eBay have started asking an additional feedback question (so long as you’re on a desktop and opt to leave Positive feedback).
The question reads “Did the item arrive on or before Friday, 17 July 2015? Estimated Delivery Date: 17 July” with radio buttons for a simple “Yes/No” answer.
There are a number of comments we’ve heard from sellers regarding this extra feedback question, not least of which is don’t buyers have enough to fill out anyway with selecting a rating, leaving a comment, selecting stars for four detailed seller ratings and now another question to read and answer.
Let’s not forget that there’s also a Detailed Seller Rating for buyers to rank you asking “How quickly did the seller dispatch the item?”. We all know that buyers often can’t tell how quickly sellers despatched an item and answer this based on how quickly the item was delivered.
The new question is interesting however, firstly it enables eBay to measure how good couriers are at keeping their promises. If sellers despatch promptly the same day or next day and then the courier takes two days to deliver that’s a problem outside the seller’s immediate control (barring changing courier).
It also gives sellers with a longer despatch time some flexibility – for instance if you have a one day handling time and 24 hour courier, perhaps you can save some money if you can ship same day on a 48 hour service. Equally if you have items which should be delivered on the third day, but you’re late despatching you can upgrade to a 24 hour service to keep to the commitment you made to the customer.
My real surprise is that if you answer the new question as “Yes”, why doesn’t it automatically award a five star detailed seller rating for the “How quickly did the seller dispatch the item?” detailed seller rating? So long as the promise was kept and the item arrived on the estimated day, who cares how quickly the seller did the picking and packing? It’s irrelevant so please eBay… don’t bother asking the despatch speed question.
33 Responses
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eBay is not entitled to ask this question unless the buyer has paid for a guranteed delivery service.
takes no consideration if the customer was not at home the first two delivery attempts, which ebay will punish the seller for, of course.
What it forgets is that most eBay customers do not provide feedback straight away, most leave it days or sometimes weeks. A customer could easily respond ‘no’ when they aren’t completely sure (or think that delivery took longer than it did). Right now it doesn’t have any detrimental effects on sellers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is used against us before long.
I do no keep a log of what time my purchases arrive as I’m sure many others don’t. This question will only lead to false responses.
The underlying premise is that buyers are fair and /or competent. Not a sound argument.
Around 25% of my parcels end up carded as out.10% end up being re-delivered a week later sometimes (when the buyer chooses a re-delivery).So 25% can say “no” because they were out.I hope if this is ever a defect then “attempted delviery/carded) will count to get the defect overturned.
Before we hang ebay out to dry over this, perhaps it could be they are going to use this to change the estimated delivery times? So if loads of people say no they may change it?
I can only wish….
It’s not always the carrier nor the unavailability of the Buyer to receive. There is still a problem with some Sellers that can ONLY be addressed by using the DSR.
Example. I recently purchased some items from a private but commercial Seller with immediate PayPal checkout. Roughly 24 hours after that I got two emails, the first the standard eBay system message from the Seller saying “Your goods are despatched” and the second from his chosen carrier, Hermes Tracked, saying “Pending”. It stayed “Pending” for nearly three days as, in detail, Hermes Tracked web-page said “Awaiting collection or dropping off at the ParcelShop”
I messaged the Seller who replied they would give Hermes a call but it was another two days before Hermes Tracked stated “Dropped off at the ParcelShop”. Then Hermes took another three days to deliver making two attempts despite us being available in our industrial unit.
Amazingly, technically, the goods arrived in time as the Seller had put a date for delivery at almost two weeks. So I had to answer “yes” in the new box . . . but I did use only one star in the DSR for “How quickly did the Seller despatch”.
No matter what system eBay want to use there are some Sellers who try to simply get around them by quoting huge delivery times. Typically they may also be the laziest in sending out your goods too. This is one reason why the DSR system is a valuable tool for the Buyer to use, despite some Sellers hating it’s presence.
So, despite an estimated delivery time being given to you at the point of purchase, which the goods did arrive in time for, you are happy that DSR are available so you can unfairly rate an eBay seller down because they didn’t reach your self projected standards?
I really can’t stand it when I get a customer like yourself. Never happy.
I think you should read again what I have posted and remember to try and be factual rather than bigoted.
Chris Dawson’s posting stated that he felt that answering “yes” to the question should automatically get five stars for that part of the DSR. The example that I have quoted simply shows that it’s really still not a “black and white” scenario and that the DSR system MUST be kept.
I saw what the Seller was quoting as “anticipated delivery time for standard postage” but the Sellers DSR’s were good and, in any case, these were goods were not available to me at the prices quoted elsewhere. So, for the record, I gave the Seller a POSITIVE rating but gave only one star for the despatch as the tracking system proved that the Seller had lied.
I feel that many Sellers are under pressure to prove they have despatched the goods quickly but whilst this Seller used the standard eBay message to put the eBay system into a “safe mode” he forgot that Hermes Tracked provides the recipient with a very detailed progress report. This proved that the Seller had NOT “despatched” the goods on the day he claimed and indeed it took him days to deliver my goods to the “ParcelShop”!
I was happy with the goods so I gave POSITIVE feedback but I had been lied to over the despatch date and the Seller only got away with his actions by quoting TWO WEEKS for a domestic delivery, so I fairly gave a low DSR only on that section.
The moral of the tale is keep to what you say and don’t use a tracked system if you’re lazy at getting goods out of the door!
I know, you must know, indeed almost all know that there is a section of eBay Sellers who seem to trade in fear of eBay and will say ANYTHING to keep within their “good books”. Fortunately they are in the minority but they do exist and my example simply answers Chris’s question as to perhaps why eBay don’t automatically give five starts for a “yes” answer to the new question.
You have FAR too much time on your hands. Enjoy your retirement.
I buy regularly on ebay but like sarah mentioned further up I tend to leave all my feedback and do it all in a big block of a dozen or more at one go sometimes a couple of weeks later or longer so I wouldn’t always remember whether they arrived by that date or not. Having said that I did by default tick yes to all the ones I left at the weekend except 1 item which got a no because I know it was slow delivery but I have no idea if it arrived by the date or not.
no you didnt “give him a positive”.
the seller who gave you the goods at the best price, in the quoted times, which you couldnt get anywhere else? you’ve had him punished. for delivering on time.
his account has been damaged, his business diminished, and his sales (and therefore his livelihood) has suffered real tangible damage, from your “positive” review.
he has received a defect, the whole transaction is now defective, your “positive” is worth nothing, its a negative, defective transaction, and he will be punished for getting the goods to you on time.
if i were this seller, you’d be put on my block list, and the next time you cant get it anywhere else, you wont get it anywhere.
That’s some far reaching guess work in your rhetoric James, have you considered applying for a job at eBay itself? Same response applies, read my factual responses again and drop the bigoted opinion.
What you are insisting I should have done is ignored both the sellers false statement and lax customer service together with the system that eBay have given me with which to make fair comment simply to leave a “positive” feedback in order to preserve the Sellers livelihood. You have forgotten or ignored my statement that the Seller was also listing/selling commercial goods on a PRIVATE SELLER account. No returns unless forced you see or are you going to support that too?
We all know eBay feedback especially DSR can be contentious – I personally have seen neutral feedback given with the words “acceptable purchase” – but it is integral to the buying process on eBay and I believe it works as long as the Buyer recognises “false blips”. I would not want to see it removed and I still say I used it factually and fairly.
The only ones who seem desperate to have it removed seem to be those who “trade on eBay in fear” . . . by your rhetoric I might wonder if you were in that group.
Let me get this right, the item was despatched 24hrs after purchase and arrived within the eta, but cause the Hermes tracking system was not what u wanted to see and u concluded the seller wasvt fault u left a 1 dsr?! Wow.
I don’t get it.
U concluding the seller did not actually despatch at 24hrs they just (marked as despatched). But the seller says they I’d nd u messages them to which they replied and looked into it for u.
U jump to the wrong conclusions again? I don’t know. That’s the problem with being able to jus (mark as despatched).
It is all BS. Should just be a simple questions:
Arrived within delivery eta?
As described?
Would u buy again?
Would u recommend to a friend?
I stopped leaving feedback for anything months ago, its too time consuming… positive or negative, rating each item specific and then leaving a comment..this in no way adds to the “buying experience” its just a complete waste of time.
what bit was far reaching?
you left him a 1-star, which equals a defect.
not opinion, fact.
one defect on a transaction, means the whole transaction is defective.
not opinion, fact.
a defective transaction results in loss of sales.
not opinion, fact.
on the other hand, your idea of “proof”, is a Hermes tracking ID.
– you did check with Hermes their systems were all correct and working those days yes?
– that the parcel shop he went to was manned by competent and knowledgable staff? who know how to process a Hermes parcel?
– You checked his local parcel shop has a daily collection from Hermes?
– No you didnt. your opinion of what constitutes “proof” is severly lacking.
Hermes also said you werent there on the two days they tried to deliver, its on their tracking system, so that is “proof” that you werent there?
Absolutely fantastic logic.
facts are, you good the goods on time, as advertised, and had someone punished for it.
Please print your user id so I can add you to my ever growing block buyer list.
1. it doesnt matter if the seller quoted 2 months for delivery, that is the delivery time. if this is not acceptable, you do not order.
– exactly the same as the price is the price, if you dont like it, dont order it.
2. many label softwares automatically mark despatched as soon as the label is done, to prevent duplicates. assume somebody is trying to con you all you like, or accept thats how some things work. like i said, a conflicting Hermes ID is not “proof” in any way shape or form. he may well have despatched when he said, and hermes are in the wrong, but you dont care do you?
– you’ve made absolutely zero mention of what his quoted despatch time was, its there to see, if he’s quoted three days and despatched in three days, then its exactly as promised.
3. the type of shipping is also stipulated up front, he probably had an express option you didnt choose, and went for the economy/free delivery in the chosen timescales with the chosen courier. therefore, Hermes would have been your choice, by choosing to purchase the item with the Hermes shipping option as advertised.
4. Hermes arent the seller, your woes with Hermes and the woman’s car should be taken up with Hermes.
– should you be punished if you send a christmas card to your gran, and her postman smells? no that would be completely ridiculous wouldnt it.
5. the ONLY reason? what? you mean the facts of the matter? you could have left one star because it arrived on a purple unicorn, but its best if you actually use the facts and truth.
– he’s quoted that time because thats how long it takes. how long did it take? exactly as long as he quoted.
– your notion of “this should take 2-5 days” only exists in your mind, you’ve already been told in advance that is not the case, so dont expect it. or offer to pay for upgraded shipping so it does come in 2-5 days, instead of the time you were told it would.
6. the grand deception of telling you it will take 2 weeks, and actually being delivered in 2 weeks?
you’re still not addressing your own grand deception, claiming you were in when Hermes tracking clearly “proves” you weren’t! i’m finding it increasingly difficult to believe you when this “proof” shows that you tell lies.
7. IT GOT THERE IN TIME, WHEN YOU WERE TOLD IT WOULD. “responsibility” for choosing the carrier who delivers in the advertised time met and succeeded.
– why do sellers choose the cheapest postage, cos thats the one the customer orders. i’m almost certain the seller would have had an express option, which you did not choose, and went for Hermes instead, then blame him for you choosing Herrmes.
8. have you just tangented off onto random whinging? Give you a voice, and you use it to shout “late delivery” for things that arrive on time. well done. wonder why sellers grudge that system?
– oh and the shambles of a system they have now in no way reflects the way feedback started, FYI.
9. you love the word bigoted dont you. it fits you well.
Yes back on topic;
“did the item arrive on time?”
“Yes, and the seller has been punished for it”.
well done.
To use an old cliche, it’s your finger on the button. If you can’t live with the terms don’t buy.
I could continue this for ages because I am the one with the FULL FACTS and you, like others, are simply making assumptions.
The Seller in stating that a domestic UK delivery should be allowed TWO WEEKS is not permitting either eBay or the Buyer to make any comment if things go wrong. Your views on the “goods arrived in time” are therefore flawed. How many would buy from Amazon or others if they gave wide speculations for delivery just to protect themselves from customer comment? Would you?
Nevertheless I’ve already clearly said that, taken overall, I would be willing to wait the two weeks. That isn’t the issue here, what is the issue is the Seller LIED to give themselves protection for the eBay system if things went wrong.
We’re not talking of some computer glitch or labelling system, the FACTS are the Seller used the eBay message system to notify me that the goods were DESPATCHED . . . if you’re unsure what that technically means look it up in a dictionary . . . and to perform this had to sign in to their eBay account and physically click on options FULLY knowing that they were being 100% premature.
Once again the full on-line record showed that to start the delivery by Hermes the Seller had to first deliver it to one of their “ParcelShops”, nowhere was it shown that Hermes had to collect the goods from the Seller. So the Hermes system displayed the following for FIVE DAYS, “Delivery PENDING. Goods have not yet been received at our ParcelShop”.
Under no circumstances whatsoever is ANY purchaser responsible for dealing with a carrier/courier when that service – contract if you will – is between the Seller and the Carrier. Get real? Nor was the purchase “Free P&P”, I paid extra for the carriage and was offered only one chioce.
You seem to be confusing an erroneous attitude that “the goods arrived within time” with my rightful use of the DSR system to leave comment upon the Sellers “customer servicing and quality control”.
I understand the feedback and DSR system on eBay can be so easily used incorrectly and I’m personally aware as SOMEONE WHO SELLS ON EBAY that used that way it can be an horrendous experience. Let us ALL hope that in the coming re-boot at eBay they put it back to as it was and stop idiots that leave Neutral or Negative with words such as “Goods OK” or “Acceptable purchase”.
But I still say I exercised my right to comment on the Sellers performance and did so correctly.
Now . . . you want to reply? Go ahead, I’m not going anywhere.
I agree with other posters on here. You are in the wrong in my personal opinion. From what you say the item arrived within the sepcified timescale, (unless of course you did not read that bit of the listing), but the timescale was not what you expected despite what you were told. Realistically you should not have bought it if 2 weeks was too long a lead time. By your logic, if I mark something down as dispatched on ebay now (getting ahead of my workload) and not post it until Saturday or Monday, am I a liar too?
We live in hope Stuart.
@ “mw” – (System glitch, there is no “reply” under your entry) – once again I need to stress the following. The astonishingly cautious anticipated delivery date was noted by me and, initially, I saw no problem with this. Despite the Seller not performing adequately the goods still arrived within that truly extended delivery time frame. But this is where every respondent to my original posting, including yourself, has ignored my comments that I made a FACTUAL feedback in correct accordance with the eBay DSR system. All of them/you are wrong.
The point so often quoted here of “DELIVERY” has nothing to do with the matter at all, nothing whatsoever. So all those who believe I penalised a “good eBayer” for delivering in time can now shut up. Facts. There are four parts to the DSR check form, the second one asks the question “How quickly did the seller dispatch the item?” and you can pick one of the following. “Very slowly” (*), “Slowly” (**), “Neither slowly nor quickly” (***), “Quickly” (****) and “Very quickly” (*****). By the Sellers own admission and the Hermes tracking system the Seller effectively did nothing to expedite the commencement of the delivery of my goods for FIVE DAYS . . . does that not qualify for being called “Very slow”? Surely it does and thus gets a single star! I kept stating that I was using the system FACTUALLY and those responding kept trying to argue an unrelated issue! Remember I did also say I ticked the box asking if the goods turned up within the allocated time as YES!!
Your question as to whether you could be called a liar too had me trawling eBay for the definitive answer, took a while but their “help” system is never easy to find what you want, is it? I did find guidance here : https://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/mark-dispatched-upload-tracking-information
All should note that eBay are saying mark the item as despatched AFTER you have sent the goods quoting if applicable a tracking reference. Every word in relation to “despatch” is in the past tense. So, technically, “mw” that means – yes – you do use the system incorrectly. This got me thinking.
I’ve bought many hundreds of listings off eBay and I’ve noticed a trend. In the earlier days Sellers used to use the eBay messaging system to notify me of “DESPATCH” quite often but today I reckon only about 50% do so. Exercising caution by saying nothing perhaps? The remainder is split roughly equally so 25% use the system, some even sending a private email too but the other 25% seem to click on that eBay message option too early. In many cases they do indeed send the goods within 48 hours of doing so. Nobody would find fault with your argument on doing so “mw” and neither would I. Sometimes that delay might mean the delivery date overruns by a day or so. That shouldn’t in itself be a problem, it’s a complicated chain so tolerance should be given. Sellers who notify me of what is happening to my goods get a 5 star on the section asking “How satisfied were you with the seller’s communication?” but those who say nothing will get a 3. That’s fair, OK?
Yet within this last group there is this minority I mentioned that are less than professional in their customer service technique and I would suggest the Seller in this example may be one of those. I rated him FACTUALLY on his overall service.
The most interesting thing about the responses I’ve had is just how many don’t seem to properly understand the DSR system at all. Most interesting.
Tolerance…… Good word.
What you say is right for you. But do not forget that when you made the decision to buy, having read all the conditions associated with that product and it’s dispatch timescale, you agreed to them by buying and paying this seller, so all those pre-said terms were acceptable to you at the time of purchse. That includes the 2 week dispatch time. In effect the seller underpromised and over delivered and did what they said they were going to do. You chose to penalise them for that by rating them on ebay using the DSR system as you saw fit.
Tolerance. Where does that lie now?
Not sure that Chris Dawson hasn’t had enough of replies to my posting as not only has the “reply” button vanished but also the last response too, I only have that as sent to my email address. Once again though the two replies have missed the point and not either fully read my responses or simply don’t quite understand the finite limits of the Feedback/DSR process.
Which means that the “new question” might actually be a heads up that eBay are considering changes to the system. With more information being provided by carriers/couriers these days for the customer to access themselves on-line this has meant that it’s much easier to confirm or at least predict a “delivery date” than when the DSR phenomena was added to the eBay feedback system in that all that could be used was a “despatch date” and then only if the Seller chose to send the Buyer a message. Whilst it still holds true that a Seller showing how quickly he has DESPATCHED your goods indicates his care of attention and you can reward them for that to by far the greater majority what actually matters is when the goods are DELIVERED. As Chris’s words in his thread say, and my own example goes on to prove, so many truly get “despatched” confused with “delivered”.
So, eBay? Get on with it and try not to take your usual six months plus? Think of the time you’ll save me in having to respond to erroneous answers on Tamebay!
Hi Roger. The “Reply” button disappears as we only nest comments a couple of times – otherwise it would muck up the way comments are displayed.
If you want to carry on replying to a thread simply reply to a reply (Instead of trying to reply to a reply to a reply….)
Pretty sure eBay aren’t reading your posts.
You’re still wrong too. What is your eBay ID so I can block you?
were even considering putting a 10 day handling time on our listings even though we ship same day of payment first class so to avoid R,Soles asking wheres my r item is resulting in defects ,
that may result in ebay sanctions,
many buyers just dont seem to realise that sellers and their employees feed their children and pay their bills from listing on ebay
we dont need smug sanctimonious retail crusaders
Firstly may I say I completely understand why Roger C marked the seller down for “Dispatch” time. However, I also understand why people are feeling anger towards his actions. But the annoyance shouldn’t be directed to Roger C… the issue is with ebay wanting to know our opinions on the “Dispatch” time… why does that matter? Like many have said, if the “Delivery” time is the same (or earlier) to the estimated delivery time then the buyer should be happy, the “Dispatch” time is irrelevant and ebay shouldn’t be asking for it.
Roger, there’s a lot of things you don’t seem to understand with regards to context and delivery / arrival. Yes, if you take things out of context they can have different meanings. Well done.
Yes, eBay’s current system is bad – that doesn’t excuse your comprehension skills.
Hi Roger C.
Yes you may be the only one who was involved with this purchase, however it doesnt mean you’re the only one with the facts.
one interesting fact; ebay dont let you stipulate a 2-week courier time within the UK.
a fact: the only way to display a 2-week delivery estimate on ebay (within the UK) is to have a 5-day despatch time plus 3-5 day or 5-day courier time.
somebody is lying, i still dont think its the seller.
by all means carry on your rant as if nobody here has a clue how ebay works.