No Tracking = Open INR case and defect

[dsfinegoodsemporium]

Hi everyone,

I would like your opinion on this situation.

Sold a shirt for $8.99 on July 4th, and promptly shipped to the US address within next business day without tracking. On Sept. 4th at 9:13 am a case for INR was opened with the following comment from the customer.

The case details: The buyer has not received the item yet. The buyer paid on Jul 07, 2014.

Additional information: "I am a US Servicemember stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. I have not received this item, and the post office has checked and has no record of the tracking for this item. "

The buyer requested: Item tracking information

 At 9:22 am, 9 minutes later, the buyer closed the case with the following comment,

"I apologize, this item did arrive. Thank you"

I asked customer service if they could remove the defect since it was an obvious mistake on the buyers part, but they told me since the case was opened a month after shipping there was no way of knowing if the item was delivered in a timely fashion, and they would not remove the defect.

This of course was after 2 calls to them and being on hold for a total of three hours.

Is this fair.

Thanks for your input.

.

[mr.elmwood]

Are you sure you have a defect?

[dsfinegoodsemporium]

Yes, absolutely, no matter how I tried to reason with the CSR, about the Serviceman being stationed in Germany, they would not consider removing the defect.

[triber]

I had a similar situation. A buyer sent a request for tracking, which I didn't have because it was a small package. It was under the time when it should have arrived. I had a defect within hours. Not even worth calling eBay, long waiting, and then no results.

It's a very unfair system.

[Anonymous]

That is WHAT this defect policy really SUCKS!!  It is hurting lots of sellers especially in innocent ways like buyers asking for tracking number or were impatient for the mail system to do their jobs!!

What purpose for eBay to "invented" this insane idiot policy in the first place??!!   eBay needs to remove it immediately!!  Sheesh!!

[brandeentertainment]

Yep got over 20 of them and have been complaining about it for a while .. I agree with the guy this is the 2nd person I seen post on this aside from me not many but it is an issue ..... my situation is different but the results and how it happened pretty much the same..

As soon as this happened my rating in the US has dropped to just a mm into above standard .. Thank God my global rating from Canada and UK counter all the US buyer INR ,Tracking number situation..

This issus alone is responsible for border line having my account restricted due to % on defects ...

[dsfinegoodsemporium]

Well, I guess there are just 4 of us on this forum that ships small items without tracking. I would have thought there would be more.

Thanks

[recped]

I've shipped tens of thousands of packages with no tracking.

If a buyer doesn't get their package for months I'd say it's a defective transaction. I wouldn't dream of asking eBay to remove the defect except in the rare instance where the delay was the buyer's fault (wrong address).

[brandeentertainment]

In my case REc there is no delay there are simply asking for tracking... sometimes 2-3-4-5-6-7 days after shipping...

For me it has nothing to do with Actual items not arriving ...

I have beaten this with a dead horse though .. Only the people who experience understand everyone else seems to think I've smoke a pipe or something...

I have 3 defect for INR but I have 28 INR defect for US buyers open INR just to ask for tracking making my total 31 defect for INR ...

if 31 people didn't receive there goods fire me now but that is not the case here .. The buyers are opening and closing the INR themselves simply asking a question...

hasn't happened once in nearly 3 weeks now though so YAAAAAAAAAA

I mean I have 1 INR between CAnada,Mexico,UK,Europe,Germany and Australia .... I have 31 from the US ....

[brandeentertainment]

Also for the first time in a LONG TIME 2 US buyers asked for tracking through ebay messaging .. That has not happened in a long time but it was nice to not get a defect for a customer simply asking questions....

[brandeentertainment]

Shipping and delivery    

Low detailed seller ratings for shipping time This refers to the number of low (1 star out of 5) ratings that your buyers have left for you for shipping and handling time detailed seller ratings	0.83%	10
Requests: items not received This refers to anytime a buyer opens a request or a PayPal Purchase Protection case because they didn't receive an item	2.57%	31

There it is my 31 defect 28 for questions almost shutting down my store for nothing but a simple question..

At best 10 people waiting to long yet I have 31 defects ...

[ypdc_dennis]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What purpose for eBay to "invented" this insane idiot policy in the first place??!!

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eBay "borrowed" the idea from amazon....

[atvds1210]

It is a problem and hopefully Ebay will take some steps to balance out the situation.  Buyers have no idea, nor should it be their problem, about the ramifications of filing - they are encouraged to do it and it is becoming a casual thing.  Definitely need a procedure to overturn "defects" that are seller issues such as tracking requests or deliveries that are within the seller's time estimate.

I now send every buyer an e-mail after the purchase with detailed shipping info and that has helped.  WIth USPS, everything is tracked so buyers there are so used to tracking that they panic if it isn't provided.  

I have also stopped using international surface as the delivery takes way longer than official guidelines and generates to high a percentage of defects.  Sucks because it excludes a great bunch of buyers but it just isn't workable.

[rose-dee]

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@brandeentertainment wrote:
Also for the first time in a LONG TIME 2 US buyers asked for tracking through ebay messaging .. That has not happened in a long time but it was nice to not get a defect for a customer simply asking questions....

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'brande'  -- I think the reason this isn't happening as much now is because eBay (finally!!) changed the programming flow for buyers asking a question after purchase.  This was announced in the Fall Seller Update.

I tested this recently by asking a seller a question after a purchase (I occasionally buy on eBay as well), and I can say from a buyer's point of view that it's a much clearer process now.  I can only assume that because the process for asking a question has changed, so has the defect generation for sellers.   

I imagine they had so many complaints from sellers about buyers inadvertently opening cases by asking a question - leading to defects - that they had to do something about it.  You should hopefully not get any more defects now from buyers simply asking questions after a sale.  

I wonder if you can try to get eBay to remove those previous ones?  Can you stand being on the phone for 2 hours?  

[brandeentertainment]

Yeah no I refuse to call ebay anymore.. Paypal always helps ebay 90% of the time I have to walk them through and explain everything as If I am talking to someone who just started using ebay.. Although sometimes when I call and get someone speaking clear english things usually go ok then ... No offense it is just true  for me anyways...

I may consider it this time because it has impacted to me BIG TIME but between work,renos,kids,business 2hrs of phone time takes 2hrs away from the 40 hrs I see my wife every month so probably won't happen