eBay

annabelle5060 · ‎05-08-2021

I sold an item on April 23. It was set as Economy Shipping from outside the US, 11 to 23 business days. This was on .com. Why was the buyer allowed to open an item not received case already?😕

byto253 · ‎05-10-2021

I get what you are saying but it does not make sense as there are clear differences and options for inside and from outside the US. I also have it indicated that my items are located in Canada.

This is also a fairly recent glitch, and it can only be a glitch, so something has gone awry with the programming.

This board only reaches a small number of the sellers that are out there but it would be a good idea for all of us affected to call eBay and politely point out the glitch and problems. For anything it usually takes some volume to get any attention.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎05-10-2021

@marnotom! wrote:
Thanks for the clarification. I looked up @annabelle5060's listings yesterday and for some reason I thought that the "Economy Shipping from outside US" descriptor had been applied to both the shipping info for Canada as well as the US.

To me, it's pretty obvious what's happening. Because the .com site is pretty US-centric, anything that's now listed on the site is treated as shipping from the United States. US domestic delivery standards are being applied to the shipping information for items shipped to the United States (as though the items are shipped "within" the United States), and international delivery standards are being applied to for shipments "to" (actually "within") Canada. In other words, because we're in Canada listing on the .com site, the estimated delivery times are reversed.

Hope I'm making some sense here.

Shouldn't any associated transit time be based on the connected either Zip Code or Postal Code and then on the final destination? That's how CP, USPS, FEDEX etc have always worked.

-Lotz

marnotom! · ‎05-10-2021

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
Shouldn't any associated transit time be based on the connected either Zip Code or Postal Code and then on the final destination? That's how CP, USPS, FEDEX etc have always worked.

Well, it would work that way for calculated shipping. Because Canadian sellers have to resort to using flat-rate shipping when listing on the .com site and the estimated delivery time is based on the flat-rate shipping option the seller chooses, there's no reason for any sort of calculation to be made.

There is some sort of glitch that seems to be creating a bypass of the sellers' locations, however.

reallynicestamps · ‎05-10-2021

In case no one else has done it:

tyler@ebay

Eek.

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-10-2021

It has nothing to do with the site being US based. The estimated delivery for the 'outside of the US' metrics are static and do not change regardless of where you are listing from.

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-10-2021

tyler@ebay

Tyler just paging you again as I wanted to point out there there are a few problems with the .com est. delivery times. It has already been mentioned in this thread that the listing form states that 11-23 days when choosing the 'service' economy shipping from outside of the US but buyers are being showing a much shorter time span. If the seller has a 1 day handling time the buyer should see 12-24 business days but they are now seeing 5-11 days.

Standard shipping from outside of the US has also had a glitch for quite a while. The eta in the listing form shows 5-10 business days. If the seller has a 1 day handling time the buyer should see 6-11 business days . Item 274593901952 has 1 day handling and shows the buyer 5-10 business days. Listing 274769794562 has a 2 day handling time and the eta shows 6-11 business days instead of 7-12. As it is, the 5-10 business days is cutting it very close so they should at the very least include tha handling time properly.

There is still a problem with the shipping times to Canada on the .com site but I'll do a separate post for that.

marnotom! · ‎05-10-2021

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

It has nothing to do with the site being US based. The estimated delivery for the 'outside of the US' metrics are static and do not change regardless of where you are listing from.

This glitch has everything (or at least a lot) to do with the site being US-based. The metrics for US sellers are being applied to sales from Canadian (and who knows where else) sellers because of this glitch.

Sales from Canada to the US are seeing US domestic (US seller to US buyer) delivery time estimates while sales from sales within Canada are seeing the international delivery time estimates. At least that's what I see in the "shipping" portions of these listings.

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-10-2021

tyler@ebay
As I mentioned a a few months ago the eta on .com for the generic standard and expedited international to Canada were changed and still haven't been fixed.

As shown in item 274593901952 (1day handling) a Canadian buyer sees an eta to Canada of 12-21 bus. days for standard international and 13-23 bus. days for expedited intl AND for economy shipping to Canada. There had always been a shorter time span for expedited & standard intl but for some reason they changed those 2 estimates last year and left economy the same so all estimates are almost identical.

I realize that particular setting could also be used by sellers in other countries shipping to Canada and isn't just for Canadian sellers but all 3 options should'nt be the same. It's ridiculous for a buyer in Canada to see a minimum of 12 business days for delivery from a Canadian seller. It's definitely not encouraging sales from Canadians.

I honestly do not remember what the previous estimates were but perhaps 3-8 for expedited intl + handling and 7-14 + handling for standard intl would work for now?

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-10-2021

There is no 5-10 business days metric for US sellers. It is a metric for ANY international seller who chooses to use standard shipping from outside of the US for US buyers. On the listing form it states what that eta will be for standard 5-10 and for economy - 11- 23. The times showing to buyers for ecomony are closer to the standard metric.

When choosing shipping on the .com site, shipping to the US is always considered domestic regardless of where the seller is. So the shipping from outside of the US option is under domestic shipping and used by intl. sellers.

That also means that regardless of where the seller is located, shipping to their own country shows as international. That isn't a glitch, it's the way it has always worked.

We appreciate you are trying to help but since you don't sell using the .com form you aren't aware of how it actually works.

marnotom! · ‎05-10-2021

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

There is no 5-10 business days metric for US sellers. It is a metric for ANY international seller who chooses to use standard shipping from outside of the US for US buyers.

What is the delivery metric for a Standard Flat-Rate domestic US shipment? 5-10 business days sounds reasonable to me.

marnotom! · ‎05-10-2021

@pjcdn2005 When I recheck the OP's listing I used for "research" purposes, the shipping method to the US is "Economy Shipping from outside US" but the delivery time estimate is practically the same as in the listing you provided: 5 to 11 business days. The shipping method to Canada is "Economy International Shipping" with an expected 11-23 business day turnaround.

I was aware that a Canadian seller is "shipping internationally" to Canada if they list on the .com site, but the way some of these posts were worded made it sound as though this quirk had somehow been dealt with.

lady.stark · ‎05-10-2021

I see what you mean. One of my listing show "Estimated within 7-13 business days" for a USA buyer whereas it shows "Estimated delivery within 15-25 business days" for Canada. They reversed it!

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-10-2021

That 11-23 days to Canada has shown that for months. As I said in a previous post standard, economy and expedited are showing the same time.

The change in economy shipping from outside of the US time frame is a more recent change.

Afaik the time frame for economy to Canada is correct. ...it's the standard & expedited methods that seem to have been changed. Keep in mind that the setting does not take into account where the seller is located so 11-23 days for economy shipping from Russia to Canada is believable.

Anyway I don't see how it has anything to do with the times being switched between US and International settings and it doesn't really matter anyway. The fact is that the Econ from outside of the US time is incorrect and it is giving buyers unrealistic expectations.

widgetc · ‎05-11-2021

Whis is it taking so long for someone from eBay to address this. It is a serious issue costing seller's time and money and causing buyer frustration!

shallow_karl · ‎05-11-2021

I just had this happen to me on the same time-frame. Not only that, they auto-rewarded BACK the customer payment, no time elapsed for a case, they just did it. They claimed that I hadn't updated tracking even though tracking info had been in since I shipped the item. It took THREE escalations and sending them tracking LINKS to USPS and Canada Post to get the decision reversed and only when the item had reached the customer. The really stupid part is that Canada Post, USPS AND Ebay have all warned of extended delivery times. So where the logic in this?

byto253 · ‎05-11-2021

I just upped the handling time on one listing to 10 days and put a note in the listing that I ship next day as there is a problem with displayed delivery times and want to ensure buyers are getting correct information.

I was on the phone for an hour yesterday with 2 reps and a ticket is supposed to be opened though no one has gotten back to me. I also pm'ed Tyler, so hopefully we will be hearing something soon.

zee-chan · ‎05-12-2021

This won't help you right now but you can consider sending a message to your future buyers after every sale. I haven't had any "where is my item" messages or INR opened against me for two years.

Hi, thanks for buying from me!

Your [item] has been mailed on [date] from Vancouver, Canada. It should take around 2-4 weeks to arrive, however potential delays could occur due to the recent virus outbreak affecting transportation and postal services, so I would like to ask you to kindly await its arrival patiently. If there is any problem with this sale, please feel free to contact me. If everything is fine, I would really appreciate a 5 stars positive feedback from you and I will do the same.

Thank you, be safe, and be healthy ^_^

I wrote "virus outbreak" because eBay didn't allow the word "pandemic" in messages last year. Not sure if it changed and I couldn't be bothered to update the wording lol 😉

richardcm · ‎05-12-2021

In your message the part about feedback could be interpreted as feedback extortion to an unhappy buyer. I would rewrite that part.

annabelle5060 · ‎05-13-2021

Where are you eBay? I have to refund by tomorrow and the item is not really due to arrive. This will be my 2nd unwarranted refund due to an eBay error.

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-13-2021

Tyler from eBay was told about the issue in the weekly chat and said that he will have to pass it on to the .com shipping team. Honestly, it does seem that any shipping related problems take a while to fix so you might want to adjust your handling time to help give a bit of a longer eta. I realize that the situation should be fixed asap but since we aren't in control of that, its usually best to try and work around it unti it is.

For my .com listings I use standard shipping from outside of the US which gives about the same time frame. To be honest I havent shipped a ton of things to the US lately but I've found that it does help to send a note when I ship giving them a more accurate shipping time and letting them know that there may be delays due to Covid and heavy mail volume.

If those who are affected contact customer service it "might" help speed things up??