Ebay And Shipping In The Time Of USPS Meltdown.....

A word for both buyers and sellers on ebay given USPS shipping times at the moment.

1) Buyers: don't open a claim after 10 days wondering where your item is. You know that mail is taking up to 30 days for domestic destinations with some frequency right now. The problem is that once you open the claim, ebay will automatically rule on it EVEN IF YOU WANT TO WAIT LONGER TO SEE IF THE ITEM ARRIVES unless the seller refunds you.

2) Sellers: Even if your buyer says they are willing wait longer, the claim will be resolved by ebay automatically (and ebay will send you a message falsely claiming that the buyer escalated the case). You WILL lose the claim.

3) Sellers: When the item shows up after the transaction, and even if you have an honest buyer who tells you that and wants to pay for the item, ebay can't reverse its ruling! (even though it talks about filing an appeal, it's almost impossible to figure out how to do it, and then they will tell you that they can't reverse the refund and that you should just send a paypal invoice to the buyer.

4) Oh, and they won't remove "closed without seller resolution" strikes even if the buyer told you'd they were going to wait, and they won't remove negative feedback saying the item didn't arrive even after it arrives.

Bottom line: buyers, wait until the end of the period to open claims on unreceived items. You have more than ample protection. Sellers, ask your buyers to close their claims and be patient, because you're in a bad spot if they don't.

[yep, I'm still grumpy as the claims keep coming in, mostly after 10-14 days, and after recent experiences with ebay customer service]

My message for sellers - use FedEx
My message to buyers - ask sellers to use FedEx and be willing to pay a bit more

And if the folks who sell cheaper items, start combining listings to increase value and justify shipping until the shipping delays pass.
Don

All well and good to make a bigger lot of A, B, and C, but only if the buyer want all three. If they only want A and not B or C they are going to pass on the lot.

I bought a pavstamps lot this week and they sent it UPS - no extra charge and it took 2 days. excellent

I don't believe ebay will automatically close a claim the buyers favor if the buyer does not ask for it. I have seen this enough and it is not my experience. The process isn't great though and there is no way to get paid through ebay once a refund is issued. That is true. Worse, since email addresses in ebay mail are forbidden even sending a PayPal invoice isn't easy to get done. There really should be a way to follow-up post-refund.

That has not been my experience. I had ebay close two last week. In both cases the buyers told me that they didn't escalate them, and in one there was written agreement in the message chain that the buyer was going to wait longer. The claim was escalated anyway, and the refund was processed less than 20 minutes later (it was obvious that they don't actually look at these; they just automatically rule against the seller).

I don't think I understand the confusion here. As I understand it ebay gives you 5 days after a buyer opens a case to settle it, if you don't they close it in the buyers favor. If you respond in writing it doesn't stop the clock and the buyer doesn't have to do anything to get ebay to close the case.

I recently won a Did Not Receive case but it took a several phone calls and ebay Messages (in French) before I prevailed.

The message that ebay sends the day before the end of the 5-day period says "Please work with your buyer to find a solution by Jan 8, 2021 or we may be asked to step in and help."

The message you get when the case is "sent" to ebay after the period is "Buyer contacted Customer Service"

Both of them are literally false.

I've been buying dozens of items every week since the pandemic started, and I have not had a single problem with the postal service. All items arrive in reasonable time and in good shape. Is this unusual?

We have had delays of vary degrees and still missing one mailing (over 3 weeks). teh last mailing sat in Philadelphia for a week before leaving the center. What usually took 3 to 4 days took 10 days.