Slow USPS Deliveries - Grumpy Old Men Complaining About Post Office, Ebay, & Kids On The Lawn

My block list is growing by leaps and bounds. Opening an INR claim after 7 days and ebay allowing that during this mess is pure trash and tells me the buyer is not to be trusted. Period. And yes, I've had several do just that. They'll be buying elsewhere from here on out.

I did have a happy ending to the most recent claim. After I explained to the buyer that 2 weeks plus is unfortunately commonplace right now, the buyer closed the claim to let more time elapse. that last part is key - if the claim stays open ebay will rule on it (and if you are the seller, you will lose, no matter what) even if the parties have talked about waiting longer.

I also believe that at least some of my affected customers will inform me if an item arrives after refund and either return or pay, so it's not all bad out there. But it is very irksome to me that ebay has effectively offered no support to sellers (I know there was a comment about extended delivery times - I have seen no such thing from ebay or USPS, which continues to predict 2-3 delivery of almost everything and NEVER hits it).

Today's incoming mail included a December 20 priority mail package from less than an hour away and a December 7 priority mail package from North Carolina.

When a buyer commits to a purchase from a seller they have entered into a contract. The buyers obligation is to pay. Easy to meet. The buyers obligation is to deliver the goods. Not so easy to meet apparently but it is what the seller agrees to. Unfortunately the USPS has been ordained by ebay to be the delivery mechanism and the contract provisions rely upon delivery time estimates that have zero connection to reality. This puts both parties to the ebay contract in a tough spot when expectations are not met. I feel for the sellers that are fielding unhappy customer inquiries on a platform that can unilaterally take their money if they deem it as being a reasonable thing to do (in ebay's view). I also feel for the buyer that has handed over the cash, was told that it would be "X" days to receive their purchase and "X' days times two or three or four have nothing to show for it and decide to trigger the mechanism that protects their interest. No winners here except for ebay and the USPS since neither loses any merchandise and they still get paid one way or another even if their performance sucks. In USPS's case there is no penalty for "sucking". Great work if you can get it.

If you play in someone's sandbox you have to obey their rules.

Do other venues such as Hipstamp work the same way? I do not know.

I do not blame the buyer in the end because if a seller ordered a case of bubble mailers from another seller and they did not show up after a month they would file a claim as well. You know you would.

that's right. I'd file the claim after 30 days, not after two weeks. That's the difference here, and the problem is that ebay lets it happen and will not back up the seller.

It is ebay's sandbox. I do not think that it is fair but those are the rules that you sign up for if you want to sell on ebay.

From what I've seen Hipstamp and Delcampe take a hands-off approach on delivery issues, with no activity triggered based on a delivery metric not being met. Both have a dispute resolution/complaint process, but they have no ability (that I know of) to reverse a sale. Could be because they hand off payment processing to Paypal (HS) and Paypal and other means (DC).

I purchase on Hip frequently and I never get a shipment notifier and see no builtin mechanisms to deal with late shipments. Some sellers that are on both Hip and ebay are slow as heck to ship on the former and "ship" the same day (create a tracking number LOL) on the latter apparently because Hip is not as militant about it. In any case, as a buyer I have had zero issues on Hip regarding shipping. Add in no sales tax, at least at present, and it is my goto venue albeit with less selection for some areas.

I do believe that if Hip had all of the "pushbutton" complaint mechanisms that ebay has they would be utilized by buyers because that is a human thing. Expectations cut both ways and overpromising and underdelivering on shipping will lead to hard feelings at times.

Why does ebay push the fast delivery timeframes? They want to be Amazon.

ebay did close one of my cases today and refunded the buyer, so I'm out over $20 (and I just have to assume the PO will still eventually deliver and then hope they repay). I was going to issue a refund last night, but when I went to the case it said "waiting for response from buyer" (might have been action instead of response). Well they acted by "asked ebay Customer Service to review this case and make a final decision." and we all know how that turned out.

I think ebay actually automatically reviews the case if you haven't closed it in the timeframe, whether or not the buyer actually asks.

Today's adventure is someone complaining that their tracking number doesn't show movement. IT WAS DROPPED AT THE POST OFFICE LESS THAN 48 HOURS AGO. And no, I can't stand half an hour in line to wait to hand it over the counter to force a scan.

To the earlier comment that ebay has extended shipping times - not in any reasonable way. That same item (which was mailed on the 5th), ebay says to expect a delivery range of the 11th to the 13th - 6 to 8 days. that is not NEARLY enough. It should be at least 30 days for everything right now.

30 days to move a piece of mail within the boundaries of the United States. Wow

My point is that ebay shouldn't be setting buyers up to make claims based on unreasonable delivery estimates that sellers have zero control over.

[I may not be old, but I'm definitely grumpy. So stipulated.]

The next adventure: In my case where ebay awarded the buyer a refund even when the message thread included the buyer wanting to wait longer to resolved the claim....predictably the item was received today. Buyer, to his credit, called me to inform me and wants to pay for the item (good for him). ebay provides no mechanism to do that. And although it has help articles on how to appeal decisions, there's actually no way to submit an appeal! I finally just sent a message to customer service. We'll see what happens.

This will keep occurring. I've had more non-received items claims in the last week than I've had in the last two years total.

During the summer months ebay announced that they were protecting seller performance against carrier delays
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Annou...a-p/31101141
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Annou...a-p/31182603

Have they not extended this protection?
Don

Don - not as far as I can tell. My "late shipment" figure is near 2% (which is total BS because I have a 3 business day handling time and virtually always ship same or next day; this may arise from the PO failing to scan tracked packages deposited with them if not handed directly over the counter to the clerk). Of course, I'm not really sure what "Seller performance" really means for ebay, but it's probably just the seller rating (which for me is "above standard"; it's almost impossible to be a stamp seller and be "top rated" because you have to use tracking on everything).

Ironically, my other seller account that I use for under $10 material has no issues - no late shipping, no claims of non receipt, no nothing. Part of it is that people don't get antsy about the cheap stuff, part of it may be that there is virtually nothing that gets tracking so harder to see delay.

The ebay late shipment numbers are volatile. It will automatically show as late, but if it is eventually scanned and delivered it will get scrubbed away. From what I can tell they are still being lenient unless the buyer complains.

Envelope posted New Jersey November 28th 2020
Received country Western Australia January 7th 2021
Elapsed time 40 days