Is this worth complaining about?

campdave

prowla wrote: »

As I said, I don't know right now whether the seller really sent it on Monday or not, and thus whether I could have expected it on the Wed/Thu.

The variations could have been that they posted it on the Monday morning and the mail was slow and took 5 days, or they could have posted it on the Friday and the mail was fast and exceeded the 2-3 days, or any variation in between.

People are saying that it's not the seller's fault; it's ebay's. But choosing to operate within ebay's environment implicitly ties you their processes and procedures, whether written or de-facto.

Until this item, I always took a despatch notice as a confirmation that the item had been sent (I'm sure that as a seller I have had a flag to mark items sent?).

As it stands, the despatch notification is unreliable and thus meaningless.

The issue seems to be your judgement leaves no variation for delays in the mail system. As you said, you don't know whether the seller posted Monday - Friday, so we're just going round and round in circles.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

eBay take their delivery time frames from Royal Mail, Royal Mail is being privatised and as the sum is around 3 billion IIRC it's not surprising as much as possible is being done to make Royal Mail look great.

The 48 symbol on the parcel you received is a prime example of this, a 2-3 day service labelled as 48. This only applies to business customers on packetpost, I doubt consumer protection laws would allow a 2-3 day service to be labelled as 48 for the public at the post office..

With regards to dispatch, should I be packing parcels on Friday night, Sat or Sun to go in Monday's post they are marked as dispatched once packed and the message changed to advise it's packed and ready to go on such and such a day. In your case I'd be very happy the seller is working Sundays which is probably to help meet their 1 day dispatch which is good service.

prowla

Deleted_User wrote: »

OK, if we're being pedantic:

I'm still very interested to know what feedback Prowla is planning to leave the seller, as his first post in this thread mentioned leaving 'a best a neutral'.

He thinks that positive means satisfied that the item/service met expectations, negative means it was unacceptable, neutral is somewhere in between.

prowla

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

eBay take their delivery time frames from Royal Mail, Royal Mail is being privatised and as the sum is around 3 billion IIRC it's not surprising as much as possible is being done to make Royal Mail look great.

The 48 symbol on the parcel you received is a prime example of this, a 2-3 day service labelled as 48. This only applies to business customers on packetpost, I doubt consumer protection laws would allow a 2-3 day service to be labelled as 48 for the public at the post office..

With regards to dispatch, should I be packing parcels on Friday night, Sat or Sun to go in Monday's post they are marked as dispatched once packed and the message changed to advise it's packed and ready to go on such and such a day. In your case I'd be very happy the seller is working Sundays which is probably to help meet their 1 day dispatch which is good service.

I guess that advertising a service as "48" may look good initially, but that doesn't mean a lot if you aren't (ahem) delivering on it.

Whilst it may be laudable benefit that a seller is working weekends, it doesn't mean a lot if there is an associated dis-benefit that delivery times are unreliable and misleading and cause inconvenience.

campdave

The water's only muddy because you've tossed so much crap into it.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

prowla wrote: »

Whilst it may be laudable benefit that a seller is working weekends, it doesn't mean a lot if there is an associated dis-benefit that delivery times are unreliable and misleading and cause inconvenience.

There's two aspects to the ETA, first is the handling time, this is how many days the seller will take to post the item and is calculated using only Mon-Fri, the second is the 3rd party service aim which is only estimated, even guaranteed services aren't 100% reliable and the guarantee is typically a refund of the cost (for example Special Delivery) if late.

The issue here isn't that anything had been misleading, the seller has sent you an order update on Sunday to say the item is ready to go in the post on Monday, you may choose not to believe this but on that basis you can't believe anything any retailer says and/or should only shop with those whose word you will trust, and the service aim is estimated and as such the dates are guide so again not misleading.

As posted by yourself, second class post (or 48 as labelled in this case) has an aim of 2-3 days, it may be quicker, it may be longer and in this case it was longer, simple as that.

Anybody needing their item to specifically arrive on a given date requires a guaranteed service, this is a service enhancement as as such costs extra.

soolin

I've just come off the phone from Dublin Customer support on a matter that is worrying me and currently am exceedingly bad tempered at the way ebay implement certain rules.

I now read threads like this that suggest selelrs are likely to get poor stars and/or feedback because ebay believe Royal mail when they say 2nd class is a 48 hour delivery.

Frankly, I could easily just cancel my listings and give up now if this is how little understanding buyers have generally - there seems no point in working my rear end off trying to keep everyone happy.

Sagaris

2nd class is a 48 hour delivery? We wait longer than that for first class here sometimes - not the posties fault as they take him off to cover other rounds - we often see him in neighbouring areas. Apparently they are short staffed. On occasions we've had Royal Mail deliveries at 7pm at night - I factor it in if I order anything online now.

prowla

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

There's two aspects to the ETA, first is the handling time, this is how many days the seller will take to post the item and is calculated using only Mon-Fri, the second is the 3rd party service aim which is only estimated, even guaranteed services aren't 100% reliable and the guarantee is typically a refund of the cost (for example Special Delivery) if late.

As I commented earlier, the lot information ebay states:

"Seller has stated it will dispatch the item within 1 working day upon receipt of cleared payment include seller's dispatch time, and will depend on postal service selected. Delivery times may vary, especially during peak periods."

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

As posted by yourself, second class post (or 48 as labelled in this case) has an aim of 2-3 days, it may be quicker, it may be longer and in this case it was longer, simple as that.

The 48 hr service that another poster linked to says:

*For Royal Mail 24™ we aim to deliver the next working day, and for Royal Mail 48™ we aim to deliver the majority of items within two working days, with a small minority within three working days.

ie. They aim for a majority of items delivered within 2 days, but there may be a small minority within 3. That sets an expectation of 1-2 days (ie. within 2) and failing that, within 3.

Of course, if it is only an aim and the reality it is up to 6 days, then they are mis-selling the service.

prowla

Sagaris wrote: »

2nd class is a 48 hour delivery? We wait longer than that for first class here sometimes - not the posties fault as they take him off to cover other rounds - we often see him in neighbouring areas. Apparently they are short staffed. On occasions we've had Royal Mail deliveries at 7pm at night - I factor it in if I order anything online now.

The shipping was branded "Royal Mail 48", not 2nd class; the use of "48" heavily implies 2 days and the linked reference to their site reinforces that.