Whats the deal with handling times?

[tryubik-useonlyasdirected]

Due to slow Feb & early March sales Handling for US & International sales was switched to 10 Days. In the past couple days some listings were switched to 5 days.

Two items sold and there are conflicting handling times stated on the sold listings. The issue is... it says "5 Days" under "Shipping and Payments" on both... but one was certainly a 10 day handling. And it says "greater than 8 business days" next to Delivery.

As a seller, how can I accurately track how long I have to ship an item?

This is a serious issue as today is 5-Business Days. Due to work I cannot ship until tomorrow. (This is why I had 10 days on the listing.)  Now some bot will give me a defect even though my average ship time is around 3-Days.

[reallynicestamps]

This is Wednesday.

Your Handling time of ten days would allow you to ship on  Friday April 5th.

Your Handling time of five days would allow you to ship on  Monday April first.

Handling is the time it takes to get the shipment in the mail.

Delivery time starts then and while it remains the seller's responsibility, is out of our hands.

FWIW- if you print your labels at home, you can drop your parcels in the nearest postbox.  Your receipt is part of your print out. The parcel will be recorded as shipped when it reaches the terminal.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@tryubik-useonlyasdirected 

Personally I know how long delivery time should  be, including my handling time but when I have checked the posted suggested times in eBay they really don't jive with the real world or there are definite inaccuracies and as far as I can tell there is no way to fix that. "Most" mail is delivered on time but many unfactored things can and do occur to an item while it is in transit. It's really a lottery when you include any un-tracked services or letter mail. I had a letter appear me in town recently arrive in 3 days. Letters across Canada, anyone's guess. A letter to the US, impossible to know and predict. Nature of the beast.

-Lotz

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

tyler@ebay

I just processed a shipment from Calgary to Kelowna. I have 1 day handling time. According to the system, 5 days for delivery by Xpresspost. With shippo/Canadapost sites showing 2 days. Not sure on the math.

-Lotz

[tryubik-useonlyasdirected]

My dilemma is I stated 10 Days Handling on 2 sold items and 5 Days on the rest of the sold items.

All my listings show the following (see pics).

It say's 5 Days in two spots. It shows 10 days (& Greater than 8 Days) at the top.

Which does eBay use for defects?

[reallynicestamps]

Will it take you more than five (or ten) days to get the items in the mail?

If not, you have nothing to worry about.

Handling is the time it takes YOU to package and put the item into the mailbox.

Once it is recorded by the PO , delivery time starts counting.

And that depends on the service you sold the buyer,  two or three days across the country for ExpressPost or seven to nine days for Regular Parcel, whichever you chose. 

[tryubik-useonlyasdirected]

I list with a reliable third-party template and all listings are automatically posted as 10 Day Handling.

They had 10 Day handling times because I couldn't ship until after 6 days.

The 10 Day handling listings show 10, 8 & 5 Day Handling all on the same listing. I am concerned eBay is using 5 Day for 10 day items.

Is this type of handling discrepancy usual (and therefore no concern, 10 Day is 10 Day)? Or is there a "glitch" (as eBay calls them) and 10 day are showing as 5?

[pjcdn2005]

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@tryubik-useonlyasdirected wrote:

My dilemma is I stated 10 Days Handling on 2 sold items and 5 Days on the rest of the sold items.

All my listings show the following (see pics).

It say's 5 Days in two spots. It shows 10 days (& Greater than 8 Days) at the top.

Which does eBay use for defects?

---

 To me it looks as 5 business days is showing in each area so it if it was originally 10 then you need to change it back.  The first area where you said the 10 days  is correct is not saying you have a handling time of 10 business days, it shows that you have an extended handling time (I think extended is anything over 3 days so 5 days would be extended) and that your estimated delivery time is greater than 10 business days.

You don't get an actual defect for a late shipment (you do get a late shipment ding)

Your shipment is considered on time if:

There is a carrier scan showing the item was shipping within its handling time

or

There is a carrier scan showing the item was delivered within its estimated delivery time

If there is no tracking then there would be no late ding unless when the buyer gives feedback they check off that the item was received past the estimated delivery date  

[reallynicestamps]

@tryubik-useonlyasdirected

They had 10 Day handling times because I couldn't ship until after 6 days.

Maybe the better idea would be to put your Store on Vacation if you won't be able to ship within a week.

Most buyers would be upset if they can't see their purchase in the mail and moving within 48 hours.