Late shipping defects

[imbuzzy]

Why does eBay allow a buyer to mark their shipment from me as late when it obviously arrived within the advertised time period?

I sell postcards and ship them untracked using lettermail. I sell on both ebay.ca and ebay.com and all items are advertised with 1 day handling.

Items listed on ebay.com use flat rate shipping and opt for the following service for US cutomers: Economy Shipping from Canada (5 to 12 business days).

Items listed on ebay.ca also use flat rate untracked shipping and I never get any defects. It is only US bound shipments sold on ebay.com that are problematic (and rarely at that).

I had somebody from Kansas purchase an item on Friday February 9th. eBay stated that I must ship the item no later than the end of Monday Feb 12th. It went out with all my weekend sales on that Monday.

On Feb 22 I received positive feedback from the purchaser but also received a late shipment defect.

My mathematics state that only 9 business days had elapsed since payment was made.

10 days if one includes payment date.

8 days if one recognizes Family Day as not a business day.

So what did I do wrong to deserve the defect?

Also....

I just checked a more recent sale going to the States that occured on Feb 22. The buyer paid the next day Feb 23. eBay tell me to ship by the end of Feb 26. Sold item was advertised with Economy Shipping from Canada (5 to 12 business days).

Here's the kicker:

eBay states: Estimated delivery date shown to buyer: Feb 29, 2024

Only 4 business days after payment!!! (the pendantic amongst us might say 5 business days).

Any clarity on this?

[mrdutch1001]

IF no tracking, and buyer is expecting that item to arrive when THEY want it to(Many buyers are of the thinking that their item should arrive on that first available estimated date and many buyers don't give a rat's ass about the estimated delivery dates...if the item arrives at a date later than THEY expected, then it's the seller's fault and buyer can say the item arrived late since they are not under any obligation to be 100% accurate and/or 100% honest>> this also happens with tracked packages as well...

Buyers are always right, right???!!

[imbuzzy]

So why doesn't ebay just ignore the buyer's feedback when it is obvious that the delivery window still exists? Why the defect when it is pretty obvious that the seller fulfilled all obligations promised and the packaged was delivered on time? Why else would the person even bother giving positive feedback if they haven't received the item yet?

And why is eBay telling my customers to expect delivery 4 days after my drop-off deadline on a 5 to 12 day window?

KISS

A 1 day handling along with a 5 to 12 day shipping promise equates to 6 to `13 days allocated.

When I purchase online, that's the math I use.

I'm looking for better reasons than "the buyer's always right"...

[pjcdn2005]

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@imbuzzy wrote:

So why doesn't ebay just ignore the buyer's feedback when it is obvious that the delivery window still exists? Why the defect when it is pretty obvious that the seller fulfilled all obligations promised and the packaged was delivered on time? Why else would the person even bother giving positive feedback if they haven't received the item yet?

And why is eBay telling my customers to expect delivery 4 days after my drop-off deadline on a 5 to 12 day window?

KISS

A 1 day handling along with a 5 to 12 day shipping promise equates to 6 to `13 days allocated.

When I purchase online, that's the math I use.

The problem is not that the buyer is wrong or that the received the it3m on time,  the problem is that eBay is not giving the same eta in the listing that is shown to you when you set up the listing. And they are using that incorrect date as part of your metrics.   If I was in the US and bought one of your postcards today I am given an eta of Jan.29 which is 4 business days.  Obviously I wouldn't get it by then so when asked by eBay if I received it by that day I might say no and you would get a late ding.  I actually ignore that question as a buyer but not all buyers do.

When the shipping from Canada options came out on ,com I used them but the economy, standard and expedited  from Canada all had wrong eta showing.   I mentioned that to eBay a couple of time but it never got fixed so I changed back to using 'shipping from outside of the US' as the times given on the listing form are pretty much the same as the eta my buyers are given.   I only have one listing on .com right now but my eta using standard shipping from outside US has an eta of MARCH 4-12 which seems to work for me.  I suggest that you ignore the shipping from Canada option and use the economy ir standard from outside of the US.

[imbuzzy]

OK that makes some sense.

Thank you for explaining it to me and offering a good solution.

I'll change my settings after my batch of .com auctions have run their course.

[recped]

Save yourself a lot of pain and drop the 1 day handling and use something longer. This will extend the expected delivery.

I looked at one of your listings, you are using generic "economy" and eBay is giving an estimate of March 5 - 15 for delivery (a massive 50km distance away).

For a US buyer you are showing Canada Post USA and the estimate is March 11 - March 15 and those letters could be going 4,000 miles. If you change the shipping type to generic Economy the estimate would probably more like March 15 - 25.

Because you are not using tracking eBay asks "was the package delivery by xx date" the buyer is just being honest if they say no because it didn't actually arrive until March 17.

Buyers of post Cards are rarely in a panic to get their item.

You say you are using "economy shipping" for the USA but the three listings I looked at all show "Canada Post USA Letter-post".

[rocketscollectibles]

My first and only negative feedback ever is a US buyer who jumped to say something like 'no received yet' only 5 business day after placing the order. Like 1 week before being into estimated delivery timeframe. Ebay refused to remove it. Needed tracking or a feedback revision from buyer. Impossible to do anything. Even if it was clearly against ebay policies. You're not supposed to be able to claim a late package before it's late. There's an incoherence in the way they deal with this situation. They also allow buyers to claim INRs before it's past last delivery date (while it says the opposite in policies) 

US buyers expect tracking on everything they don't have the same system, the problem comes from there. Even ebay agents sometimes if they are US don't understand and needs to be educated about the way we ship. I now always start by 'i'm canadian' when i contact them 

[byto253]

Did the same, ended up using "Economy Shipping from outside US" after other options did not give enough leeway for letter mail.   I think it likely costs me a sale or 2 because the shipping time provided is so long, but prefer that over refunds due to "late shipping".   I wish there was an option somewhere between standard and economy from outside the US.

[skeenaman]

I also always set my stuff to Economy Shipping to give lots of time to get there before the customer can request a refund. 

I stopped shipping to the USA a few years back because of getting defects for untracked shipments to there.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

It is unlikely that the buyer marked it late maliciously or even intentionally. eBay has a very matter of fact section when leaving feedback that asks did it arrive before the projected delivery date of X. 

Most people are anti-confrontational and not looking to get you in trouble. It doesn't look like anything that matters to them, so they answer honestly. 

I can tell you exactly why this happened with your listing, and how you can avoid it. Do not use the "Canada Post Lettermail" shipping designation. Edit your shipping policy so that you ship using the generic economy shipping that has a slightly longer delivery window. eBay's lettermail designation quotes the shipping window as 2 to 9 business days. Most lettermail packages will arrive in 9 business days or less, but not all do. Lettermail is not guaranteed. It can sometimes take 2-3 weeks, and in very rare cases 4 or more weeks. eBay's generic lettermail shipping designation doesn't account for this. This one simple fix will avoid almost all late shipping marks. 

I have shipped thousands of packages lettermail. I get maybe 1 marked as late every few thousand I ship. As far as your idea that it had to have come in time, that isn't entirely guaranteed. Lettermail can take longer than the 9 business days that your listings currently quote to the customers. That is why it is better to use the slightly longer generic economy shipping designation. It gives a more realistic delivery estimate for lettermail.