eBay Looks for Options as Postal Delays Persist

by: Marie

Ebay wasn't "gaming delivery estimates" with what they were stating when it came to USPS ETAs.  They used the same ETAs as USPS stated on their site at the time.  The problem with that was is USPS wasn't being realistic in what they stated which then caused issues on the Ebay site.

Seller do not have to be in the Guaranteed Delivery program.  That is an optional program.  But a darn good question about the $5 coupon.  IDK if they still do that or not.  This however is not a program I would use even before the pandemic.

The current round of protections Ebay announced for sellers are pretty good.  Long overdue as were the extensions they put on the delivery ETAs over the past few days.  But glad to see they are finally here.  Plenty of us were consistently and relentlessly asking.

A major failure I see in the recent announcement is they still are NOT doing anything to protect sellers in regards to the Service Metrics.  While the penalties for having too many INRs is not as significant or expensive as the 5% FVF add on, it can still cost the seller real money.  

It makes no sense to me that they are willing to remove defects created by an INR that falls within the rules set forth in the announcement but then will not remove the INR from counting in the Service Metrics.  It makes absolutely no sense to me.  I absolutely think this darn policy is so bad and overly punitive.  

by: thehosst

I don't know how so many people are asking "what is going on?" I know this is not a political site but is just obvious. It is way beyond shocking that even with FACTS affecting the few remaining working people and small sellers, killing the last chance of creating jobs, people here still wonder what is happening? It's you guy!!, trying to pull another scam where we all have to pay for it. Yea, Trump. And for the people here that want to go InsHannity on me now, just know this. Many of us here have been selling for decades, never we had any big NATIONWIDE delay issues like this one. With tech advances, you want to believe that things get improved every year.
I know many very hard working postal workers, great people, and they can all tell you, unless there is a big natural disaster, this never happens, and it NEVER happens Nationwide and only in the US. And I'm from South Florida, I know about natural disasters.
The new guy at the USPS was supposed to be there to make things better, but instead, he is trying to make them "Trump Better". Come on people, there has to be a point where you have to realize there is a big issue affecting EVERYONE!.
IT DOES NOT TAKE 14 days for dozens of packages to go from pick up to USPS main sorting facility. EVERY DAY for the last 3 weeks!
It is not like everyone got sick or planes broke down, or all packages are lost, it is just a simple and horrible scam.
The people at DHL got same order, DO NOT PICKUP PACKAGES for 6 days, for 2 day and Next Day delivery. Staff keeps working, on something, but they are NOT allowed to move packages FORWARD, why? Because that way the USPS will not seem so obvios. NEVER I experienced this kind of issue in more than 20 years of shipping and yes, I'm not just a seller, I'm in the logistics business as well.  

by: ySirTinLee

@thehosst
You hit it the nail on the head.  The slow down is intended to discourage people from mail in voting.  

by: SellerGirl

The real problem we should be discussing is that our "president" is manipulating the postal system to keep people from voting by mail this fall.  Paper ballots can be recounted, unlike electronic votes made in polling places.  He's abetting hacking interference in the election outcome.  Ask for a mail-in ballot, fill it out immediately and either mail it back in immediately or drop it off at the board of elections in your community as quickly as possible.  Many local food pantries will be able to provide stamps to anyone who can't afford the postage, and some US towns will have ballot collection points in the law director's office at city hall.  Don't be manipulated into throwing your rights away!

by: windsorbear

For those that haven't been following... the new Postmaster General has eliminated all overtime in the postal service and the new policy is that all mail DOES NOT HAVE TO DELIVERED... let it pile up to keep from working any overtime.  Automatic sorting machines have been reported as being removed from some post offices; some post offices are reporting that there is mail all over the place and they don't have enough man-hours now to deliver it all, postal carriers have been told to NOT SORT the mail before going on their routes... if there is any time left, sort it when they get back, otherwise just leave it to be sorted at a later date.  The post office as we have known it is GONE... it has been effectively sabotaged by a Postmaster General that has a financial stake in a competing delivery service, which I believe, it very much illegal... which means nothing in these times as the laws are constantly being re-written to benefit those that are in power.

by: Life During Wartime

@toastedmutt --The only data I can cite is my own experience, and delays people who live in neighboring municipalities have told me about.  

I finally got to read a plausible explanation for the delays in a news article this morning:  the lack of overtime to complete sorting of mail when necessary.  My post office seems to have chosen to put aside "junk mail" (catalogs, shopping circulars, and the like) as low importance, while Priority and First Class always get through in a timely fashion.  Most days I get just packages and envelopes, and occasionally a load of junk.  Other post office locations seem to be handling this differently.  I used to get junk mail more often, almost daily.  Now it's about once a week.

It's possible that the white men who worked at the exurban locations are miffed about the cut in their OT, and are taking that out in how little effort they are making to get as much mail out as fast as possible.  I mean, all the people I've seen locally out in public unmasked are white guys.  They have an attitude, and are angry.  As if this pandemic thing impacts only them?

by: psykick

I have to say that Ebays Global shipping program is extremely lackluster. The seller usually does very well via shipping into the program, almost always via Fedex. However, it will sit 10 days plus before it moves on from there and exceed their own delivery estimate more than often. The last given tracking number is from the program itself and is not recognized by any service except there own internal one. Horrid program.

by: psykick

I would assume that these promises to remove bad feedback etc. are merely self serving considering the inadequacies of the Global shipping program. I have personally experienced shipping to Canada through the program and left a feedback regarding my dissatisfaction with it and indeed it was removed x2. I am still waiting over 21 plus days for a small package to date. Fedex will deliver inside of two days from about Any vendor use  inside the USA to Canada.  

by: Silver Ice King

@Marie

Its unusual for you to not have your facts straight when making a post.  Ebay has never used the same delivery day information that USPS posted on their sites.  Ebay has used their data from deliveries and even if a Seller changes their handling time to 5 days, if Ebay sees that they are usually getting items out in 2 days, Ebay adjusts the estimated delivery time using that information instead of the 5 day handling times that the Seller has posted.  So if the Seller actually uses the 5 days that they show on their item description, Ebay ignores it and the Seller is suddenly facing a potential INR even before they ship the item, all because Ebay wants to show the quickest potential delivery date possible.  This has been going on for many years now and no matter how many times it is brought to their attention, the reality of the issues it causes for sellers has been completely ignored.  

Also Guaranteed Delivery being shown on a Sellers listing is not longer a voluntary joining of a program.  In fact if i remember correctly Ebay ended that program a couple of years ago (probably costing them to much money).  Then Ebay just started showing it on the listings, again based on Ebays data (which as most of us know is very inaccurate since garbage in gives garbage out).  So if a Sellers items usually arrived within 4 days suddenly that guarantee would suddenly show up on their listings.  I know this for a fact as I had 2 day handling, so that i did not get pushed into the program as they sometimes did, yet because I still usually got items out the next day and most of them arrived within the 4 day period many of my listings suddenly had the Guaranteed Delivery suddenly appear.  When i had a buyer try to hit me up since it was a day late, I sent them to Ebay  who naturally stated that I was not in the program so they would not give them the $5 coupon.  The buyer then started looking to me for it and I wound up just ignoring their emails and blocking them from any further purchases. All of this because Ebay once again decided that my listing was going to have that wording on it even though i was not in the program.

by: Silver Ice King

The new Postmaster General has around $35-$75 million invested in UPS and FED-EX so it is definitely in his best interest to slow the mail service down while looking to raise prices so that Sellers have to use other sources that he has investments in.  I do not know how he managed to get that position while still owning all of that stock in the competitors but once again politics plays a big part in what happens in our country.  If Congress would rescind that requirement that the USPS prepay $5 Billion every year to prepay future retirees potential medical costs (no other company or government agency is required to do such a ridiculous thing) then that would take a major burden off of the USPS, but once again it is politics trying to show that they have the power to do whatever they feel like doing regardless if it is good for the country or not.  All they care about is getting re-elected to the next term so they can continue to get richer and richer.

by: Marie

@Silver Ice King

A seller's handling time has had issues being represented properly in whatever ETA Ebay puts on a seller's listing from time to time, that is absolutely true.  But that doesn't change what I said earlier.  It is just a problem that has been a real issue from time to time on top of everything else.

With that said, what you have said is also correct.  Ebay does often ignore a sellers stated handling time when stating the earliest date that the item might arrive to the buyer.  They do that when a seller consistently ships out quicker than their stated handling time.  For example a seller that states a 5 day handling time [not a good idea BTW as it lowers the seller in the search returns] but that seller is very consistent about shipping within 3 days.  Then the ETAs for delivery on that listing will use 3 days plus the carrier time.  

I don't like that practice any better than anyone else does and I've voiced those concerns to Ebay.  They should not be screwing with what the seller states they want their handling time to be.

Guaranteed Delivery is still an opt in program.  Not to be confused with Fast n Free.  That is different.  There have been sellers from time to time report that they got opt'd into GD when they didn't do it.

by: iSpendTooMuchTimeReadingTheseComments

@psykick ...  you left a seller 2 negs b/c p.o. was late/delaying????? how is that the seller's fault? did i misunderstand your comment? or are you part of the "bad buyer" problem(s)?

by: psykick

@  iSpendTooMuchTimeReadingTheseComments

No, you did not misinterpret. I will complain  

by: pace306

Theres no other options besides using USPS for the last mile - unless you live in San Jose, are used to stealing money and not getting caught, lieing to the press and Wall Street and build your employees a bar so they can get boozed up all day.

Amazon has its own delivery system AND they use USPS - thats why things get done.

As usual, eBay and Amazon are NOT the same (people here love to try and make comparisons) and Amazon also has warehouses and its own vehicles.

eBay (and Amazon and its issues are not the top here) ALWAYS blames the seller (FOR EVERYTHING) regardless of reality. Simply - because there IS no reality in San Jose - not in returns, not in shipping, not on selling (ie building a catalog).

From day one, eBays "guesstimates" were just that - made up cr@p trying to impress Wall Street and the press - EVERY seller knew it was garbage - "guaranteed delivery program OR NOT".

Its easy to always blame the sellers - especially when you can give them strikes, allow them to get undeserved negatives and then on top of that, charge them an extra %5 for the pleasure (gotta restock on that alcohol!).

Mail (for example) is delayed 2-3 weeks in the Detroit area (here come the blame Trump, elect Sleepy Joe crowd) and since USPS is federal - it MUST be his fault (he told Jared to tell USPS there not to deliver mail or something).

eBay has NOT (being able to get that info from USPS directly) been able to ever get it right - AND if eBay is "SO WORRIED" about packages not arriving - let them tale some of those MILLIONS that they got from Stubhub, Paypal, and Classifieds and upgrade every package to Priority Mail ......... OR get the SLEEPING GRIFTER to load them into his cr@ppy 1984 Chevy Astrovan and deliver them HIMSELF.

Every time eBay looks to find a "solution" - it always costs sellers time, effort and money (eBaynow, eBayauthenticate etc) .... puts cash in eBays pocket (some "partner") and puts the onus on the seller.

The pattern has been this way now - going on 20 years ...... I dare anyone to prove me wrong.

by: Marie

@psykick

Except you are NOT taking your anger out over the failures of the program on someone that has ANY control over the program.  The seller is a victim of the failures of the program as much as you are.  The seller didn't write the program of have any way to control the program.  So all you are doing it taking it out on someone that has NOTHING to do the the problem you had.  

by: Chicago48

Trump just admitted he's purposely not funding the USPS thereby delaying the mail.  That could be his kiss of death.  A lot of people rely on mail, besides resellers and small businesses, esp. online businesses.  And -- people depend on prescriptions mailed.  He just killed his election.

by: Marie

@Chicago48

Yes he has been upfront about this as well as his desire to disrupt the mail service in Democratic states but not certain Republican states.  

I do however think you are over estimating his base.  They have been pretty steadfast no matter what he does or doesn't do.  

by: Chicago48

@Marie, when grandma learns that her mail - in meds are delayed, when the word gets to grandma that Trump is delaying the mail, she will revolt.  My brother depends on mail-in meds.  A lot of shut-ins this CV19 depend on mail-in meds.  And online sellers are catching he** because of delayed mail.  Just let it keep going....and see who people vote for.

by: Marie

@Chicago48

I have no words suitable to describe what he is willing to do to get re-elected.  To include the sacrifice of US citizens of all ages as he pushes to get schools reopened in hopes of gaining suburban women support.  I best stop now before I get myself in more trouble than I usually have on this site.

by: RL15

@Shanna." Except right now, during the Covid crisis, Amazon has extended their shipping time, even for Prime members. I buy things that normally would take 1-2 days, now showing 5-6 estimated delivery"

My amazon orders get delivered in 2 days. Amazon has not shown extended shipping time on any of my orders.