eBay have launched a dedicated Postage Updates board as part of the community pages. This could come in quite handy as we come into Q4 when couriers are always under pressure and this year, for the second in a row, there will doubtless be holes in service due to the pandemic and shortage of HGV drivers on top of the normal winter weather challenges.
The Postage Updates boar aims to help provide you with information about recent postage updates which might affect your business or the ways you send your items. For example, any extensions made to the estimated delivery dates because of severe carrier or weather issues, last recommended posting dates for the holidays, new postage rates and new carriers available to use for your listings etc.
You’ll find the Postage Updates board on the drop-down menu under Seller News on the eBay community homepage or can navigate directly to it here. By subscribing to the board you’ll be notified every time a new update is posted. You can subscribe by clicking on the Options menu on the top right of the Postage Updates board page.
eBay remind you to also regularly check the websites of the carriers you list with to keep track of any issues that might affect you.
5 Responses
Whooopeeeeeeee.
The prices yesterday were in $ and the weights in lb.
Another board that displays info that doesn’t match what you see in reality, and on which no one at eBay replies to should your post anything (remember the technical issues board?!)
I won’t be rushing along to this one …
I try to anticipate delivery delays by updating my shipping times e.g. using “Other Courier 5 days” to allow 2-3 more days on top of Royal Mail’s 2nd Class standard 2-3 day delivery. However eBay lists it as a 5 day delivery but gives 2-3 day delivery estimates, and the occasional customer gets angry when it is not delivered by the date eBay says, despite me pointing out that it is listed as a 5-day delivery, plus 1 day for dispatch. Nowhere does the 1-day dispatch appear on the postage details, and the 2-3 days often seems to exclude the next day dispatch.
I also often have the 48h delivery upgrade showing the same delivery date as 3, 3-5 or 5 day deliveries too, and again ignoring dispatch times.
Really what is the point in setting a delivery time expectation if eBay just decide to set their own arbitrary delivery estimates.
They say they work out how fast items are usually delivered and adjust accordingly.
1) We use “Other Courier…” for 3 different delivery services, so you can’t possibly determine a typical speed based on this when the courier name is not listed.
2) The whole point of me increasing delivery time expectations near peak periods and bank holidays is because I want to allow more time for those few packages which are taking longer to deliver. I don’t want it reduced based on the average delivery time which will always be faster than the slower ones I am trying to allow more time for.
If I choose 5 days when I could have chosen 3 days, then I really should have 5 days listed on the delivery expectations. I am fed up with customers having a go at me for late delivery before the expected time is up, because eBay decided to suggest to the customer it is EXPECTED to arrive faster.
And why does eBay allow Item Not Received cases to be opened before these 5 days are up too…
Shame the can’t do this for international postage. There have been delays at Spanish and and Italian customs for a few months now but eBay has not adjusted the estimated delivery times at all. They must have access to loads of tracking data to be able to work out the average shipping time. Why not look at that data and adjust shipping times dynamically?
royal mail are useless they are not scanning the parcels. so the scammers are have a early x-mas its a joke nothink works on ebay or royal mail so we sellers get screwed again and again just sick of refunding poeple ebay qiute we now they have got the goods but we cant do nothink bet thing to do is refund them and block them no seller protection