eBay

musicyouneed · ‎10-17-2015

As ebay is judging our shipping performance on Canada Post, I want to find out if I can delay my shipping time by a day or two to allow for canada post/usps delays. What is the maximum days so that I can keep my TRS, at this rate, my TRS will be gone soon and I can blame Canada Post.

gemaddict · ‎10-17-2015

@musicyouneed wrote:
As ebay is judging our shipping performance on Canada Post, I want to find out if I can delay my shipping time by a day or two to allow for canada post/usps delays. What is the maximum days so that I can keep my TRS, at this rate, my TRS will be gone soon and I can blame Canada Post.

I am not really sure how long you can extend handling time before you lose TRS. I lost mine already and was due to get it back but then got another defect and I am sure you can guess what type.

It was suggested by an eBay employee that in order to extend delivery time a seller can extend their handling time and also pick slow shipping as an option when doing your listing. This would in turn extend the delivery estimate. However in my mind if buyers see that you don't ship until, let's say, five days after payment I think they will just shop somewhere else. Then it becomes a matter of how many lost sales will you have? If they are already suggesting work arounds it's as good as admitting that this new shipping rule is a mistake. Maybe someone here has a solution to this mess. If so I am all ears!

reallynicestamps · ‎10-17-2015

I think you have that backwards.

Ship as soon as possible. Preferably the same day.

If you have a postbox near you, use it. I am lucky enough to have one with a 5pm pickup about three blocks away and another with a 9 am pickup one block away. Like you, my items are small enough to go LetterMail/ LightPacket, but if you are using PP shipping labels, you can drop parcels into boxes too.

There is no reason to think PO pickup is faster or more reliable than a postbox. Your packages will be postmarked at the terminus.

Do you leave feedback immediately? Do you inform your customers that their record is on its way even if you are not tracking?

Much of your seller status is private of course, but your DSRs have a 5 for shipping time and 4.9 for shipping cost (thanks Canada Post!). And you have no negative or neutral feedback.

Are you getting Item Not Received disputes and losing them because you don't track? Is the loss of TRS discounts greater or less than the cost of tracking?

Are you using Cookie Jar Insurance to cover the occasional INR question?

Are you refunding those customers quickly and asking for a return on the refund when the item shows up?

Or are you pushing unhappy customers to the Dispute that you then lose and get the Defects that concern you?

musicyouneed · ‎10-17-2015

Hi I ship the same business day as long as the item was purchased by 9AM as sometimes I am not home after that. However most of the time even if they purchase at 1 pm as long as I am home it will go out that day. That will not change. I just want the expected delivery date on ebay to be later.

Why?

I had a buyer in Canada who purchased something from me on Sep 30 at 11AM and I took it to the PO that day, I leave feedback stating the date I shipped the item. I'm in BC and the buyer was in Ont. On Oct 13 he opened a case that he had not received the item, I responded that if he didn't receive it by Oct 17, I would refund him. On Oct 15, he got the item and closed the case. I got a defect because of that and he also dinged my shipping time as a 3. (He is a seller too)

I called ebay today and they gave me the runaround basically saying that I created a bad buying experience for the buyer because Canada post didn't deliver it on time, they estimated delivery by Oct 8. Give me a break. I said well Canada post should get the defect not me. I put it in the mail the same day. He wouldn't budge.

The way Canada Post is and sometimes USPS is, I am afraid that I am going to get dinged every time even though I mail it the same day.

I sell CD's and they are a low cost item that I only clear a few $ on each one. There is no way they buyer would pay for tracking.

zee-chan-jpn-books · ‎10-17-2015

My handling time has always been set as 5 business days since a year ago (realistically I ship within 2 - 3 business days, can't do faster due to full time job) and I still have my TRS.

triber · ‎10-17-2015

I thought that in order to keep TRS we had to ship within one business day, did that change? I would love to be able to make it at least 2-3 days without losing my TRS, it's often hard for me to mail, I am disabled and my husband is sick. Also, this morning, and for the second time in 2 weeks, a buyer that had purchased and paid and the next day asked to cancel.

The one this morning said she is moving next week, so she won't be there to get her mail. The last one made a mistake when she purchased and I told her to return it when it arrived and I would refund. Of course, she said it never arrived and I had to refund!

momcqueen · ‎10-17-2015

Come to Board Hour next Wednesday and explain this to the ebay Canada staff. Calling ebay Customer Service is like pounding your head against the wall. I was so upset by how my last call to CS was handled, I started selling on the Competition for the first time immediate afterwards. It is now highly doubtful that I will renew my store subscription here when it comes up.

tobyshitzu · ‎10-17-2015

The handling days thing was just for .com TRS plus. Its not part of the .ca "global trs". When the handling time thing started i set my ids differently and never changed them. The one Ive been selling with has 2 days handling, don't see any difference with sales or search placement on .ca or .com compared to the 1 day. Granted Im skeptical that is going to help with the new TRS scheme

rose-dee · ‎10-17-2015

@musicyouneed wrote:
(1) Hi I ship the same business day as long as the item was purchased by 9AM as sometimes I am not home after that. However most of the time even if they purchase at 1 pm as long as I am home it will go out that day. That will not change. I just want the expected delivery date on ebay to be later.

(2) I sell CD's and they are a low cost item that I only clear a few $ on each one. There is no way they buyer would pay for tracking.

Hi 'music' --

To answer (1) above, you do not need to stipulate 1 day handling time in order to keep either TRS Global or ordinary TRS US. That is only a requirement for US TRS Plus, which to my mind is rather a pointless goal for Canadian sellers, since it also requires a minimum of 90% tracking.

So, you can choose your handling time and still keep TRS Global if you meet the other requirements. However, my personal view is that stipulating a handling time longer than 2 or 3 days is not only going to turn away buyers, but may encourage less than perfect FB/DSRs.

Now, under the new "on-time delivery" policy, eBay.ca staffers have been suggesting we extend our stated handling times in order to "pad" the delivery estimate shown by eBay to buyers. This of course doesn't mean you can't get the item out the door the same day (thus buying yourself extra time on the "eBay delivery clock" if you've stated your handling time as 2 or 3 days). However I think the idea of extending handling times any longer than this has inherent problems, as I noted above.

What I'm planning to do is set my handling time at 2 days (it's currently 1 day), but continue to ship within 24 hours (often less), and to inform my buyers immediately an item has been shipped. I'm hoping that the combination of eBay's displayed (slightly longer) delivery time frame and my reminder to the buyer of my quick shipping will avoid the dreaded "No" answer to the on-time delivery question.

(2) I deal with shipping CDs too, and never use tracking for the same reason. However, I think with Light Packet to the U.S. and beyond, combined with the 2-day handling time, I should be OK, since Light Packet is usually almost as fast as Expedited, and the Canada Post estimates are always longer than the usual actual delivery times. (Same thing in Canada with lettermail).

Of course, what we don't yet know is exactly what delivery timelines eBay is going to be using. They tell us these aren't the Canada Post delivery estimates, so I can't help but wonder where they're getting their information from. Let's just hope they are considerably longer than CP's estimates.

ricarmic · ‎10-17-2015

Hi Rose, but does it really matter?

I have only been loosely following this stuff, but as I understand it it really comes down to how the buyer "feels" when they answer the question for untracked stuff.

So if I change my 2 days to 5 days, for untracked stuff, it still won't matter because if the buyer feels it didn't get there fast enough I'm still dinged..... or so I believe, hopefully I've missed something?

I am very much looking forward to the ability to produce some reports on our results, I really have no idea how I will stand....

momcqueen · ‎10-17-2015

I've said it before and I'll say it again: That Question requires an alternative to Yes or No and that is I don't Recall.

To do otherwise is plain s - t - u - p - i - d.

My same-day shut-off time is Noon EST. Is it going to be remembered as such at The Question? Or will ebay 'forget' which side of Noon EST that payment was made and kill me with 'didn't ship on time' for every item accepted at the post office within the allowed amount but not the same calendar day? I'd like to know. I NEVER ship late. Ever.

Ever.

rose-dee · ‎10-17-2015

@ricarmic wrote:
Hi Rose, but does it really matter?

I have only been loosely following this stuff, but as I understand it it really comes down to how the buyer "feels" when they answer the question for untracked stuff.

So if I change my 2 days to 5 days, for untracked stuff, it still won't matter because if the buyer feels it didn't get there fast enough I'm still dinged..... or so I believe, hopefully I've missed something?

I am very much looking forward to the ability to produce some reports on our results, I really have no idea how I will stand....

Yes, you have a point of course. Like DSRs, the response to The Question lies largely in the buyer's subjective view of the transaction, absent tracking. As 'mjwl' mentions, the big problem I see is that it's simply black and white, yes or no, nothing to allow for poor memory or plain stupidity (as in "I don't know/don't recall").

I'm fortunate that I've seen this new policy from the buyer's side as well recently (I occasionally buy raw materials on eBay). What happens is that The Question pops up as soon as one clicks on the "positive/negative/neutral" button on the FB page. It's in bold face, it's prominent, you can't ignore it. And you can't enter DSRs without skipping over it. This means, I think, that most buyers who leave FB will answer The Question.

Now here's the rub, and I think it's important: since the above is probably true, you really only want buyers who are supremely happy with their transaction to be leaving FB at all. How to accomplish that is up to each seller. A buyer who is supremely happy with a transaction is (IMHO) unlikely to answer The Question with a "No", even if they can't recall. That is, of course, unless the delivery was excessively late, in which case the buyer won't likely be supremely happy anyway, if you get my drift. (LOL).

Since the new evaluation will be taken from such a narrow statistical base, and since we really can't control what happens with untracked Canada Post items, the only thing over which we do have control is to try to make every single buyer supremely happy (well, which is realistically pie in the sky), and otherwise keep our fingers crossed and knock on wood that buyers won't leave FB from now on. How stupid is that?

Good luck to everyone....

rose-dee · ‎10-17-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:
I've said it before and I'll say it again: That Question requires an alternative to Yes or No and that is I don't Recall.

To do otherwise is plain s - t - u - p - i - d.

My same-day shut-off time is Noon EST. Is it going to be remembered as such at The Question? Or will ebay 'forget' which side of Noon EST that payment was made and kill me with 'didn't ship on time' for every item accepted at the post office within the allowed amount but not the same calendar day? I'd like to know. I NEVER ship late. Ever.

Ever.

Hi 'mj' -- I couldn't agree more with respect to the manner in which The Question has been set up.

However, from what I understand about your shipping from your other posts, you seem to use tracking more than most of us -- is that true? If so, statistically you'll be protected by the numbers game. Which means that it's only the remaining (untracked) shipments you need to be concerned about.

Honestly, given this new policy, if I were in your position, with a large majority of tracked shipments, I'd extend my stated handling time to 1 day or even 2 days, but I'd out-perform my own handling times, and make sure I let the buyers of untracked items know I had out-performed (i.e. with an immediate personal email upon dropping the parcel off at the P.O.).

This may not only buy you some leeway in eBay's time estimate, but may also help to impress any buyer who expected to have to wait 2 days before the item was sent off by you. It might also save your sanity in light of eBay's stupidity.

I always believe under-promising and over-performing.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-17-2015

I doubt that most buyers look to see what a seller's handling time is as it is really isn't that obvious so I don't think that it would hurt to have a 2 or 3 business day handling time. But it is probably important as well to be careful which shipping option you choose on the syi form. For example, using domestic generic economy shipping on .ca may show the estimated delivery time as 2 - 15 business days but using the option of Canada Post lettermail may show a much shorter delivery time.

This has already been mentioned but I really do think that it is helpful for Canadians to send a message to the buyer once an item has been shipped and to then give a realistic shipping arrival date. If the ebay time is shorter, that may make the buyer more comfortable waiting a bit longer before filing a claim.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-17-2015

It's in bold face, it's prominent, you can't ignore it. And you can't enter DSRs without skipping over it. This means, I think, that most buyers who leave FB will answer The Question.

Not necessarily. Many buyers leave feedback without answering the DSR's so if the shipping question is handled in the same way it's possible that a buyer will leave feedback without answering it.

momcqueen · ‎10-17-2015

You're right: I use tracking whenever and wherever I can but still at least 30 to 40 per cent of orders go without on annual average. This last quarter, it was 49 per cent of orders sent without. That number will probably drop for next quarter because more Canadians will choose me as it nears Christmas and therefore will gain service by Expedited Parcel or Xpresspost which is tracked.

Unlike many sellers here, however, my average annual rate of Returned Feedback from buyers stands at between 30 to 40 per cent. This last quarter, it was 43 per cent. The number of feedback left for me will drop for the next quarter because of the nature of toy sales over Christmas. Parents come, panicked, make a purchase and don't return after the holidays to leave feedback. For them, the crisis was averted. Feedback is not relevant to a brand-new buyer who came to me to make a single purchase on a new account. I have a lot of those. Look for my Welcome to Ebay message among my Feedback Left for Others.

That leaves me in a semi-precarious position. In the most recent quarter, exactly half of feedback received from buyers was from those whose orders shipped without tracking including orders that were completed using Cash on Local Pickup. (What question does a Local Pickup see, I wonder?)

However, I stand at 100 per cent feedback and no defects ever so I firmly believe I am doing the right thing by my buyers. I will not contort myself to head-off a problem that is not of my own creation so eBay can continue to assess me any way that they like. I am soured on selling here since my Big Stink with Customer Service, and I maintain that eBay needs me more than I need it. I am therefore diversifying my efforts with the intention to depart within the next eight to nine months. I don't do anything quickly (other than ship orders) or without thorough consideration and research. We shall see what the Spring holds.

rose-dee · ‎10-17-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
It's in bold face, it's prominent, you can't ignore it. And you can't enter DSRs without skipping over it. This means, I think, that most buyers who leave FB will answer The Question.

Not necessarily. Many buyers leave feedback without answering the DSR's so if the shipping question is handled in the same way it's possible that a buyer will leave feedback without answering it.

Yes, except "The Question" isn't handled in the same way at all. It actually pops up in your face rather explosively (with a coloured bar no less) as you're about to leave FB, so you can't even leave a FB comment without seeing it. That is far more intrusive and insistent than the DSRs ever were.

Actually, I can see some buyers may just say "the heck with this", too much intrusion, too many questions, and hit the back button without leaving FB at all. Maybe that's a good thing now...

femmefan1946 · ‎10-17-2015

triber wrote:

The one this morning said she is moving next week, so she won't be there to get her mail.

Well, you could politely remind her to buy a Change of Address service from Canada Post, so she doesn't miss any mail. I was sending the previous owner's British pension cheques to the wrong address because she didn't do this, and a similar name was in Canada 411.

BTW, have you enquired about Canada Post's home pickup service? I know it exists but nothing about how it works and how much it costs.

lady.stark · ‎10-17-2015

@femmefan1946 wrote:

Well, you could politely remind her to buy a Change of Address service from Canada Post, so she doesn't miss any mail.

I don't think this works for packages, just for letter mail. I remember, not long ago, someone posted here that this service did not work for a package he/she was waiting for.

triber · ‎10-17-2015

femmefan:Thanks for your reply. Yes, I did ask her if she had asked the PO to forward her mail. I have had no reply so far.

Yes, I did enquire about the home pick-up service. The problem is that they pick up pre-paid packages only, but no letter mail, and a lot of my books and patterns go that way.

I am going to change my mailing time to 2 days when I find a way to do it. My husband is struggling with the effects of chemo, and I hate asking him to drive to the P.O. especially these days when there is often just one item to mail. Making it every other day would be a real help, I just don't want to lose my TRS discount, or it's hardly worth the effort of selling for me.