Did eBay tell the Buyers? Despatch or Delivery Time?

Sellers are not responsible for delays in postal services, and should only be rated on aspects of delivery they can control, including handling time. Some sellers specify their handling time in the item description. Also, many sellers wait for the buyer's payment to clear before posting an item. For international transactions, please allow extra time for delivery.

Postage & packaging charges may include charges beyond the postage price for the item. Sellers may charge actual packaging materials costs and a reasonable handling fee to cover the seller's time and direct costs associated with delivery. For international transactions, buyers may also be responsible for duties, taxes, and customs clearance fees as requested by country laws.

America's and Australia's, both state -

When rating sellers on shipping time, rate the seller on the time it took them to mail the item, not the time it took you to receive the item. You shouldn’t hold sellers responsible for delays in mail services, international custom delays or for the time it took for your payment to clear.

When rating the seller on shipping and handling charges, remember that sellers may charge actual packaging materials costs and a reasonable handling fee to cover the seller’s time and direct costs associated with shipping. For international transactions, you may also be responsible for duties, taxes, and customs clearance fees as requested by country laws.

Notice how there are subtle but important differences between the guidance given to buyers?  Notice also, how the topic names given in the Australian help page don't match the topic names given to buyers when they are leaving feedback for sellers?  Is this deliberate, or just an oversight? 

The concensus amongst sellers is that it's deliberate and intended to confuse buyers so that sellers receive lower DSRs, and thus lose the Seller Performance discounts on Final Value Fees on their invoices - eBay wins, sellers lose, buyers ultimately lose as more sellers leave eBay, taking with them their unique items that made eBay so much fun.

In the eBay US online workshop about Seller DSR ratings for Despatch Time & Shipping Costs on 1st Feb 2008 (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000509099) it was stated, "Detailed Seller Ratings scores (DSRs) will be considered for eligibility for the PowerSeller program, for PowerSeller discounts, and for promotion in Best Match search." and some of the guidance eBay staff offered to sellers included -

1. Include information such as shipping service, cost, and package details in the shipping details section of your listing – not just in the description. Your listing may get better exposure in search results, and buyers will know exactly how much it costs to ship the item.
2. Be specific about the shipping services you offer. You can select the shipping services that you want to offer when you list your item. You may want to select one inexpensive service and one fast service. Use the generic shipping service options (for example, "Standard Flat Rate Shipping Service") ... This helps buyers evaluate your shipping cost and estimate delivery time.
3. Specify your handling time. When you list your item with calculated shipping, you can specify the amount of time you will take to ship the item after you receive payment from the buyer. (You don't need to include the amount of time the shipping service takes to deliver the item to the buyer.) This gives the buyer an idea of how long it will take to receive the item.
4. Ship quickly. Ship the item as soon as possible after the buyer's payment has been deposited into your account. If you specified your handling time in the listing, make sure that you ship your item within that time.
5. Provide details about any packaging or handling costs. You may include a reasonable handling cost to cover the cost of mailing, packaging, and handling the items that you sell. If you decide to add a handling cost, let the buyer know what the costs include.
6. Offer shipping discounts. Offer buyers savings on shipping when they purchase multiple items from you. Buyers can see the shipping discounts
7. Ensure you are offering a competitive shipping price. Research the shipping costs buyers would see on other websites selling similar items. And while a seller’s DSR score may not always reflect their current shipping behavior, it can be helpful to look at the shipping practices and costs of other sellers with high DSR scores in your category.
8. Track your package. Consider offering a shipping service that provides tracking numbers. ... you can add the tracking number to the order details. Both you and your buyer can track the package
9. Purchase shipping insurance or use a shipping service that offers loss and damage protection. Protect your package against loss or damage during shipping with insurance or a service that offers protection. If an item is lost or damaged, you can file a claim with the shipping carrier.
10. Include a packing slip. You can include details such as the item number, your user ID, your eBay Store name, contact information, shipment date, and return policies. Don't forget to let your buyers know that you appreciate their business.
11. Shipping Internationally - Let your buyer know they will be responsible for all duties, taxes, and Customs costs. Include this information in your item description. Your buyer won't be surprised by any additional costs when the item arrives.
12. Don't mark the item as a gift on the Customs form. Sellers are responsible for accurately representing the value of the item (the amount that the buyer paid for the item). Don't mark the item as a gift on the Customs form–even if the buyer asks you to. It's against the law.
13. ... in looking at the selling practices of highly rated international sellers, we have found they go to great length to set the expectations of their buyers. So, for example, sellers should explicitly state in their listings the approximate transit time of the item. Sellers also may want to mention the fact that items could get delayed in customs. Also, some sellers opt to offer a couple of shipping options (for example – one service that is faster, more expensive and offer tracking numbers and one service that may be slower, less expensive, with no tracking number). Again, the key is to set the buyer’s expectations – whether they’re international or domestic.

Here at GazLanNaThai, we do all of the above and have done so since long before DSRs were even thought of, but our 30-day Despatch Time DSR (the one used to determine our visibility in search & browse, and our FVF discounts on our invoice) has sat at 4.4 since late March 08.  Throughout the year, over 95% of our buyers have opted to use the cheaper and slower SAL Economy Airmail postal option.  They are therefore choosing to be "cheap Charlies" by paying the minimum possible for delivery, but are then hammering our DSRs for slow delivery, not for slow despatch. 

Our Shipping Costs DSR is at 4.6, but hang on a minute - we normally offer 3 main shipping services, two of which have the option of upgrading to expedited for less than £1.00 / $2.00, and all our rates include International Registered Delivery.  85%+ of our packages shipped to the UK have a total shipping cost that is less than the UK post office charges for the International Signed For element on it's own - UK sellers cannot compete with us when comparing like for like on international shipping - Thai Post is far, far cheaper than Royal Mail.  Looking at the USPS website, USA sellers also cannot come close to our total shipping charges for identical packages, unless they take a loss on the shipping costs.  Why then are we marked so low for the shipping costs' DSR?

The answer of course is simple - it goes back to those DSR descriptive names, common psychology about room-for-improvement bias, and to lack of buyer education by eBay.

Our case is a classic example of why the DSR system is fundamentally flawed, and why DSRs should not be used to impact the financials of any seller.  But eBay have determined it is the best thing since sliced bread and will be persevered with, even if it means eBay ends up with no sellers at all.  The stockholders/shareholders should be screaming for management heads on platters, because the marketplace is being crucified and destroyed, and so will the share dividends and price be, the longer this system remains in place.

In response to massive criticism from sellers, about the absolute unfairness of the DSR system, eBay responded here - http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000509099&start=69 "Starting in March we will be asking buyers for more information if they leave a poor shipping DSR score (a 1, 2 or 3). Over time that data will help us provide more information on what may be contributing to low DSR scores."  They failed to state over how much time, and gave no indication of recognition that during that time, many sellers could have their eBay businesses wrecked.

At post number 6 of that workshop, seller lil.stuff asked, "QUESTION: If eBay truly believes that "people are basically good", why are 4 out of 5 stars considered to be a low rating, punishable by a warning message on your listings, and lower search visibility with the Best Match feature, when 3 stars is apparently average according to eBay's own DSR standards?"  Throughout the six pages and 163 posted messages of the workshop, other sellers joined in demanding an answer to that question. 

Eventually, at post #133, the answer was, "...an interesting question about buyers who leave a “4” to indicate reasonable shipping. The DSR scores are helpful as a relative measure of how a seller is doing compared to other sellers in their category, and having some spread in the scores is helpful. Today 50% of sellers are averaging a 4.6 on their shipping cost or greater. Sellers with a 4.0 DSR or lower on their shipping cost represent the bottom 1% of sellers." which I am sure everyone can recognise as being not an answer, but an avoidance of the core issue, in the style we are all used to from seller support.

One of the great posts in that workshop came at #148, seller "xcergy" said, "I started putting the paid and ship date in my feedback. If buyers want to leave low scores for shipping time... give them to USPS and UPS and the other carriers... not the eBay sellers who ship next day." 

I like that idea - imagine if all sellers began leaving feedback comments such as - "Paid 01 Mar 08 for 7 week delivery, Shipped 2 Mar 08", then on 22 Mar the buyer leaves a feedback comment such as "Slow delivery from overseas seller" together with a neutral or negative rating - guess which user then looks like a total pratt?  I wonder how eBay support would handle an ensuing complaint from the seller regarding hostile bidding?

At the end of the workshop, the eBay staff running it made the following concessions -

• Post #160 - we do have a tutorial in place for new buyers that they must take before giving their first negative feedback. It may make sense to extend this for neutrals as well to better educate new sellers. I will make that suggestion to the feedback team.
• Post #162 - Buyers who demand that sellers mark items as gifts or they will leave negative feedback are in violation of eBay’s feedback extortion policy. Sellers may report these buyers via the webform found on that policy page. We are currently reviewing the policy to see if we need to add more explicit language on this topic. We are also looking into opportunities to better message buyers and sellers about this practice.
• Post #163 - The eBay Feedback Team is looking into making changes to the feedback flows, to better educate buyers about what it means. We will share your feedback with them. Amongst the changes, we’ll be making it easier for buyers to remind themselves of the amount they paid for shipping at the time they leave feedback.  We also encourage sellers to educate buyers about what is involved in their shipping cost, and their shipping time in their listing. Sellers will be in the best position to explain the intricacies of shipping their items.
• Post #163 - "Free Shipping" - On average, listings that sell with Free Shipping earn a 4.8 shipping cost DSR score, which is well above average. We’re looking into why that isn’t even higher. There may be legitimate reasons for a buyer to give a poor score for a free shipping listing (item arrives postage due, etc.). That said, we’ll also be doing more in the Feedback flow to make it easy for buyers remind themselves about the amount of shipping they paid.

On that last point, I've heard from a number of sellers of digital download products (instant electronic delivery after payment online) that despite their items having genuine free delivery, and the delivery time being absolutely in the buyers hands (i.e. the buyer chooses when to download and receive the item), those sellers still cannot get their delivery time above a 4.8 across the whole group, and some of them have delivery time ratings in the 3.x range.  If eBay had any doubt about the validity of the DSR system, surely that is concrete evidence?

Even sellers who only sell with "buyer collects" delivery (i.e. they do not despatch anything, ever) are complaining there despatch DSR is less than a perfect 5.0 - perfectly illustrating that even when the exact time for obtaining the goods is 100% in the buyers' hands, there are some who simply will not give a seller the justified 5.0 rating.

So finally, we come to the point of this blog post...

If you are a buyer on eBay, you have a responsibility to your sellers, as well as to other buyers and to yourself.  You must learn both sides of the feedback story - the seller's side, and the buyer's side. 

If you have no genuine reason to complain about a transaction, don't just automatically go for a 3.0 because "it must be the average" or for a 4.0 because "it was above average but not outstanding", if you don't give the seller a 5.0 then that seller may no longer be available to you if you have a potential claim under the product warranty six months after you purchase.

Giving seller's 5.0's if there is no genuine problem, is not cooking the system, it is ensuring the seller is around long enough to supply you again, and to take care of any later issues under warrany, or guarantee, on your purchase.

Help your sellers to help you - keep them on eBay, keep them profitable.