eIS delivery failures - rate too high
Summary: cottagewoman-ca and other participants discussed issues with the eIS shipping service, including lost packages and slow delivery times. cottagewoman-ca noted a significant increase in lost shipments since switching to eIS, especially to the US and Europe. lotzofuniquegoodies raised concerns about higher costs and slower speeds compared to other mail services. Participants talked about challenges with address verification and suggested that improvements are needed in the system. devon@ebay mentioned that the shipping team is looking to enhance the program. Some participants expressed dissatisfaction with the eIS service, emphasizing its benefits primarily for eBay, not the sellers.
Using my own shipping pre and post end of de minimis for 9 years, and over 10,000 packages successfully delivered, not one lost. Sure some have had very long trips with heaps of stress associated, but eventually all were delivered. Since starting with eIS, four have been completely lost: three to the US, one to Europe. All via Ascendia from the hub. I don't have numbers to estimate a percentage but from the top of my head the number of shipments is at 100 or less. That's a minimum of 4%. I've kept all the sales revenue of course - however those are customers that will most likely never buy items through eIS again.
rdemaree
·yesterday at 9:18 PMI have always hated the EIS / GSP.
There’s so many reasons to not like it both as a customer and as a seller. It primarily benefits eBay. Not us.
john_koenig99
·yesterday at 11:26 PMThe only reason I am still on eBay is because eIS. Flaws and everything. My domestic sales are a joke, sadly.
rdemaree
·12 hours agoim curious why you dont want to just ship stuff yourself?
marnotom!
·4 days agoWhen you check a third-party tracking site such as Parcelsapp, are there any scan events for these shipments after they leave the hub?
Is there any sort of pattern to these items? i.e. Are they all from one particular category, such as electronics?
cottagewoman-ca
OP4 days agoSince they're spread out over time I can't remember the exact scan pattern - the last US bound that never was delivered has a scan for leaving ON via Asendia and that's it - nothing showing customs status, etc. The EU package circled around the buyers city 3 or 4 times, going back to a hub location. then eventually went back to the EU non-deliverable address for eIS. Buyer was very angry as they never actually saw a delivery attempt even when tracking showed it and they were at their address when the scanned attempt was made. If I remember right it was a Danish address. As far as category goes no, not one specific category.
flipistics
·4 days agoWhen there are issues like that, I usually find that they're related to the buyer inputting their address incorrectly (not just for eIS). When it does happen (which is pretty rare, thankfully), the first thing I do is I show them a picture of the shipping label and ask them to verify their address.
I don't check addresses for eIS orders before I ship them, but I remember one customer complaining they hadn't received their item. When I looked at their address (which was in Europe), they had only included their name and town. I think they eventually got it sorted out with eBay and the carrier. It happens.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·4 days ago@flipistics With eIS orders you can only tell the state or country they are in. Not a complete address. Contact info only shows a phone number temporarily. As a matter of reflex in the past when I was shipping direct to international buyers I always was doing a google check of address to be on eye out for anything hinky!! Now you can't do that.
It's not likely eis does any address verification before sending an order. Now, even with pick ups the buyers address is a challenge to access.
flipistics
·4 days ago@lotzofuniquegoodies Yeah, you're right. Whatever happened, they did eventually get it resolved. I know for domestic orders I've found that it's usually an address issue. Either people forget an apartment number or they've moved and haven't updated their address in eBay.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·4 days ago@flipistics It's always a good check safe especially for new buyers. Lately I am finding messaging newish buyers has become very challenging. Either they have mail turned off or they don't check ebay mail EVER. If there is a problem with address almost the only thing you can do is advise customer and cancel. In most cases now we are blocked from even minor edits to the address field. Strangely eBay accepts fictitious names now. Example. "First-Name Last-Name". Doesn't seem really legal.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·4 days ago@marnotom!
For a recent shipment with expedited it just shows the details to hub. (Anything letter shows scanned to bag) when it reaches hub along with new tracking number.
Variations include:
a) DHL eCommerce number - 16 digits
b)USPS Tracking number - 22 digits
c) Customer confirmation # EECA#########US0
All 3 are accessible at ParcelAPP and include internal tracking details from time label is created in the TO depot. Delivery from Toronto to Illinois hub can be 5 to 7 days and can take a few additional days to see a "tentative" ETA for customer. Important to consider most buyers will not even be aware of ParcelApp so that is of more use to seller compared to buyer.
Prior to eIS I hovered between 4.9 and 5.0 for shipping cost and 10 less ratings compared to the other choices. Now at 4.8 (Important to remember cost depends on what buyer chooses..Not the seller). If a buyer is concerned about any delays I advise them once shipment leaves my door it's out of my hands. That suffices for buyer. As I noted in my other post, delays,loss and/or dead ending appear to hub problems.
Without some kind of report back from eBay and eIS Canadian sellers are unlikely to ever know what category of products are causing the bulk of the issues. If we could find out it would make it easier to proceed going forward.
Using eIS vs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw4sHoce5so&list=RDdw4sHoce5so&start_radio=1
Seller and buyer pays their money and then take their chances!!
cottagewoman-ca
OP4 days agoas well I always use ParcelApp - cross reference back to the eBay item tracking just in case there are discrepancies, but for those lost I remember there was no discrepancy.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·4 days ago@cottagewoman-ca
@devon@ebay Is eBay closely monitoring these situations and the frequency for patterns with plans to make improvements? My personal take away using eIS from W. Canada is the slowness (2 and a half times slower than mail) and higher costs for buyers. This is not the normal result when couriers are involved. But most likely is being caused due to the multiple extra handling(s).
devon@ebay
Hi @lotzofuniquegoodies ! I know that the Shipping team is keeping a close eye on everything eIS and is continually looking to make improvements to the program.
lotzofuniquegoodies
·yesterday at 5:07 PM · Edited@devon@ebay Regarding improvements do we any sort of timeline as to when Canadian sellers will have an official increased number of countries similar to what the US has? (As a side the help page still shows the original 30 but does not factor in the 17 or so countries that were blocked several months ago.)
This is the post from back in June of this year by eBay about the 17 countries.
https://community.ebay.ca/forum/selling-24/topic/canada-post-has-suspended-parcel-service-to-12-of-the-27-eu-countries-4367/
This is the current eIS help page on available countries. (pages are not dated so hard to know how reliable/current the page is).
https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/ebay-international-shipping-program?id=5348&st=3&pos=1&query=eBay%20International%20Shipping%20program&intent=eis%20&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1704
This is another help page I was able to locate that contradicts the first page.
https://pages.ebay.ca/international-shipping/
It includes this:
Shop the millions of items now available to ship from sellers in the U.S. and Canada to over 200 countries.
Are the 200 countries mentioned above applicable for Canadian sellers as per the FAQ or only to US based sellers?
Are other sellers seeing a full gamut of countries while utilizing eIS? All my sales in 6/7 months have been EU or Aust. (4)