Question For Ebay Sellers - Arrival Date

Very strange. I had actually typed something else in here. Didn't catch that the post text was lost somehow.

I had an eBay purchase arrive yesterday. The estimated delivery window was 10/27-10/29.

When going to leave feedback, it asks if the item arrived by 10/29.

If I answer no to that question, does the seller get dinged by eBay?

Dale

Where's the question?

Arrival date is soon after you've paid :-)

Shermae: Don't bet on that. The US Postal Service is so screwed up right now that it is admitting that deliveries are running very late. Add in that postal resources are prioritizing ballot handling at the moment, and that will slow mail even further.

A seller and I are both still waiting for a registered shipment to show up 28 days after it was mailed. There has been no tracking activity since Oct 6. No one knows where it is, AND THIS IS REGISTERED MAIL - locked pouch and the need to be signed for at every station that handles it.

Question for eBay Buyers: Purple?

revenuecollector -

Answer: Yes. Well, usually. But never on Tuesdays.

I edited the original post to ask the question I had typed in yesterday.

Dale

I'm not sure one should even ask the question in the present circumstances. Postal services in most countries will be disrupted by Covid. And they have been further disrupted in the US by intervention by the Postmaster-General, which reduced on-time delivery rates from 95% in July to 82% in mid-October. Marking someone down because a letter or packet was a day late really isn't on.

I do not know if eBay dings them or not, hopefully not.

The USPS has been downsizing for the last 20 years and the current Postmaster is continuing the trend (but is only now 'news' in the current hyperpolitical environment) The downsizing is related to the sharp decline in First Class Mail, the volume has dropped each year in the last 20 years and is now the same as it was over 40 years ago. The reduction in infrastructure and resources has been going on for years and years. For example, the number of collection mailboxes declined by more than 12,000 nationally from 2011 to 2016.

The postal unions have not been happy with the downsizing and this is reflected in morale and work slow downs. At the same time, the USPS is trying to transition to a parcel delivery service and volume is up more by more than 5 billion parcels since 2014. Parcels often require more physical effort to process, parcels are heavier than First Class Mail and typically require the postal person to get out of the vehicle and walk to the house. Again, not a trend that the postal unions/employees are happy about.

My postal person is a nice person but she is very unhappy with decline of the First Class mail volume and increase in parcel services. She says she has a shoulder issue and cannot lift more than a few pounds. Her Postal Union made the case for her and the USPS has now added a new, second delivery route that goes behind her and delivers just the parcels weighing more than a few pounds. I have not yet figured out the exact delivery schedule but it appears to run at least Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It has sometimes added an extra day to the parcels that I am receiving but the extra day you are seeing could be due to something like this.

The decline of First Class Mail is part of the evolution of the postal service that has been occurring since it began. When RFD service was established in the late 1890s, it was a huge impact. Small post offices closed by the thousands. Countless postmasters and employees lost their jobs. The Postal Service survived and adapted. It will do the same now but in the other side of the paradigm shift the USPS will look a lot more like UPS or FedEx.
Don

Now that the original post has been re-created after the glitch ... let's take the question in a different direction.

eBay feedback is a waste of time as a buyer and as a seller. Don't fret about it, just stop doing it and use those minutes of your life for something more productive.

Quoted for truth.
I quit using the eBay feedback system a few years ago.
Don

I don't think it's a waste of time, I use it. I think sellers like to know their product arrived safely. I don't care about the actual arrival date, if the product shows up as described then I tick all the boxes. Could it be better? Sure. But it does get used and somewhat serves a purpose since people like me read seller feedback before buying. Also, there are good sellers out there.

Except that anyone can go buy an exiting eBay account; you can buy existing, aged accounts today and have your store setup in an hour. For example, for $200 you can have an aged account with 871 positive Feedbacks as shown here


There are many places online to buy (and sell) existing, aged eBay accounts. The eBay feedback system only serves eBay, not buyers or sellers since you cannot tell how long the current owner actually has been the current owner.
Don

Don: Had no idea eBay was doing that! IMO, That is just plain wrong. I am certainly not the only one who still considers feedback in making a purchase.
Thanks for posting.
Paul

Pretty sure it's not eBay doing it, but they allow it to happen. The feedback numbers are not very useful, in part because of this, but the detailed comments can have some value. If all the feedbacks are just A+++++++++++++++++ etc - not very useful. But when people but in more detailed feedback like "stamp exactly as described" or "had a small issue and seller handled it professionally" you get more information. I admit to being rather proud of the feedback on my account.

Is anyone suggesting that a vast number of eBay accounts are bought and sold? To move from concern about some dirty tricks to taking a worst case view of the whole feedback system doesn't make sense.