eBay have just announced the change in estimated delivery times for Royal Mail 2nd Class post will be made permanent this week. The delivery estimates for Royal Mail 2nd Class (with or without Recorded Signed For) will change to 2-3 working days. Previously the delivery estimate for Royal Mail 2nd Class postage was 3-5 working days.
The good news is that eBay are not making any change to the way that Royal Mail 1st Class post is displayed. When eBay started testing they announced a trial of 1 working day for 1st Class post but it appears that this will remain at 1-2 days delivery estimate.
We looked at Royal Mail’s own report into delivery success rates and eBay’s decision appears to match what Royal Mail are achieving – 98.5% of 2nd class mail is delivered within three working days but only 93% of 1st Class mail hits the next working day delivery target.
The 7% of 1st Class mail not delivered the next working day was a concern, but for 2nd Class post only 1.5% of mail takes longer than three working days so the majority of buyers will receive their items within eBay’s estimates. For the few that don’t they’re probably well aware that their mail will take longer to be delivered as they generally live in the outlying Islands and are well aware if the seas are too rough the mail boat won’t be arriving.
12 Responses
Ebay need to seriously look at the estimates they give for overseas orders.
An order placed today (23rd) gives an estimated time of delivery to France between 25th and 29th. That’s 4-5 working days!! It’s never going to happen.
We advise customers that it’s likely to take between 7-10 days at least.
Because of all the hassle this causes, I’m currently changing all of my listings to “surface mail” for overseas orders so that at least it gives a longer estimate. Not ideal, but better than stopping sending overseas altogether.
I just wish eBay would stop allowing buyers to mark down despatch DSR for orders despatched next day – regardless of what fictional delivery estimates they quote.
I sort of see what ebay are trying to do, however I was always taught in customer service never to over promise, rather under promise which then looks better. If you told a customer something would arrive in three days and it arrived next day they would probably be over the moon. If you told a customer it would be next day and it arrived three days later they would not be so happy.
The fact is even if it is 98.5% of the time that it arrives within three days, that is is still enough bad marks from customers the 1.5% of the time to loose your TRS status if they all marked you down.
There is also not enough difference between the services now for people to pay to upgrade, that is why are take up of our next day service is about 1% on ebay of what it is on Amazon as their standard delivery is 3-5 days.
I think the automatic DSR for dispatch time is already live on the ebay.com and to get 5 star automatically you need to:
1. Dispatch the item within 24h
2. Provide tracking code
Not sure if any other rules apply. Hope this will be implemented in the UK marketplace shortly
I would like to do a close examination of RM delivery reports. Sounds like a loreal jobbie, 97% of 192 people asked agree.. We track Recorded signed for, and 40% of that never gets reported delivered, and of those delivered, only 30% show the next day.
*rolls eyes*
The figures quoted for Royal Mail are also “first delivery attempt” figures which unfortunately means very little, delivery is not completed until the customer physically has the goods which means 2-3 working days is a little ambitious. If you speak with any account manager at Royal Mail they are very careful with the wording usually quoting something along the lines of “we will endeavor to deliver within..” I have no problems with the first estimate being 2 days, the latter being 3 however is hopeful at best, ignorant at worst.
Unfortunately ebay spiel on this involves “look at the royal mail personal website, it says x”
1) We are a business seller, we use business services.
2) A delivery company is going to use the law of average to claim the best time possible, unfortunately 99.5% is by their own admissions not achievable.
3) We already get 14 times the number of “where’s my item” emails from ebay customers than ones from other venues, this tells us that the existing delivery estimates are either not happening in the real world or not being conveyed in a manner that is understood by the average ebay buyer.
Unless Royal Mail have become a great deal more efficient in the past few days I can see this causing more issues leading to more dissatisfied ebay buyers which the site as a whole really does not need!
ebay overpromise on our behalf because it is in their interests to do this. They are estate agents nothing more. We have to allow for this when providing ebay with our custom.
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We under promise, with the intent to get that ‘oh that was quick’, BUT honestly in our area ELondon, RM active around 90%, not anywhere near 99.5%.
Many other areas suffer this too.
Ebay is playing up to the buyer that wants next day without actually paying more than 2nd class postal service.
From our experience, many buyers actually don’t even notice the estimated delivery time, nor, the dispatch time, nor, even the description details.
If ebay want to ‘educate’ the buyer do something about highlighting postage variations at checkout, as many buyers stack thing up in their basket & do not consider the different options in individual purchases.
I have noticed an increase in delays on 1st class items being delivered.
I used to use 2nd class but that was so bad I went to 1st class.
Now, most of them get there in 1 or 2 days but there are about a dozen a month which can take over a week….I could walk them quicker !!
Yet post to USA or OZ can get there in 3 or 4 days.
This eBay postage times puts an increasing pressure on sellers on a process which is out of our hands….I post every afternoon and it’s impossible to post any quicker
I am very interested to know whether if you begin offering same-day dispatch (to be released on ebay later this year)& offer 2nd class this will qualify listings for the fast’n’free logo.
Could save us a bomb.
On Saturday I posted an LP to Surrey (I am in the NW of England – Cumbria) I used 2nd class and it arrived Monday 9.30 a m. I used stamps and I wondered if it was because of stamps rather than meter mark that this treated as first class? I certainly agree that the whole DSR thing on postage is unfair and Royal Mail & eBay need to play fair!