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I know very well that lower shipping costs will often prompt a Buyer to purchase from Seller C rather than Seller A; but certain costs must be added to the actual postage amount or a Seller is risking losing money just in the shipping of the item. We sell to make money, not give things away.
The USPS does not provide any free envelopes for 1st Class services. Sellers have to buy envelopes they want to use. We have invested in small bubble envelopes to protect the jewelry and small leather items I make. For larger items, we have invested in Tyvek envelopes. These are costly, and worth every penny. Adhesive labels for printing postage are not cheap. Add up the costs of labels, the ink to print them, envelopes, any internal packaging, and you have between fifty cents and a dollar that must be added to the Shipping & Handling we charge a Buyer.
You can see prices for yourself by taking a look at these same products the next time you go to Staples; but here are my most recent purchases:
100 Tyvek envelopes @ $32 = 32 Cents for your envelope
200 8x5 inch shipping labels @ $37 = 18.5 cents for your label
12 inch x 25 feet bubble wrap @ $6.80 = 26 cents per square foot section
So let's add that up:
.32 + .19 + .26 = 77 Cents JUST for your package
We can also add a handling charge. The person taking packages to the post office does like to be paid for his time, after all. We are fortunate to have a post office within walking distance of our home; but it is very small and lines of 25 people for two tellers are not uncommon. Other sellers, however, have to drive to the nearest post office. What's the cost of gas lately? Yep, they can add that to your S&H charges too! Add up the postage, envelope, label, Delivery Confirmation...the average Seller's charges are more reasonable than you think.
Parcel Post (Domestic) is estimated at 7 to 10 Business Days. Actual delivery could take up to 14 Business Days. Those of you in the Western half of the USA may well take the full 14 days. Your package is traveling 3000 miles when you buy from me. I have experienced this personally both as Buyer and as Seller. The Post Office does not provide free boxes for Parcel Post. A Seller either has to use a box they have purchased or recycle one that brought something to them. If purchased, the cost of the box (or tube) also is added to your Shipping & Handling charges.
Priority (Domestic, Variable Weight) is estimated at 2 to 3 Business Days, depending on distance. Those of you in the Western Half will take three or more days if the packages from from the East, and vice versa. Priority is not a guaranteed service. I have had a Priority package take five Business Days to get to Iowa.
USPS Prices increased AGAIN in May, 2008. If you recall, two years back a package weighing less than one pound cost $3.85 for basic Priority service. This year it went up to $4.75 before the Delivery Confirmation.
The USPS does provide Priority envelopes & boxes, so we don't have to add those costs. But if we print our own labels we still have to add that cost plus any internal packaging. I use Sunday's paper whenever possible. Two bucks for a thick pad of light paper is much more economical than bubble wrap, and serves perfectly well if the Seller knows how to use it properly. It depends on the item I'm shipping.
Priority Flat Rate is a terrific option for small items that weigh a lot. I use this option for shipping large purchases of beads and multiple purchases that I upgrade from Parcel Post to Priority. A Seller can stuff up to 4 pounds into a single flat rate envelope. Of course, there's no way four pounds of most items will FIT, but that's what the USPS allows. (Keep that in mind the next time you're shipping small bricks of gold.) A pound and a half of beads would cost more if sent in a bubble envelope with a Priority sticker on it.
There are also Flat Rate boxes but those start at $9+ for postage. Flat Rate Boxes have a weight limit of seventy pounds for domestic shipping. The Flat Rate option is a great equalizer for heavy items. It makes shipping costs more reasonable for west coast buyers, as the USPS does indeed add extra for distance on Parcel Post and variable weight Priority. What costs $9 to ship to Ohio may cost $12 to ship to California. By using the flat rate box, I can cut it right down the middle and everyone pays the same amount. Everyone wins. But be careful! There are two sizes of flat rate boxes. One is a shirt box. The other is a small cube. The cube COSTS MORE to ship. Like $4 more. That is an OUCH at the post office!
Express USPS is estimated at 1 to 2 days, depending on distance and the time of day the item is taken to the post office. If you pay me at 3pm and want Express, the package likely isn't going to get to the post office until the next morning. If you live in the Pacific Time Zone, Express will take two days to get there from New York. Express is delivered on both Saturday and Sunday, so the term business days does not apply. This is the ONLY service for which the USPS guarantees delivery date and time.
Media Mail is a specialized service for books, sound recordings, video tapes, sheet music and recorded computer-readable media such as cd's, dvd's and diskettes. This service estimates delivery at about seven days. Heavy books are expensive to ship via any other service except Priority Flat Rate. CD's and DVD's, however, really don't weigh all that much unless you're buying a boxed set. Sending individual CD's and computer games via 1st Class is usually the better option for optimum customer service.
BUYER BEWARE!!! Some unscrupulous Sellers will charge you $15 parcel post to ship that Butterfly Island play set and then ship via Media Mail. In doing this, they pocket HALF what they charged you for shipping. They also commit the felony of Interstate Mail Fraud. You can report that seller to your local Post Office Manager (take pictures of your item and the label) and they will tell you how to proceed.
Conversely, if you pay for Parcel Post and your item is shipped via 1st Class, you have received a service upgrade, from 7-10 day delivery to 2-5 days. Consider this when your hand is hovering over the mouse and you're about to click the Stars.
I offer two shipping selections with nearly every invoice. 1st Class/Parcel Post and Priority are my usual selection. I think maybe five people have actually requested and paid for Express USPS service. For larger or heavier boxes, I will offer UPS as a third service, usually for comparison as it is almost never a better price than USPS.
With the choice being offered, it is the Buyer's decision
A package is postmarked November 4th. The 11th of November is Veteran's Day, making the tenth Business Day the 21st of November. Thanksgiving Day is another Federal Holiday, causing the 14th Business Day to be the 28th of November. I cannot file a complaint with the Post Office until the 28th. Yes, this is 24 days in total, but it is only 14 Business Days.
Sellers are NOT responsible for the Post Office being slow
Ebay tells Every Buyer in the Shipping section of every listing; but some Buyers insist it must be the Seller's fault a package is late. The Post Office does not guarantee delivery days or times so neither can we. If you select Parcel Post and the package takes eight Business Days to arrive, you cannot complain that delivery was slow. It arrived within the 7-10 Business Day estimation.
If you are impatient and want a package there in three days, then you must take the responsibility onto yourself to choose and pay for Priority. If you are more concerned about saving the buck, then you cannot complain about shipping charges OR slow delivery. And when it comes time to click the little stars in the Feedback rating system, keep in mind that it was NOT the Seller who chose parcel post. YOU did that all by yourself. You rate us on the time it took us to get the package to the post office, not the time the post office took to get your package to you.
If the Seller took the package to the post office in timely fashion, there is nothing more he can do until the appropriate number of days has passed. Timely fashion, in my opinion, is within two business days of receiving your payment. The Post Office won't even start a search until fourteen business days have passed. Getting mad at the Seller isn't going to help.
Emailing the Seller three times a day for three days isn't going to help.
Threatening or blackmailing the Seller is a violation of eBay policy.
Running to PayPal to file a dispute on the 7th Business Day will make your Seller VERY angry.
And don't tell the Seller to go "find" your package. Canadian customs office is not going to let us walk through their facility and search the packages.
Giving a Seller low Star Mark feedback ratings based on the service of the Post Office is entirely unfair and is a misuse of the rating system. Ebay tells the Buyer to rate us on the time it took us to take the package to the post office, NOT the time it took the post office to deliver your package. (Yes, I know I repeated that. I can't say it enough.) Look at the postmark on your package. Is it within two business days of your payment? Remember not to count Saturday and Sunday--the Post Office doesn't, so neither should you. If it is within two Business Days of your payment, then the Seller has fulfilled their obligation to fast shipping and you have nothing to complain about. Call the post office and complain to them.
Consider also the time of year. I'm not referring to holidays this time, but the weather. Southern Gulf and Eastern Coastal states may be having a very active hurricane season, like a couple years back when three separate storms tracked across Florida within three months, one after the other. It took the postal system three months to recover from that. I had many delayed packages during that time, some of which took three or four weeks to arrive. Fortunately, my Buyers understood the problem all too well--they were living in the middle of it all. No one was getting any deliveries.
I must add that every one of my delayed packages did eventually arrive and not one was damaged. We may grouse about our USPS, but it really is one of the best and most efficient in the world. Thank you, Ben Franklin!
Delivery Confirmation: It has been our experience that packages without DC are the ones that get lost. We started to use it as a standard service years ago. Indeed, the use of DC is required (and invaluable) in order to help the Seller during disputes in PayPal. It's hard for a Buyer to say they didn't get it when the DC states quite clearly the exact day and time a package was delivered. The cost of DC is built into every shipping option we offer. DC does have its limitations and not every Seller uses it as a standard feature of shipping. Check with your Sellers to see if you have to request and purchase DC as a separate feature or if it is included in your shipping price. It is money well spent and you are foolish NOT to request it.
If you pay for your item through PayPal and your Seller prints postage through PayPal, you should get an email the minute the label is printed. It includes a link to 'track' the package and you can click it whenever you want. That link almost never updates until the package is on your doorstep, so you might think it's actually quite useless. Keep that email! The link has the DC number and if your package doesn't arrive (or you think it didn't arrive), then you can check it to find out for yourself what the USPS has to say. Keep it in your Inbox and delete when the package arrives. Or make a specific file in your email to hold these links and periodically clean it out.
A common misconception is that the DC number will show exactly where a package is at any given moment. It is not a tracking number. It is confirmation of delivery. A package may show acceptance at the shipper's local Post Office and may not be updated again until it is delivered to your door. If it goes through a regional distribution center, in Washington State, Maryland, New Jersey and Jacksonville, it may be scanned on arrival at the facility and not again until it reaches your door. This could be as little as one day or as many as five.
Giving a Seller a low Star Mark in communication for the USPS not updating the DC information is completely unfair. We have no control over updates to the USPS website or how they handle your package. And don't go freaking out if you're in California and your package travels through Washington State. Packages don't go from my itty bitty post office directly to your itty bitty post office. They travel with millions of others to regional facilities and are then sorted to their cities. Then they are sorted to their individual ZIP Codes. Then your postal worker compiles his or her route and delivers it to you.
DC numbers are not updated to reflect delivery until your neighborhood Postal Carrier returns to base at the end of the shift and uploads his scanner. If you are on the Western end of the country, this means your Seller in the East won't see an update until 9pm or later. If you've already been in contact because the package has been slow getting to you, please contact your Seller and let them know the item arrived. Communication works both ways.
Delivery Confirmation is exactly that...it confirms a package has been delivered and when. Nothing more. Even the USPS cannot tell us exactly where a package is if we call their Customer Service line. What we see when we check the DC number on the website is exactly what they see when they check the DC number. Demanding your Seller tell you where your package is is futile. All the Seller can do is tell you it's in the hands of the USPS. Getting angry at the Seller for not being able to tell you more is inappropriate. The Seller can't do anything about it and has done nothing wrong. We are likely to be as frustrated as you are. Too bad we can't leave feedback Star Marks for the USPS!
However you have typed your name and address in your Ebay/PayPal accounts is how it's going to show up on the address label we print. If you use all lower case letters, misspell your name or put your city twice, that's how it is. I (and most sellers) do not have the time nor the inclination to correct every style error. And they are many. A correctly formatted and capitalized address label is a rare occurrence. It looks like this:
Patty Purchaser
1234 Buyer Lane
Apt. 92
Everywhere Falls, OH 43605
PayPal's postal label system has a safety catch that will prevent us from printing if the ZIP code and address don't match the USPS official street register. If the city you have typed isn't correct or isn't abbreviated correctly, even if the street name is misspelled, it'll stop us. If we cannot figure out what the problem is, that means we have to go to the post office and stand in line. What's more, if we alter that address, we risk voiding our Seller Protection.
It is your responsibility to make sure your address
If you moved, CHANGE IT before you make more purchases! Only takes a minute once you find it in your Buyer Account section. There are probably three or four addresses there. Change every single one of them!
Writing the Seller after you make a purchase to tell them to ship to your new address puts the Seller in a very bad position. If we ship to an address other than the one in your payment, we void our Seller Protection. We are under NO obligation to ship to ANY address other than the one given with your payment. Even if the item is a gift and you want it sent three states away. We are supposed to send it to you and then YOU pay additional and YOU stand in line to ship the item to your recipient. Yes, it's a crappy system; but one Sellers really cannot do anything about. We're lucky PayPal is now covering some of us for Unconfirmed Addresses.
CHECK your City! Sometimes it will stop a label from printing if you use St. Elsewhere instead of St Elsewhere, or vice versa, so please be sure you have everything correct in both your Ebay and PayPal accounts. What's the difference, you ask? The period after the abbreviation for Saint. More than once I've had the software tell me the address doesn't exist and I've had to edit out a single letter or that period. St. Paul should be St Paul, MN. St. Louis should be Saint Louis. No, it's not consistent. Yep, drives us nuts. But there's nothing Sellers can do about it except complain to PayPal. Yep, I surely have done that.
We are assuming in this Guide
And again, look at the postmark on your package. If it was posted the day the Seller said it was, then leaving feedback of slow shipping is entirely unwarranted and unfair. That complaint should be made to the USPS or your own country's postal system, not the Seller. Once we take a package to the post office, what happens to it is completely out of our control.
Buyers can rate the seller on five different criteria; but we cannot rate you on how long it took you to get your payment to us. I'm looking squarely at those who pay by money order and take two weeks to put said payment into the mail and think the Buyer is supposed to be happy about it.
But how does the Buyer decide what star to give? Do they think, well I didn't get any emails except the one from PayPal, so I'm going to call that poor communication and give two stars. How many times SHOULD a Seller email? Once each for your purchase, your payment, shipping notification...and what else? Multiply that times however many sales and a Seller has to hire someone just to send out all these emails. As a sometime Buyer myself, I'm perfectly happy to get the email telling me the label has been printed and here's the link. If I don't have a problem with the item, that's all the communication I need. I don't need or want my inbox inundated with mail from paranoid Sellers worried about what stars I'll leave them. This is particularly important for PowerSellers now than we get a discount based on our star marks. If we have an average of 4.6 to 4.7, we get 5% off our final value fees. If we have 4.8 or higher, we get 15%. So one cruel (or stupid) buyer can completely ruin a Seller's chance for getting that valuable discount that month. It's already happened to me, done by a newbie who complained about all of his Sellers because he can't receive negatives anymore.
The sad thing is that Sellers
We cannot rate you on your lack of communication when you don't respond to invoices. Thus, giving US a low Star Mark for communication when you never bothered to contact us with a problem is also unjust. Communication works both ways. Oh, and if you bought an item and it wasn't exactly what you wanted, that's not our fault either. Keep the comment to yourself. If it isn't what you want, DON'T BUY IT in the first place! Would help if you read a Seller's policies too, but according to my traffic reports, maybe 3 out of 7,000 people a MONTH go to my store policy page. Can't say how many of those three actually read it. If you don't read the Seller's policies, you can only complain to yourself when things go wrong.
Then there are the ones who give low marks for shipping costs when I actually undercharged them. I spend fifty cents out of my slim profits to cover an underestimate in shipping price (and email the Buyer to tell them this) and the Buyer thinks their shipping cost was 'reasonable' for four stars instead of Very Reasonable for five stars? Gee, thanks. But if I emailed to say 'oops, can you send me another half a buck?', I'd get nailed to the wall.
I keep on top of my Feedback at all times. I like to leave my comments as soon as a Buyer has left theirs. So I know EXACTLY who has given me a low Star Mark, and in what category. Usually it's the shipping charges, and mine are among the MOST reasonable I've ever seen. If my feedback has been unchanged for two days and the next person leaves a positive comment but my Star Marks drop from 4.9 to 4.6, then it is unmistakable who has chosen to bash my marks.
Do not make the mistake of thinking Star Marks are anonymous. Those of us who watch our numbers know exactly who has done what. Do not make the mistake of thinking Sellers cannot leave negative. While we will not be able to click a little circle to give a big red dot, we WILL still be able to leave comments. Ebay says not being able to leave negative for bad Buyers will bring a more transparent and honest Feedback system. I think it will allow unscrupulous, unpleasable Buyers to ruin the reputations of good people just trying to make a living.
Many Sellers are individuals making or subsidizing our living from Ebay sales. We aren't huge, faceless conglomerates. We aren't getting rich. And we aren't dabbling in a hobby. We are running a business. We pay the rent, put food on the table and clothing on our children with our eBay earnings.
We work hard to maintain our reputations.
Tyler.
The USPS does not provide any free envelopes for 1st Class services. Sellers have to buy envelopes they want to use. We have invested in small bubble envelopes to protect the jewelry and small leather items I make. For larger items, we have invested in Tyvek envelopes. These are costly, and worth every penny. Adhesive labels for printing postage are not cheap. Add up the costs of labels, the ink to print them, envelopes, any internal packaging, and you have between fifty cents and a dollar that must be added to the Shipping & Handling we charge a Buyer.
You can see prices for yourself by taking a look at these same products the next time you go to Staples; but here are my most recent purchases:
100 Tyvek envelopes @ $32 = 32 Cents for your envelope
200 8x5 inch shipping labels @ $37 = 18.5 cents for your label
12 inch x 25 feet bubble wrap @ $6.80 = 26 cents per square foot section
So let's add that up:
.32 + .19 + .26 = 77 Cents JUST for your package
Ebay tells Sellers to add these costs to Shipping & Handling.
A Summary of USPS Services:
First Class Parcel (Domestic) is estimated to take 2 to 5 Business Days to reach the Buyer but is limited to 13 ounces. This is a new weight, increased from the previous 11 ounces in May, 2007. It is faster than Parcel Post, costs less than Priority & allows us to offer the lowest possible shipping price with the shortest delivery time for a light envelope.Parcel Post (Domestic) is estimated at 7 to 10 Business Days. Actual delivery could take up to 14 Business Days. Those of you in the Western half of the USA may well take the full 14 days. Your package is traveling 3000 miles when you buy from me. I have experienced this personally both as Buyer and as Seller. The Post Office does not provide free boxes for Parcel Post. A Seller either has to use a box they have purchased or recycle one that brought something to them. If purchased, the cost of the box (or tube) also is added to your Shipping & Handling charges.
Priority (Domestic, Variable Weight) is estimated at 2 to 3 Business Days, depending on distance. Those of you in the Western Half will take three or more days if the packages from from the East, and vice versa. Priority is not a guaranteed service. I have had a Priority package take five Business Days to get to Iowa.
USPS Prices increased AGAIN in May, 2008. If you recall, two years back a package weighing less than one pound cost $3.85 for basic Priority service. This year it went up to $4.75 before the Delivery Confirmation.
The USPS does provide Priority envelopes & boxes, so we don't have to add those costs. But if we print our own labels we still have to add that cost plus any internal packaging. I use Sunday's paper whenever possible. Two bucks for a thick pad of light paper is much more economical than bubble wrap, and serves perfectly well if the Seller knows how to use it properly. It depends on the item I'm shipping.
Priority Flat Rate is a terrific option for small items that weigh a lot. I use this option for shipping large purchases of beads and multiple purchases that I upgrade from Parcel Post to Priority. A Seller can stuff up to 4 pounds into a single flat rate envelope. Of course, there's no way four pounds of most items will FIT, but that's what the USPS allows. (Keep that in mind the next time you're shipping small bricks of gold.) A pound and a half of beads would cost more if sent in a bubble envelope with a Priority sticker on it.
There are also Flat Rate boxes but those start at $9+ for postage. Flat Rate Boxes have a weight limit of seventy pounds for domestic shipping. The Flat Rate option is a great equalizer for heavy items. It makes shipping costs more reasonable for west coast buyers, as the USPS does indeed add extra for distance on Parcel Post and variable weight Priority. What costs $9 to ship to Ohio may cost $12 to ship to California. By using the flat rate box, I can cut it right down the middle and everyone pays the same amount. Everyone wins. But be careful! There are two sizes of flat rate boxes. One is a shirt box. The other is a small cube. The cube COSTS MORE to ship. Like $4 more. That is an OUCH at the post office!
Express USPS is estimated at 1 to 2 days, depending on distance and the time of day the item is taken to the post office. If you pay me at 3pm and want Express, the package likely isn't going to get to the post office until the next morning. If you live in the Pacific Time Zone, Express will take two days to get there from New York. Express is delivered on both Saturday and Sunday, so the term business days does not apply. This is the ONLY service for which the USPS guarantees delivery date and time.
Media Mail is a specialized service for books, sound recordings, video tapes, sheet music and recorded computer-readable media such as cd's, dvd's and diskettes. This service estimates delivery at about seven days. Heavy books are expensive to ship via any other service except Priority Flat Rate. CD's and DVD's, however, really don't weigh all that much unless you're buying a boxed set. Sending individual CD's and computer games via 1st Class is usually the better option for optimum customer service.
BUYER BEWARE!!! Some unscrupulous Sellers will charge you $15 parcel post to ship that Butterfly Island play set and then ship via Media Mail. In doing this, they pocket HALF what they charged you for shipping. They also commit the felony of Interstate Mail Fraud. You can report that seller to your local Post Office Manager (take pictures of your item and the label) and they will tell you how to proceed.
Conversely, if you pay for Parcel Post and your item is shipped via 1st Class, you have received a service upgrade, from 7-10 day delivery to 2-5 days. Consider this when your hand is hovering over the mouse and you're about to click the Stars.
I offer two shipping selections with nearly every invoice. 1st Class/Parcel Post and Priority are my usual selection. I think maybe five people have actually requested and paid for Express USPS service. For larger or heavier boxes, I will offer UPS as a third service, usually for comparison as it is almost never a better price than USPS.
With the choice being offered, it is the Buyer's decision
how long the package will take to arrive.
That matter is entirely out of the Seller's hand
the instant the Buyer pays.
Now a word from our sponsor...PayPal. If you buy an item and pay for it immediately, then purchase a second item 12 hours later and pay for it separately, PayPal rules say we have to ship them separately. The buyer who does this will then give me low marks for shipping and handling. Why? I'm not the one who can't follow instructions. Lately, I've been having people who buy things one item at a time, and when I try to send an invoice with adjusted shipping costs to combine the two (since I usually haven't sent out the first one yet), the buyer sits on it and sits on it. Then they give me low marks for shipping time. GIMME A BREAK ALREADY!
As we get closer to Christmas and Valentine's Day, or your mother's birthday, the choice or Priority becomes prudent. USPS Express is very expensive, starting at $16 (from PO Box to PO Box) and going upupup based on weight and whether it's going to a residence or a PO Box. But if you really want it to get there on time and it's now three days before Christmas, or Mom's birthday, this or Federal Express/UPS Overnight may be your only options. Shop early!!! Don't go blaming the Seller for a package not arriving in time when YOU should have bought sooner.
Please take into consideration the many Federal Holidays the USA enjoys. November alone has two of them, and is a crucial shipping month. There are four Federal Holidays in the two month period from November 1st to January 2nd. Nothing in the Postal System moves on Federal Holidays and all shipments are delayed at least one day for each of them. Add to this the crush of boxes and envelopes for the gift-giving season and delays are all too commonplace. Don't go blaming the Seller for the mad crush the Post Office Experiences. BUY SOONER or PAY for faster shipping service.
MY PACKAGE IS LOST!!!
A Parcel Post or First Class package is not considered lost until the 14th Business Days after the postmark. Let us see an example of what this could mean in a worst case scenario:A package is postmarked November 4th. The 11th of November is Veteran's Day, making the tenth Business Day the 21st of November. Thanksgiving Day is another Federal Holiday, causing the 14th Business Day to be the 28th of November. I cannot file a complaint with the Post Office until the 28th. Yes, this is 24 days in total, but it is only 14 Business Days.
Sellers are NOT responsible for the Post Office being slow
Read that again please.
If you are impatient and want a package there in three days, then you must take the responsibility onto yourself to choose and pay for Priority. If you are more concerned about saving the buck, then you cannot complain about shipping charges OR slow delivery. And when it comes time to click the little stars in the Feedback rating system, keep in mind that it was NOT the Seller who chose parcel post. YOU did that all by yourself. You rate us on the time it took us to get the package to the post office, not the time the post office took to get your package to you.
If the Seller took the package to the post office in timely fashion, there is nothing more he can do until the appropriate number of days has passed. Timely fashion, in my opinion, is within two business days of receiving your payment. The Post Office won't even start a search until fourteen business days have passed. Getting mad at the Seller isn't going to help.
Emailing the Seller three times a day for three days isn't going to help.
Threatening or blackmailing the Seller is a violation of eBay policy.
Running to PayPal to file a dispute on the 7th Business Day will make your Seller VERY angry.
And don't tell the Seller to go "find" your package. Canadian customs office is not going to let us walk through their facility and search the packages.
Giving a Seller low Star Mark feedback ratings based on the service of the Post Office is entirely unfair and is a misuse of the rating system. Ebay tells the Buyer to rate us on the time it took us to take the package to the post office, NOT the time it took the post office to deliver your package. (Yes, I know I repeated that. I can't say it enough.) Look at the postmark on your package. Is it within two business days of your payment? Remember not to count Saturday and Sunday--the Post Office doesn't, so neither should you. If it is within two Business Days of your payment, then the Seller has fulfilled their obligation to fast shipping and you have nothing to complain about. Call the post office and complain to them.
Consider also the time of year. I'm not referring to holidays this time, but the weather. Southern Gulf and Eastern Coastal states may be having a very active hurricane season, like a couple years back when three separate storms tracked across Florida within three months, one after the other. It took the postal system three months to recover from that. I had many delayed packages during that time, some of which took three or four weeks to arrive. Fortunately, my Buyers understood the problem all too well--they were living in the middle of it all. No one was getting any deliveries.
I must add that every one of my delayed packages did eventually arrive and not one was damaged. We may grouse about our USPS, but it really is one of the best and most efficient in the world. Thank you, Ben Franklin!
Delivery Confirmation: It has been our experience that packages without DC are the ones that get lost. We started to use it as a standard service years ago. Indeed, the use of DC is required (and invaluable) in order to help the Seller during disputes in PayPal. It's hard for a Buyer to say they didn't get it when the DC states quite clearly the exact day and time a package was delivered. The cost of DC is built into every shipping option we offer. DC does have its limitations and not every Seller uses it as a standard feature of shipping. Check with your Sellers to see if you have to request and purchase DC as a separate feature or if it is included in your shipping price. It is money well spent and you are foolish NOT to request it.
If you pay for your item through PayPal and your Seller prints postage through PayPal, you should get an email the minute the label is printed. It includes a link to 'track' the package and you can click it whenever you want. That link almost never updates until the package is on your doorstep, so you might think it's actually quite useless. Keep that email! The link has the DC number and if your package doesn't arrive (or you think it didn't arrive), then you can check it to find out for yourself what the USPS has to say. Keep it in your Inbox and delete when the package arrives. Or make a specific file in your email to hold these links and periodically clean it out.
A common misconception is that the DC number will show exactly where a package is at any given moment. It is not a tracking number. It is confirmation of delivery. A package may show acceptance at the shipper's local Post Office and may not be updated again until it is delivered to your door. If it goes through a regional distribution center, in Washington State, Maryland, New Jersey and Jacksonville, it may be scanned on arrival at the facility and not again until it reaches your door. This could be as little as one day or as many as five.
Giving a Seller a low Star Mark in communication for the USPS not updating the DC information is completely unfair. We have no control over updates to the USPS website or how they handle your package. And don't go freaking out if you're in California and your package travels through Washington State. Packages don't go from my itty bitty post office directly to your itty bitty post office. They travel with millions of others to regional facilities and are then sorted to their cities. Then they are sorted to their individual ZIP Codes. Then your postal worker compiles his or her route and delivers it to you.
DC numbers are not updated to reflect delivery until your neighborhood Postal Carrier returns to base at the end of the shift and uploads his scanner. If you are on the Western end of the country, this means your Seller in the East won't see an update until 9pm or later. If you've already been in contact because the package has been slow getting to you, please contact your Seller and let them know the item arrived. Communication works both ways.
Delivery Confirmation is exactly that...it confirms a package has been delivered and when. Nothing more. Even the USPS cannot tell us exactly where a package is if we call their Customer Service line. What we see when we check the DC number on the website is exactly what they see when they check the DC number. Demanding your Seller tell you where your package is is futile. All the Seller can do is tell you it's in the hands of the USPS. Getting angry at the Seller for not being able to tell you more is inappropriate. The Seller can't do anything about it and has done nothing wrong. We are likely to be as frustrated as you are. Too bad we can't leave feedback Star Marks for the USPS!
A quick word about your address!
Patty Purchaser
1234 Buyer Lane
Apt. 92
Everywhere Falls, OH 43605
PayPal's postal label system has a safety catch that will prevent us from printing if the ZIP code and address don't match the USPS official street register. If the city you have typed isn't correct or isn't abbreviated correctly, even if the street name is misspelled, it'll stop us. If we cannot figure out what the problem is, that means we have to go to the post office and stand in line. What's more, if we alter that address, we risk voiding our Seller Protection.
It is your responsibility to make sure your address
is correct
and how you want it to appear.
If you moved, CHANGE IT before you make more purchases! Only takes a minute once you find it in your Buyer Account section. There are probably three or four addresses there. Change every single one of them!Writing the Seller after you make a purchase to tell them to ship to your new address puts the Seller in a very bad position. If we ship to an address other than the one in your payment, we void our Seller Protection. We are under NO obligation to ship to ANY address other than the one given with your payment. Even if the item is a gift and you want it sent three states away. We are supposed to send it to you and then YOU pay additional and YOU stand in line to ship the item to your recipient. Yes, it's a crappy system; but one Sellers really cannot do anything about. We're lucky PayPal is now covering some of us for Unconfirmed Addresses.
CHECK your City! Sometimes it will stop a label from printing if you use St. Elsewhere instead of St Elsewhere, or vice versa, so please be sure you have everything correct in both your Ebay and PayPal accounts. What's the difference, you ask? The period after the abbreviation for Saint. More than once I've had the software tell me the address doesn't exist and I've had to edit out a single letter or that period. St. Paul should be St Paul, MN. St. Louis should be Saint Louis. No, it's not consistent. Yep, drives us nuts. But there's nothing Sellers can do about it except complain to PayPal. Yep, I surely have done that.
So if you have Sellers commonly tell you there's a problem with your address, it's not the Sellers being incompetent! They aren't insane, I promise you...Computer software is only as smart as the idjits who wrote the programming.
We are assuming in this Guide
that the Seller has done or wants to do
everything correctly and that there is
no deception on their part.
Look at the feedback comments. Trust the feedback comments. If the feedback says fast shipping all over the place, then a late package is not standard operating procedure. Look also at the feedback of any unhappy Buyers. Do they commonly leave the same comments to all their Sellers? Are they habitual complainers who simply cannot be pleased? Consider your sources.
And again, look at the postmark on your package. If it was posted the day the Seller said it was, then leaving feedback of slow shipping is entirely unwarranted and unfair. That complaint should be made to the USPS or your own country's postal system, not the Seller. Once we take a package to the post office, what happens to it is completely out of our control.
Use the Star Mark system Appropriately, Fairly and Ethically.
Buyers can rate the seller on five different criteria; but we cannot rate you on how long it took you to get your payment to us. I'm looking squarely at those who pay by money order and take two weeks to put said payment into the mail and think the Buyer is supposed to be happy about it.
But how does the Buyer decide what star to give? Do they think, well I didn't get any emails except the one from PayPal, so I'm going to call that poor communication and give two stars. How many times SHOULD a Seller email? Once each for your purchase, your payment, shipping notification...and what else? Multiply that times however many sales and a Seller has to hire someone just to send out all these emails. As a sometime Buyer myself, I'm perfectly happy to get the email telling me the label has been printed and here's the link. If I don't have a problem with the item, that's all the communication I need. I don't need or want my inbox inundated with mail from paranoid Sellers worried about what stars I'll leave them. This is particularly important for PowerSellers now than we get a discount based on our star marks. If we have an average of 4.6 to 4.7, we get 5% off our final value fees. If we have 4.8 or higher, we get 15%. So one cruel (or stupid) buyer can completely ruin a Seller's chance for getting that valuable discount that month. It's already happened to me, done by a newbie who complained about all of his Sellers because he can't receive negatives anymore.
The sad thing is that Sellers
are treated like villains
when there are more unscrupulous buyers than Sellers.
We cannot rate you on your lack of communication when you don't respond to invoices. Thus, giving US a low Star Mark for communication when you never bothered to contact us with a problem is also unjust. Communication works both ways. Oh, and if you bought an item and it wasn't exactly what you wanted, that's not our fault either. Keep the comment to yourself. If it isn't what you want, DON'T BUY IT in the first place! Would help if you read a Seller's policies too, but according to my traffic reports, maybe 3 out of 7,000 people a MONTH go to my store policy page. Can't say how many of those three actually read it. If you don't read the Seller's policies, you can only complain to yourself when things go wrong.Then there are the ones who give low marks for shipping costs when I actually undercharged them. I spend fifty cents out of my slim profits to cover an underestimate in shipping price (and email the Buyer to tell them this) and the Buyer thinks their shipping cost was 'reasonable' for four stars instead of Very Reasonable for five stars? Gee, thanks. But if I emailed to say 'oops, can you send me another half a buck?', I'd get nailed to the wall.
I keep on top of my Feedback at all times. I like to leave my comments as soon as a Buyer has left theirs. So I know EXACTLY who has given me a low Star Mark, and in what category. Usually it's the shipping charges, and mine are among the MOST reasonable I've ever seen. If my feedback has been unchanged for two days and the next person leaves a positive comment but my Star Marks drop from 4.9 to 4.6, then it is unmistakable who has chosen to bash my marks.
Do not make the mistake of thinking Star Marks are anonymous. Those of us who watch our numbers know exactly who has done what. Do not make the mistake of thinking Sellers cannot leave negative. While we will not be able to click a little circle to give a big red dot, we WILL still be able to leave comments. Ebay says not being able to leave negative for bad Buyers will bring a more transparent and honest Feedback system. I think it will allow unscrupulous, unpleasable Buyers to ruin the reputations of good people just trying to make a living.
Many Sellers are individuals making or subsidizing our living from Ebay sales. We aren't huge, faceless conglomerates. We aren't getting rich. And we aren't dabbling in a hobby. We are running a business. We pay the rent, put food on the table and clothing on our children with our eBay earnings.
We work hard to maintain our reputations.
Tyler.
PS...Just because you read something you don't like doesn't make it inaccurate--and doesn't mean it wasn't helpful. I don't tell you what you want to hear. I tell the truth. Please vote!
Guide created: 11/26/05 (updated 10/04/08)
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