Is this worth complaining about?

prowla

soolin wrote: »

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.

I hope you got through to them.

But sometimes sellers demanding positive feedback is a bit like kids being in competitions where nobody is allowed to fail.

You should only expect good feedback for a good service; neutral feedback just says it wasn't great, but wasn't terrible!

In the case of this particular seller, they seem to ship quite a lot of stuff, but they have had over 70 neutrals and over 70 negatives in the past 6 months, with a number of them being for slow delivery (one even for sending a despatch notice for an out of stock item).

marie-20

Unfortunately the Royal Mail have 're-branded' the service without really offering anything different or better to before.

We currently send around 2,500 to 3,500 parcels per week and around 70% arrive in 2 days, a further 15% on the 3rd and then the rest seem to arrive between working day 5 and 8.

Whilst I agree that the expectation is set at around 2-3 working days that expectation is not set by the seller - it is set by the Royal Mail and eBay but that is all it is - an estimate.

Whilst you may feel that mid June isn't peak season that really depends on you point of view but a lot of sellers are really busy now with people buying stuff for the summer hols, things to keep the kids quiet during hols and things that they need now as well as people planning ahead with back to school stuff and winter requirements, etc. We have found that we are considerably busier both this month and last month than we were in March and April and that the deliveries are taking longer than they were in March and April where around 85% of orders arrived in 2 days and 10% in 3 days. This is also true of my personal orders, as an example I ordered something Sunday which was dispatched on Monday by 1st class post and it didn't arrive with me until Friday.

As people have stated unfortunately no delivery service other than a guaranteed 24/48 hour courier and Special Delivery guarantee when an order will arrive and therefore this needs to be taken into account when buying online.

If it is so inconvenient to collect from your local sorting office and you are frequently out you need to consider whether it is actually worth you buying online or not. I'm not so sure why it was so inconvenient,unless YOU decided to take a risk and order something really late, as you can arrange for re-delivery on a date that suits you within minutes online which would then alleviate your issue of having to stay in based upon estimate. Maybe if you ordered the item you needed with plenty of time to spare instead of the last minute you may find that arranging redelivery is more to your liking because, I have previously stated, you can choose your redelivery date for free or have it dropped off at your local post office for a small charge.

marie-20

prowla wrote: »

I hope you got through to them.

But sometimes sellers demanding positive feedback is a bit like kids being in competitions where nobody is allowed to fail.

You should only expect good feedback for a good service; neutral feedback just says it wasn't great, but wasn't terrible!

In the case of this particular seller, they seem to ship quite a lot of stuff, but they have had over 70 neutrals and over 70 negatives in the past 6 months, with a number of them being for slow delivery (one even for sending a despatch notice for an out of stock item).

Both 70 neutral and negs isn't bad depending upon the amount of feedback they have received.

We have a few that also state slow delivery etc yet we dispatch all of our orders on the same day up to around 2.30pm so there is nothing further that we can do. Funnily enough the majority of the buyers that leave this type of feedback choose to have the free 2nd class/48 delivery rather than pay the 20p to upgrade to 1st even though they need it within a day or 2 and then blame the sellers for their ridiculous expectations and this seems to be across the board and not just limited to ourselves.

campdave

prowla wrote: »

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 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.

You keep saying that, but you don't tell us what you expect sellers to do if Royal Mail take longer than the expectation.

prowla

marie-20 wrote: »

Unfortunately the Royal Mail have 're-branded' the service without really offering anything different or better to before.

We currently send around 2,500 to 3,500 parcels per week and around 70% arrive in 2 days, a further 15% on the 3rd and then the rest seem to arrive between working day 5 and 8.

Whilst I agree that the expectation is set at around 2-3 working days that expectation is not set by the seller - it is set by the Royal Mail and eBay but that is all it is - an estimate.

Whilst you may feel that mid June isn't peak season that really depends on you point of view but a lot of sellers are really busy now with people buying stuff for the summer hols, things to keep the kids quiet during hols and things that they need now as well as people planning ahead with back to school stuff and winter requirements, etc. We have found that we are considerably busier both this month and last month than we were in March and April and that the deliveries are taking longer than they were in March and April where around 85% of orders arrived in 2 days and 10% in 3 days. This is also true of my personal orders, as an example I ordered something Sunday which was dispatched on Monday by 1st class post and it didn't arrive with me until Friday.

As people have stated unfortunately no delivery service other than a guaranteed 24/48 hour courier and Special Delivery guarantee when an order will arrive and therefore this needs to be taken into account when buying online.

If it is so inconvenient to collect from your local sorting office and you are frequently out you need to consider whether it is actually worth you buying online or not. I'm not so sure why it was so inconvenient,unless YOU decided to take a risk and order something really late, as you can arrange for re-delivery on a date that suits you within minutes online which would then alleviate your issue of having to stay in based upon estimate. Maybe if you ordered the item you needed with plenty of time to spare instead of the last minute you may find that arranging redelivery is more to your liking because, I have previously stated, you can choose your redelivery date for free or have it dropped off at your local post office for a small charge.

That's an interesting post.

I didn't "take a risk and order something really late", nor "at the last minute" - I ordered something and based my expectations of delivery on what I was told to expect.

It is inconvenient for me to go to the sorting office when I expected the thing to arrive at my door.

I don't know about being frequently out, as I was in Wednesday and Thursday, but I did go out for the day on Saturday; it being the weekend and all that. And anyway, most people would probably expect to be allowed to go out at some time during the day, and there's no saying whether a delivery would come just at the wrong time (you know it happens).

In fact, the often being out angle doesn't really wash, as I often work from home and as it happens I often find that I take things for the neighbours because I am often in.

A couple of people have rather condescendingly suggested that maybe online buying isn't for me, to which I have pointed out that my ebay score is over 1000; I think that probably suggests that I am fairly up on it.

Another thing is the guaranteed 24-hour service - these are also only estimates as opposed to a certainty that the item will arrive. And of course, I didn't want to pay for that, since the quoted delivery dates were fine for me anyway.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

prowla wrote: »

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 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.

What do think any of that has to do with the guy sitting in his spare room or warehouse unit stuffing jiffy bags?

Phone Royal Mail on 020 7250 2888, press the option for being a business, then the one to say you've called before, you'll go through to the Chairman's Office, good luck persuading them to change how the services are detailed.

prowla

marie-20 wrote: »

Both 70 neutral and negs isn't bad depending upon the amount of feedback they have received.

We have a few that also state slow delivery etc yet we dispatch all of our orders on the same day up to around 2.30pm so there is nothing further that we can do. Funnily enough the majority of the buyers that leave this type of feedback choose to have the free 2nd class/48 delivery rather than pay the 20p to upgrade to 1st even though they need it within a day or 2 and then blame the sellers for their ridiculous expectations and this seems to be across the board and not just limited to ourselves.

I didn't need it within a day or two - I needed delivery to meet expectations.

prowla

campdave wrote: »

You keep saying that, but you don't tell us what you expect sellers to do if Royal Mail take longer than the expectation.

The goods and the delivery are part of the purchase.

What I expect is for things to go as expected, and not to inconvenience me.

I don't know how to fix it - I am the buyer who pays out the money, not the seller/ebay/PO.

Maybe Soolin had the right idea about escalating it to ebay.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

prowla wrote: »

That's an interesting post.


Another thing is the guaranteed 24-hour service - these are also only estimates as opposed to a certainty that the item will arrive. And of course, I didn't want to pay for that, since the quoted delivery dates were fine for me anyway.

How do you understand this and choose not to buy it because it may not be as detailed because it's estimated but can't get that 2nd Class post isn't guaranteed to arrive in 2-3 days because it's estimated?

Anyway not a single delivery service in the world is a certainty, if you live next door and I say I'll be there in 30 seconds I could still drop dead before I get to your door!

campdave

prowla wrote: »

The goods and the delivery are part of the purchase.

What I expect is for things to go as expected, and not to inconvenience me.

I don't know how to fix it - I am the buyer who pays out the money, not the seller/ebay/PO.

Maybe Soolin had the right idea about escalating it to ebay.

You've mentioned you sell too. If you sent an item 2nd class, and got a message from a buyer three days after you'd marked it as dispatched, what would you do?