to remove.  The 5 choices of the Request to remove the late shipment defect were listed in my initial posting.  A Top Rated Seller cannot have a Late shipment rate above 3%, so this can affect a seller's standing on eBay.

[somanypostcards]

I am please to report that eBay removed the 3 late shipment defects after I called Customer Support and told them about the "member-to-member communication" using eBay messages to determine the buyer's shipping preference.  It took less than 24 hours to fix this.

[somanypostcards]

My mistake, the defects are still there.  I was on my other selling ID and didn't see defects.  Hopefully the defects will eventually get removed.

[ed8108]

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@somanypostcards wrote:

eBay emails buyers to pay quickly, as that helps eBay's bottom line. 

 If they pay for each immediately eBay earns $12.00 in transaction fees ($.30 x 40) while if they pay for 1 combined sale of 40 items eBay earns $.30 in transaction fees.  

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Numerous payment required reminders 

Feeding time for eBay

40 × .30 = $12

[somanypcs]

The shipping defects have been removed, so it was done within 48 hours.  It's nice to know eBay still uses member-to-member communication and removes this defect when a buyer opts for a later delivery date.