slow arrival to the US

[golfing_in_style]

Shipped a customer a golf visor to the US on July 27th (small package air)) As of today it's still not there. Does Ebay protect sellers from receiving negative feedback for slow delivery during this pandemic? If so how?

[femmefan1946]

There are some protections in place which are described  in a post to the Announcements.

Deep in mind that eBay does not use feedback to assess member accounts. The FB score is use by some buyers, most of whom think 95% is just dandy, instead of "horrible seller who should be kicked off the site forever".

Is your  buyer complaining?

If she is, give her the tracking number so she can see it is, in fact, on its way. This is often soothing.

It doesn't help with customers, but it's been my experience in over 30 years in mail order that a 20 day delivery period is not unusual for delivery in North America.  Usually it's less, but three weeks is nothing to get upset about.

From that point of view, in these pandemic times, with low staffing not only in the postal system, but also in trucking and airlines, shipping has been slow.  It's getting better, and in the USA Congress has called out the vandalism by the Trump appointees at the top of the USPS who have an ideological bias against the postal service.

What you do have to worry about is a Claim.

What is the last date of the delivery window eBay gave your customer? She can open a Dispute for 30 days after that date passes, but not before.

Respond to any Dispute promptly. Give the tracking number and  *sigh* be ready to refund if the visor is not delivered within about a week after the Dispute is opened.

[femmefan1946]

It's worth remembering that if you lose an ItemNot Received Claim, that you are not out the $13 or so the buyer paid you, for the visor, but your wholesale cost for the visor. So $2-3? plus of course, fees and shipping costs which will probably be more than the actual product.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@golfing_in_style 

Have you checked your UR xxx xxx xxx CA tracking number on usps.com. There is a 50/50 chance you could have some sort of a status for this parcel. It never hurts to check when there is a major delay for delivery. Tracking is not supposed to be a feature of this service but has been fairly reliable for packages I send that go Richmond BC....SF/LAX for processing. (Note: Tracking will/may only work for USA..Not Internationally)

-Lotz

PS After you ship are you manually entering tracking for small packet air into eBay? 

[golfing_in_style]

Well the golf visor was shipped on July 27th 1 day after it was purchased. It was shipped by small package air to Spokane WA. As you know small package air to the US does not have tracking. I refunded him already through Paypal at his request. He didn't open a dispute, but would have won it if he did as it's been over a month.

I just thought that when there is a reference made to slow shipping in the comments section during these uncertain times that eBay would protect the seller, from negatives and low ratings.

Maybe I'm wrong.I'm not losing any sleep over it but just curious.

[femmefan1946]

but would have won it if he did as it's been over a month.

Not exactly.  He can't open a Dispute until the last estimated date for arrival has passed. Then he has 30 days to open the Dispute.

The"over a month" may or may not be long enough. You need to look at that actual last date (plus 30).

When all this pandemic slowdown started, there was a suggestion by experienced sellers, that we change our Handling Time to five, seven or even 30 days, which has the effect of also extending the estimated delivery period.

Obviously, we continue to ship as quickly as ever.  It's a breathing space.

small package air to the US does not have tracking.

Umm.

That's true.

Sort of.

If you put the barcode number from the Small Packet into the tracking number slot, USPS seems to believe it is a tracking number and may (or may not) actually use it as such.

Smarter sellers than me have discovered and used this.

If you have your PO receipt, look to see if there is a record of that number and cross all your fingers and toes.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@golfing_in_style 

Because you're located in Manitoba your parcel would have gone (most likely) to Wpg for processing then east to Ontario and Mississauga/NY for customs clearing and then cross country back to Spokane. When there are many sort points involved it can cause delays/miss-sorts/miss-routing etc.

I'm in Calgary. My shipments routinely go Calgary..Richmond..LAX/SF for processing and then off to the final destination. Same sort of arrangement if I was shipping to Seattle or Juneau AK. US Expedited/Xpresspost from past experience "normally" goes more of a direct route. Even this has been a bit wacky as of late. Nothing is normal right now with a Pandemic and less available flights. Over the past few months I've seen a few of my parcels go all the way east to be cleared and then west to their destination after they entered the states.

The same thing is going on in the USA. Parcels do not travel in a straight line. They go through a variety of hubs and this can add to the delivery time. Your parcel just was another one caught up in the process.

-Lotz

PS. Maybe monitor your US shipments to see if you see a pattern. Might give you a better idea on what to truly expect for actual delivery times.

[travis7s]

Absolutely put the "URxxxxxxxxxxx" tracking into eBay on the order page. (NOT USPS or Canada Post) This actually does work 95% of the time. It may take more than a full day for eBay to pull the scans and show them. In fact my Small Packet scans have been way more reliable than my domestic Expedited parcels have been.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@travis7s 

I always enter right after processing for US/Intl small Packet Air. Currently sitting at 21 out of 24 scanned. 87.50 % for USA. From my monitoring it actually seems to be getting better as of late. Before it was very hit and miss. Knock on wood.

-Lotz

[pjcdn2005 · Accepted solution]

According to other posts that I've read on the US boards they will remove negatives for slow delivery but are less likely to remove them for non delivery which is where you are at now.

As others mentioned, the url number of small packet may show some scans and a delivery scan if you enter it on ebay. It will definitely not show anything on the CP or USPS websites.

[travis7s]

I took a closer look and I'm actually 21/24 as well. 2/3 of the ones that didn't scan got positive FB.