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

tobyshitzu · ‎09-12-2015

Ive done it a few times. Not from having a multi quantity listing out of stock, but by error on relisting a bunch and including one I shouldn't have, or realizing there was an issue with the item when i went to mail it. I expect the shipping time/punishment to be the bigger problem

Curious ebay decided those are the two problems. Every major retailor I have ordered from, inclduding bestbuy, walmart and amzn have canceled items I have ordered on multiple occasions. Nothing that would stop me from ordering again. And ive never cared if soemthign I bought online takes a little longer or not as long as Its what i expected at a good price

momcqueen · ‎09-12-2015

Can someone explain this to me? I'm quoting it directly from the Fall Seller Update. It says an item will only be considered late when:

Tracking shows that the item was delivered after the estimated delivery date and there's no acceptance scan within your handling time

If I stipulate same-day shipping with a cut-off time of Noon EST that means any order that is placed before the cut-off time must be shipped by 11:59 pm EST, right? And let's ignore for the moment that I'm on CST....

If my postal counter closes at 8:45 pm on weekdays (which it does) then how am I supposed to get an acceptance scan on any order that has a label printed for shipment between 9 pm and 11:45 pm? There is no postal counter anywhere that is open until midnight. I could be dumping my items in mailboxes for pick-up the following morning (which I don't for reasons to discuss another day) and that would be just as legitimate a dispatch... so what am I missing here? It is impossible to get an acceptance scan after 9 pm. It's also entirely pointless to take parcels to the postal counter after the last pick-up of the day which is 4:45 pm because that mail won't be moving anywhere through the postal processing centres until the following day. This I know for certain.

It looks to me that under this new rule, a business day has effectively been redefined and shrunken but that can't be possible because that would be truly ridiculous.

What am I misunderstanding? Is this explained in greater detail somewhere later?

gifts_of_elegance · ‎09-12-2015

I am SO SICK OF THIS!!! I am not a spring chicken, I have a grown Grand-Daughter already, I have been in the work place and ran my own business for decades. I have fallen down, stood up, brushed myself off and went on with new wisdom all my life. I never gave up because I always believed that the fittest will survive, and tried every which way to adapt but all this BS we have been trying

to adapt to is impossible and even when we do, we get knocked down by some crooked purchaser and we carry the ball and chain for a year and just when we think its over, another couple of crooks come along and the cycle is repeated.

eBay keeps saying how they want to help us grow and yet everything they do hurts us. We should be worrying about how to serve our customers best, how to make our business better and bigger. Instead we are constantly in fear of what eBay will do to us.

It used to be fun but this is no way to live.

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-13-2015

I don't remember it being mentioned elsewhere but isn't same day shipping valid only until your count off time? Then any orders after that time would count as having one day business handling?

momcqueen · ‎09-13-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
I don't remember it being mentioned elsewhere but isn't same day shipping valid only until your count off time? Then any orders after that time would count as having one day business handling?

Yes, Same-day Shipping is only valid until your cut-off time.... For orders placed prior to it, you have until 11:59 pm that same business day to 'ship' them but now 'ship on time' means 'get acceptance scan' which it never before did.

It's impossible to get an acceptance scan after 9 pm even though you might still have two hours and 59 minutes within your 'business day' to do so. And it is entirely meaningless to get an acceptance scan after 4:45 pm because it will merely sit until the following business days' pickup.

It is my fear that ebay is playing with words but the ramifications of such are that it will leave sellers open to defects.

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-13-2015

I must be missing something because I don't see the problem. Why would you need to get an acceptance scan at 9 p.m. if an item was purchased at 6 p.m. ...after the same day handling cutoff?

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-13-2015

I do realize that even with one day handling, this is going to cause a problem for some sellers in the U.S. and Canada.

For example, I might be more hesitant to mail an item with tracking in the corner post office box and I don't think that

it really is reasonable to require a seller to physically stand in line at the post office rather than drop off the parcel in an outside box.

Those sellers that have full time day jobs may have an even more difficult time with this as they may have an item purchased late in the evening that they can't package up until the next day after work. In the past that was fine but now just packaging it up won't be enough.

It's not just Canadians who are going to be affected by this new system.

momcqueen · ‎09-13-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
I must be missing something because I don't see the problem. Why would you need to get an acceptance scan at 9 p.m. if an item was purchased at 6 p.m. ...after the same day handling cutoff?

To meet a same-day handling deadline, items purchased before noon* must be shipped by one minute before midnight of the following day.

The seller has until 11:59 pm of the 'same-day' to ship it but only until 8:45 pm to get it scanned in order for it not to be considered 'late' even if it isn't late.

I fully realize this isn't a problem exclusive to Canadians but one that is widespread.

Has anyone else flagged it to see what ebay actually means by 'acceptance scan' within your 'handling time'?

*Or the seller's same-day handling time cut-off time as otherwise stated.

momcqueen · ‎09-13-2015

And any acceptance scan after the last pick-up of the day at that particular location is merely paying lip-service to an acceptance scan because the mail won't move anywhere anyway until the end of the next business day.

For example, the orders that I'm taking to the postal counter right now in the middle of a Sunday afternoon in Manitoba will not go anywhere of significance until Monday night after 6 pm. The truck will pick them up tomorrow at 9 am and start them through the sorting process at the local plant but they won't MOVE outside of my city until Monday at approximately 9 pm. Then they will fly.

I have studied tracking, and spent hours on the phone and speaking in person to the people who work at Canada Post in order maximize my results for efforts. I know which pick-ups to meet and which ones to miss. I can, for example, shave a whole business day from delivery standards if I get a parcel to the counter when they pick up the load on Saturday morning because even if they say they aren't moving it until Monday, they are. Sunday is not the same; there is no pick-up at the counter. It sits until Monday at 9 am and everything picked up Monday sits until 6 pm.

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-13-2015

To meet a same-day handling deadline, items purchased before noon must be shipped by midnight.

Yes I realize that but I didn't think that we were talking about an item that was purchased by noon.

You said earlier "If my postal counter closes at 8:45 pm on weekdays (which it does) then how am I supposed to get an acceptance scan on any order that has a label printed for shipment between 9 pm and 11:45 pm?"

If a same day shipping order was placed before noon, are you saying that you might not print a label until after 9 p.m.?

I thought that you were talking about an order placed later on in the day and my point was that there would be no need to get an acceptance scan that same day.

momcqueen · ‎09-13-2015

From ebay Canada http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/springupdate2013/samedayhandling.html

For example, if you've specified an order cut-off time of 2:00 PM ET and your buyer places an order on Friday at 12:30 PM (before your cut-off time), the order should be shipped by 11:59 PM on Friday.

From the Fall Update http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/fallupdate2015/seller-standards.html

Shipments will be considered late only when:

Tracking shows that the item was delivered after the estimated delivery date and there's no acceptance scan within your handling time

These two criteria do not mean the same thing. If a same-day shipping seller has until 11:59 pm to ship an item, they have until 11:59 pm to ship it BUT there are no postal counters open until 11:59 pm which then means if an acceptance scan is required, it must be gotten by the time your local counter closes which might be 7 pm or 9 pm or even 6 pm.

So which is it? Does the seller have until the end of the business day? Or do they only have until as late as they can get the item scanned?

The two requirements should mean precisely the same thing if they are used to measure the same standard but they are not the same.

momcqueen · ‎09-13-2015

pjcdn2005 wrote: If a same day shipping order was placed before noon, are you saying that you might not print a label until after 9 p.m.?
I thought that you were talking about an order placed later on in the day and my point was that there would be no need to get an acceptance scan that same day.

Under same-day handling time (and each seller is judged on shipping their orders within the handling time they have designated) a seller has until 11:59 pm that day to ship it. This is the criteria since 2013. But now ebay is saying that orders aren't shipped on time unless they have an acceptance scan before 11:59 pm. Since there is nowhere that accepts packages with acceptance scans available after 9 pm at the latest, does this mean a seller who leaves their parcel in a mailbox at 10:30 pm will be penalized? That parcel is legitimately shipped but it won't be scanned until sometime after 6 pm the following day. If the orders are stacked at my front door for delivery to the post office at 9 am the following morning, they are in the mail stream just as fast as they would have been had I stood at the front doors of the postal counter from 11:59 pm the previous night.

momcqueen · ‎09-13-2015

There is also this 'handy' graphic http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/sc/sr152/8565-1_eBay_On-time_Infographic_FA.pdf

I still don't know what to make of it .....

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-13-2015

But are they being used to measure the same standard?

This shipping time standard is completely new. They may have said that you had to ship the item before

midnight but as long as you uploaded the tracking before midnight, you were fine..right?

The way that I understand it with this new rule you have to prove that you shipped the item on the same day so yes...it would have to be the same business day...not the 24 hour day.

That parcel is legitimately shipped but it won't be scanned until sometime after 6 pm the following day. If the orders are stacked at my front door for delivery to the post office at 9 am the following morning, they are in the mail stream just as fast as they would have been had I stood at the front doors of the postal counter from 11:59 pm the previous night.

That doesn't matter. They need to be scanned on the same day. In the past they only required one scan so sellers could print a label the same day and now mail it for a day or two. To me, that doesn't sound like same day shipping at all. Now they want proof that it was in the mail stream the same day.

I don't see anything in the fall update that mentions being shipped before midnight although I may have missed it. If it does say that, it doesn't seem to be accurate. I think that you are trying to bring the old rules and apply them to the new rules and that won't work.

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-13-2015

I'm sorry but it seems fairly straightforward to me. They are saying that if you can't prove that the item was mailed within your handling time Or you can't prove that the item was delivered on time Or the buyer doesn't confirm that it was delivered on time, then it is considered as being late.

Obviously you see your same day shipping as a bonus for your buyers. I think that many sellers ship the same day regardless so I don't know if promoting it matters all that much...but that's must my opinion.

Personally, I think that it is better to under promise and over deliver. I promise that I will delivery within one business day but most of the time I ship the same day so buyers are pleasantly surprised. If the new same day shipping metric isn't going to work for you then you might want to consider doing things differently.

momcqueen · ‎09-13-2015

I have my own answer and, no, there is no mention of 11:59 pm anywhere in the fall update because the new thing is that a seller has to ship within his or her own handling time. It was being abused by people who obviously marked something as shipped and then moved it nowhere for two days. That's not me.

Yes, the handling time on same-day shipping has been shortened to exactly the last moment an acceptance scan is available to the seller. It is punitive to miss that moment even though a same-day shipper technically has until a minute before midnight but, practically speaking, if that seller knows it will make no difference that it isn't scanned by a postal worker until the following business day, the point is moot. It won't matter.

When my tracked domestic parcels are late, they are missing Canada Post's delivery standards, not mine.

So there is the answer to my own question:

For same-day shippers, your new business day no longer ends at 11:59 pm, it ends whenever your local postal counter (which you now must attend in person if you didn't before) closes; you must have an acceptance scan that same business day or it's liable to be considered your fault and no one else's if it is late.

sylviebee · ‎09-13-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

For example, I might be more hesitant to mail an item with tracking in the corner post office box and I don't think that
it really is reasonable to require a seller to physically stand in line at the post office rather than drop off the parcel in an outside box.

I had a problem with an Expedited parcel I dropped into the box, and it was explained to me that when these parcels are not delivered to an outlet that the PO does not take responsibility for scans or honour delivery times.

In other words, dropping them into the box on the corner is a no no according to the PO. Of course you can if you want to, but the system isn't set up for processing these packages so things go wrong more often with scans etc.

momcqueen · ‎09-13-2015

@sylviebee wrote:
@pjcdn2005 wrote:

For example, I might be more hesitant to mail an item with tracking in the corner post office box and I don't think that
it really is reasonable to require a seller to physically stand in line at the post office rather than drop off the parcel in an outside box.

I had a problem with an Expedited parcel I dropped into the box, and it was explained to me that when these parcels are not delivered to an outlet that the PO does not take responsibility for scans or honour delivery times.

In other words, dropping them into the box on the corner is a no no according to the PO. Of course you can if you want to, but the system isn't set up for processing these packages so things go wrong more often with scans etc.

It is a huge mistake to drop parcels of any kind in a mailbox. You've no proof of shipment when you do. My friendly neighbourhood postal worker told this to me. It must get an acceptance scan even if it is not tracked (those small packets are scanned at the counter for a reason) and without that the corporation doesn't know it exists.

sylviebee · ‎09-13-2015

I think that a when you get so technical about this kind of thing all does it stress you out.

I think there are benefits to picking a one day handling time, so if you pick that just ship as quickly as you can.

Now and then you might miss your deadline, but odds are very high that no one will notice and worrying this much about it does nothing but give you a headache.

It won't result in higher ratings.

P.S. Sometimes the corner box just makes sense because it means you can get out with your dog or get a breath of fresh air or because you just feel like it.

Odds are so high that your ratings won't be any different so just for it..... if you feel it that day.

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-13-2015

It is a huge mistake to drop parcels of any kind in a mailbox. You've no proof of shipment when you do. My friendly neighbourhood postal worker told this to me. It must get an acceptance scan even if it is not tracked (those small packets are scanned at the counter for a reason) and without that the corporation doesn't know it exists.

It may be a mistake one out a hundred times but I generally do go inside when I have a parcel with tracking. I have also dropped some in the box outside and haven't had a problem so far. Sometimes you have to weigh the time it is going to take to wait in line inside vs the small chance that the item won't be scanned. We all have different risk tolerance levels. My tolerance at Christmas time when there are huge lineups is much greater.