Shipping Delay

[sashabear326]

I have been a Seller and Buyer for many Years and always thought, eBay was a fair Company to do  Business with. Having said this, I am changing my mind. We are in the mirth  of a severe Ice and Snow Storm for the past Week. Our Post Office is close and no Mail Carriers are working. I live in Mississippi and have never experienced something like this EVER! And I am almost 80 Years old. I have multiple order to be send, and informed my Costumers twice already to update them an our Situation. Last Night my "Tracking uploaded"  was 98.36%  this morning it dropped to 92.86% and my "Top Seller Status" will drop to "Above Standard!"  Now, I am asking eBay, should we really risk our Life's and other Peoples Life's by driving to the next City to find out if there PO is open.? {We tried to call the 800 #, no one answered}  If Mail Carriers, mostly younger People feel insecure driving in this bad Winter Storm Weather, us older Folks should risk it?  I am very disappointed with eBay!

[hurryagain]

@sashabear326 

eBay is making exceptions due to the severe weather.  I hope that the following eases your mind:

[no_zero369]

@sashabear326 

The point is that you may need to work with CS to get the account dings changed.  Don't expect eBay to do it automatically.  Sure it might take some time to do that, but I'm sure you've been around long enough and know that it is best to advocate for your self rather than hoping someone does it for you.

This will all work out in the end, don't worry.  Just work the process!

[netwizz760]

They might fix it for you, but if it tells you your account will change to above standard, that is what I would expect to happen.  I would expect to jump through all kinds of hoops and be ignored for weeks, too as eBay sorts it out for you.  That said if you are persistent, I would expect you to get things sorted eventually.

[janet9988]

You still have listings up and running..WHY?

You have to mitigate these things yourself also.

You should take down your auctions and use the time away feature on the fixed price listings a week ago at least.

You could have prevented some of this had you taken these steps in advance.

[no_zero369]

eh, hiding under a rock is one way to deal with an adverse situation.  Improved communication with buyers is another way to mitigate potential INR cases.

[comics-scifi-collectibles]

@sashabear326  Adding to the other advice.  I suggest you extend your handling time on the rest of your listings for now until things calm down with the weather.

Here's how you can do that using bulk edit.  

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Commonly-Asked-Questions/How-can-I-edit-my-Handling-Time/ta-p/27916092

You could also use Time Away to hide your fixed-priced listings if you wish.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling-tools/time-away?id=5137&st=12&pos=2&query=Time%20Away&inte...

Stay safe.  

[arizona_bargain]

Extending your handling time actually doesnt prevent people from opening INR cases on you.   I thought like you that if i put really long handling times it would prevent these cases but NO , i got a case after 6 days when my handling time is over 20 days.  I think when you print your label it actually resets the estimated delivery date to the USPS standard

[no_zero369]

Here is what one Seller is doing about shipping delays in this environment.  It is something anyone could do as part of improved customer service.  Respond to unprecedented times with a new approach.  Manage what you can manage - buyer expectations.  be positive and proactive - or cut off your nose to spite your face and close up shop.

Just offering an alternative....

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/Need-to-give-more-time-on-shipping/m-p/31537706#M3641...

[netwizz760]

Improved communication is a BAD idea.  I used to think it is a great idea, but now I wait for the buyer to reach out and complain first.  Simply put the moment you kick that rock you are just inviting a storm of fury where with luck the buyer has better things to do than be concerned about an item being a few days late.

Remember the Japanese proverb that the nail that stands out gets pounded...  Fly under the RADAR and cross your fingers USPS will actually resolve the problem before the buyer notices.  With luck your item gets delivered with no complaints even though it is late.

[1grandmashope_1]

Do not risk your well being to ship anything!! That is just not okay. Period. 

Extend your handling time, as suggested, and don't print your postage until you can ship. This is an incredibly difficult time, maybe pause for a bit, if you are okay with that. There has been one thing after another that has effected so many of us that sell online. Not just here, but across the board. 

I would contact the buyers and kindly inform them of your shipping dilemma, and if they are not good with waiting, ask if they would like to request a refund.  That is what I would do. I also keep my buyers informed on late packages, but that's me. We all have our own ways of dealing with this. Figure out what works for you.

Grandma 

[no_zero369]

Yeah, you can go through life afraid of things and "hoping" bad things don't happen or you can take control of a situation.    You CAN manage buyer expectations and improve the buyer experience.  

Perhaps when one finds "it didn't work for me" and uses that as a reason to stop, they just need to improve their approach?  Then again, I use to work with a bunch of professionals that did things the old school way, even though it was causing harm to their customers.  Oh sure there were a few that said, I tried that and it didn't work, so I stopped.  When I inquired further, they had tried it once and failed and used that failure as an excuse to quit!

But hey, no one gets on a bicycle for the first time and has success - usually a few skinned knees until one gets the hang of it.  So why not the same for sellers?  Oh sure you get a few skinned knees before you figure it out, but in the long run riding the bike gives you more freedom and mobility!  But you gots to try - the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step!

Anyway, back to the professionals, to solve the problem we got the local trade association to set up a demo for all to see.  Some of the very same people "who tried it and it didn't work" - once they saw how easily their competitors were doing the 'new thing"  (they'd watched for 5-minutes) said, 'Oh shoot I can do that!"

So sorry to see anyone afraid to learn to adapt and change, try different approaches until they figure it out.

But hey, too each their own.

[comics-scifi-collectibles]

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@arizona_bargain wrote:

Extending your handling time actually doesnt prevent people from opening INR cases on you.   I thought like you that if i put really long handling times it would prevent these cases but NO , i got a case after 6 days when my handling time is over 20 days.  I think when you print your label it actually resets the estimated delivery date to the USPS standard

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@arizona_bargain.  You're correct,  the way you were trying to use extended handling time doesn't offer you protection from inr as ebay looks at your historic data for shipping time.   

I was suggesting extended handling time for the op because they can't leave the house to ship.