eBay

pierrelebel · ‎09-10-2015

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y15/m09/i10/s05

eBay Changes Seller Defect Rate as Part of Fall Update

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y15/m09/i10/s06

dutchman48 · ‎09-10-2015

This is an important statement:

When there's no tracking information available and no response from the buyer, the transaction will not be included in the on-time shipping calculation and will not be considered on-time or late since there’s no information available.

momcqueen · ‎09-10-2015

Right, it's only a defect if the buyer REPORTS it late and there's no tracking under the new evaluation. Chances are that a seller would be getting a 1 or 2 DSR defect for Shipping Speed on that anyway under the current evaluative measures. We're no worse off with the new system.

I'm more worried about the new Selling Manager! I don't like a messy interface.

cumos55 · ‎09-10-2015

My understanding....

If a seller mails a parcel within the handling time specified by the seller......

It does not matter when the parcel arrives.... early or late.

A seller only gets a defect if the parcel is mailed late... after the seller's handling time.... and arrives late.

tobyshitzu · ‎09-10-2015

cumos55 wrote:

My understanding....

If a seller mails a parcel within the handling time specified by the seller......

It does not matter when the parcel arrives.... early or late.

A seller only gets a defect if the parcel is mailed late... after the seller's handling time.... and arrives late.

That is only the case if you have an "acceptance scan" showing it was mailed on time. A lot of us in Canada never have an acceptance scan. Even the few tracked items I send by dropping in the mail box won't qualify for an acceptance scan on time

Crazy reversal for ebay to eliminate bad fb as a defect. This seems to go too far the other way. Now to wait and see what happens with "global TRS" qualification.

momcqueen · ‎09-10-2015

But it's only when a buyer is motivated to leave feedback does the answer 'no' and the lack of an acceptance scan prove relevant. Right?

I think they've swung back too far on the defects. I think defects kept a lot of really lousy big sellers in line despite the collateral damage to smaller sellers.

lukey9 · ‎09-10-2015

I'll wait and see till the CA. Fall Update comes out but if we have have to depend on Canada Post out side of Canada I think we are going to be screwed as there are no many variables like Customs that can hold up a Parcel. And I wonder where the Free shipping is going to fit in to this, 90 % of my Parcels it would cost more for Tracking then the Parcel is worth.

As a Seller if I mail the Parcel within we will say a 1 day turn around once that Parcel leaves my hand I have no control over any thing else that is going to slow it down.

tobyshitzu · ‎09-10-2015

Yes but they are lowering the defect "rate" (not metentioned what if any minimum count there needs to be for it to count) so it won't take msny buyers saying "slow' to lose the trs discount

Anonymous · ‎09-10-2015

@lukey9 wrote:
I'll wait and see till the CA. Fall Update comes out but if we have have to depend on Canada Post out side of Canada I think we are going to be screwed as there are no many variables like Customs that can hold up a Parcel. And I wonder where the Free shipping is going to fit in to this, 90 % of my Parcels it would cost more for Tracking then the Parcel is worth.
As a Seller if I mail the Parcel within we will say a 1 day turn around once that Parcel leaves my hand I have no control over any thing else that is going to slow it down.

Exactly!!!! I agree with all you have said - I always have a little blurb on my listings that says something like :" International buyers, please keep in mind that your order is shipped from Canada and Canada Post disclaims that their delivery timelines are guidelines and not guarantees due to the possible customs clearance checks at our countries' borders which may delay shipping time up to several days."

If we get dinged for customs holdups, that would be very unfair.

Anonymous · ‎09-10-2015

@toby**bleep**zu wrote:
Yes but they are lowering the defect "rate" (not metentioned what if any minimum count there needs to be for it to count) so it won't take msny buyers saying "slow' to lose the trs discount

Exactly!!............... methinks I need a chardonnay, pronto, lol - ah heck, is it really only 1pm?

lukey9 · ‎09-10-2015

Being on the East Coast if we get the same weather we had last year nothing was getting out on time or arriving on time either way.

If we speak to a Customer Service Rep who on the West Coast or out side of North America who does not know what snowy weather is like there are going to be lots of Parcels not arriving on time.

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-10-2015

@toby**bleep**zu wrote:
Yes but they are lowering the defect "rate" (not metentioned what if any minimum count there needs to be for it to count) so it won't take msny buyers saying "slow' to lose the trs discount

You don't get a defect for late shipment, it's a separate calculation. The maximum late shipment rate for TRS is 3% and 7% for all sellers.

Regarding the defect rate & seller cancelled transactions......if there is not a minimum amount of buyers needed then .5% could hurt a lot of people. I know that in the past I've missed a problem with an item and had to cancel a sale before it was shipped. It shouldn't happen but we all make mistakes.

widgetc · ‎09-10-2015

From the .ca update:

"What happens if there's no tracking information available to confirm that the item was shipped or delivered on time

If there's no tracking information to confirm that the item was shipped or delivered on time, eBay will ask your buyer if the item was delivered by the estimated delivery date. If buyer responds the item was delivered on time, you'll be recognized for on-time shipping.

When there's no tracking information available on the transaction and no response from the buyer, the transaction will not be included in the on-time shipping calculation."

Is eBay going to send out an email to every buyer asking if the parcel arrived by the date they estimated? If so this will be really bad as items do get delayed a and eBay estimates are tight so if you ship without tracking you will see the defects pile up. This is very different than just getting defects if the buyer reports it late without being asked.

widgetc · ‎09-10-2015

If they just rely on the question at feedback time it is not so bad.

Basically until we know how this is to be implemented we know nothing except that we are at a big disadvantage to U.S. sellers with cheap tracking.

momcqueen · ‎09-11-2015

@widgetc wrote:
If they just rely on the question at feedback time it is not so bad.

Basically until we know how this is to be implemented we know nothing except that we are at a big disadvantage to U.S. sellers with cheap tracking.

Right. I hope NOT to gain many defects from this (if I am fortunate) but approximately 50 per cent of my orders ship without tracking simply because there is no legitimate option to do so. I am tracking's Biggest Fan whenever and wherever it is feasible and sometimes even when it is not. I have made very clear on the Boards that I love tracking, I use it at the slightest provocation, and at my own (and not the buyer's) expense most of those times.

But until ebay Canada can negotiate a volume discount with Canada Post that gets us Expedited Parcel rates that equal the cost of domestic oversize lettermail (for the record, that would be about an 85 per cent discount on counter rate) THIS SELLER UPDATE IS STACKING THE DECK AGAINST CANADIAN SELLERS. I get that we don't matter one whit in the grand scheme of ebay.com because our numbers are too low but surely we count for something on ebay Canada. Or how about a volume discount on International Tracked Packet that reduces it to Small Packet rates, hmmm? That would be about a 75 per cent discount on counter. How soon can we expect to see that?

This is ludicrous, and I'm infuriated. The icing on this particular cake is that the wrong answer from a buyer on That Question is one of only three remaining firing offences left on ebay. A seller can do just about anything now (not even negative feedback counts as a defect) except let the postal service deliver an untraced item late which is still something we cannot control. It's not as if Canada has the same access to postal service that Americans do. If we don't use tracking in Canada, it's because we cannot. If an American seller 'forgets' to use tracking, well. That's another story.

We deserve more respect than this.

rose-dee · ‎09-11-2015

EBay always loves to tell us about workarounds. Latest one: they're now telling us to extend our handling times in order to basically defeat the new on-time delivery policy.

Hmm. I have a workaround to suggest, based on this statement in the policy:

"When there's no tracking information available and no response from the buyer, the transaction will not be included in the on-time shipping calculation and will not be considered on-time or late since there’s no information available."

Just beg every buyer to please, please, please not leave feedback. Hahahaha!!!

What good is FB now anyway? 50% of buyers don't bother. Negative/neutral FB will now be meaningless in terms of keeping bad sellers in line.

Why not discontinue the FB system entirely for Canadians, and just give us a transaction counter? Now that would be a workaround that might save us from this ludicrous new US-focused policy.

towertreasuretrove · ‎09-11-2015

Al problems would be solved and everybody would be happy if they went back to the same system they used in 2003...

widgetc · ‎09-11-2015

"50 per cent of my orders ship without tracking "

For me it is 98% without tracking!

sylviebee · ‎09-11-2015

I'm trying to follow this, but I have to admit I'm not doing a good job of making sense of it.

In about half a year eBay is going to change the way it rates sellers and it's mostly good for sellers other than shipping time.

It looks like sellers who ship without tracking will lose their TRS status because there is no way to verify date of delivery.

Moreover, if that's true then shipping without tracking will also eventually lead to such bad ratings that we will no longer be permitted to sell on eBay at all.

We would simply amass too many defects in a short period of time to be allowed to continue as sellers.

An increased handling time has been suggested but how would help anything? Is it possible to maintain TRS status without a 1 day handling time?

Am I following this correctly?

I really am lost as this all sounds like a garbled mess to me.