Don't understand this new shipping rating

I’m confused, just noticed and don’t understand why we’re being rated on handling time and delivery time. What does handling time even mean?

asked over 10 years ago

belmodo
Reputation: 48
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8 Comments

bonanzamark says: December 06, 2013

@belmodo, you are not being rated. The shipping carriers delivery times are being shown so buyers can have a realistic idea of when they will get their purchases. Feel free to direct any other questions you may have directly to support.

thevintageflea says: December 07, 2013

Mark, You may not call it a rating but any customer seeing a gradual on anything will definitely see view it as a rating and have second thoughts about buying

autonutt says: December 07, 2013

I agree.. if the information boldly posted on every item detail page said “Carrier Handling Time X days X hours” it would be one thing, but saying “Shipping Time GRADUAL” not only counts factors outside of the seller’s control, converting that data to Quick, Medium or Gradual implies a RATING.

belmodo says: December 07, 2013

It’s not rating the email response, handling and shipping then what is it doing?

DMAntiquesEtc says: December 08, 2013

Shouldn’t we be rated on how quickly we 1. communicate with a buyer and 2. get the item packaged and to whatever shipping service we use?

autonutt says: December 12, 2013

It’s OK.. Mark’s own email response time rating is “Gradual” on his item pages, so it may take some time to rectify this situation..

autonutt says: December 12, 2013

(BTW.. that wasn’t a personal attack on Mark… just trying to point out how those metric, boldly printed on each of our item pages, might be construed as a negative rating by our customers.)

purpjay says: December 13, 2013

Is this turning into ebay? WOW

16 Answers

rated on the delivery time? I have no control over the post office! My items are posted within 24 hours! Yet, I get rated on something out of my control.

answered over 10 years ago

It is a shame that sellers & buyers will lose this very valuable tool due to false ratings that can hurt sales. Thus sellers will no longer enter tracking numbers and buyers cannot click to see where the package is.
The metrics are not taking into account that many small Post offices are closed Saturdays and all closed on Holidays. I had a package purchased on a Sunday, mailed at the PO and scanned at 9am the following Monday morning. It is marked Medium as Sunday is counted, as is Thanksgiving Thursday. The package arrived at the destination PO Friday afternoon, and as no delivery on Sat or Sunday, was delivered Monday morning. My tracking count started Sunday at the time of the sale.
The most important metric of all does not show, which is date seller last logged in.

answered over 10 years ago

Dear Mark and [URL removed]

Could you all please reconsider having the Delivery rating? Although based on what has been said in that it is not meant to be a rating on us, it does reflect on us. To the buyer it is our rating.

Please, can you all talk to us about this. I do not know if the clock starts ticking from the time the listing is purchased or from the time that the package ships. I do not know how it is figured when we get a quick, medium or a gradual. I can guess but without being talked to about this I’m not 100% sure.

I mean, if I send a package out in the length of time that I say I will to a buyer, which is within a reasonable amount of time whether it be that I say it by email to the buyer or in my listings and the post office takes the amount of time that they say they will for a media mail package, it does not seem fair to receive a medium or gradual. For my Handling time rating, it shows that I am a responsible seller on shipping out in a reasonable amount of time. Plus, if the buyer feels like they received poor customer service in shipping time they can also leave a negative or neutral.

I imagine that behind the scenes there may be another side to this that you all have seen. Being responsible sellers though with good customer service skills, the Delivery time is not an accurate tool because it does reflect on us solely and for the reasons stated further above.

Thank you.

answered over 10 years ago

I don’t either as we have no control over how slow or fast the shipping service used is

answered over 10 years ago

1 Comment

FrogAndBearCreations says: December 08, 2013

media mail will bomb your rating down to gradual as there is no way its going to be delivered fast – I have “free shipping” on my items and will not sent an inexpensive item priority mail just to avoid a bad rating on the post office delivery time service so I guess I will not be adding the tracking

Here are some places you might get more info’ about [URL removed]

[URL removed]

[URL removed]

I’m no longer selling, but I thought I’d send the links to you through as a reply, as I didn’t really read all the replies, but maybe one or two might help you in some ways, then again, perhaps not, as I said, I’m just trying to be helpful if at all possible.

answered over 10 years ago

If we don’t add the tracking information, we can’t be rated. Since we can’t control the post office, why should this affects us? I just won’t add the tracking number.

answered over 10 years ago

Eliray
Reputation: 114
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2 Comments

belmodo says: December 06, 2013

So it’s actually better to not put in the tracking number.

FrogAndBearCreations says: December 08, 2013

yes, to not adding the tracking number! Since my accepted payment method is paypal I really don’t need to add it here. I will just send it in a thank you message to the buyer

I have an item that shipped on the 27th, arrived at the post office on the 30th, was out for delivery on the 1st and the postman in the buyer’s city left notice at his home for whatever reason. Now it’s the 7th and item still hasn’t been delivered. How is this my fault and why should I be penalized for it on every item detail page?

answered over 10 years ago

autonutt
Reputation: 418
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1 Comment

purpjay says: December 13, 2013

I agree. Some people want the cheapest shipping,but overnight delivery.

I’m not thrilled with the delivery time either. As sellers I do not believe we should be rated on the shipping method a buyer chooses. If I have a package that weighs 3 oz or less and I can ship that for $1.69, first class parcel, why would a buyer even think about selecting express mail for 10x that or more?

And right now I’m dealing with 4 PO SNAFUs from packages mailed last weekend. My packages are MIA. Is that my fault? Should I be rated on that?

And regarding the comments about adding or editing a tracking number, you can edit it. There is an edit link right next to the number that you’ve already added. The problem is that when you edit it, it ends up looking like you shipped it on the day you edited it. In my case, I noticed an error in a tracking number a week after the package was shipped. In fact it was already delivered. But I decided for completeness and accuracy I should change it. I did. Now it looks like I shipped after the package was already delivered.

Sorry to drone on so long. I am not happy with the PO today.

answered over 10 years ago

2 Comments

belmodo says: December 06, 2013

I didn’t put in a tracking number so there is no edit showing up but it sounds like it’s better to leave as is. Thanks for the responses.

Eliray says: December 06, 2013

I won’t be. I will not be rated by something that I can’t control.

The rating doesn’t show a realistic time. There are too many variables. Buyer’s location can be a big factor, weather, on a rare occasion the post office miss-routes a package. Because of the few number of packages just a few can really damage the rating. Since you don’t have to mark the package shipped, which most likely, bad sellers won’t mark their items shipped and then they won’t show a rating.
We will be careful when marking our packages shipped, marking only 1st class or priority packages.

answered over 10 years ago

A2z4u2c
Reputation: 1291
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1 Comment

AbbysAttic says: December 11, 2013

Then there’s the package I sent to MT (from NJ). It took over a week to get there and it was not Media Mail. When I looked at the tracking, it seems this package went to Puerto Rico first. Hmmm. And for that I should be rated??? I think not.

Mark, are we talking about two different things here? Under the Seller Information/Feedback/Email Response Time it says “Average Handling Speed” with Zippy, Gradual, or Slow next to it. What else could that be but a rating. Also, does the rating depend on WHEN the seller ENTERS the Tracking Number or checks the item was shipped on Bonanza? One could easily forget to enter the Tracking Number or check that the item was shipped or could be delayed in doing so.

For those who use PayPal Shipping, the seller is notified by PayPal that the item has shipped & they provide a Tracking Number. I don’t enter any of that information on Bonanza because I have had a seller that was a little annoyed at receiving another shipping notice (I suppose we all receive too many e-mails). I also like that they have been notified by PayPal & I don’t have to do anything more.

I’m assuming that the shipping times you referred to are under the item’s Shipping Options. If a seller enters a shipping method, it tells the buyer the approximate number of days it will take the carrier & there is also a “Get It By” date with an * that shows further shipping information.

I think this should be clarified. Sellers are upset about the “Average Handling Speed” rating. As both Buyer & Seller should be treated fairly, your explaining what affects the rating (how many days after an item has been marked shipped, etc.) would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Springwillow

  • I would like to add that I don’t enter any shipping info on Bonanza so I didn’t know about the Delivery Speed. Rating the Delivery Speed???? I’m speechless. It looks like what it looks like…something that could be negative against a buyer. I think the above mentioned shipping times that are provided is all a buyer needs.

answered over 10 years ago

4 Comments

FrogAndBearCreations says: December 11, 2013

what about those of us that have “free Shipping” and set as “item ships in 3 business days” – we play by those rules but not every item will go out as Priority mail and the time from shipping to beinr recieved by the buyer will vary greatly

FrogAndBearCreations says: December 11, 2013

I have a “quick” rating for item received by the buyer as I quit logging the tracking number after this was initiated and I had 2 items that were rated by this

FrogAndBearCreations says: December 11, 2013

this is the big issue “Delivery [URL removed] Quick” as its out of our control from the time it gets to the post office or what ever service is used

FrogAndBearCreations says: December 11, 2013

there is no seperation for items being sent by the various methods, priority, first class or media mail! thus you will get a “gradual” for those items that go by media mail and first class

Nobody should be rated on anything until Bonanza gets their own house in order, and has everything corrected as it should be. I’ve been waiting for months to list and will not do so until our listings can look like they are professional, without having to add disclaimers to all the listings, due to simple things that have needed to be addressed and never have been since day 1.

answered over 10 years ago

1 Comment

thevintageflea says: December 09, 2013

I agree I have been waiting for weeks to have a problem with publishing to eBay cleared up.

If you don’t put in the tracking number, when you look at the part the buys can’t see, they have a “Yes” or “no” in the part that says"Delivered to buyer" those that don’t say “No”. I had two recent sales out of the country and sent 1st class, so had no tracking number. Both are marked “No” under delivered to buyer.
I don’t like the whole being rated by post office performance either. Even though they say it is for the buyer to know when to expect the package, the post office can tell them, here, since it is right with the ratings on emailand getting it in the mail, it IS a rating.

answered over 10 years ago

This whole shipping rating thing is so stupid it defies logic. Essentially we as sellers are being rated on the performance of the shipping entities…USPS, UPS, FedX, etc.

answered over 10 years ago

kbarrd
Reputation: 68
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I read it all and still don’t understand it, I must be stoopid. When I first started selling on the site I sent the buyers emails with their tracking and shipping info instead of using Bonanza to mark as shipped. So something I did 3 years ago that has nothing to do with my efficiency is going to bring my rating down? I just shipped a packaged and accidentally marked it shipped before I put the tracking number in. I’m not seeing any way to add the tracking after the item is marked shipped, am I missing something and is this going to effect my rating too?

answered over 10 years ago

belmodo
Reputation: 48
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1 Comment

LotsofLegos says: December 07, 2013

The rating system is not going back years so your past won’t matter. You can edit the shipping info to add the tracking number, but you don’t have to . If you don’t add the tracking then you will not get a rating for that transaction.

I have to agree with these policies. My complaint is with the response time to emails. I answer most within minutes but my rating has slipped enormously. I can’t be on 24/7 unless I take certain medications that aren’t exactly legal.

I did have a sale to Singapore last week and due to the time difference it took me 5 to 10 minutes to answer each question. I don’t that merits a deduction at all. What it is doing is making me rethink shipping internationally. If I’m going to get dinged for taking a short time to respond then it’s just not worth it. This really can hurt sellers and please reconsider. Thanks.

answered over 10 years ago

I had zippy shipping until today. After a sale I had at midnight last night and shipped before 11:00 this morning, now it says gradual. Huh? I can’t ship much faster than that!

answered over 10 years ago

6 Comments

FrogAndBearCreations says: December 11, 2013

contact support and they can fix that for you

sandy7172cat says: December 11, 2013

Thank you, FrogAndBear

FrogAndBearCreations says: December 11, 2013

no problem![URL removed] sometimes its not correct if you have a east coast buyer that purchases something when your on the west coast and its your bedtime and you do not get on untill the next morning to take care of it

sandy7172cat says: December 12, 2013

Agree.![URL removed]

MyTexasTreasures says: December 13, 2013

Sandy, that is your handling speed, not your shipping speed. You do not have a metric for shipping speed in your booth. Do you add tracking numbers when you ship? that is they only way to get a shipping speed metric.

sandy7172cat says: December 15, 2013

Sorry, MyTexasTreasures, I don’t get notices if someone replies here. I realize that now, that it’s my handIing speed. I got gradual because I was sleeping, otherwise, I had zippy.

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