Late Shipment Rate

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Because of low sales and busy full-time work I have forgotten that Seller Dashboard existed. 

A buyer recently told me that her book still hasn't arrived after 4 weeks, but she was agreeable to waiting for another week or so, but because of this message I figure that even if the book does arrive within the next two weeks I'll probably get a late defect from her, so I might as well check my dash board --- and low and behold, there's already a late shipment defect there from April with a different sale! 

That buyer didn't contact me about a late delivery but did left me a positive feedback. From the feedback left date, the books were indeed quite late (took 6 weeks to reach my European buyer). I don't plan to message this buyer about it since it has already been a month, and I'm grateful that despite she waited as long as 6 weeks, she still gave me a positive feedback. I just hope that this really slow shipment didn't turn my repeat buyer away. 

I think I'm just frustrated that despite using small packet air with 5 business days handling time (when I actually ship within 3 business days) there's still the odd shipment that's late, and I have no control over them. Now I'm worried that my selling ability could get impacted if I get more late shipments... 

[momcqueen]

Where does your percentage sit? The number of defects, I seem to recall, is of lesser significance than the percentage by which Late Shipment Reports are measured.

Also, despite our collective worry when this metric was first announced, I don’t think anyone has come forward to say they’ve been sanctioned by eBay for it. It was just ebay’s way of forcing sellers (like me) to ship via Tracked postal
Services instead. (And don’t forget, with Free Shipping because buyers expect that too. For lower than retail. Also important. Eyeroll.)

My point being that you probably don’t need to lose sleep over it.

[pjcdn2005]

i find that very few buyers answer the ‘on time’ question in feedback

Officially, too many late shipments don’t affect your selling ability but I have no idea if search takes that number into account.  

The following is from ebay:

Here's the maximum number of late shipments allowed before your seller level is affected:

Top Rated Seller

5 late shipments And more than 3% of your sales. If you fail to meet this requirement, your seller level will drop to Above Standard.

Above Standard

7 late shipments And more than 7% of your sales. If you fail to meet this requirement, we may limit the shipping options you can offer on your listings to help you avoid future late deliveries, and make it easier for you to meet your buyer’s expectations.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

My sales is too low for a percentage. If I go by the global transaction count, this 1 late shipment defect already sets me at 3%. If you go by feedback count left (which I think is what the 1 out of xx number comes from) then I'm sitting at 8% lol, because people really don't leave feedback much nowadays. I believe my "quota" is 5 late shipments for low volume sellers. Right now I have 1, I'm foreseeing a 2nd one soon, so that gives me room for 3 more late shipments within 11 months...

Regardless of what my count or defect or whatever, I still won't completely switch over to Tracked Packet. I'm still going to stick to letterpost and small packet air. 

Don't worry, I won't lose sleep over eBay stuff. I just wanted to vent, that's all. My full-time work is what I lose sleep over lately.

[momcqueen]

Like almost all aspects of feedback, it’s arbitrary and a seller can affect very little. The best possible service to some buyers will still rank three-star detailed seller ratings because it didn’t come with a free ice cream sandwich in the box or something ridiculous. With The Question, you can only do so much unless you want to switch to tracking for the acceptance scans which are the only aspect of it that a seller can control. I understand that doesn’t work for everyone, but I don’t really regret switching because now I have virtually no worries about Items Not Received which really was something I lost sleep over, literally, in the past. An INR now for me is highly unlikely due to 85 per cent of items sent with tracking, and I appreciate that assurance a great deal.

[pjcdn2005]

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@zee-chan-jpn-books wrote:

My sales is too low for a percentage. If I go by the global transaction count, this 1 late shipment defect already sets me at 3%. If you go by feedback count left (which I think is what the 1 out of xx number comes from) then I'm sitting at 8% lol, because people really don't leave feedback much nowadays. I believe my "quota" is 5 late shipments for low volume sellers. Right now I have 1, I'm foreseeing a 2nd one soon, so that gives me room for 3 more late shipments within 11 months...

It looks like you are above standard so as I said in my last post  you can have up to 7 late shipments.  They have been tracking late shipments since 2015 and i know that I’ve had less than that even if I add every one that I’ve received since that time.  I would be surprised if you’ve had more than 7 in 3 years so chances are good that you won’t have 7 in one year.

The percentage is tougher to stay under but luckily you can be over the percentage and be fine as long as you are under the max number.  The percentage is based only on the transactions that they can actually rate so only transactions with tracking and transactions where the buyer answers yes or no to the on time shipment question are counted.  

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Yeah, pretty much I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that my future shipments won't take this long again.

I did notice that things I buy internationally are taking longer to reach me lately. As for things I ship from my end, there are less buyers leaving feedbacks now so it's harder to track time.

Speaking on feedback, I recently get to use Yahoo Japan Auction as a buyer when I was staying at my Japan friend's place. She was originally going to help me with setting up my own account (so that I can buy things without going through a middleman) but unfortunately YAJ doesn't take international credit card so it didn't work out. It's such a shame since there are so much goodies on there for a good deal lol.

While I was there, I did learn that, the seller's sales funds apparently gets held by YAJ until the buyer marks item as received! I'm not sure if buyer's account would get restricted if they never go back to mark their purchase as received. But because of that, sellers on there would start sending reminders or message you if you didn't mark your item as received after just 3 days (domestic delivery standard over on Japan). If eBay does things the same way, with the low feedback rate lately, nobody on eBay will be paid for their sales lol.

[momcqueen]

Yikes, I would not care for that system of releasing funds at all. Although I assume it would apply only to untracked mail? Uploaded tracking would automatically show an item as received. Let's hope you haven't given ebay any ideas. Haha. 

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

The YAJ system is more simplified, I don't think there's an option to upload tracking. I only see buttons for payment, mark as received, feedback, and you communicate everything else through message (but what I see are all buyer's end). Well, sellers *can* leave buyers negative feedback, so I suppose if someone never marks their item as received, they'd probably get a neg from the seller, and sellers can cancel a sale if they see that their buyer has many negs...

[rose-dee]

I assume YAJ is for Japan only, i.e. a domestic Japanese buyer/seller market?  Then their system would make sense, as control over domestic shipping times and buyer expectations within a single system is simpler to manage.  

I can't imagine this ever working on eBay, with its worldwide buyers and sellers.  Although I could see it working if eBay ever decided to restrict its sellers and buyers to U.S. residents only.  

With regard to your late shipments, were these Small Packet Air?  I haven't shipped anything to Europe lately, but I've had some real issues with Small Packet Air to Australia.  I'm wondering if postal systems haven't yet caught up with what must be the overload in Small Packet services lately, due to the phasing out of letter mail and light packet use for commercial goods. 

Judging by how many eBay sellers were used to using Light Packet and letter mail for shipping on a regular basis, I wouldn't be surprised if this has put a strain on international non-tracked parcel services (and that's just eBay, not all the other online venues).  My understanding is that parcel and letter mail (or the old "Light Packet") are separate streams in most postal systems.  It would be like suddenly routing a substantial portion of the traffic from a major freeway onto a secondary highway -- bottlenecks and slowdowns. 

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Yes YAJ is pretty much domestic, 99% sellers would state they ship domestic only. I did find a couple before that are willing to take PayPal with added fees but they are rare. PayPal is not common in Japan at all, apparently it's not as easy to get an account set up on Japan, even my friend doesn't have one.

Yes, the late shipment one was sent small packet air. I used to use both small packet air and light packet depending on which is cheaper but yeah, I guess if everything goes small packet air then it could cause a delay... *Sigh* and unfortunately there are no other options.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Just bumping my thread instead of starting a new one...

So my buyer messaged me and said they still haven't received their book and I think it's about 5 weeks now. What's the proper way of sending them a refund so that I can recover my FVF and not get a defect? Haven't had to refund for a couple years so I'm not sure what's the right way to do it now. Thanks ;_;

[momcqueen]

I think it’s all done automatically if the buyer opens an Item Not Received case, and you refund without involving eBay which of course you would in this case. Are they past the MoneyBack Guarantee date? If you have to refund via PayPal, I’m not sure you can issue a Cancel Order Request. It would depend, I think, on whether it’s within 60 days.

[momcqueen]

You’re not going to get into any trouble for an INR, so encourage them to do it that way. I think that’s my best advice based on what I know and/or believe. Others may have different opinions based on better or more plentiful first-hand experience.

[rose-dee]

Yes, it's best to ask the buyer to open an INR through the drop-down options on his/her transaction.   You may have to "hand-hold" the buyer a bit to get them pointed in the right direction.  

Provided the buyer does open an INR, you'll receive notification from eBay, and you can just follow the directions.  As long as you refund within the time window stipulated by eBay, it will have no impact on your seller status (this policy changed 2 or 3 Seller Updates ago, in case you weren't around), and you'll at least get your fees back.  So there is no longer any reason not to have the buyer open an INR. 

I honestly don't know about asking the buyer to cancel the transaction as I've never done so, but it seems to me that's more of a minefield for you.  It may be too late for the buyer to initiate a cancellation anyway.  

You can of course ask the buyer to kindly repay you directly through Paypal should the item ultimately appear, which it likely will.  I say this because I had a Small Packet Air delivery to Australia literally do the entire rounds of the South Pacific and Hong Kong before finally being routed back to the proper address -- 8 weeks later.  Be cautious about your wording in an eBay message these days though, as eBay has introduced stringent measures around contact with buyers (i.e. don't actually put your personal email address in the message).   

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Well for my buyer it has been 6 weeks already, so this buyer was extremely patient. According to her, it's the first time she had to open an INR. She did say if the book does arrive she'll let me know so that I can send a new invoice.

Anyhow, the refund is done, so it's time to move on for me *sigh*. I hope one of my items that I listed with that recent $1 FVF promo sells, at least that'd help me recoup part of my loss from this sale lol

[kawartha-ephemera]

Always amazes me how rare it is to have those untracked Small Packet Air parcels not arrive.

Probably going to jinx myself by saying so, but to date I've never had one get lost, had a few tardy ones but nothing outrageous. In fact my only losses have been with tracked shipments... and those have been rare events.

Awhile back I sold a lettermail item to a guy in Mexico , almost immediately after sending him a confirmation shipping message I received a message from him saying something like "I worried they know give me package because no tracked".

Now, I'm fairly certain that fellow knew all about the INR procedure without any hand holding. Sure enough, 2 or 3 weeks later received an INR case with no warning... gave immediate refund.

Your Australian book buyer is a credit to ebayers everywhere.... if her book does eventually arrive she probably will let you know about it. Good luck.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

This buyer is in the USA not Australia, so this is actually my first "loss" to the USA. My previous group of INRs (in 2014) were all shipped to somewhere in Europe within the same month so I think there was some shipping issue in Europe at that time. I did have a sale to the USA during Xmas 2016 and it took 5 weeks (that buyer messaged me about it 4 weeks and then gave me late shipment defect).

Anyhow, this sale is only $15, and with the FVF credited back I'm really only out around $13. Not a big hit, just annoying, that's all. Overall it's still cheaper for me to go untracked for the smaller sales then to pay for tracking. I'd still use small packet air for a $120 sales to a repeat buyer.

[kawartha-ephemera]

Sorry... must have had a few brain cells short circuit or something, I have no idea where I got the Australian idea from.

Maybe it's due to the categories I sell in, but I agree there seems little incentives to add the extra expense of a tracked service to lower priced items.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Going back to the suggestion rose-dee said about how the discontinuation of light packet might have delayed the airmail shipments, I mailed a book to Germany with letter-post on June 1 morning and it arrived today!! That's like less than 4 business days. I wonder if regular mail became faster because there's no Light Packet anymore lol.