Canadian sellers protected against claims

[cardstop6868]

Those familiar with Canada Post know that shipping with a tracking number can get expensive. I sell sports cards, many as low as $1 each. I charge $2.95 for shipping (stamp + bubble nailer + supplies). Regular shipping costs $2.25 but shipping with a tracking number can cost upwards of $15+ . Why is it that the vast majority of not received item cases that I get are from new ebay users? That's not a coincidence. In my 15+ years on Ebay I have never not received something that I bought. How is it that these new users aren't receiving the first purchases they ever make? There is no protection for Canadian sellers under these circumstances. We are forced to refund the buyer's claims. I'm sick of losing money. I have 15+ years on here, 100% feedback, and over 2200 feedback score, but ebay will take the side of the new user claiming they didn't receive what they bought. It's BS. There is nothing to protect Canadian sellers from scammers. We are also in the middle of a pandemic and shipping times are extended. But ebay hasn't extended the expected delivery times. So new users can make claims after as little as 10 business days. I'm sick of the entire process. Sellers need protection against unwarranted claims, especially from new users. That's all I have to say.

-Dissapointed ebay seller

[femmefan1946]

When we "go commando" on tracking, that is the chance we take.

The usual way to counter NotDelivered disputes when we cannot show tracking and delivery (and it is not shipping it is tracking) is by using Cookie Jar Delivery.

This just means putting a few pennies, rarely more than a dime, in a virtual Cookie Jar, as an insurance premium against the occasional claim.

Most seller find the money in the Cookie Jar accumulates faster than the refunds.

We all are working with COVID slowed deliveries. You are not alone in this complaint.

for your own peace of mind, look at the number and value of your transactions and compare them with the actual number and value of the lost Disputes.

You may find they are less than you felt, because every lost Dispute is a knife to the gut.

[ricarmic]

In my own experience the actual loss rate always "feels" a lot worse than it actually is.... last year is a good example for me at least, here's a link to my actual statistics....despite COVID et al.....

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/RICARMICs-Self-insurance-cookie-jar-statistics-to-end-of... 

[recped]

@cardstop6868 

Why is it that the vast majority of not received item cases that I get are from new ebay users?

Probably because they are new and have no experience buying online and especially buying online with  the order being shipped without tracking.

US Buyers, used to receiving orders in 3 or 4 days, have no idea of the concept they are buying from another country and never even thinbk about Covid delays.

Canadian buyers, normally get a letter in 2 - 4 days no matter where they are located, and yes even these people have little if any experience with Covid delays.

What do you do when you ship an order? Do you just mark it shipped and let eBay noptify the buyer or do you send a direct message to the buyer letting them know their order has shipped and giving them a REALISTIC delivery estimate and a blkurb about the current situation and the potential for delays.

I have always sent every buyer an email with details of their shipment and the likely delivery time, perhaps this is why I have very few problems and only very rarely even get an inquiry from buyers let alone actual INR claims.

While all my US bound shipments have tracking none of my overseas shipments do and the delivery times on those even during normal times can be slow and erratic. Overseas is a big chunk of my sales (30% or more) but even over the past year I only had two packages not received and both of those were last Spring when the disruptions were the worst.

There are quite a few sellers who ship via standard lettermail, stamps, sports card, postcards and more. seems like I hear more issues with sports cards and MTG cards than for any of the other groups, it seems to be the nature of the buyers in that category.

[lucitabby]

You might want to change your shipping from "Standard" to "Economy" - it allows for a longer delivery time.

[cardstop6868]

Thanks! This will help. Going to change to Economy shipping.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

I have had the opposite experience that INRs have actually gone down during the pandemic. I think it might be that casual buyers are more understanding of the issues with the postal service since Canada Post delays have been a mainstream news story. 

There are two things that cause INR claims.

1 - Scammers

2 - Having your listings set up the wrong way, which leads to people thinking an item isn't going to arrive because they have an unrealistic estimate of when it will arrive.

There is nothing you can do about #1 other than budget for shrinkage and choose to no longer sell if the margins don't make sense for you because of scamming. In my experience, #1 isn't a major issue, but that will change category to category. To me, it seem like you're more likely to be scammed on a tracked item because tracked items generally are higher value which creates more incentive for someone to break the law. 

One thing you can do when you receive an offer or make a sale is view feedback received, and feedback left for others. Even know buyers cannot get negative feedback, they can get positive feedback with negative comments. Their feedback left for others also can paint a picture of their activity. If you see a buyer who has left a high percentage of feedback dictating items haven't arrived, they are probably going to scam you. You have to use a bit of critical thinking, because maybe a buyer has made 700 purchases, only leaves feedback if there is an issue, and might have left 3 bad feedbacks over a decade. They probably aren't a scammer. But if a buyer has received let's say 20 positive feedbacks in a year, and has left 4-5 saying INR, they are probably making INR claims once they realize a seller uses an untracked service.

#2 is the bigger issue, especially right now. If you are going to use lettermail, you have to set up your listings in a way that makes it so a case can only be open after about 30 (business+non-business) days. There is nothing dishonest about this, because when a buyer checks out, it will tell them that the item might take up to 20 or so business days (which is accurate right now for lettermail in a worst case scenario). Set your handling time to at least 3 days, and then choose the Economy Shipping that gives you something like 15 business days. 

I think it is also important to send people a message when the item ships that confirms the item has shipped, and informs them that while it is possible that it will arrive in a week or two, it may take until the end of the shipping estimate (approx 30 days). Basically set expectations that there is a good chance it'll take 30 days. 

There is a chance people opening cases just have no idea what is going on, and think their package is lost because it hasn't arrived by eBay's estimate. So if you fix it to give an accurate estimate, your INR cases from that segment go away.

[space_pirate]

Do a chargeback "back" to eBay and basically tell them that you'll sue them in small claims court. It's certainly a lot of trouble, but you'll probably win considering that their refund policy is unrealistic. If you don't push back, then the dingdongs working in customer service will keep doing this nonsense. They don't care what happens to you or how it affects your financially.

[darak10]

yeah, its a reality, especially for smaller scale sellers like us.  Higher volume sellers dont really care so much as its just a write off at income tax time for them.  And yes, thats the way it works, its ironic that even though we put money in ebays pockets come challenge time we get thrown under the bus, every time.  Its not right, but thats the way the system operates.  Its pretty much amazons fault the way I see it, they spoiled customers with all their guarantees and people bring similar expectations to this platform and expect us to live up to the same standard.  Its the set up to fail thats probably the biggest issue.  Ebay looks the other way because its in their best interests to do so as the less hassle they cause buyers the more folks are going to want to come here, to a platform thats lost alot of its former market share and is trying to remain viable.   To me, even with its flaws, this is a superior platform to amazon in many ways, the biggest being of course we dont have a ersatz James Bond villain / Cornelius Vanderbilt wannabe running the show here.  

Someone else remarked as well that it could also be what you are selling.  I used to buy and sell sports cards myself for years and noticed that for whatever reason there seem to be more dishonest people in this market niche than virtually any other.  I have no idea why this is.   A new customer telling you he didnt get his first shipment = scam artist floating a new id as soon as he's been reported enough times.  Its so transparent.  If you do some experiments selling some different stuff I can pretty guarantee you'll have a different experience.  The %age of scam artists in stuff I sell is very low, and most of them are from a handful of foreign countries so once you block shipping / sales to those places, the problem largely disappears.  

From my experience on forced refunding lately (its what it should be called, thats what it is), I've had a such a dramatic increase in INRs from UK customers starting late January that I shut down sales to the UK to stem the bleeding.  My delivery rate to the UK so far this year is less than what it was to Russia when I finally stopped shipping there in 2019.  I just gave my last refund to a UK customer last night, now its a waiting game until RM gets their act together again.   Aussies are coming around more as well now that delivery times arent 2+ months anymore. 

[a52split]

Your post reminded me of a question I've had for the past couple of days.  It relates to the expected delivery date Ebay tells the buyer.

Here's the example. I have my item set to deliver in 15 days with 3 day handling time.  The expected delivery date the buyer sees is 18 days.  What if I ship it on the same day it sells and manually mark it as shipped. Do I still get that 18 days? Or is the buyer informed he should get it in 15 days?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@ricarmic wrote:

In my own experience the actual loss rate always "feels" a lot worse than it actually is.... last year is a good example for me at least, here's a link to my actual statistics....despite COVID et al.....

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/RICARMICs-Self-insurance-cookie-jar-statistics-to-end-of... 

---

Recent shipment to Sweden that has yet to arrive. As per eBay's delivery estimate provided to the buyer delivery in 5 to 10 business days. Pre-Covid it was 15 to 20 business days.  All you can do is hope a customer will be patient because 5 to 10 business days is next to dreamworld and completely unrealistic.

-Lotz

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

FYI For anyone with slow or late deliveries to Europe

Current delivery times for Small Packet Intl Air to Sweden 5 to 10 business days. 7 to 21 business days for International tracked. (Slower by tracked)

Small Packet Air to Germany  jumps 9 to 28 business days. 9 to 26 business days for Intl Tracked.

UK is 6 to 13 business days for Small Pkt Intl air and 9 to 26 days for Intl Tracked. (Tracked could be slower.)

Unsure if transit times factor in shipping by Postal Code or just from Canada. eBay suggesded delivery time frames are basically all over the map.

-Lotz

Personally I'm thrilled when something gets delivered to the Maritimes from Calgary in under 10 business days. Often it doesn't.

[rescuedgems2016]

i hear ya man , same here , if things are crashing then e bay should be shut to protect us ,or give up the guarantee , and itll be a gentlemans selling hub

[femmefan1946]

ZOMBIE THREAD FROM MARCH 2021

The problem with zombie threads is that the question may no longer be valid or  the answers may be out of date and incorrect.