Sellers abusing "dispatched" on Ebay listings.

soolin

KxMx said:

In the OP however the seller didn't even have the goods so it was totally wrong of them to mark as sent. 

That I definitely agree with 

epm-84

mgdavid said:

Dispatched as far as I'm concerned means having entered the dispatch process. Like you, once I've booked a courier and labelled the parcel I mark it up.

That does have logic to it - once it's 'dispatched' it's too late for the buyer to ask if they can they add another item to the order, if they can they change the address, if they can cancel an item from the order etc. 

epm-84

neverlikedpeas said:

It is a pet hate of mine when you pay for something at 8pm on a Sunday night and it is marked as despatched by Royal Mail 2 hours later.There is no chance the seller has posted the item when the Post Office is closed so you know it hasn't been despatched.I just knock a star off their communication and trust that people who tell lies about their selling activities get marked down and lose sales eventually

Couldn't they? 
https://send.royalmail.com/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48334721

Of course there's a specific type of printed label a Post Office counter uses, so if the item arrives with one of those on it then it could only have been posted at a time when the counter was open.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

This kind of thing can be filed away with please leave me feedback first and why did you charge me £3.30 postage when it only cost £3. 

eBay has evolved and things have changed, the OP's problem is a seller without stock, it's not good and if they do it too often they'll find they fall foul of one of eBay's many seller performance criteria. The same experience can be had anywhere with any retailer. 

Regarding the general dispatching of orders, an ETA is given and as long as it arrives by then it really doesn't matter. You buy, you pay, it arrives. If something goes wrong I'll bend over backwards to put it right, the waffle in-between is something very limited to eBay that shouldn't be a part of shopping online. 

epm-84

neverlikedpeas said:

The point of the dispatched feature for me is to give the buyer an idea of when the parcel is likely to arrive.If it's marked as dispatched on Sunday night but isn't posted until Wednesday it isn't being honest with the buyer.Some buyers will stay in if they are expecting a parcel, it is messing those people about to mark an item as dispatched a day or two before it has been

If it's tracked you know when it's been collected or dropped off at a collection point from the tracking.  If it's not tracked then it could turn up at anytime e.g. Royal Mail 2nd class sometimes arrives the day after it's posted, while Royal Mail 1st class isn't guaranteed to arrive the day after it's posted.  Also sometimes Royal Mail decide to put a relatively small item on a special parcel delivery round and on other occasions fairly large parcels get delivered at the same time as the normal letters.

Niv

I would like to clarify though (to any sellers out there particularly), it may irk me, but I don't downrate unless delivery is mega late, basically I take dispatch to mean nothing at all. Unless I pay extra for quick postage I wouldn't even downrate for it being a day or 2 after the estimate as i appreciate that the stars are very important to sellers and I really only want the bad sellers gone not someone who is good but the post was a bit late.

Bettie

I would not have marked my seller down if he had sent a note to say he didn't have the stock. The no communication and no apology just made me cross.

knightstyle

But how do leave feedback???   I heard nothing for over two weeks in spite of it being marked dispatched after a day.  Then when I ask, politely when it was sent and any tracking they cancelled the sale, no communication, just cancelled.