Thought this might help out others so I made a thread just about the Shipping side of things. This will matter more now.

 

For reference - the change is that now you wont get credit for shipping out after 1 day until the item is scanned, not just you printing the label out.

 

My concern is this:

 

I come home at 6PM or so everyday, print out labels, pack everything, continue on with my night.

 

IF someone purchases something at 10PM, or even purchases it earlier and pays for it at 10PM, I don't see it until the next day. Under the new rules, would it be late if I didn't actually ship it until 2 days after the purchase?

 

I am hoping there is some kind of cut off time. Otherwise, I would have to ship in the mornings as well as the nights - and this is rough on the people that have other jobs.

 

I sell a lot to people in the pacific time zone so it is not out of the ordinary to see a bunch of orders come in at 11PM central. I don't see those and print a label until the next night meaning they don't ship until a day later.

 

Any ideas? Maybe I am missing something in the Ebay rules - but really they need to allow us to set business hours of when we can actually see and receive orders. I have people get irritated already saying I took two days to ship because they purchased at 11:59PM on one day and I don't technically ship it for 2 days.

I think you can set up cut off times for orders under your seller preferences. Not sure if that's exactly what you're looking for?

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Visit my eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/mo-state-bricks

I think you can set up cut off times for orders under your seller preferences. Not sure if that's exactly what you're looking for?

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Visit my eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/mo-state-bricks

 

Hmm maybe - Ill have to check that out.

Thought this might help out others so I made a thread just about the Shipping side of things. This will matter more now.

 

For reference - the change is that now you wont get credit for shipping out after 1 day until the item is scanned, not just you printing the label out.

 

My concern is this:

 

I come home at 6PM or so everyday, print out labels, pack everything, continue on with my night.

 

IF someone purchases something at 10PM, or even purchases it earlier and pays for it at 10PM, I don't see it until the next day. Under the new rules, would it be late if I didn't actually ship it until 2 days after the purchase?

 

I am hoping there is some kind of cut off time. Otherwise, I would have to ship in the mornings as well as the nights - and this is rough on the people that have other jobs.

 

I sell a lot to people in the pacific time zone so it is not out of the ordinary to see a bunch of orders come in at 11PM central. I don't see those and print a label until the next night meaning they don't ship until a day later.

 

Any ideas? Maybe I am missing something in the Ebay rules - but really they need to allow us to set business hours of when we can actually see and receive orders. I have people get irritated already saying I took two days to ship because they purchased at 11:59PM on one day and I don't technically ship it for 2 days.

Yes - That would be considered 2 days.

 

It is ebay time (pacific). So if you are on eastern time - someone can purchase something up until 3 in the morning, and it needs to be scanned that day (excluding weekends and holidays).

 

Hmmm - I found what Matt was talking about "Same Day Handling Cut-off".

 

It says that is the time cutoff it must be ordered by for same day handling. So that to me makes me think if they buy it before 4PM PST (what I set it to), then it must ship out next day, but if they don't, it wouldn't ship out for 2 days.

 

This is the exact text under it:

 

"Select the time by which you must receive cleared payment for an order to qualify for same business day handling."

Reading it again, i think that only affects "Same-day" orders.

 

That seems silly though. Ebay basically wants this to be your only job. They don't care though - all they do is run a website.

The only change under the new update is now ebay requires tracking numbers to be verified. You will get credit for 1 day handling if you upload your tracking within 1 day AND that tracking number is verified at some stage. Verification means a scan somewhere along the way (could be acceptance, sorting facility or even just delivery). As long as it is scanned somewhere you will get credit going back to when the tracking number was entered into ebay.

 

They did this as alot of sellers would simply type in a random number for tracking to get credit for items that are not trackable (baseball cards in envelopes etc). This allowed alot of sellers to recoup the FVF 2% credit for TRS and where taking money out of ebay coffers.

 

They go by when the tracking is uploaded, not when it is scanned for handling time. Again as long as it is scanned somewhere along the way that counts as verification. You can still print a label and not mail it for 3-4 days and get credit for 1 day handling as long as it scans somewhere. This was to rectify the fake tracking number issue, not the lazy seller issue.

Of more interest to me is the new defect rating (2 defects to lose TRS, 5 defects to be permabanned from selling). As we know currently when a buyer wishes to return an item the way it is set up a buyer will 90% of the time inadvertantly open a case when attempting to message the seller. Under the new update this will count as a defect. 

 

With hassle free returns however buyers do not get inadvertantly tripped up into opening  a case and you will only receive a defect if they choose to return it for 4 out of the 7 possible reasons which is much better odds than 90%. I am considering joining the hassle free returns program simply for this reason. How does everyone else feel?

The only change under the new update is now ebay requires tracking numbers to be verified. You will get credit for 1 day handling if you upload your tracking within 1 day AND that tracking number is verified at some stage. Verification means a scan somewhere along the way (could be acceptance, sorting facility or even just delivery). As long as it is scanned somewhere you will get credit going back to when the tracking number was entered into ebay.

 

They did this as alot of sellers would simply type in a random number for tracking to get credit for items that are not trackable (baseball cards in envelopes etc). This allowed alot of sellers to recoup the FVF 2% credit for TRS and where taking money out of ebay coffers.

 

They go by when the tracking is uploaded, not when it is scanned for handling time. Again as long as it is scanned somewhere along the way that counts as verification. You can still print a label and not mail it for 3-4 days and get credit for 1 day handling as long as it scans somewhere. This was to rectify the fake tracking number issue, not the lazy seller issue.

 

This makes more sense and would be awesome - because then we wont have to worry about the scanning issue as most of my post offices don't scan either.

 

I have done Hassle Free Returns for a while. The only thing that bothers me is that the people returning it because they just want to will just send it back and ask for a refund. They wont use the actual returning stuff. Which means I have to call Ebay to have them cancel it so I get my FVF back.

Yup you are correct - here it is:

 

A valid tracking number

I have done Hassle Free Returns for a while. The only thing that bothers me is that the people returning it because they just want to will just send it back and ask for a refund. They wont use the actual returning stuff. Which means I have to call Ebay to have them cancel it so I get my FVF back.

 

Did you think about charging 20% for returns like I do?  This % does make people think twice about whether they truly like it.

 

It's available in the ebay settings.

Come August those opened cases would count as defects. You would need 5 separate sellers to mistakenly open a case for the defects to potentially lose your TRS status if the total number of defects is greater than 2% of your transactions. 

 

So you can either cut back on the number you sell (as the more you sell the greater chance of running into problem buyers or having cases mistakenly opened) or you go all out and sell as much as you can to try and keep those defects below 2% of your total volume. 

 

I really think hassle free returns is the smart play to cut down on those inadvertant open cases. The only problem is alot of buyers know if they click on item not as described or damaged for the return reason they get free return shipping, and these reasons count as a defect. Next year hassle free returns will most likely be mandatory in the USA just as they are for business sellers in the UK under the new update. I think it will be wise to have many backup seller accounts ready to go.

 

As for the 20% restocking fee then that gives buyers an incentive to open a case for damaged item or SNAD and that will count as a defect. I feel you either offer no returns or you bend over with the hassle free returns with no restock fee if you want a long future with ebay.

Next year hassle free returns will most likely be mandatory in the USA just as they are for business sellers in the UK under the new update. I think it will be wise to have many backup seller accounts ready to go. As for the 20% restocking fee then that gives buyers an incentive to open a case for damaged item or SNAD and that will count as a defect. I feel you either offer no returns or you bend over with the hassle free returns with no restock fee if you want a long future with ebay.

It is the same from year to year. Basically to sell (as Top Rated sellers) on eBay you need to respond with "how high?" whenever they ask you to jump ;)

Yeah thats the worry with the restocking fee.

 

The people have avoided mine several times - but they do it by just sending the merchandise back and not actually initiating the return.