How do you deal with buyers on eBay etc. who have unrealistic expectations about postage times?

MalMonroe

I've never had any problems. My listings usually say it's three working days - and that's after I receive the eBay notification that the item has sold, buyer's paid and to 'despatch now'. 

There's a lot of info here - https://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/postage/postage-made-easy

You can only do what's humanely possible.

I don't sell a lot on eBay but I've started to use the Royal Mail Click and Drop service, which only costs an extra 70p (ish) per item. They collect from my home. Then RM sends an email to say they've collected it. You can also pay for track and trace but I haven't used that. Buyers have usually received their items very quickly indeed. The best thing for me (as I'm CEV) is that I don't have to go to the PO or any other drop off place. I leave items in a container outside (hidden from general view) and the postperson collects them. Shortly afterwards I get an email to say the parcel has been collected. Mostly buyers are paying for the postage and I usually use first class.

Not boasting (oh go on then, I am!) but I have a 100% rating as both a seller and a buyer so I must be doing something right. I'm always extremely polite to both sellers and buyers - even when they are so very wrong. (And they often are.)  

DisablednProud

Thrugelmir said:

After issues in the early days of running an online shop. I started to send everything by signed for second class post. Meant that there was a way for buyers to monitor the status of their parcel.  

I considered doing this, but it's so expensive. It definitely prevents people from lying about items not arriving though, which is a plus.

I actually dealt with a serial INR claimer last year, I checked through their feedback, noticed that they had claimed INR from multiple other sellers who had mentioned it in the feedback, I reached out to some of the other sellers, we ended up reporting them to eBay and got their account banned. Was kinda disappointed that eBay hadn't automatically flagged their account because they had been opening multiple INR cases for over a year. Moral of the story is to always report any suspicious cases or buyers to eBay.

RFW

DisablednProud said:
I'm wondering if I should intentionally wait 5 days before marking items as dispatched so that eBay doesn't give buyers such unrealistic expectations. Royal Mail 2nd class definitely does not take '2-3 days' anymore, it takes closer to a week on average, from my experience.

Where are you posting from?

Dropping in postboxes can take longer, as they often have fewer collections than they used to. I rarely use local postboxes as they will invariably add 1-2 days to delivery.
I drop off at a sorting office which usually gets them straight into the system and is rarely more than 2-3 days for 2nd and usually next day for 1st.

DisablednProud

RFW said:

DisablednProud said:
I'm wondering if I should intentionally wait 5 days before marking items as dispatched so that eBay doesn't give buyers such unrealistic expectations. Royal Mail 2nd class definitely does not take '2-3 days' anymore, it takes closer to a week on average, from my experience.

Where are you posting from?

Dropping in postboxes can take longer, as they often have fewer collections than they used to. I rarely use local postboxes as they will invariably add 1-2 days to delivery.
I drop off at a sorting office which usually gets them straight into the system and is rarely more than 2-3 days for 2nd and usually next day for 1st.

It depends. For cheaper items I use a local postbox and for more expensive or larger items a local post office or Royal Mail collection service. I've had delays with all 3 methods, but as you say, postboxes are the worst, as sometimes they are not collected for days.

Since COVID the situation had gotten a lot worse. At first COVID was a legitimate excuse (I contacted RM to chase up a few recorded UK items that took over 2 weeks to arrive and they blamed COVID delays and said that entire offices had to be shut down due to COVID outbreaks, which is fair enough) ... but things are pretty much back to normal in the UK for months now, so I don't feel COVID is a valid excuse anymore, and I hate it that companies are still using it as an excuse to provide a terrible service. 

martindow

DisablednProud said:

as you say, postboxes are the worst, as sometimes they are not collected for days.

Is that really true?  My local box is cleared by the postmen who make the deliveries as part of their round.  The problem is that I often don't know if the post has been collected that day or whether it will sit in the box until the next day.

DisablednProud

martindow said:

DisablednProud said:

as you say, postboxes are the worst, as sometimes they are not collected for days.

Is that really true?  My local box is cleared by the postmen who make the deliveries as part of their round.  The problem is that I often don't know if the post has been collected that day or whether it will sit in the box until the next day.

I am on the RM monitoring panel (they give you test mail to post with RFD chips) and sometimes when I am posting in a postbox they are telling me the items were taking 3-5 days before they were picked up (they usually send you a check to make sure that you didn't send the mail late or anything), also the metal tag with the day of the week was not changed for up to 4 days sometimes. On one occasion during the lockdowns it was so full that the mail wouldn't even fit, it was literally full up to the opening slot.

I complained to RM and they blamed it on the fact that due to COVID restrictions they can only fit 1 work person in each van, which didn't make much sense to me, as surely you only been one workman and one van to pickup the boxes.

kalsha

I am on the RM monitoring panel (they give you test mail to post with RFD chips) and sometimes when I am posting in a postbox they are telling me the items were taking 3-5 days before they were picked up (they usually send you a check to make sure that you didn't send the mail late or anything), also the metal tag with the day of the week was not changed for up to 4 days sometimes. On one occasion during the lockdowns it was so full that the mail wouldn't even fit, it was literally full up to the opening slot.

Those metal tags showing when the next collection is,  disappeared from all the boxes in my area about 5/6 years ago.  I thought they were very useful.  It showed that the mail had already been collected - then I would not post in that box and find another one.

NBLondon

kalsha said:

I am on the RM monitoring panel (they give you test mail to post with RFD chips) and sometimes when I am posting in a postbox they are telling me the items were taking 3-5 days before they were picked up (they usually send you a check to make sure that you didn't send the mail late or anything), also the metal tag with the day of the week was not changed for up to 4 days sometimes. On one occasion during the lockdowns it was so full that the mail wouldn't even fit, it was literally full up to the opening slot.

Those metal tags showing when the next collection is,  disappeared from all the boxes in my area about 5/6 years ago.  I thought they were very useful.  It showed that the mail had already been collected - then I would not post in that box and find another one.

My local box hasn't had a tag for a couple of years.  When I was on the monitoring panel some years back, one of the standard questions was "what did the tag show?" - not sure if it is now.

kalsha

NBLondon said:

kalsha said:

I am on the RM monitoring panel (they give you test mail to post with RFD chips) and sometimes when I am posting in a postbox they are telling me the items were taking 3-5 days before they were picked up (they usually send you a check to make sure that you didn't send the mail late or anything), also the metal tag with the day of the week was not changed for up to 4 days sometimes. On one occasion during the lockdowns it was so full that the mail wouldn't even fit, it was literally full up to the opening slot.

Those metal tags showing when the next collection is,  disappeared from all the boxes in my area about 5/6 years ago.  I thought they were very useful.  It showed that the mail had already been collected - then I would not post in that box and find another one.

My local box hasn't had a tag for a couple of years.  When I was on the monitoring panel some years back, one of the standard questions was "what did the tag show?" - not sure if it is now.

No they don't ask that any more.  They ask the exact time you posted and in which box.  

Buster_Danog

I find most buyers are OK. I have only every had one who pestered me to post an item the same day it was purchased. I find including the info at the bottom of the listing is another way. "I will post the item three days after payment" or something like that makes it more clear to them.