How many stars for "Dispatch Time"?

[curvedair-2012]

I ordered an item on Saturday 23rd November. The estimated delivery was Tuesday 26th to Thursday 28th. The next morning I received an email saying "your order is being dispatched". At the same time the tracking on the Evri website stated "We're expecting your parcel to arrive with us soon and we'll update your tracking once we've received it". It wasn't until 5 days later (Friday) that the tracking updated to "We've received your parcel at the ParcelShop and will be collecting it shortly". I assume that this was when the seller actually took it to the parcelshop.

The feedback page shows that the item was DISPATCHED on Sunday 24th November. This is obviously not the case, as it seems to me that this was the date that the online label was printed & the tracking number generated. The real dispatch date was Friday 29th November, as that was the day that it was taken to the parcelshop.

It's ridiculous that Ebay choose the day that the tracking number was generated as being the dispatch day, as the seller can hold onto the item for as long as he wants before taking it to the parcelshop. In theory I should give the seller 5 stars for dispatching the item next day, where in fact it wasnt really dispatched until a day after the estimated delivery date!

[twfan11]

What was the seller's stated dispatch time?  Ebay always gives fantasy delivery dates.  For example I state 5 days dispatch and 5 day courier as I know ebay will give a delivery date of between 2 days before I am due to post to one day after.  Clearly ludicrous. 

So whether your seller was slow in posting depends on what their dispatch time actually was. You can't go by the delivery dates ebay specified.  You can check the dispatch time by clicking more details near the postage.  Weekend days do not count as days for the dispatch time.  

So since you ordered on Saturday that is effectively an order on Monday so the first dispatch day would be Tuesday and Friday would be 4 day dispatch.  Which doesn't seem too bad unless they were promising one or two day dispatch.

[vintique*violet]

I have noticed that on pre-paid labels it states at the bottom Post by.... 

I asked at our local post office about this and was told that they have had many complain because that date on the label is noted by the particular postal service and is not posted either a day or on that date when sorting.  

I do not use eBay labels,  I only use direct at the post office, however I have no choice when purchasing items,   and raised this as numerous parcels using these labels were taking  8 to 15 days , some arriving 3 to 5 days after the est. delivery time. 

I aways put 5 days on my listing but post between 1 to  3 as to take into account any unfortunate delays my end ( illness, car etc) so to avoid a late delivery as those receiving late delivery strikes are often not the sellers fault, but the postal services/labels.  

[fotherbale]

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@vintique*violet wrote:

I have noticed that on pre-paid labels it states at the bottom Post by....

........as numerous parcels using these labels were taking  8 to 15 days , some arriving 3 to 5 days after the est. delivery time. 

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Even if you buy the label direct from Royal Mail's 'Click&Drop' webpage, the label will state the date by which the label must be posted.     I have never had any issue with this - everything I post goes out the day after the label is purchased at the latest, and none has ever been delayed by RM, and are normally delivered to the recipient before the use-by date on the label (which will be one week from the date the label was purchased). 

If parcels that you recieve through RM are taking that long to arrive, I would be fairly sure that it is because the sender hasn't bothered to actually take them to a PO or have them collected until a much later date than the date they bought the label and if bought through the ebay system, the date of purchase is the point at which the ebay system marks them as 'being dispatched'.

[curvedair-2012]

The dispatch time was on the listing was "within 3 working days". As the label was printed on Sunday & not Monday, I would have thought that Monday would have been day 1, so should have been posted by Wednesday IMO.

[curvedair-2012]

I know that Royal Mail have "post by" dates, but I haven't seen them on Evri labels. This one doesn't have a "post by" date on the label.

If you are selling something unique, then a long posting time doesn't matter I suppose, but if you are one of many sellers, selling the same item at the same price as others, then you risk losing sales, as I would go for the seller with the quickest posting time (assuming he doesn't have disasterous feedback of course).

[vintique*violet]

It matters either by the post date label  or if the seller dispatches but doesn't post until five days after... I find that annoying.