Have I Done Something Wrong?

[doctorcards]

Hey all, I've been selling items frequently on ebay now to little to no issue, until recently. It seems like things are delayed, coming in and shipping out. It's difficult, as buyers usually don't understand that I can't make the shipping go any faster. I usually don't use tracking numbers, due to the usually small prices of my goods, and thus I'm getting some "item not recieved" cases, despite them just being a week or two late, which makes sense to me, given the circumstances.

What do you think? should I only ever sell with a tracking number?

How do i deal with this?

Thanks.

[vtwinparts2015]

i have been burned several times 

i only ship with a tracking number  this buys you time if the postal is slow 

remember e-bay always sides with the buyer

Joe 

[reallynicestamps]

Like you I do not use tracking on most of my transactions, because the lowest price is ~$12Cdn for regional tracking.

A 100gr envelope to the USA is $3.19 LetterPost with no tracking and $14.42+ as Tracked Packet USA.

I am fortunate to be selling to a customer demographic that is notoriously honest.

Cards are a bit problematic.

The only answer is Cookie Jar Insurance.

This is just adding (or putting aside) a few virtual pennies from each sale in a virtual Cookie Jar as a self-insurance premium to cover the cost of the occasional problem, including the problems that are entirely our own fault (yes, that can happen, a seller can be wrong!) like selling a blue sweater and shipping a red one.

In your case, you have two problems.

You are selling game cards, and gamers play games, sometimes nasty ones.

And your item are not scarce enough to make the true cost of tracked shipping unimportant.

But you are using Free Shipping, so your shipping costs are (I hope) included in the selling price.

When you sell multiples of cards, you don't have to adjust for your lower costs of shipping.

• If a $10 card cost $3 to ship, the card price is $7.  If you sell two $10 cards and the shipping is still $3, the price of the cards is $17.  And the extra $3 can go into the Cookie Jar.

This means that you should aim for multiple sales, perhaps by offering a many common cards with a small discount for multiple purchases.

You are apparently listing on dotCA. What would happen if you start listing on dotCOM without changing your prices?

• $9.99 USD is $12.50CDN . The extra $2.51 goes into the Cookie Jar.

Leave feedback on shipment.  And tell the customer the date and service of the shipment.

• It is just reassuring. Many disagree, but you can't leave anything but positive FB anyway and it does encourage FB from the buyer in my opinion.

[reallynicestamps]

EBay doesn't ALWAYS side with the buyer, but the Dispute is called Item Not RECEIVED  and a late delivery is still not received.

A tracking number is our only proof of delivery. No tracking, no proof, lost Claim.

The buyer is usually being truthful -- he didn't get the purchase.

We used to have access to the buyer's email -- at least the one attached to their Paypal account.

It was relatively easy then to watch for Delivery (on tracked items) and re-invoice the customer through PP for the delivered item.

It worked about half the time.

Access to that email, after a transaction, would be a godsend for sellers in difficult categories, and particularly for non-US sellers who have to cope with the high expectations of US buyers.

[mrdutch1001]

For the most part, I sell low price items on eBay and rarely use tracking, but I have been lucky in that I have not experienced any INR cases nor any late delivery issues. I always email the buyer at time of shipping and throughout 2020 I have also made sure my buyers are aware of the slowdowns/delays in transit times/delivery times and ask for their patience accordingly - so far seems to be working...

I don't have TRS any more...lost that years ago from lack of sales so I don't jump through any of those eBay hoops ... I no longer have to use same day/1 day handling time...Initially I increased my handling time ....from 2 days to 3 days, but during 2020, I have also been using 4 and 5 days handling time...which adds a few more days onto those predicted/estimated delivery time frames.

[pjcdn2005]

Your listings show that you are using Canada Post  lettermail and the delivery times that eBay gives for that isn’t always realistic.  If you used the generic terms ‘economy shipping’ to Canada and ‘economy international’ to the US, the estimated delivery times are longer so an  inr can’t be opened as quickly.  You would still use lettermail but but showing the generic version, buyers wouldn’t expect the package as quickly.

[mrdutch1001]

ah yes, I did not mention that I also use standard shipping &/or sometimes the economy shipping for letter mail rate items which gives longer estimated delivery times...