Buying and Selling on eBay: Tips, Tricks, Problems & Questions

[JohnMRobie]

I noticed the shipping complaints here and checked my own sales—indeed nothing has moved much since the first of December. A pair of shoes headed to Japan have made it the farthest: 18 miles to the USPS distribution center in only four days!

Does anyone know if stuff is moving, just not getting scanned, or is it not moving at all.
Is one of the other shippers doing any better? It sounds like all are affected, but I’d be willing to switch if there was a better option.
Last, this is just seasonal, right? Well get back to normal after they catch up from the Christmas crush?

Based on what the local guys at the NDC and SCFs up here have said its moving once it clears the NDC. But it's created a choke point from a combination of workers being out with covid or quarantining because they got exposed, the usual holiday rush, the increased online sales from people shopping at home for holiday gifts and the increase in people doing all their shopping at home to avoid stores. They literally didn't have space inside to unload anymore trucks to bring stuff in to be scanned when I talked to them so that was 80 trailers worth of stuff that had been "accepted" but not sorted. FedEx seems fine still. UPS is slightly delayed but usable.

 

[Tweets]

Just not scanned seems to be my luck, I get the scan where they scan my bulk scan form, I might get the regional distribution center scan that night, then usually the next is "delivered"

 

[FPB]

I'm seriously considering putting up a "seller is away" message until after the holidays. People are absolutely losing their minds about the USPS delays. I can't deal with any more angry messages from crazy buyers. The USPS is having "unprecedented delays" but that doesn't stop the crazies from blaming me for the shipping delays.

 

[Steve Smith]

I'm seriously considering putting up a "seller is away" message until after the holidays. People are absolutely losing their minds about the USPS delays. I can't deal with any more angry messages from crazy buyers. The USPS is having "unprecedented delays" but that doesn't stop the crazies from blaming me for the shipping delays.

Someone opened an Item Not Received case on a shirt on December 10. He paid for it on December 2. I'm in North Carolina, he's in California.

 

[Nickd]

I’m in the U.K. and we are having similar issues. The buyers are being patient but I’ve got stuff 2 weeks late at this point. I’ve pulled everything I had for sale, the delays aren’t likely to get better till after Christmas.

 

[FPB]

What is everyone doing about the "item not received" buyers? It's obvious that the USPS is overwhelmed, but nobody seems to care.

Given the tone of the messages I've received on ebay, I'm confident that I'm dealing with people who will not pay if I issue a refund (when their package eventually arrives).

 

[FPB]

I’m in the U.K. and we are having similar issues. The buyers are being patient but I’ve got stuff 2 weeks late at this point. I’ve pulled everything I had for sale, the delays aren’t likely to get better till after Christmas.

Wow, there is no patience in the USA. The losers I'm dealing with are demanding refunds a day or two after the expected arrival date.

 

[Tweets]

I'm completely bs'ing my way thru it, after they open the request, I tell them I will contact USPS and start a trace which routinely takes 48-72 hours to get a response. I proceed to do nothing. After 72 hours, I respond and tell them USPS tell me they've found it and it should be moving again in the next day or 2. At that point I've bought 5 days for USPS to get their crap together and get it moving.

 

[txwoodworker]

Just got another one of these yesterday, and another one cleared. One from mid November still MIA.
Out of 72 packages in the last 31 days, lots still in transit.
I don't imagine ebay will make any special concessions for the situation, sellers will bear the brunt. Let's hope they ultimately give consideration to save people's rep instead of using it to charge more fees.

 

[My Main Man]

 

[justridiculous]

This is crazy... I'm a small-time seller (just personal things), but I have like six packages that are lost somewhere in the postal system. Luckily, all of the buyers are being awesome. But, next year, I think I'll stop shipping/selling anything after November and won't start until the second week of January.

 

[My Main Man]

This is crazy... I'm a small-time seller (just personal things), but I have like six packages that are lost somewhere in the postal system. Luckily, all of the buyers are being awesome. But, next year, I think I'll stop shipping/selling anything after November and won't start until the second week of January.

If Louis DeJoy isn't the postmaster general next year and they have a few months to fix things, it'll be just fine. He really fucked things up for a lot of small business owners.

 

[Sartoriamo]

If Louis DeJoy isn't the postmaster general next year and they have a few months to fix things, it'll be just fine. He really fucked things up for a lot of small business owners.

Yep, it's the old story: USPS is essentially a public service that looks and runs like a business. The public service aspect requires subsidy because of the commitment to serve everybody at a "fair" price, however far away from a distribution center. It's that whole first and last mile thing. But people like Dipshit DeJoy come in from the hard-core business world and start slashing under the guise of "efficiency", thereby screwing with the public service nature of the enterprise. Of course, DeJoy was really put in to try and screw with the election by trying to cripple mail-in balloting. Thankfully he failed. I'll bet Biden cans his sorry ass on day one, or soon thereafter. USPS will bounce back pretty fast, IMHO, once they get all those intentionally disabled sorting machines deployed again.

 

[Letric]

So I ship only USPS and most of my packages have been going out fine. A couple have taken a few extra days to go through the arrival/destination sorting facilities but eventually get delivered. I do, however, have 2 items that are still only showing they've been processed through the local departure sorting facility.

One was sold on Dec 5th, packed and shipped Dec 7th and was destined for Birmingham, AL - Expected delivery of Dec 11th. Still says "Processed through USPS Sorting Facility" on Dec 9th. Another was sold on the 12th, shipped the 14th, processed through facility on the 15th and no further tracking since. That one was destined for Celina, OH.

Between those 2 items I've had 3 MN, 1 CA, 1 TX and 1 MO package be delivered. After that last one going to OH I've had 2 more packages go out, 1 was delivered in CA and another has multiple scans through my local sorting facility. The one that delivered to CA had multiple scans at both departure and arrival facilities.

So yeah I'd say that sorting facilities are probably a mess right now and things are probably being scanned, set aside, re-scanned, scanned again and eventually ship out. On arrival at the destination facility its the same story, which makes sense as my local post office has had lines out the door daily almost from open to close.

 

[carreragt7]

Is this as ridiculous as it seems to me?
I won an auction tonight. Seller has the exact same vintage timepiece simultaneously listed in a buy it now listing, asking price for over double what my winning bid is.
I was watching the the BIN listing as well as the auction, honestly hadn’t connected the dots on being same item just yet. 2 hours after winning the auction the dude sends out a Special Offer to the watchers of the BIN listing, at over $250 more than my winning price.
I haven’t paid yet, but the winning bid should be binding and he should just honor the sale, correct? And if the BIN listing ends from someone else purchasing it, it’s got to be something I can report the seller for, right?
Ending times clearly will show I was the first to commit to purchase, and the listing did not require immediate payment so I should have a reasonable amount of time after the auction ends to complete my end without him selling it out from under me in a different listing.