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My longest was Nov 28th to Dec 22nd, so just 25 days. My average is about 18 days for the last month or so. And, believe it or not, customers have not complained. I had 2 who did contact me, I put in a case, and their package started moving right after entering the case. They both received their packages and they were very happy.
I do still have one that was shipped on Dec 8th that has been stalled for a while now, no idea when it will deliver but I’m guessing sometime in the next few days.
I still have my store on a 15 day handling time. I ship right away, but it gives me a little buffer with eBay. I am thinking I will lower my handling time back to normal here pretty soon – but I just sent out a set of 7 things just the other day and they still have not moved from my origin post office, so I may hold off just another week or so. I’m hoping it all catches up here soon.
Good luck all.
So I found this link yesterday and went and disputed 4 recent transactions, all with the same comment. My items were all mailed at the similar time, none of them had an issue by the buyer, and all had eventually been delivered. Of the 4, I was able to automatically remove 3. I don’t know why I couldn’t remove all 4, but oh well. I may have to try to call eBay if this gets out of control, but for now I’ll live with it:
https://www.ebay.com/sellerhelp/defect
On the wood thing I’m guessing it’s an old spice rack or something of that sort. As a chemist, it reminds me a lot of old test tube racks – though the holes are a bit odd shaped. The only thing I could think that might fit in those holes might be old spice jars. Just a guess given what that company sells. Couldn’t find a pic or clue on the web to support my thought.
Good luck
So I have a related question for all, just wondering how you are all handling this. My plan for the shipping delays was to increase my handling time from 1 day to 15 days. Then I was planning on shipping on day 1, giving myself 14 extra days for the whole process.
Right now for me it’s working like this. It is taking 8 days (total, not business) to just leave my small town post office and head to Indianapolis. Then it takes 8 days to get out of Indy. Then it seems to get delivered around day 18-19.
I feel the Christmas rush might be finally approaching an end. So I just sold 6 things this week-end. The question is this. People are not expecting things until mid Jan (15 day handling – I don’t have to ship right now). Should I wait and hope the delays end – and ship in about 10 days or so when shipping may be back to normal – or should I ship today – let it get in the log jam, and hope it’s out of the jam in 10 days or so. Just curious how others might be handling this.
15 day handling time did seem to hurt my sales at first – but I think that was just the Christmas rush coming to a slow. People are buying from me and don’t seem to care that my handling time is so long. Just sharing.
I’ve been pretty lucky too, but I too have a lot of high priced things out there and so I decided to just increase my handling time to 15 days. I ship right away, so that gives me 15 days extra on the clock. I have still sold stuff, though it’s slowed down. I don’t know if that’s the handling time or if people are done buying for christmas. I am still getting offers, all be it very low ones, so people are still looking. One thing I shipped today is expected by Jan 7 to the buyer. Hopefully he gets it next week, but hopefully it gets there by the 7th.
Yesterday I had over 26 packages outstanding, many of them were sent on Nov 28th. On packages over $100, I put in a lost mail claim at the post office. I’m amazed at the process. As the seller I add the claim. It’s quite slow and tedious, takes a few minutes at least per item. The destination post office is in charge of finding the package (nothing to do with tracking where it is now). They call me on the phone, even though I specify to email me when I put in a claim, and just tell me that it isn’t there yet. I tell them I know, it hasn’t left Indianapolis and hasn’t been scanned in 10 days (or whatever). They just say that they will call me back. They keep calling – it’s odd. I wonder if they will call until they receive it. But some of the packages are moving.
As of right now I have 16 packages still outstanding. That means that out of 26, 10 were delivered today (yay). One of those was mailed 2 days ago. The oldest still outstanding is from Nov 28th. Of the 16 remaining, 11 are still in the origin or second post office (I live in a small town, all mail goes to Indianapolis, so Indy is the 2nd one). The one from the 28th is still in Indy. Five are close to being delivered.
So it’s moving – very slow – but all packages seem to be arriving. It’s not really speeding up for me – my packages from the last week are actually now stuck in my home town post office – which is very rare – we used to get to Indy within a day or two (at the most).
While I know it’s not eBay’s fault, eBay could stop allowing buyers to put in claims for refunds if the mail is slow. If we do our part (get it to the post office by the time we say we will), that’s all I feel we should be responsible for. I’ll work with the post office to see if I can nudge these things along, but since I can’t recall the package back to my house, they just have to be patient. Packages will arrive.
Good luck all.
When I click on time away, I have 2 things I can pick, schedule time away and automatic response. If I click on the Schedule time away, I have 2 options again, “Pause item sales while on time away” or “allow item sales while on time away”. The pause one puts your store on hold and hides all fixed priced items. The allow sales lets you put in a time when you are gone but also keeps your store open so that you can ship when you return.
Going back to beginning, the automatic response button just lets you add an automatic message that responds to buyers that contact you through eBay while you are away.
Hope that helps. Sorry, I’m just saying how it looks on my screen. I use Safari as a browser. If you aren’t seeing anything you can try to either reset your browser, delete cookies, standard things that mess up when javascript like pages are trying to run.
Good luck
While I agree, it’s not eBay’s fault at all. But, they are the ones with the power. As individual sellers we have no power. But eBay is huge, they provide a lot of business to the post office, so I feel it’s up to them to pressure the post office to protect their sellers. eBay makes a LOT of money off of us, with really not a ton of work. They provide the platform, and there are a ton of people at eBay, but we are the ones sourcing, listing, selling, and giving a percentage to eBay.
I don’t feel anybody is going to protect us, that’s the way it is. It’s still a very great business with really no overhead to start-up and try. So it’s great. Just frustrating right now as I have no choice but to put things on hold or just lose more money. Oh well. On to 2021.
I feel eBay should refund us all a month of store fees and let us just take a month vacation from selling. I have $800+ worth of items sitting at the Indianapolis sorting facility that I will likely have to refund via eBay but will all likely be delivered at some point in the next month or so. I shipped all around Thanksgiving, and they all have not moved or shown any indication of tracking since that time. I put in a lost package on an item that a customer contacted me on, and they reviewed and USPS ended my claim after 1 day, sending me a form letter saying that things are taking longer than normal to process. Still no movement.
I just changed all handling times to 15 days, and probably won’t sell anything in the next few weeks – but to be honest I feel that’s better than just giving things away. I assume this will end soon enough, but maybe not until after the new years. Sigh. So much for the holiday surge. I did well in November, only to give it all back in December.
Good luck all
I’ve had the same issues as the OP. I too live in Indiana, and my packages tend to get stuck in Indianapolis. I’m guessing the Indy sorting facility really just doesn’t have time for scanning, as many of the packages end up getting to their spots. But I do have many that were sent before Thanksgiving that are still stuck in Indy.
I’ve had luck going to the USPS site and filing a missing mail claim – though it’s a lengthy process for each package. But I have found that once I do that, the package usually gets delivered within a day or two.
https://www.usps.com/help/missing-mail.htm
I just skip down to number 3 and start filling in the form. It works well, and does get things moving. I use this when buyers send me a note. After filling out the form, the tracking shows that a missing mail report was filed, showing the buyer that I’m trying to do something. They have all been very nice and did not blame me for late mail. Eventually all packages arrive.
Good luck
So I was surprised to see today that my claim was approved and the post office is sending me a check. No contact what so ever, except an initial email with a link to my claims page.
I refunded the buyer in full. However, now I still have this transaction sitting there on eBay. Do I cancel the transaction in order to get eBay fees back? Is that how it works? I just wasn’t sure the next step here – makes sense to me but I wanted to check first. I’m still old school payments so I processed the refund through PayPal, not through eBay.
Thanks
No, we don’t have Walgreens. I live in small town Indiana (less than 8000 people), and the closest commercial Fed-Ex or UPS is near Indianapolis (40 miles) or Terre Haute (35 miles the other way). We have a small mom and pop drop off location that is open a few hours a day – but it’s not convenient for me and it has unpredictable hours at times, so I don’t use that. So I am really limited to USPS. It’s only one package, I can go with USPS. But it is still frustrating.
Thanks for the replies – I appreciate the help. I am frankly just really frustrated with the USPS on this one. I have tried calling many times, which I feel is pretty hopeless. I have talked to people, but none have been helpful. I put in a claim online – with a money amount, so I am hoping to get insurance from them but that too has had no movement in 2 days, and so I don’t know where my claim stands. When I called to ask they told me that is managed out of St. Louis and they couldn’t help me. What does that even mean???
I will refund the buyer today – I begged for more and more time and told him that today will be the last day. That doesn’t bother me, I agree that it’s the cost of doing business. I’m really only out shipping as that was a toy I had on my shelf in the basement for a long time – but it annoys me that the post office is being such a pain on this. The package still has not moved from Indianapolis. They did open a package research case on the day I called them, and then they closed it that same day – but I don’t know what that means. I never received info on that. My claim is still “under review” – which is USPS speak for “not looked at yet”.
The post office has been good for me and my business all these years. So one package out of the many is not a huge loss – but it annoys me that they went from a business that used to be very helpful to one that now is difficult to deal with. I live in a small town – not really any other options out there. I can’t use Fed-Ex or UPS – unless I want to drive far to drop off packages. Post office is a walk away.
Rant over. Thanks
Jay,
I obviously notice your stutter off and on during the podcast over the years, but I’d like you to know that I love it, it’s refreshing and never a bad thing. I sometimes find myself cheering as I hear you power through it and say whatever it is you were going to say. I have never found it annoying, and in fact as time has gone by I actually really don’t even hear you doing it anymore, though I’m sure you still do. I enjoy the podcast immensely, and I appreciate what the two of you are doing to help us all out while forming community in a place where we are all kind of in our own isolated worlds. It’s amazingly refreshing and great, so I just want to thank you both for what you do. Thanks for sharing that link – it’s interesting to listen to. I had honestly never really thought about how stuttering works and affects people, so thank you for sharing.
OK – this is a stretch, and I’ve been brewing beer today so I’ve been thinking about this over a pint or two but… do you think there is a chance that somebody buys something as it is ending – right before eBay re-lists the item. That’s a huge stretch I know – what are the odds, but there are people that do buy things as they are about to end. One of eBay’s algorithms is to give you a list of things you are interested in sorted by ending first. So it is possible that somebody buys the item just as it’s getting re-listed by eBay (in the event that it’s list until cancelled).
I’m just trying to think of how this can technically happen. I’m very much a tech person, so I always try to think of how technology can fail us in such a situation. I don’t know the lag on that, and thus I don’t know how much time the buyer has to buy it before they re-list it. Hmm
Sorry – didn’t mean to ramble. Just something I was thinking about. Have a great week-end everybody.
