sellers lying about despatch times

soolin

I thought I was about to become the buyer from hell with a number of ebay items having not arrived and claims about to be opened. I've even had a search done at my local mail centre.

I've been in contact with all the sellers, with varying degrees of success and decided to give it all a bit longer before I go to a claim. However, I had one item arrive yesterday, apparently it was definitely categorically sent on the 4th June and yet the pre printed RM label actually says 11th June. Another seller has sent a scan of the POP (no idea why) and that clearly shows a date several days after they definitely posted my item.

I've just had an email from someone else that I am waiting for two parcels from who confirmed despatch the day after I paid on each occasion. Yet they are now claiming that the seller manager programme they use is showing despatch several days before they actually send the item, so they are telling me I cannot start a claim yet as it has not yet been a week, despite their notice telling me it was sent 10 days ago .

Why are sellers lying about despatch times? Are they just finding ti easier to blame Royal Mail for delays and hoping that buyers don't actually check the post mark or label date?

In all cases I am already beyond the estimated delivery times on these late items as almost all of them were bought from business sellers with 'next day despatch' yet appear to be only posting once a week.

I'm going to look like a scammer if I get nothing again in the post today. I think it is a total of 5 items from 4 sellers I will be opening claims on today or tomorrow.

lovinituk

I know a lot of sellers mark an item as disptached to clear it from their outstanding screen even though they haven't actually sent it yet. Its so they can easily see the new orders that come in and still need processing. Obviously this is not neccessarily a sensible thing to do with the auto messages ebay sends out once an order is marked as dispatched!

terra_ferma

..and there is me who feels nervous even when marking despatched 10mins before I go the the post office, just in case something happens on the way there, and can't actually post (like if I was run over by a bus I'd care about posting...).

soolin

I am now officially teed off. One of the sellers who asked me to wait until this week 'as RM have been very slow recently' does not appear to realise that when she prints postage through paypal it notifies the buyer. My item that apparently RM are delaying was actually sent .....yesterday! That's 6 days after she asked me to be a bit more patient as parcels can often be delayed.

Am flipping furious.

This reflects badly on all us sellers, next time I get a parcel genuinely delayed in the post maybe the buyer will consider me a liar like some of the sellers I am currently dealing with and mark my stars down. I am so cross at this blasted seller I was tempted to break a habit of a lifetime and leave feedback even before my itemarrives- a neg and 1* star for despatch and communication. However I will have a bit of a calm down, wait for my item and then leave appropriate feedback later.

lovinituk

terra_ferma wrote: »

..and there is me who feels nervous even when marking despatched 10mins before I go the the post office, just in case something happens on the way there, and can't actually post (like if I was run over by a bus I'd care about posting...).

LOL, you're not the only one! I have my mail collected and don't like marking orders as dispatched until after postie has turned up and taken the bags.

techspec

soolin wrote: »

I am now officially teed off. One of the sellers who asked me to wait until this week 'as RM have been very slow recently' does not appear to realise that when she prints postage through paypal it notifies the buyer. My item that apparently RM are delaying was actually sent .....yesterday! That's 6 days after she asked me to be a bit more patient as parcels can often be delayed.

Am flipping furious.

This reflects badly on all us sellers, next time I get a parcel genuinely delayed in the post maybe the buyer will consider me a liar like some of the sellers I am currently dealing with and mark my stars down. I am so cross at this blasted seller I was tempted to break a habit of a lifetime and leave feedback even before my itemarrives- a neg and 1* star for despatch and communication. However I will have a bit of a calm down, wait for my item and then leave appropriate feedback later.

Happened to me two weeks ago. Item marked as dispached same day. When it finally arrived, there were two small labels on the pre-printed post label. I removed these and discovered postage charged was double actual cost AND they had been posted the day before - 11 days after buyer had claimed. Seller had cut out two small lables to deliberately cover this up. I was more angry about the deceit, than the fact they had done it.

However, i needed another pair - and they were the only seller. I warned the seller that i needed next day dispatch AS ADVERTISED this time , and the 2nd lot arrived quickly. By this time, i no-longer felt like leaving bad feedback - so marked way down on DSR's - something i rarely do.

soolin

techspec wrote: »

Happened to me two weeks ago. Item marked as dispached same day. When it finally arrived, there were two small labels on the pre-printed post label. I removed these and discovered postage charged was double actual cost AND they had been posted day before - 11 days after buyer had calimed. Seller had cut out small lables to deliverately cover this up. I was more angry about the deceit than the fact they had done it.

However, i needed another pair - and they were the only seller. I warned the seller that i needed next day dispatch AS ADVERTISED this time , and the 2nd lot arrived quickly. By this time, i no-longer felt like leaving bad feedback - so marked way down on DSR's - something i rarely do.

At least I am not alone. Only two of my items were really 'urgent' the rest are impulse buys or stuff i intend selling on. However it is the principal of it that gets me. What are they hoping to achieve by lying about despatch? I don't get it.

One of the urgent ones has now been 2 weeks since purchase and unless it arrives soon I will have to go out and pay full price on the high street. Seller is still selling and claiming speedy despatch, all goods are sent same day or next day if ordered after 3pm.

techspec

lovinituk wrote: »

I know a lot of sellers mark an item as disptached to clear it from their outstanding screen even though they haven't actually sent it yet. Its so they can easily see the new orders that come in and still need processing. Obviously this is not neccessarily a sensible thing to do with the auto messages ebay sends out once an order is marked as dispatched!

Since the dispatched symbol was first available, a few years ago - most people, myself included, marked the items as dispached after being packed and ready to go. This helped keep track as you went along, and you just moved onto the next item. Most buyer did not know you could see the dispatch date from this, and sellers would email them when the item was actually sent.

But the new system is causing problems with that. Ebay should give more options, maybe an item packed and ready to go symbol. Or a choice wether or not the buyer is sent the item dispatched email by ebay. Surely the seller should be saying when its sent - not ebay?

Even if you don't mark as dispatched - adding tracking info still does this. I don't want to come back from the post office and start adding all this info - i do it as i go along.

Main thing a seller can do now though - is just make sure the items are posted the same day as they are marked as dispatched - or next day at the very latest.

terra_ferma you made me laugh - i thought it was just me who was worried that something could go wrong on the way to the post office. :rotfl:

lovinituk

techspec wrote: »

Seller had cut out small lables to deliverately cover this up. I was more angry about the deceit than the fact they had done it.

I don't blame you for being mad about that - the deceit just makes it all the worse. Sellers like this deserve bad feedback although I think what you did by marking down the DSRs was the right thing to do.

soolin

techspec wrote: »

terra_ferma you made me laugh - i thought it was just me who was worried that something could go wrong on the way to the post office. :rotfl:

Me too, I'm obviously full of doom and gloom as I always think 'what if my car doesn't start or I get run over on the way and the stuff doesn't get posted?' If for any reason I need to wrap but can't post for a couple of days (say at a bank holiday) I use the note system to remind myself what is packed and what is not.

I really don't mind sellers marking things despatched when they wrap even if item doesn't go to the next day. However, I can see no possible reason for a large business seller to mark as despatched and not actually bother posting for another 10 days.

lovinituk

techspec wrote: »

But the new system is causing problems with that. Ebay should give more options, maybe an item packed and ready to go symbol. Or a choice wether or not the buyer is sent the item dispatched email by ebay. Surely the seller should be saying when its sent - not ebay?

I've got a little system that seems to work well.

From the 'Awaiting Disptach' screen, go into 'Cutomise' (top right) and check the box to enable view of 'My note'. Also make sure your records are ordered by the 'Paid Date' column with the newest at the top.

I now add a note to the top record and just add the word 'done' - this is now visible from the Awaiting Dispatch screen. I download the data into some invoicing software but others may print the invoices from ebay or copy/paste addresses, etc. I can then go off and pack those orders.

Towards the end of the day I go back and do the same for any new orders that have come in - they are easy to see as they are all the ones above the order I marked with the 'done' note.

Once my post has been collected I go back in and leave feedback and mark the records as disptached. Any new ones that have come in at this point are carried over to the next day.

Its a simple method but works well as the notes are highly visible in the overview screen.

I appreciate this doesn't really help with the issue you have when adding tracking info though. Personally, I never give out tracking info unless I'm asked for it because of the problems that can occur when a Recorded Delivery status doesn't update on Track and Trace.