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@dutchman48 wrote:
tyler@ebay wrote:
@arteis wrote:
It seems that more and more transaction problems count as "late delivery".
For example 2 of the item I've sold never arrived so I've refunded the buyers.
But these transactions are also showing in the "late shipment" report?
It's probably because of the "Did you received the item before date" question, they answer no which is obvious as the item never arrived! The system could simply not count refunded undelivered item as "late shipped" even when the answer to the question is no.
Also items that are late arrival are considered late shipped which is a LIE!
I can ship 5 minutes after sale and the item can still arrived late but you can't say it was shipped late.
I do not use tracking services (it cost more than the value of the items) so 2-3% of my item never arrived and I refund them no problem, I still save more on shipping. But the standard needed to keep the top-seller rating is lower than the standard delivered by Canada-Post.
I do not get why item I ship on Monday have 50% more chance to get dinged for "late shipment".
I am discouraged as I am responsible for something I have no control on.
Keven Noel
Hi @arteis - thanks for sharing what you're seeing on your account. I want to clarify a few things about late shipment to make sure you're aware of all ways to get credit for this metric (there are three).
First: Ship with tracking and get an 'acceptance' scan within your stated handling time. If that is done you receive credit for shipping on time, regardless of anything else that happens.
Or
Second: Ship with tracking and the item scans as delivered by the estimated delivery date given to the buyer.
Or
Third: When leaving feedback, the buyer selects that they did get the item in time (by the latest estimated delivery date based on the information provided in the listing).
If any of those conditions are met, the item is considered shipped 'on time', even if the other two come back as negative. If there is no tracking and the buyer chooses not to answer the question it is not counted in your shipping metrics.
In the scenario you described (a member never receiving an item, issuing them a refund, and getting an on-time shipping miss) that sounds valid: a buyer is still able to leave feedback for a transaction even if the transaction has to be cancelled or an Item not Received request is opened and closed with a refund. If either of the other two options were met, you would have credit for it as on-time, even though it was refunded.
I know you've said that your business model doesn't support using tracked services, and I respect that. However, you are leaving yourself only option 3 to get credit for an on-time shipment. It doesn't appear to have impacted your business thus far, and I'm glad to hear it. The Top Rated Plus discount is the way we incentivize behaviors we feel lead to repeat buyers on the platform and from you. I recognize that the 10% discount may not make financial sense for you if moving to tracking would cost more than that, but I think it may be something worth investigating.
If you have concerns about specific transactions from your detailed shipping report I encourage you to contact Customer Support by phone or by social media (Twitter or Facebook) and they'll be happy to review it with you. Thanks!
@tyler.com
I will stick my neck out again.
Please quit applyng what works in the US to Canada with the tracking garbage.
If tacking here was as cheap in the US, we would use it
Hi @dutchman48 - I'm not sure I know what you mean. The reality is this expectation is the same, from US to Canada. I can't change that. I know that tracking is expensive, and can absolutely outweigh a 10% discount on fees. That's why it's a business decision everyone needs to make.
If a defect equals punishment then the only 'punishments' are for out-of-stock and closed without seller attempts to resolve.
Late Shipment Reports are just that: marks. Technically speaking, Late Shipment reports aren't defects, they're simply 'marked as late'. A seller can have up to five per cent before there becomes an issue that might be punished.
Looking at this from the perspective of an ebay BUYER which I still am, an item that doesn't arrive equals disappointment and refund. An item that arrives late also equals disappointment.
Ebay is trying to mitigate the number of disappointments its buyers experience. Disappointed buyers affect all sellers, not just the seller who disappointed them.
Having an item not arrive at all due to postal loss or theft is something sellers all have to deal with. That's the reason some choose tracking, others third-party insurance and yet others self-insured.
It's business. Making it personal serves no purpose other than to evoke emotions and waste proviso energy.
Also, there's been about 30 posts by everyone and their neighbour's dog on this topic but the OP isn't back yet to offer a second opinion or provide feedback on any of the advice. We're arguing amongst ourselves for no reason at this point. Also pointless.
For the third time, I'm moving on to other matters now.
Thanks for the clarification Momcqueen. Appreciated. My main concern was/is that the information displayed is accurate, includes all facts and especially if down the road eBay were to make a change and possibly start applying this data in some way, shape or form. With all the changes eBay makes its getting difficult for the average seller to remember all the rules especially when some things are really out of their control. Attempt at humour(humor) below.
-CM
@rose-dee wrote (edited for brevity)
To get back to the subject of this discussion, and again with respect, I think you and another poster here have missed the point of the OP's complaint.
His issue, as described in the original post, is not with eBay's on-time policy per se, but with the idea that a seller should receive two punishments from eBay for the same infraction. My question to you was -- why? Can you please explain why these two incidents -- an actual late delivery, as opposed to a non-delivery refunded by the seller -- are not set up in eBay's background programming to be mutually exclusive?
It seems to me that once a seller refunds a buyer for a non-delivery claim, that should be the end of the buyer's ability to opine on late delivery. In other words, should eBay not change its site programming to be fair to sellers in this regard?
Incidentally, is it still true that a seller can only receive one defect per discrete transaction?
Hi @rose-dee! I'm sorry, but I think I may have missed something. I'm not seeing that the OP mentioned being double dinged for the transactions, just that 2 items were considered late shipments when they never arrived. It sounds like @arteis issued refunds for those items, which is most certainly a financial loss, but not an eBay imposed 'punishment'.
When a buyer has not received an item, this would be accurately considered a late delivery mark. The item did not arrive on time, since it did not arrive at all. Though a refund is the right thing to do to resolve the buyer's concerns, it does not warrant the removal of this kind of late delivery miss as we are recording that there was an issue with the order. Even when handled appropriately, there was still an issue with the transaction itself, which is why the question remains on the Feedback page, even if the purchase was refunded.
The Transaction Defect system only looks at two criteria: Transactions cancelled for being out of stock and Cases closed without resolution. There are other metrics involved, like late shipment rate and cases closed without seller resolution (as a standalone metric), but they aren't considered defects in and of themselves.
In answer to your second question: it is possible to receive a defect as well as missing other metrics for the same transaction (for example, a case closed without seller resolution will count as a miss for its own metric as well as a transaction defect).
I may have missed something in my review, but ultimately if Keven finds something in his late shipment report that appears suspect it can definitely be raised with CS. Thanks!
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