Rise in INR claims. Buyers are delusional.

[old-car-magazines-and-brochures]

Almost every day I am receiving new Item Not Received cases from buyers. Do they live in cloud cuckoo land? I have had several this week where buyers have placed their order on 30th or 31st December and have been opening INRs since 3rd January! It doesn't help that ebay gave unrealistic estimated delivery times of  3 to 4 days after they placed their order, totally ignoring that there were no collections or deliveries for 2 of those 4 days.

Do buyers not realise this is not Amazon Prime? If they wanted next day or Tracked 48 delivery they could have selected either when they paid. All these claims are for items sent with free 2nd class postage.

The worst thing is that Royal Mail allow 10 business days before an item can be declared lost but ebay's estimated delivery time is a lot shorter so I end up having to refund buyers. A handful of honest buyers have contacted me afterwards and offered to pay again but you can bet that most don't.  

[jokers_toybox]

It's also really not helping that RM just aren't delivering in a timely manner, unless it's tracked 24/48, I only get mail once a week now regardless of service used

[old-car-magazines-and-brochures]

I know, but a lot of my items are under £5 or £6 and buyers just don't seem to want to pay for tracked delivery at almost £3 when they can get it delivered for free. But you're right, RM's service is pretty poor right now.

[essysemporium]

On the subject of Amazon Prime. I was desperate for some padded envelopes just before Xmas so ordered with Prime Next Day service. 16 days it took to turn up - Amazon sent via Evri next day and the parcel sat in the local depot for about 14 days.

I never knew they used Evri for some of their prime deliveries. Needless to say I am no longer paying £8.99 for Prime. 

Royal Mail have been decent for me over the festive period apart from a bag of mail that sat in the depot for a week before they got it moving. I send all my stuff RM Tracked48.

[the_bald_orc]

What gets me are the people, after I've asked them if they can wait a few more working days say something along the lines of 'Well, everything else I've ordered has arrived, strange yours hasn't!'... Yes, because every piece of mail always takes the exact same route and passes through the same hubs...

[simplyessential_uk]

Ive been quite lucky with no INR and my post has been sat in the parcel shop & Royal Mail since Monday due to snow with no collection.  I did however message all orders to explain the delay and had lots reply "no problem" some ppl havent had any snow and dont realise the issue around the country.  I hope now Ive contacted them I will get a few days grace before any INR are opened (which gives me a further 4 days) 

Of course there are those that will be ready to open an INR asap to get a freebie - Those ppl I will block for future orders

[the-nutwood-collection]

I don't think they live in Cloud Cuckoo Land.  I think they live in Social Media Land that tells them that they can get the item for free if they open an INR at the first possible opportunity.

When Simple Delivery kicks in, I envisage an increase in this behaviour.  'I paid 4% and 75p to get the item delivered on time.  Where is it?  Give me my money back'.

Is eBay covering INRs for Simple Delivery?  They chose the carrier and, if the carrier isn't reliable, it's their fault, not the seller's.  That's what they always tell business sellers - you chose the carrier.

[ducatimondo]

I've just added one to the BBL just now for the same thing, as they said not arrived, wanted a refund and will let me know if it arrives. Bought at 9.30pm or so on New Year's Eve

And another will likely be added tomorrow that has said if it doesn't arrive tomorrow, they will leave us a negative feedback.
Has a rare 2 stroke bike that are likely only about 100 left running in the country.

Most of the parts we sell are for highly strung, fragile and exotic Italian bikes!!

Are they telling me they are desperate to take these rare bikes out in the snow for crying out loud.

All because eBay can't add 2 numbers together to get a realistic delivery estimate, added to not a single effort of reaction to the snow that has brought parts of the country to a standstill for several days with no sign of clearing.

When they get blocked, that is indefinite and we have never removed a single one from the list.
Since there are probs only as many as I can count on one hand that do what we do on eBay with the rare Italian parts we often sell, their options to keep these bikes running are vastly diminished by their utter impatience.
Yet they still do it.

What are they going to do when they are blocked by all of us that do it?

I asked marco@ebay about this in the weekly chat yesterday, to be told they would maybe, perhaps think about doing something possibly and to keep an eye out for announcements in my inbox.

Same as normal, they hold us to such a high accord, then treat us with disdain at every opportunity they have to help.
Then wonder why sellers are giving up the ghost as it is not worth the considerable hassle it takes to make less than eBay do out of each item that sells and buyers are getting thinner on the ground every day.

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money."

That'll apply here sooner or later, but be the last seller has had enough or the last buyer has ran out of sellers to buy from as they are blocked from all of those that are left.

One would envisage that a company that makes most of it's money from sellers would want to treat them better, but what do I know...

[the-nutwood-collection]

What are they going to do when they are blocked by all of us that do it?

If they're not an eBay seller, they're unlikely to know about blocks.

I had an INR raised at the first opportunity, buyer wouldn't wait another few days, demanded refund because the fibre was needed urgently and she would have to buy elsewhere.  I couldn't prove delivery, so had to refund.  Sent message to buyer to tell me when item arrived, and I'd send a return label.  Buyer went on BBL.  No message to say it had arrived, so buyer stayed on BBL.  If a buyer notifies me that the item's arrived, I tell them to keep it and take them off the BBL.

Got message from buyer.  She's trying to buy more fibre because she didn't order enough and can't finish her project - but eBay's telling her that she doesn't meet the seller's parameters so she can't order.  Wants to know why.  Reminder - this is the fibre she demanded a refund for, and didn't notify me that it had arrived.

I replied saying that I always blocked all future purchases to an address where I'd been notified of non-receipt because there was obviously a problem with either the DO, the postie or the buyer's address - either way, I wouldn't send again to that address.

Her reply was that she'd no idea that sellers could block buyers, and could I unblock her.  The answer, of course, was 'NO'.  I wasn't completely unreasonable, I told her that she could order direct from my supplier - in Italy.

Your buyer will eventually find out the hard way that sellers can block buyers.  I guess, like my buyer, they can probably get the parts from Italy.

[simplyessential_uk]

I messaged ALL my order that were stuck in the parcel shop for 4 days and nearly all replied "not to worry and thanks for the update " today got an INR from one of those I messaged, who didnt reply, as of saturday it was in the local sorting hub, which they can clearly see on the tracking in ebay,  so hes likely to get it in the next day or 2, but they have now been blocked! I sell alot to repeat buyers and this person bought shaving oil,  but he wont be allowed to buy from me again!  clearly after a freebie but he aint going to get it if it arrives in the next 4 days, which is will.  So they think they are being clever but they will lose out in the long run.

[wyntersemporium]

Think I’ll start blocking buyers who do a INR when in fact they have. 

[diana_stroud]

I don't generally update Tracking Numbers when I get back from the Post Office, I send 20-30 items a day and it would take a fair while doing that each day. It works pretty well for me as a rule though I have 'suddenly' had 4 buyers open INR's this month where the tracking showed that the items had been delivered, they were all low cost items so weren't T48 but were still tracked through the system. I uploaded the tracking numbers in each case and the cases were closed in my favour, followed by 3 of the 4 messaging to say they didn't realise they had been delivered... Hmmm... I have one that was opened yesterday (on a sale from last Thursday!) but is under 100g so I only have Proof Of Postage on it, I know he's trying it on as he's been asking where it is every day since Saturday and only having PoP I know I'll have to refund him. Looking through his feedback I see he's done this a few times in the last year, and probably a lot more as not all sellers leave feedback on refunds, so he's on my BBL now. I don't suppose he'll be the last.

[jokers_toybox]

You look like you have a decent volume of sales, so I'd recommend getting a 4x6 munbyn label printer and using the RM online post, even 2nd class letters have a delivery confirmation qr code on them so protects you that way. 

You can also link it to auto fill in tracking details for you, saving you time

[beyourb3st]

Dear Buyer and Seller : Postal services are a stand alone product and can alter giving delays caused by various reasons. It is hoped that one can see reason and not blame the seller or buyer for these issues because although contracted, are out of the buyer or sellers control. No buyer or seller has ever been known to be able to call a postal company and ask them to go on strike for two weeks just to delay your parcel. Life happens. Aww bless. You learned something. 

[vinylscot]

You don't even need a separate label printer. RM Click and Drop can print four labels to an A4 page. I used to use adhesive A4 sheets, and just cut them to size after printing. You can even print onto plain paper and tape your labels to your packages, but this is obviously less secure.