eBay are reinstating seller shipping protections in the US and backdating them to take account of recent late deliveries that were out of the control of sellers.
While the UK are complaining about kids’ soft play centres still being closed and the inconvenience of quarantine (if you decided a holiday in Spain was worth the risk), in the US they are paying the price of opening everything and opening too fast. With the attitude that damage to the economy could be worse than a few more deaths, the US haven’t managed to clamp down and limit the outbreak to a few locations, as in the UK, and the virus is still widespread in multiple States with 10s of thousands infected daily.
That’s why eBay have heard loud and clear from shipping carriers and sellers that delays in US deliveries are still commonplace. Because the pandemic continues to impact carriers, eBay.com are reinstating seller shipping protections specifically related to carrier delays and back dating them to the 1st of July 1st and they will now run through to the 31st of August.
eBay.com Shipping Protections
- eBay are removing shipping defects due to carrier delays – US sellers will be protected from late shipments.
- If you provide valid tracking and the shipping carrier is experiencing delays, eBay will credit you with on-time tracking upload so that there is no negative impact on your ability to qualify as a Top Rated Seller.
eBay do of course request that US sellers do their bit and despatch as fast as possible, at least within their stated handling time, work with buyers where issues arise and ensure that inventory quantities are up to date.
8 Responses
I hope eBay UK will reintroduce this as well . Last time I checked our account performance it went from 0% late delivery to 4.1% within one single day. I turned off the automatic tracking software to protect our account. It now stands at 1.5% as someone at eBay decided to remove defect ones but clearly the issue of some RM deliveries taking 10days(!!) is still there.
I sincerely hope ebay.uk follow soon, it’s a nightmare at present with RM. I think ebay crappy metrics are a bad joke anyway, but with the coronavirus problems it makes it all the worse.
Totally agree – Royal Mail have been a real problem throughout and continue to be.
When I drop my bags of franked mail I have not confidence whatsoever in when they will be delivered whereas DPD have been perfect. Is that because they are not employed people I would suggest!
@BFT, just had the same happen. Buyer forced refund through eBay even though the parcel showed awaiting customs clearance in America. Full refund given, the item was delivered two days later. The buyer now unresponsive, ebay couldn’t give a hoot.
Royal Mail hasn’t improved since the start of lockdown. If anything, they seem to have gotten worse since June. A lot of stuff is just taking an extra day or two to arrive, so Ebay should extend the estimated delivery time accordingly. They seemed to have done it earlier on, then reverted to normal. I can guess why they did that, with Amazon Prime becoming available again, but there has to be some way of getting the message over to buyers.
I sincerely hope that the Ebay UK team take note and reintroduce this. I have maintained TRS for 2 years straight and have had endless late defects added to my account through July, which looks likely to continue through August.
The Royal Mail are advising daily about the delays on their own website and Ebay UK aren’t putting any measures in place. I have contacted Live chat and each time I am told to use this new defect appeal system which just isn’t practical for the volume of late defects I am receiving. Even after trying one, its a generic “this is not removable” response. Seems a lot of us will be losing the TRS status this month.