You know what I find annoying about some sellers?

[daro2096]

The fact they take several days to ship items I have bought from them. Me, when I sell something I drop it off at the post office the same day a buyer pays if there is time or I pay to have it collected by the postie the next morning. Why do some sellers on eBay take 2 or 3 days?

Even more annoying is the seller is on holiday and hasn't told eBay.

Do sellers not realise they can go to the Royal Mail's website and pay for postage and even have the postie turn up with the shipping label or that they can take the parcel to the post office with a QR code and the post office can print out the shipping label for you?

Why take so long? Especially private sellers where you don't get your money until 2 days after delivery?

[dch2112011]

As a business seller  it is expected that same or following day dispatch is the 'norm'  ebay have been hammering business sellers financially to dispatch promptly for years - not a few weeks 

Business sellers are now at the forefront of delivery - same day delivery is becoming the new norm and will grow - the reason is very simple - to effectively replace high street shopping where a buyer walks in and walks out with the goods delivery becomes the number one buyer consideration.

As buying online adapts to buyer needs - it is inevitable that private sales will have to keep up - 3 day dispatch is an extrordinarily long time in business terms and is plenty long enough for anyone to dispatch.

Online selling of personal items  has unfortunately bred a malaise with a group of sellers who have forgotten about the buyer -  before a buyer would pay and collect same day from a seller's home - at the car boot or second hand shop -

Online selling alllowed these sellers to become lazy - advertise on ebay - pocket the money and get around to sending the item when the seller feels like it - if at all !

ebay are simply  addressing buyers complaints to keep them shopping on ebay by forcing private sellers to offer a minimum standard of service, which they seem to be incapable of doing without controls. 

This change should mean better sales for private sellers over time.

I hate to think how these sellers could possibly have coped when snail mail was the norm for everything! - How did people find the time to post their cheques, items to arrive in a timely manner - or were they just too busy !

[*devils.advocate*]

In all the years reading the Boards, I’ve never read such a pompous post.

I’m a buyer - one of those who, on eBay, have had good and bad experiences with all sorts of sellers.

To tell the truth, I’ve had more bad experiences with Business Sellers who are supposedly at the forefront of online selling.

A lot of Business Sellers on eBay - and I mean a lot - will need to drastically up their game if they’re to meet your requirements to be such a seller.

I'm done commenting on such attitudes.

[tressygirl]

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@1956glyn wrote:

You may have a brick but thats more than i have.    By choice i do not own a mobile lol

J changes his iphone every 2 years and is always offering me his old one.........no thanks 🙂

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I remember !  🤗

@1956glyn 

[daro2096]

If I can find the time to promptly post an item so can everyone else. A parcel doesn't have to be collected from home or the post office. There are plenty of places where with a QR code a parcel can be dropped off at. Even some "corner shops" are drop off points. Being too busy is not really an excuse.

All eBay purchases have a time frame attached to them. If I haven't received an item after the time has passed and I have not heard from the seller I open a "Not received" case.

[honeymonster007]

If an item has a time frame of 2 days and it doesn't arrive in 2 days then you would open a case?

[*maetrix*]

Some seem to think that not getting paid immediately means sellers now rush off to the post office to post their items - i'd say it's gone the other way - if you know you're not going to get paid for 14 days (or whatever the fluff it is) , waiting 16 or 17 days for payment isn't going to make too much difference.

Yet another error in judgement ebay can add to their growing list.

[vinylscot]

I too find I get as good, if not better, service from private sellers, when buying on my private account.

I bought three items last week, two from business sellers, and one from a private seller. The one from the private seller arrived in two days, as expected, and one of the business sellers' packages arrived in three, but that was "economy" postage, so quite acceptable.

The other seller, with a feedback score of over a million, offered free courier delivery in 3-5 days, and took THIRTEEN days to have it delivered. I know I could have started a return when it failed to arrive in time, but then I need to find another seller with the same item, and possibly go through the whole rigmarole again. Obviously, my feedback to them noted the late arrival - their "delivery time" stars rating was considerably below all the others.

I think too many business sellers (not all, probably not even a majority), think they can do what they like once they have the order. Even if someone moans, they just tell them it's been sent now, or they at least mark it as despatched.

[mrmeh-1]

Despite myself being a private seller who does same day dispatch (I'm unemployed), you're wrong.
When I was working I definitely wouldn't have been able to dispatch same day or even any weekday.
I wouldn't be there for the postie and I wouldn't get back in time for the post office to be open.

Many others have similar issues.
Regardless however, frankly why should private sellers have to fulfil your dogmatic expectations?
eBay started out as a platform for letting anyone sell their second hand stuff.
No one in their right mind should expect a private buyer to keep up with business speeds.
Pragmatically speaking there is an obligation for delivery leeway in the case of the private buyer.

Also, there already was a minimum standard of service, enforced by eBay's protections.
It's just eBay and yourself that decided to make set the new standard at business level, to which is unreasonable for the average person. 

[theelench]

You conveniently forget why so many private sellers lengthened their dispatch window.

It was when ebay changed from advising them to be honest and accurate about their posting habits so buyers could decide for themselves whether they were happy with them or find someone else with a quicker dispatch window.

Ebay introduced the Late Delivery Metric.  Something that ridiculously counted backwards from delivery to 'calculate' whether the seller had posted within their declared window.

This was accompanied by the threat of having their account down-graded from Above Standard to Below Standard if they accumulated more than 5 Late Delivery Defects in a rolling 12 month period.  (Unlike business sellers who were given a far more lenient percentage based calculation which they could bend even further in their favour by playing the numbers game.) 

To protect themselves from failures by carriers, as there was little or no allowance made for floods, snow, strikes etc., they lengthened their window by a few days to gain a couple of days grace.  I changed mine from Next Day (as I was working full-time and caring for my mother) to 3 days, but 90% of the time still managed to post Same or Next Day.

Yes, amazon and ebay have encouraged next day delivery, we can all see the decimated High Streets that it has led to, now they have their sights set on destroying what remains of the post office network.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

what a load of horse manure!   All e bay had to do was take away the choice of how many days you have to post the item, there was no need for any of this SD rubbish.  I have always despatched within my two day time frame but having to wait for my money would not influence me in any way whatsoever, i am a private seller with no urgent need for the cash, whether to use for postage or just to have in my bank account.  As for choosing the shipping method, i have bought several items since this farce started and no way would i buy from anyone using EVRI, if i am in any doubt as to who they use then i will just find another seller who does not use them.  You make it sound like e bay will refund within a couple of days of the item being despatched which i am pretty sure is complete nonsense.   Some sellers do have poor attitudes, which is quite apparent by your post.

[theelench]

I agree, I've very rarely had to contact any seller to ask why my parcel hasn't arrived yet.  Mostly they have been business sellers.

I also noticed the difference in reactions between private and business sellers.

A private seller would usually apologise and get back to me with some sort of up-date or explanation.

A business would, if they could find the time to reply at all, would likely send a terse "Tracking says its at a regional hub, wait a few more days".

That might be at "the forefront of delivery" but is nowhere near an acceptable level of customer service.  Probably learnt from the always woefully inadequate level set by ebay when dealing with its private seller customers.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

so where are all your items for sale then or are you not willing to show whether you are indeed a private seller like so many of  us not happy with SD?  I have had very few complaints over my time selling on e bay, none of which were about the delivery time.  Some were genuine and some were not but i dealt with them all immediately by refunding as soon as i was informed there was a problem.  All my items are overpacked to ensure that they got there in one piece.  I might add that not one item i have bought or sold using RM on e bay since 2015 has gone missing,   EVRI is another story! 

[kath3735_wxmjn]

As i said earlied, horse manure!  Of course there are some bad sellers but equally there are bad buyers.  If the delivery time is set then it is up to the buyer if they are willing to wait for it.  Not up to you to decide what others should or should not be doing.   What e bay are doing is reducing the number of buyers and sellers on the site.  I probably have bought more through e bay over the years than i have sold but once i finally give up waiting for them to 'adjust' their thinking then i will be leaving the site as both buyer and seller.  

[kath3735_wxmjn]

we seem to have a couple of arrogant people on this threat at the moment who seem to think that because they say something it should be so!  News flash for you, some of us have our own lives to lead and as long as we work within the rules/regs of e bay then it is none of your business how long or how we do things.

[superchallenge]

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@daro2096 wrote:

If I can find the time to promptly post an item so can everyone else

Hear, hear! I feel exactly the same way about listing photos. If I've got the time to photograph the front and back of an item and make sure the camera has auto-focused, then so does everyone else!

@daro2096

All eBay purchases have a time frame attached to them. If I haven't received an item after the time has passed and I have not heard from the seller I open a "Not received" case.

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Again, I quite agree. I do a similar thing when I see item listings that just have a single blurry photo of an item. I assume they're scams because they aren't up to my level of expectation, so I report them as fraudulent.

Maybe don't be out here creating ridiculously exacting standards for people until your own house is in order.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"If I can find the time to promptly post an item so can everyone else."

Honestly you wouldn't think this would need saying, but there are maybe some people who have different commitments and pressures on their time from you.

One might equally say "if other people can find the time to photograph decent images for their listings, then so can you".

[akemp1]

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@dch2112011 wrote:

If a seller is too 'busy to fulfill a sale - they should not be offering items for sale !

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You seem to be suggesting that ebay should be exclusive club of people whose lives are so empty that they will never be busy at any time incase an item might sell.

Many of us have to go to work, look after family, have arrangements to go places, etc - often rushing between places 'working' (one way or another) all hours possible juggling lots of competing objectives.  We often find we are not at home because we are at work or when we are home we cannot leave as the kids are in bed and cannot be left alone.

I probably send 60% of orders within 24 hours, 30% in the next 24 hours and maybe 10% within the final 24 hours so 100% meet the 3 day target I have configured. It's frankly ebay's problem if they are misleading buyers into expecting anything better from me that's the best I can do and it's no disrespect to the buyers I try where possible to get their item out quickly.

[peturning]

A lot are very slow, yes.

There's a lot of pushback against the "Amazon"-ification of ebay from many sellers and it's unrealistic, people are perfectly entitled to want their stuff fast and I always try to do so as quickly as possible, often that is in less than 24 hours. With collection services it is no problem and with Tracked 48 it means you can often actually deliver 48 hours from order to delivery - but no guarantees of course.

For what it is worth though it's not the private sellers I find to be the slowest, it's the business sellers. Everyone has the same opportunity to sit around for days on end before even posting something but I feel private sellers have the motivation to be faster, especially now with this silly payout rule.

[akemp1]

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@kath3735_wxmjn wrote:

I might add that not one item i have bought or sold using RM on e bay since 2015 has gone missing,   EVRI is another story! 

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Yeah if Ebay wanted a quality delivery experience they wouldn't have partnered with Evri.

Ebay want to charge Waitrose prices while hiding cheap nasty Evri horse meat in the meals.

It's telling they are not offering the buyers a real choice of carrier (as you get at the other marketplace who they are badly copying) and obscuring it behind 'standard' or 'express' options.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

they are 'entitled' to what is offered and if that is 2, 3 or even 5 day delivery then that is what it is.  If you want next day delivery buy from someone who offers it!   As a buyer i buy after looking at ALL the information and i even allow an extra day or two for delivery as all couriers have their time problems.