Is this worth complaining about?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

prowla wrote: »

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

Good luck with that.

prowla

campdave wrote: »

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?

For a start, I would only have marked it despatched after I had sent it.

In my case I cannot meet the next day despatch and usually say so; in my listings I give details of when I can post (typically Saturday morning) and the postage options which is usually the cheapest signed for and which thus has tracking. I have had things go missing, and have explained to buyers precisely where it is.

marie-20

prowla wrote: »

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.

You based it upon ESTIMATIONS not guarantee's or expectations - they are all very different things.

A feedback score is actually quite irrelevant - 1,000 feedback could equate to around 1 purchase a week or bulk buys close to Christmas but as an 'experienced' buyer why would you expect that the economy delivery would magically overnight change to 2 days rather than the old expected 1-2 weeks even though eBay say it's estimated to so because you will be fully aware that a lot of what eBay say and do is rubbish as you use eBay frequently?

It isn't inconvenient - you didn't have to go to the sorting office but you chose to rather than have it redelivered on a day to suit yourself presumably because you needed it which kind of gets rid of the below statement and also that it wasn't a last minute purchase as everyone takes the risk that an order will arrive when they are out regardless of whether you are 'generally' at home or not because you 'may' have needed to pop to the shops etc:

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).

No a guaranteed service is exactly that - Guaranteed. Yes it occasionally doesn't happen but that is very rare indeed. We send 150 ish items a week by Special Delivery or 24 hour courier and have done for the past 12 months and so far there has only been 1 order that didn't arrive on time and that was to Scotland during heavy snow - not bad out of over 7,500 parcels sent!

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

prowla wrote: »

For a start, I would only have marked it despatched after I had sent it.

In my case I cannot meet the next day despatch and usually say so; in my listings I give details of when I can post (typically Saturday morning) and the postage options which is usually the cheapest signed for and which thus has tracking. I have had things go missing, and have explained to buyers precisely where it is.

Dave was asking what you would do when a buyer questions why the 2nd Class item you've posted (signed for or not doesn't make a difference to the time) hasn't arrive on the 3rd day after being sent out.

Recorded Delivery wouldn't allow you to tell the buyer where the parcel is as the so-called tracking would just show a generic statement detailing that the parcel is progressing through the network.

prowla

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

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!

Aha - you've turned my devil's advocate into yours...

I usually don't consider the guaranteed 24 hours as worth the extra cost, given that it is a variable and susceptible to hold-ups just as the other forms are. The fact that its times are tighter makes it more sensitive, and thus slightly different to a service quoting the majority of items within 2 days and a small minority within 3.

(And anyway, if you lived next door, I'd probably have parcels for you!)

marie-20

prowla wrote: »

For a start, I would only have marked it despatched after I had sent it.

In my case I cannot meet the next day despatch and usually say so; in my listings I give details of when I can post (typically Saturday morning) and the postage options which is usually the cheapest signed for and which thus has tracking. I have had things go missing, and have explained to buyers precisely where it is.

Yes but your main argument is that eBay stated 2-3 days and it took 5/6 days to arrive after dispatch - this would also happen if you stated 2nd class/48 delivery on your listings regardless of the dispatch time you stated as that would also be based upon you posting on a weekend.

It has been stated previously that the seller may well have dispatched on a Sunday and I think that it is actually more likely that they did send on Sunday if they had a PPI account or if they used a Paypal label as they only need to drop it into the PO rather than queue.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

prowla wrote: »

, given that it is a variable and susceptible to hold-ups just as the other forms are. The fact that its times are tighter makes it more sensitive, and thus slightly different to a service quoting the majority of items within 2 days and a small minority within 3.

In terms of Royal Mail it's the opposite, Special Delivery is handled separately and prioritised, there is much less chance of SD being late than a standard service.

In terms of 1st and 2nd, Royal Mail handle 1st Class first, 2nd Class is left if the office is busy so if there's a lot of mail, a van breaks down, a couple of guys are off sick or, like myself, you live in an area where a lot of post is delivered on a round, the 2nd Class is left. Before 1st/2nd it's SD and, I think, then Tracked 24 parcels, somewhere in-between is Tracked 48 and Royal Mail also have down steam access mail (things like bills) behind 2nd class I think and addressed marketing mail with very low priority.

Moving away from eBay, I've just placed an order on Amazon where they've boasted "Guaranteed delivery by Wednesday" as this is Prime (rather than paying anything extra) they'll be sending it 1st Class, their guarantee is if it doesn't arrive Wednesday I'll get a months free prime, Wednesday would be nice but knowing the post here I'd say there's a 20% chance it will arrive Thursday. On eBay you'd be getting the Wednesday ETA as well (assuming 1 day handling and 1st Class) but Royal Mail's targets aren't even 100% and they aren't recording every piece of mail to judge whether they meet those targets either.

campdave

prowla wrote: »

For a start, I would only have marked it despatched after I had sent it.

In my case I cannot meet the next day despatch and usually say so; in my listings I give details of when I can post (typically Saturday morning) and the postage options which is usually the cheapest signed for and which thus has tracking. I have had things go missing, and have explained to buyers precisely where it is.

So you've not met expectations then - as you have said, you expect the item to be delivered in the time scale on the listing. How can you complain that it's a seller's responsibility to meet this deadline when you admit your items have been delayed?

prowla

marie-20 wrote: »

You based it upon ESTIMATIONS not guarantee's or expectations - they are all very different things.

A feedback score is actually quite irrelevant - 1,000 feedback could equate to around 1 purchase a week or bulk buys close to Christmas but as an 'experienced' buyer why would you expect that the economy delivery would magically overnight change to 2 days rather than the old expected 1-2 weeks even though eBay say it's estimated to so because you will be fully aware that a lot of what eBay say and do is rubbish as you use eBay frequently?

It isn't inconvenient - you didn't have to go to the sorting office but you chose to rather than have it redelivered on a day to suit yourself presumably because you needed it which kind of gets rid of the below statement and also that it wasn't a last minute purchase as everyone takes the risk that an order will arrive when they are out regardless of whether you are 'generally' at home or not because you 'may' have needed to pop to the shops etc:

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).

No a guaranteed service is exactly that - Guaranteed. Yes it occasionally doesn't happen but that is very rare indeed. We send 150 ish items a week by Special Delivery or 24 hour courier and have done for the past 12 months and so far there has only been 1 order that didn't arrive on time and that was to Scotland during heavy snow - not bad out of over 7,500 parcels sent!

The estimates set the expectations, or what is the point of them?

Actually I went and collected it because I didn't know I could arrange re-delivery. And how precise can a re-delivery be defined, or would I need to wait until the postie did whatever was on his round, which can be variable? The reason it was inconvenient was because it took me half an hour and means I think I now need to put petrol in the car before tomorrow. My reasons for getting it were because I wanted to have it rather than sitting waiting, and it could have been a different parcel anyway.

In the end though, as a buyer I can choose which is my best method of acquiring items, and if sellers don't view getting the item to me as part of the service, then that's something I can take on board.

I don't know why you persist in insisting that I made a rush last minute purchase, since I have said I haven't. The fact is that I won't be able to do anything with it today nor tomorrow, but maybe Wednesday. If it had arrived on time as stated then I could've got the job done on Sunday, but it didn't so I couldn't.

I'm not sure what the point of your analysis of my ebay numbers is about either - you implied that maybe ebay wasn't right for me, so I pointed out I've made a large number of transactions there (ie. over 1000), to which you've said the numbers are irrelevant. Not sure I get your drift.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

prowla wrote: »

if sellers don't view getting the item to me as part of the service, then that's something I can take on board.

It isn't to do with the sellers view, it's simply to do with how the post works.

prowla wrote: »

I'm not sure what the point of your analysis of my ebay numbers is about either - you implied that maybe ebay wasn't right for me, so I pointed out I've made a large number of transactions there (ie. over 1000), to which you've said the numbers are irrelevant. Not sure I get your drift.

Numbers don't have anything to do with it, I have 100,000+, I'm sure some posters make me look small time. What does have something to do with it is experience of the mail system and those of us posting daily have more knowledge.

Your not a customer of mine I'm trying to appease or fobb off, there's no reason for me to pass the buck, this is just simply how it is and an estimate should be used as just that, a rough idea or gauge to go by.

If lateness occurs it isn't ideal but I haven't seen any retailer offering any kind of refund, voucher or whatever for a late parcel, only a refund on service charges when paying for an enhanced service.