why does eBay app show buyer inaccurate "Arriving by" shipping messages?

[zvl1tli]

Hi -

I tried to search but couldn't find anything relevant.  Here's the background. 

A buyer placed an order from me on a Saturday afternoon Feb 3.  The item was sold with free USPS Ground Advantage shipping and 1 business day handling time. I printed the label Sunday.  Mail truck picked the package up shortly after 9am Monday morning.  On Saturday buyer left a neutral feedback with one word "late".  I saw then the tracking showed it was still in transit in the buyer's state with a message "item arriving late".  Today it shows "Arriving by Tues Feb 13".

After a lot of back and forth, yesterday the buyer sent me a screenshot  from the eBay app. It shows "Shipped Feb 4" which is a Sunday and "Arriving by Thurs Feb 8."

Ignoring whether the buyer should be leaving a feedback like that, where do these dates come from?

I bought the label on a Sunday but obviously there is no US Mail service that day. Why would the app tell the buyer it was shipped that day setting a false expectation?

Why does it tell the buyer arriving by any specific date, let alone 3 days after it was shipped, for USPS Ground Advantage?   This is the slowest economy method which is not date guaranteed?

This package is going 1500 miles to a fairly remote zip code that would require Priority Mail to arrive in 3 days.

 The buyer says they were inconvenienced by this "late" delivery and not going to change their feedback.  I can see from other comments they've left they often complain in feedback. 

From my point of view, I shipped the item as fast as I could with the method advertised, well within my published handling time eBay measures against. 

What is the best option to get this feedback removed?

thanks..

[soh.maryl]

Was the item delivered later than the estimated delivery date as seen in the listing?

How much later?

eBay will probably not remove the FB because they will say that it was the buyer's opinion of the transaction.

You can leave a professional and calm reply, or you can simply ignore and move on.  

[zvl1tli]

Hi , thanks for the reply.  It hasn't even been delivered yet.  I'll post a feedback reply as you suggest once it is.  Today in my orders it shows as "Arrives by Tue, Feb 13."  I can see your point though.  From the buyer's point of view, they saw "Arrives by Thurs, Feb 8" and maybe that's why they bought it on eBay versus somewhere else that said it would take longer.  It doesn't matter to the buyer who's at fault.  But eBay never should have told them that date for ground advantage shipping in the first place.  (I tested on another listing and that shows 5-10 days to the same zip code, not 3-4)

Now they've corrected that mistake but I get stuck with the snarky feedback comment on my profile for something I had nothing to with.  

How does a seller protect against eBay setting false expectations for shipping time that lead to not positive feedback?

[gator08041971]

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@zvl1tli wrote:

How does a seller protect against eBay setting false expectations for shipping time that lead to not positive feedback?

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You don't?  Or at least, other than making a statement in your listing that shipping time discrepancies are beyond your control.  All you can do is ship as quickly as you can.

I had a package that I shipped out on Thursday last week, to California.  It got there today.  However on Saturday, it was showing an updated delivery date of Friday this week, much later than I expected.  Yet, it got delivered today, much earlier than I expected.  And this was shipped USPS Ground Advantage with magnetic labeling. (used HDDs).

So.... I have no way of knowing just what some packages will do.  I had a tablet that got shipped to TX and it took 11 days to get there.  My normal USPS ground deliveries to TX are 3-4 days.  5 tops.  But they have been having some hub issues too.  And that particular item had to go ground only, as it contained a lithium battery.

I primarily use USPS as we have no local drop location for FedEx, and the local "UPS Drop" is nothing more than a grocery with shelves that UPS picks up at once per day.

The biggest things that can mess up delivery of your package with USPS:

• Not having it clearly labeled.
• Having other labels that are from previous shipments.
• Having hazard labels but not paying for hazard shipping, or forgetting to take them off from a previous use.
• Using a paid hazard shipping label, but not using the associated hazard label. (for example Lithium Ion warning labels)
• Poor packaging quality.
• Wrong weight and/or package dimensions paid for.
• Over labeling your package. (covering it with FRAGILE stickers or something)

I tend to over package rather than use the cheapest simplest methods.  Now, shipping a network cable, not going to do much with that.  Shipping hard drives, yeah, going to have to pack well those to survive delivery.

Just my thoughts.

[12345jamesstamps]

It's a "neutral feedback"...means nothing for a seller...just ignore it. It got buried quite quickly.

I had to look for it as eBay is doing feedbacks out of order and I found it on your page 3 of feedbacks going through all the feedbacks. 

I would block the buyer and just forget about it.

[mountainmommie]

Fight it. I had a buyer purchase an item on the Friday night of MLK, Jr. weekend. I printed the label Saturday, put in the pickup (which had to be Tuesday due to holiday Monday). She blew a gasket when a Ground Advantage delivery wasn't to her by Thursday night. I could not get it across the package did not MOVE until Tuesday. Buyers see these "estimated" dates as stone and sellers who set a high standard of 0-1 handing days are particularly bit in the butt. Why that darn estimated delivery date doesn't adjust to the timeframe of the sellers standards accounting for weekends/holidays is beyond me. Zero future orientation in the system.

As is clear by the responses, far too many people just accept the lower standard as status quo. 

I support ... your right ... to fight.

Edit: I'm actually in a very similar situation tonight. My postman (no pickup and no mail in box) did not come today. By the time I got home it was too late to run to the PO. Now my "shipped" will roll to late. 16 million people in America today did not show up to work because of Super Bowl Sunday. Why isn't the system accounting for that fact? Or at least allowing me to adjust my stats when I have proof my pickup was in yesterday? mumble mumble

[zvl1tli]

Thanks all for the comments.

@gator08041971   Good idea.  I used to have a disclaimer about shipping speed.  I can see its been lost from my listings over time copy pasting and cloning from older listing. I'll reinstate that.  It doesn't solve the problem, but its another thing the seller can point to.

@12345jamesstamps  Thanks for pointing that out.  I've noticed feedback now shows up out of order by some mystery ranking algorithm.  I know I click through to see all of it, but most buyers probably don't.  My concern was anything less than 5 stars or positive doesn't eBay hold that against the seller if it happens enough?

@mountainmommieI agree, and I may contest it just to see what happens, but don't want to spend tons of time, whether its fair or not, which is probably how it becomes status quo.