eBay's New Item Not Received Process

[llee2]

Read up on it at http://www2.ebay.com/aw/marketing.shtml#2004-11-17145759

I don't know about you folks, but I get a lot of people in the States emailing me after 5-6 days asking why they haven't received their parcels yet. Even when I remind them that their package is coming from Canada and customs, etc. etc., they still think it should have been delivered 4 days ago.

This new "Item not received" process enables buyers to file a complaint after 7 calendar days after the end of auction (and get this, even if they pay on the 6th day, they can still file a claim of non-receipt the next flippin day). 10 days more and they can file for a refund for a total minimum time of *ta-dah* only 17 CALENDAR days!

Maybe it's just me but my typical US delivery times seem to be: small packet air (10-14 days), Expedited Parcel (3 weeks on a good day), small packet ground (some time in your dreams)

Anyone else think that this is going to be a major headache in the making?

Lincoln

[bh542]

My typical time: small packet air USA: 3-5 business days. Edpedited Parcel USA: 6-10 days. Just as they announced. I found the shipping is getting better--- 1 or 2 days faster than last year and no lost in last 6 months. Last year I got about 1% lost and some (less than 5) arrived in about one month.

[shoplineca]

I send the majority of my items (90%) into the US via Expedited Parcel and promise 5-9 business day delivery and have been quite pleased with the service.

Last Summer (2003) I wouldnt have been able to say the same thing however USPS has picked up their end of the process. I am aware that in the spring of this year, there were some customs delays at the border however that seems to have sorted itself out.

It is important to tell your customers in your TOS and when sending a confirming email after they have won the item how many days they can expect to wait for delivery without being optimistic.

All you are doing is telling them the truth about the service they are paying for. If they want overnight courier then I am certain you could accomodate them however the price goes up substantially.

I also wouldn't play up the "we are in Canada" bit too much or you will find that you are chasing away repeat customers who will associate late deliveries with dealing with Canadians.

From my personal experience, the majority of the delays are with USPS who do not have an Expedited Service and fit the delilveries in somewhere between ground parcel post and Express Service.

I find that when a customer gets the item on the 7th business day when I have told them it could take 9 business days, they will often leave me a positive remark in the FB ackowledging 'fast delivery', after all, it is all relative to what is expected.

Malcolm

[sunward-hobbies]

Yes. This is a major problem in the making.

Not every one pays right after the end of the auction. I still get paypal payments after a few days. Money order take a little longer. And someone forgot to include weekends and holidays.

And when you consider overseas shipments, 17 days is way too short a period.

If the problem is with fraud, then ebay should clamp down on all the fraudulent listings and not wait for someone to report them.

[sunward-hobbies]

Just read the news item.

There is an email link for feedback on the new process:

INRprocess@ebay.com


I suggest we make our feeling known.

[shoplineca]

Lincoln
I just read the link you posted and it states that a claim through the standard eBay """Purchase Protection Program""" may be filed in 17 days after the auction ends instead of the former 30 days.

This is simply providing an ability for the Buyer to file a claim under the above-mentioned program. The change being from 30-days to 17-days.

After a Buyer files a dispute, the Seller has 10 days to respond. When the Buyer files the dispute, they are reminded that in International transactions, they are to allow more than 7-days for the item to arrive, although admittedly, eBay does not set the parameters longer, they simply suggest that the Buyer give the Seller more time for their package to arrive.

Here is one of the messages that eBay will send to the Buyer filing a dispute in an International transaction:
"International bank transfers can take up to 14 days to complete. Shipping can also be a cause of delay, especially in cases of cross border trade. Please make sure to ask the seller for an estimate of the shipping time."

eBay is encouraging almost forcing Buyers and Sellers to communicate within their email system to resolve what the problems may be (undelivered product or product not as described) with greater use of the 'My eBay' page.

The fact remains that a disgruntled or an idiot Buyer can leave negative FB the second after he hits the BIN button and claim that the goods were not delivered. He can also not send payment or make a PayPal payment by way of his bank account and after 10 days of waiting for funds to clear, he has no funds to make good on the purchase.

I dont think that the changes in eBay's Purchase Protection Program will have much effect on most of us in doing business with US customers. To date I have NEVER had any of them file under the program and that is what the new rules are addressing.

Malcolm

[shoplineca]

Unless I am reading this entire matter wrong, I see this only as a change in filing complaints through eBay's Purchase Protection Program.

If that is the case, hold off on sending your negative comments unless you have been or anticipate being affected by claims filed through that program.

Make certain that (a) your items and you qualify for the program and (b) you believe that your customers will start filing claims under the program.

Read the link in its entirety. I certainly dont see anything in it that would suggest I am going to receive an onslaught of claims (having never had any filed against me before).

If I am wrong, point me in the direction in the new changes that would suggest otherwise. As far as I can see, this only deals with the Buyer Protection Program and a decrease in the number of days a Buyer can file a claim (and complaint) under the program.

Malcolm

[zarzuella]

The problem, of course, is that those buyers who don't bother to read your auction TOS or properly read your emails ( honestly - there are such people 🙂 ) are unlikely to read eBay's delivery time suggestions - they will see

** 7 DAYS **

in big letters and go no further.

Otherwise, at least this change makes an attempt at controlling the situation. Not a bad thing.

Incidentally, I have had more 'slow delivery ' emails this week than in the entire past year put together. What gives?

Ann

[moltencore]

this will just give the very small percentage of what I like to call idiot buyers an additional opportunity to harass - but of course this time under eBay's watchfull eye - and we sellers will have a chance to respond with all the transaction details ie. date payment received, date of shipment, method of shipment, timeframe of shipment etc. -- am I missing something here? the only problem I see with this policy is that it is totally based on the assumption that all transactions occurring on eBay are happening within the USA borders and can easily fit into parameters for delivery based on USPS standards. that is the only complaint I'd make.

[llee2]

Malcolm,

I don't have a problem with the process, just the parameters. For domestic US transactions, sure 7 days is plenty of time (considering US Priority mail is 2-3 days nationwide). Maybe a 2-tier system, where international transactions would be allowed say 14 days before a non-receipt claim is opened?

My emails to buyers always indicate a delivery expectation of 10-14 business days, which I think is quite generous. Yet, I still receive (3 today already) a lot of emails inquiring about why their parcel has not yet arrived. Typically, the parcels were shipped within the last 7 days (and within 24 hours of payment). While there have been some that forgot their parcel was coming from Canada, the majority expected delivery from Canada a lot sooner. I realize that a claim is only to facilitate communication. And the vast majority of buyers are reasonable even when they don't receive their parcel in a time frame that they expect. Most will understand the factors like customs delays while some will be thinking you're blowing smoke up their wah-zoos. I just feel that the 7 day and 17 day settings will reinforce the idea that they should be receiving their items a lot sooner than we are saying. I think the net result will be a lot more inquiries at the 7 day mark.

Lincoln

[shoplineca]

Lincoln
The majority of buyers dont read the TOS and dont read 90% of the emails we send. What makes you think they are going to read what they have to do to file a claim within the eBay Buyer Protection Prgram?

eBay doesnt give a rats a$$ about the Buyers complaining about non-receipt for the first 30 days for the most part. All they are trying to do is set some opportunities for Buyers to contact the sellers and vice versa.

I dont disagree that eBay should have been more specific about International delays and built in a mechanism to allow an extra 7 days however eBay is built around the US customer and the US seller and that is not about to change in the near future.

The idiot buyers who start to complain within 3-4 days about non-receipt of goods are only one step up the intelligence ladder from the bozos who do a BIN, never send payment and leave negative FB. You cant do much about them, they are here to stay and challenge us every blessed day.

eBay doesnt care and so why should we? Dont waste your time fretting about dumb buyers. Copy and paste your original email to them setting out how long you anticipate delivery to take and email it to them in response and let them loose hairs over it not being there sooner than you anticipated it would take.


Malcolm

[mereco]

The new "Item not received" process obviously did not take into consideration Canadian and other non-US eBay sellers. The process definitely favours US eBay sellers and places others at a distinct disadvantage.
Once again eBay has shown total disregard for a large segment of its seller population, and demonstrated that it does not fully understand its own business. Or maybe it does! because this new policy might create an increase in the numbers of users of the farce known as Square Trade. Or perhaps it is just a matter of time before eBay introduces a new procedure to resolve the countless disputes it will encounter because of this Item not Received process. Guess who will be required to pay for the new process? If you guessed the Seller you would be right.

[shoplineca]

mereco
This is an insurance program, nothing more. Few Buyers will know anything about it and it doesnt affect anyone unless someone files under the program, not just a complaint but actually files to obtain the proceeds from eBay insurance less a $25 handling fee they keep.

If you think that eBay is going to be any tto anxious with letting losse their purse strings to start paying off everytime a loonatic buyer makes a complaint, well it just isnt going to happen.

What is interesting is that the prgram went into effect a month ago and all sorts of people suggested how they were going to be unundated with complaints and I have yet to learn of any formal complaints being filed against anyone under this program yet.

I saw this as window dressing. eBay markets a further protection plan to assure new buyers that purchasing on eBay is a safe thing to do.

Malcolm

[ospreylinks]

Although a little off topic from the thread title, I am interested to read comments saying that people are finding (Malcolm) delivery to the US faster this year than last.

Honestly, I am finding just the opposite, 1 to 2 days longer than last year. And I am with the others here, receiving more emails from US buyers looking for their goods after 5 to 7 days. On the bright side, knock on wood to date when I have replied to them all that shipping from Canada to the US is 10 to 12 business days, the goods have arrived within that parameter and we have received favourable comments back.

Jeff

[shoplineca]

Jeff
I am certainly not finding delivery faster this time of year and I have commented on it on a thread I started a week ago about Expedited taking 3 weeks.

I did find and comment in another thread some time ago that when CP started their Expedited program a year ago last summer, the service was very slow and unpredictable for the first few months until late fall 2003 and it continued to be excellent right up until this fall.

From the fall of 2003 through the fall of 2004, Expedited delivery was consistenly within the time frame CP gave (over 95% of the time for my items). The FB from my buyers reflected that as well.

Now the major delay is Customs with items sitting there for a couple of weeks in some instances where USPS cannot clear the backlog because of new security measures imposed by the US Revenue Service.

They call it security measures under the pretence of checking for WMD however all they are looking at is collecting taxes and duties from their citizens for goods imported exceeding their $200 exemption.

I will also add that CP gets the items to the border and turned over to USPS or their broker(s) within 2 business days or less so the problem lies 100% with USPS and their ability through their broker to clear items shipped to US destinations.

I have been informed by CP that the Expedited Service can easily take over 2 weeks for delivery from November through January because of the volume and inability for that volume to clear customs by USPS.

I find that Express Post clears customs faster and the items reach the customers within the predicted time frame set by CP. There hasnt been any noticable change in that service.

Malcolm

[zarzuella]

Jeff, I'm finding exactly the same thing - every morning my email has buyer complaints about slow shipping. A lot of it seems to be unrealistic expectations - one customer thought Airmail to Texas should be no more than 2-3 days - but I have a couple right now that are over 2 weeks not delivered - sent small packet Air - one to Ohio.
Ann

[recped]

Malcolm

I'm total;ly with you on this one. Maybe I'm just lucky but after over 12,000 eBay transactions delivery delay issues occur in such few instances that I can't see this new program causing much problem.

The most common delivery complaint I get get goes something like this....'.

Buyer - This auction ended "x" days ago and I have still not received my item.

Me - You have to pay first before you get your item!

Buyer - Oh sorry, you're right, I don't remember paying but it says in My eBay that I've paid?

Me - "groan"

Ben

[whoscloset]

I bit the bullet and switched over to UPS. I couldn't face all those e-mail from the US looking for items delayed by customs.

In addition, customs was opening a lot of my packages and not replacing the foam peanuts leading to an excessive amount of damage claims regardless of how well I packaged.

I know a lot of people on this board have complained about UPS so I was pretty nervous at first. I have to admit, I'm pretty impressed so far. No damage claims since I started with them and only one piece has gone missing. They are charging me much less than I was paying via USPS Expedited and I recieved dedicated customer support due to my shipping volume. My customers are thrilled with the fast delivery (max 5 business days for Standard to US) and my feedback and rate of repeats is reflecting that.

If you ship heavier products like I do and were mainly using USPS Expedited you might want to look into them. Request a quote on their site and a customer service rep will call you. The still can't match Canada Post/USPS Air Mail on small packets under 500 grams but that was a very small percentage of my shipments.

Monique