eBay

marnotom! · ‎04-23-2020

From the Canada Post website:

Canada Post is advising customers across the country to expect delays with their parcel deliveries. The heavy incoming parcel volumes, combined with the important safety measures we’ve implemented in our processing facilities, mean it is taking longer to process. Those measures include physical distancing in facilities that were never designed for keeping people two metres apart.

More at: https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/corporate-news/news-release-detail.page?...

kinkycyborg · ‎04-29-2020

And yet many of my customers are requesting refunds the second they hit the eBay estimated delivery date. Can eBay Canada pretty please revise and extend their shipping estimates provided to buyers to accurately reflect the challenges that Canada Post is currently facing? I have been desperately trying to get someone from eBay Canada to listen to me about this on multiple platforms and I get zero response.

It absolutely amazes me how so many people are exhibiting a lack of patience in the midst of this pandemic. The number of refunds I am being forced to accept is a killer to my small business which is why eBay Canada needs to step up and help their sellers by relaxing the delivery windows which were tight even before the pandemic and which our buyers take as gospel.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-29-2020

@marnotom!

From my personal observations it's been extended big time for dot com sellers shipping anywhere. For Canadian sellers, minimally. I have an incoming package from Miami ETA is 42 days vs standard 21. Finally made it to Mtl in 19 days. Haven't shipping anything outside of Canada/USA in 2 months. Being fair across the board with their updates and keeping us in the loop would be awesome but something it's best not to hold your breath waiting for to happen.

-Lotz

clemowbooks · ‎04-29-2020

It has been suggested that until eBay steps up and extends delivery times, that sellers extend their handling time from our actual one or two days to seven or even 30.

While this is hard on those who want to keep their TRS status, the chintzy 5% discount on FVF is not worth dealing with impatient (or possibly scammy) buyers.

Since sending Expedited Canada or Tracked Packet USA is not economic for many of us, this seems a decent reaction.

kinkycyborg · ‎05-01-2020

@clemowbooks wrote:
It has been suggested that until eBay steps up and extends delivery times, that sellers extend their handling time from our actual one or two days to seven or even 30.
While this is hard on those who want to keep their TRS status, the chintzy 5% discount on FVF is not worth dealing with impatient (or possibly scammy) buyers.
Since sending Expedited Canada or Tracked Packet USA is not economic for many of us, this seems a decent reaction.

Yes, far too often I find eBay's answer to everything is to provide tracking. For someone like me who sells high volumes of lower costing items, I would no longer be cost competitive if I had to add in the $7.00 to $9.00 extra it sometimes costs to add tracking, depending on where it is going. I may consider expand my handling time as you have suggested as it currently sits at 2 days. Thanks for the advice.

kinkycyborg · ‎05-04-2020

This is lunacy. Would somebody from eBay please send out a mass e-mail or message to all eBay.ca members and remind them that we are in the midst of a pandemic?! I have had to respond to 5 messages/refund requests from buyers looking for their parcels and every one of them is just a day or two past the eBay estimated delivery window.

I don't know what is frustrating me more.... the impatience of consumers who still think that instant gratification can still exist is this unprecedented environment or the complete inability or unwillingness by eBay to try and support their sellers through this. Sorry... free listings and deferred payments do not help me with these kind of issues.

These frustrations have me seriously considering folding my tent which makes eBay zero money.

KC

reallynicestamps · ‎05-04-2020

@kinkycyborg

Sometimes it comes down to the category we sell in and the demographics of our customers.

Games and DVDs ? Probably more impatient than my stampcollectors, a notoriously easygoing group.

In the short run, rather than depending on someone else to fix a problem, you may want to Revise all your listings to extend your handling time by a week( or even a month like Amazon).

You would still be shipping as quickly as ever, but eBay bots will extend delivery time for you.

This can be done in bulk by revising from your Active Listings. I did just that this morning on another ID where somehow I had put Free Shipping on all international sales.

kinkycyborg · ‎05-04-2020

@reallynicestamps wrote:
@kinkycyborg
Sometimes it comes down to the category we sell in and the demographics of our customers.
Games and DVDs ? Probably more impatient than my stampcollectors, a notoriously easygoing group.

In the short run, rather than depending on someone else to fix a problem, you may want to Revise all your listings to extend your handling time by a week( or even a month like Amazon).
You would still be shipping as quickly as ever, but eBay bots will extend delivery time for you.

This can be done in bulk by revising from your Active Listings. I did just that this morning on another ID where somehow I had put Free Shipping on all international sales.

I find that the video game buyers are much less patient than the DVD/Bluray enthusiast. My supply of games is running out which would mean I will soon not have to worry about it but at the same time I do very well with video game sales.

I am currently looking at the bulk editor to change handling time. I am glad there is an option to mass edit as I have almost 900 listings.

Something else I wish we could do and which I believe would be easy to implement would be to allow us to customize our own 'On Vacation' message which we could use to warn buyers that delivery dates could be late due to Covid and if you are concerned about it, don't buy.

reallynicestamps · ‎05-05-2020

You could just add that message to every (new?) listing and any you are specifically revising. Just add it to the description.

Or put it in the title or the sub-title-- the latter being a paid option.

I'm assuming that you didn't mean you would be putting your Store "on vacation" just that we can write our own messages when we use that service.

Sales are fairly strong with everybody stuck in the house.

And DVDs are forever, unlike streaming. I had to go to Australia to buy my DVDs of Two Guys A Girl and a Pizza Place while Firefly has disappeared from Netflix again.

Time for some thrilling heroics.-- Jayne Cobb

kinkycyborg · ‎05-05-2020

Yes, I'd like to be able to customize the 'On Vacation' message to say whatever I want as it would be a quick way to add a message at the top of each of my 900+ listings and then be able to just as quickly remove it rather than the tedious process of adding messages to the notes section on every individual listing.

I have no intention of actually going on vacation and suspending selling.... I too have noticed a dramatic surge in sales since this all started. So many people cooped up in the house with nothing better to do than shop online.

I have been a movie collector for over 20 years (going back to Betamax/VHS/Laserdisc) and I currently have over 12000 dvds/blurays in my personal collection that I am slowly selling off so I have plenty of stock, many hard to find titles that are no longer in print and are hit and miss to find on the multitude of streaming services which are constantly changing their lineups.

reallynicestamps · ‎05-05-2020

With our house it's books.

I swear books breed faster than mice.

Before we moved here we took 75 bankers boxes to the Friends of the Library alone, as well as smaller numbers to various thrift stores.

Do you have a laserdisc player? I've only seen one movie in that format "Quest for Fire". I remember the owner had to stop and change the disc half way through. Reminded me of school dances and stacks of 45s.

kinkycyborg · ‎05-05-2020

I don't own a Laserdisc player anymore. I sold all my Laserdisc and VHS collections/hardware for a song when I decided to switch to DVD. Dumb in retrospect.

The first horror movie I ever watched as a kid was on Laserdisc... An American Werewolf in London. I remember hiding and peeking from behind a big couch pillow through the whole movie.

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-05-2020

Are you having more problems inr's for Canadian or US buyers? I don't remember if this was mentioned earlier in the thread but if you use small packet US and print your labels online you can enter the url number under the scan code as a tracking number on ebay. It won't scan in Canada but it often does scan in the US so if you do get an inr and there has been a recent scan showing the package is on the way, you should be able to get an extension so that the buyer cannot ask ebay to step in right away.

Some people enter that url number all the time but I actually don't enter it until I'm asked about tracking so that I can explain that it isn't an official tracking number and that it may or may not work. I print an extra copy of the label when I use small packet so that I have a record of the number if it needs to be entered later on. The tracking can be seen on ebay only, not on usps.