The Defect system works great for American sellers who only have to get an acceptance scan within their stated handling time to pass. The problem arises with Canada Post and domestic lettermail, or Small- or Light- Packets Airmal which has no tracking and relies on a buyer to answer the question when the allowed number of business days does not meet the needs of any buyer or seller in a rural, remote or northern area.
It was designed to favour sellers who offer tracking and punish those who do not. Unfortunately, in Canada we have only Canada Post to contend with and their domestic tracked services start at three times as costly as do our American counterparts who can buy First Class with tracking for a couple of bucks instead of $10. Ditto for international. We cannot compete against the Americans in this arena and ebay, with its head office in California, puts the needs of ebay.com above all others. They have the numbers, we in Canada don't count for much.
It's a sad reality. I eliminated untracked international shipping completely and I'm in the process of taking measures against domestic lettermail too. The only way to protect yourself as a seller is to ship with tracking. At some point, someone at ebay will have to notice or care that good Canadian sellers are being punished for no reason but, until then, you have to watch your own back.
Good luck as you carry forward.
