Is eBay's Latest Feedback Test a Ding Waiting to Happen?

by: toolguy

I don't like being at the mercy of USPS, UPS or Fedex!

I ship items out the same day or the next excluding Sunday's.

Yes, we ship on Saturday.

by: Ric

Once again, eBay promises changes and manages to deliver another method of highlighting friction points that will only increase the animosity between buyers and sellers.

There is no doubt eBay will use this metric as yet another way to encourage buyers to denigrate sellers. Shipping delays are uncontrollable by the sellers and eBay is well aware of this, yet they remain oblivious to the realities.

We now see where incoming CEO Devin Wenig is focused - and it is the same point that his predecessor was focused; increasing the adversarial relationship between buyers and sellers. These processes can be directly attributed to eBay's inability to grow sales consistent with the rest of the ecommerce leaders, yet management continues to bury their head in the sand and ignore the effects all the negativity have had in holding back marketplace growth.

This "change" will result in thousands more sellers leaving eBay, driving down SKU diversity, and at the same time driving buyers to other marketplaces to find the items that are withdrawn as sellers abandon eBay.

The Devin Wenig honeymoon is over, and he is coming out swinging at his sellers just as John Donahoe did.

by: Basset

I have had this new feature showing up for about 3-4 weeks.  

At first it did not show the delivery date, only asked if you received it by ___ date.

Not so good about keeping up with feedback and memory has a 50+ year accumulation of junk so I found myself guessing whether it came by that date or not - so I just left an affirmative answer or left it blank.
 

At least adding the date of arrival keeps the guesswork out of it - while some buyers think, hmmm.... it was a day late, maybe I'm supposed to let them know so they can be more accurate. Unbeknownst to buyer - seller gets a Zzzzzztttt. (sound of insect hitting the bug zapper)

And then there are the UNSCANNED deliveries - I had 3 within the last week, all USPS. Package showed up, just never scanned.

by: iheartjacksparrow

The last couple of items I bought on eBay had estimated delivery dates which turned out to be several days after the day the item actually arrived. Is eBay being more reasonable in their estimations? Or are sellers extending their processing times to protect themselves against eBay's usual unrealistic delivery times?

by: Philip Cohen

It's no so much eBay asking the question that may be a problem but how they interpret that information that matters, and given the history of eBay in such matters the cretins at eBay will undoubtedly apply the result in a destructive manner to sellers, and to eBay itself ...

The eBay executive suite—where the incompetent mingle with the disingenuous, the malevolent and the outright criminal, and the just plain stupid … http://bit.ly/11F2eas  

by: WOODJUNGLE! ON EBAY

This is pointless.  Why would Ebay ask the buyer something that is shown in the tracking data? What purpose does this serve?

by: Ebay's Slow Death

How incredibly stupid is this?

I mail out the next day during the week. But, when I get an order Friday night, Ebay tells the Buyer they will have their item on Monday. Our small Post Office is closed on Saturdays. Also, when there is a three-day weekend, when the PO is closed on Monday, Ebay does not change their delivery estimates.

How am I suppose to be responsible for how fast the PO delivers mail? They keep closing Sorting Centers, and the mail is slowing down. But, Ebay still tells Buyers they will get their item in two or three days.

Of course, they will use these dings to punish small Sellers, but the big Sellers will be immune.

There is no future for Sellers, like me, on Ebay. They just keep throwing spikes on the road!

by: P.Dorf

Am I mistaken, but is this yet another idea nicked from Amazon?

by: maxmad

When they punish a good seller, all they are doing is punishing themselves,

It's crazy to think that a company would try this hard to get rid of paying customers,

 

by: sasikat9

How about this one.   Bought an item from a seller on Fleecebay on June 2.  Seller shipped on June 4 and Fleecebay says delivery date is June 6.  

This is a package that is registered mail insured for 8000.00.

This morning package is lost in transit as last scan shows it left Chicago on June 8. Package was sent from Charlotte, NC to Grand Rapids, Mi.

So if I was a newbie and didn't know better, or some buyer who wanted this yesterday the seller would be getting a FAT DING.

Fortunately we know that neither Fleecebay or the Post Office know when anything will be delivered.

Fleecebay doesn't deliver the mail and the post office while mostly gets it right still has problems delivering mail.

by: Rexford

Ric is right.  What the management at eBay say and what they do are two different things.

More of the same.  I'll have another lashing sir.  Harder please.

by: Mark4

So glad we moved to Amazon, done with ebay forever.

by: TomH

Of course things are going to continue to self destruct at eBay. Why would anyone think differently with the change of CEOs.

After all the Donut hired and picked the little guy

by: rhawk

What the HELL ebay???!!!

You guys keep getting more and more STUPID.

Look, this is easy...

SELLERS WHO DELIVER WITHIN YOUR ESTIMATED TIME FRAME SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BE RATED BY THE BUYER.

I have 2 defects for items delivered 1 day after the first estimated arrival date set by ebay.

Why allow this?    

Why jeopardize good, honest sellers?


Why jeopardize your bottom line and whats left of your reputation?

STUPID PHUCKS.

by: pace306

The ONLY way eBay can survive is to keep on the way it is - Theft Inc.

ANY reason is a good reason to punish a seller - even when its out of their control.

That punishment lets eBay (gives eBay) the ability and "right" to distribute any punishment it sees fit.

Id also say that USPS and eBay got together on this - to eliminate FCM parcels and deliverys - the one place USPS is loosing money on. If you push people to ship Priority instead of FCM (thats almost exactly the same) both eBay and USPS make more money.

Beyond that - its everything RIC said and more - RIC ... +1 my friend!

I said myself before and I'll echo Ric - Wenig CANT make changes - the ones he and the presentation crow about. The thefts that occur on every level on eBay are ALL that keeps it afloat.

eBay still doesnt want "non professional sellers", they still want large brands and none of that is going to change.

Beating you up since USPS is late = less %20 discounts, an excuse to promote others (beloveds) listings over yours and away to charge for that listing for "visibility".

eBay makes the Mafia look like children.

by: angryllama

Implicit in MANY of the comments already UP is my own contention that FAR TOO MANY BUYERS have exactly NO Real World experience with just how long delivery of a PACKAGE should take. AMAZON having heavily discounted express and semi-express service thru USPS UPS FedEx AND having their FBA warehouses located SooooClose to Post Offices misleads even INTELLIGENT buyers who just do not comprehend that EBAY SELLERS are hamstrung by Very Late Evening USPS Carrier Routes. (I can't even THINK of letting my VERY NICE USPS Carrier pick up from my own house's mailbox as he gets TO our house no earlier than 4pm and often AFTER 6pm. Any package he has had in his JeepSter will assuredly NOT be back at his dispatch station until even another hour later. Vast Majority of eBay buyers are also clueless that the Blue Steel Drop Boxes one finds on street corners and sidewalks is NEVER EVER Collected after their last pickup on Friday afternoon until MONDAY. They also don't GO to their post offices often enough to Recognize that even as the HEADLINE NEWS has been USPS now delivering AMAZON packages on Sundays... when the real news should be how all of the disruption by CLOSING over 2 dozen sorting centers across the country has resulted in MANY of my own outbound packages LOSING their first 2 to 4 days just trying to get THRU the Houston Regional Sort center. I have started ProActively EDUCATING my buyers with a primer on how eBay is NOT the shipper, has NO control over how quickly or Slowly the USPS can handle their package and that not even the Postmaster General could put any sort of MONEY BACK GUARANTEE on the value of the Package vs. delivery on any specific date. Within the past 2 weeks I had a buyer in CALIFORNIA bitch that his/her package FROM HOUSTON, Texas took too long when that selfsame package took exactly THREE DAYS by First Class and I shipped the SAME DAY as the payment. Please note that I say CLUELESS, not STUPID when concerning this particular buyer's misunderstanding of how the World works.  How does this fit in? Because any "survey" or "follow-up" question from eBay on Delivery promptness is destined to be a Fiasco as the persons ANSWERING the question will be soooo out in left field on what the RIGHT delivery time would should could have been.

by: sickandtired

ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS !!!!  Can be no other reason for this latest stupidity other than another stick to beat sellers with.

If ebay wants to provide a rating service for USPS, Canada Post, FedEx etc, then do so.  Take that metric out of the seller's rating area and let buyers know that they are rating the shipping service, not the seller.

I changed my mailing time to within 3 business days last fall, even though I usually mail same or next day.  I lost my discount because I would not extend return window so I figured why stress over 24 hour shipping for no benefit.  

by: Harriet

If the seller has shipped the item within their stated ship time frame, there is nothing they can possibly do beyond that. They cannot control shipping services and the Post Office which has closed several regional hubs, causing delays in shipping. Packages do get lost and take "trips" beyond the addresses on the packages.

This is a totally unfair thing for eBay to do.

Instead of having the rating be for the seller, it should be a rating for USPS, Fedex, or UPS.

Of course that will never happen.

Why does eBay continue to beat and abuse their sellers? It's some kind of sickness. That is the question would all like an answer for.

by: toolguy

@sasikat9

A registered package lost?

I come from a large postal family and have NEVER heard of a registered package lost.

They travel in locked cages and are signed for each step of the way.

I find this story hard to believe!

by: toolguy

@maxmad

"It's crazy to think that a company would try this hard to get rid of paying customers,"

This is by far the best quote I've ever seen about eBay.

It's hard to believe but TRUE!