2 Sales this week, both buyers moaning about delivery times before dispatch date even reached.

vacheron

Hi all. 

I shipped just 2 items this week and have had both buyers on complaining that their item has not arrived despite the stated dispatch time having not even been reached.

For background, all my auctions state a 3 day dispatch time (so I can post twice per week) and both offered (free) economy 2-4 day shipping and have never had any compliants about shipping with 5.0 for my detailed seller feedback for postage and packing.


Item 1 was purchased on Sunday evening, Item 2 purchased on Monday evening. 2 different buyers. Both auctions state 3 working day shipping.

I dispatch both on Wednesday

5 minutes after I purchase the shipping label on Wednesday, buyer 1 sends me a message:...

Have these only just been despatched???  Listing at time of purchase stated approx. delivery Wednesday, i.e. today. Not much chance of that happening!

So I send him a detailed polite message which explains what dispatch time is and ask for some evidence that ebay stated a wednesday delivery... which he doesn't provide.


Then, on thursday morning, the other buyer is on at me. I'll quote the spelling exactly as written.....

wHERE IS MY ITEM

so again I send another message explaining dispatch time, with the following response:

so you con't dispatch the item the same day I purshade it

Not sure if eBay are sending out unrealistic delivery estimates again or if certain buyers just come out of the woodwork during Easter season? Anyone else had any similar recent experiences?

soolin

Ebay are definitely having issues with delivery estimates, it seems to  affect certain areas and sellers at different times and has been covered both here and on many other forums.

I have a 2 day dispatch with 2nd class postage so for instance items sold last Sunday would be due for dispatch by the 4th with delivery from the 6th onwards, yet ebay will show delivery estimates as early as the Tuesday. 

Myself, and many other people set our dispatch times a day late to try and mop up some of these delays, so I post same or next day despite having a 2 day dispatch showing. You can check your delivery estimates by going to your order page, click on 'view order details' and then the estimate given to buyer is shown.. So I sold something on the 4th which showed the buyer delivery estimates of 8-11th (note this is Easter with no postage delivery in England except for Saturday) , that's actually quite good for Ebay as they does allow for a 2 day dispatch and 2 days for 2nd class. However another one was sold on the 2nd and showed delivery estimates of 5th-6th but it didn't even have to be dispatched to the 4th. It is all completely random. The latter one for me has not yet arrived so as far as buyer is concerned it is now 'late'.

MR1988

Yeah delivery estimates are messed up. I had my items as 2 Days dispatch time + 2-3 Days shipping time. So that should be a 4-5 Days delivery estimate but when I'm going to my item page it shows 3 Days Fast and Free Delivery. I assume ebay bumping up the estimates so buyers would be more inclined to buy but that leaves us as sellers to deal with unhappy customers.

Buster_Danog

vacheron said:

For background, all my auctions state a 3 day dispatch time (so I can post twice per week) and both offered (free) economy 2-4 day shipping and have never had any compliants about shipping with 5.0 for my detailed seller feedback for postage and packing.

I would change the description to "3 working days" if it will stop them complaining. I would also state in the item description that you only post twice a week.

messia07

we have all had those types of angry messages from buyers. those type of people treat normal ebay sellers like a shop. the worst one i had was a guy sending me angry messages about where his item was.. it took a while but i found out he gave me the wrong address. which i had to contact collectplus to correct. i never got an apology or even any ebay feedback lol 

just state your postage time clearly in the bottom of your  listings and i would keep reply message to a minimum, almost robotic.

 

robsithninja

My items are listed as dispatched within 2 working days and a 48 hour courier service.  Ebay list my items as Free 2 day postage which could mislead customers into thinking they will get the item within 2 days.  Sometimes the 'Free 2 day postage', changes to 'Free 3 day postage' which makes it even more confusing, it seems to vary based on what day it is.

GDB2222

I only rarely buy on ebay, and I must say that I don’t have any real recollection of seeing anything about despatch times. So, I probably represent your average ebay customer.

I do read the listing fully, so if you said there you only post twice a week, I would read that and be able to work out when to expect the item to reach me.  

vacheron

Thanks everyone for all the comments. 

So buyer 2's parcel arrived the day after he messaged and I haven't heard from him again so I guess he's happy. But buyer 1 is claiming his "client" has gone elsewhere due to the delay (which wasn't actually a delay). During our chats I had mentioned to him that he could return the items using the "buyer changed mind" option (rather than have an unhappy customer). 

Problem now is he has e-mailed stating that he couldn't use that option as it was greyed out because I had returns not accepted on this item, so rather than contacting me he "picked something else" and has chosen "item is defective" and has added the comment "item was tested and does not work" which is completely untrue. 

Now I am happy to use this just to get my items back, get shot of him, and then block him, but I am concerned that him deciding without consulting to use this option may mean I get a negative strike on my account such as with a SNAD.

Does anyone know if the "item is defective" claim will impact negatively against my account if I proceed?

Cheers in advance.

soolin

No an SNAD claim doesn’t negatively impact your account at all as long as you respond quickly and arrange for a label to be sent via the system.

It might be worth enabling returns as anecdotally it does save this silliness with buyers having to opt fo4 an SNAD instead, although it might even be worth phoning eBay to see if they will step in due to misuse of the returns policy. 

vacheron

Thanks Soolin. 

So a return using "item defective" like my buyer hasshouldn't cause any issues either? 

I think you are correct as I have few return requests and you can't avoid returns for many reasons regardless, so I'll probably just change all my listings to accepted to avoid any future problems.  Cheers. 

Spoonie_Turtle

soolin said:

No an SNAD claim doesn’t negatively impact your account at all as long as you respond quickly and arrange for a label to be sent via the system.

It might be worth enabling returns as anecdotally it does save this silliness with buyers having to opt fo4 an SNAD instead, although it might even be worth phoning eBay to see if they will step in due to misuse of the returns policy. 

Yeah, you'd hope with the message history they'd at the very least not make OP pay for the return label.