Buyers wanting stuff immediately

soolin

Things seem to come in batches , at the moment all I’m getting is afternoon sales with the message ‘post today as I need this tomorrow/in two days/urgently’. I’ve checked and I do still have a 2 day dispatch on and I’m using 2nd class so it is completely unrealistic and frankly I think a bit cheeky of buyers. 

Just had another, ‘I need this tomorrow so it will need to be posted today’ , the item was bought at 2.15 pm and I just picked the message up and no, I’m not going back out to do a second post run. The eBay delivery estimates don’t help either, my items sold today all show arriving as early as Tuesday, when I would still be in time to actually post them! 

Incidentally the one today is on my private account, and a quite unremarkable sub £5 second hand item. 

olgadapolga

soolin said:

Incidentally the one today is on my private account, and a quite unremarkable sub £5 second hand item. 

Yes, but you're forgetting that it's uRgEnT and should have realised that they needed it desperately when you listed it 🙄

subjecttocontract

Why can't you just say no ?

soolin

subjecttocontract said:

Why can't you just say no ?

I do, I never rush out if it is inconvenient, but we sellers are vulnerable to retaliation . I tend to reply along the lines of 'I'm sorry this cannot be sent today as I won't be home in time to post it but I can post tomorrow which is a day earlier than my stated despatch time but as the postage paid for is 2nd class this is likely to take 3 days or so to arrive, much depends on your own local post situation '

I used to offer to cancel but so many buyers didn't respond for a day or more and I never knew whether to post or hold the item- so now I wait for them to ask to cancel and if not, I just post out.

This is the problem though, read the thread linked below. If I post this tomorrow (which is earlier than my stated despatch time)  it is unlikely to arrive much before Tuesday/Wed if I'm lucky, but buyer estimate shows arrival from Tuesday and they can open a dispute if they don't get it.

INR Case opened 3 days after posting - Estimated Delivery Date 26/27th May - Page 2 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Murphybear

Since going from a size 22 to a size 14 I’ve  sadly had to give most of my clothes to charity  I’ve bought lots of “new” ones on eBay and told the sellers I didn’t  mind waiting.  The sellers have been pleased and we’ve exchanged chatty emails and I’ve been offered some nice clothes directly.  

I’m certain that nice sellers and buyers are worth their weight in gold.  

Belenus

Murphybear said:

Since going from a size 22 to a size 14 I’ve  sadly had to give most of my clothes to charity  

Congratulations on that achievement.

molerat

And if you are relying on Royal Mail they may be even more disappointed. I posted a 1st class small parcel Tuesday morning, delivered Friday afternoon !

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

soolin said:

 ‘I need this tomorrow so it will need to be posted today’ , 

You are very right problems do indeed come in batches for some reason. 

I've wondered in the past if some buyers just send such a message to every seller they buy from to push them to post quickly.

Most of the time I mark the orders as dispatched as soon as they are placed, later the in evening the buyer gets a message to say it's packed and ready to be collected tomorrow. 

Seems to cut out a lot of silliness. 

molerat said:

And if you are relying on Royal Mail they may be even more disappointed. I posted a 1st class small parcel Tuesday morning, delivered Friday afternoon !

Delays are common after bank holidays with Royal Mail, in comparison a Evri parcel posted on Thursday arrived Friday, the following week.... 

GabbaGabbaHey

Amazon Prime has set an expectation that a buyer can order anything online and receive the goods next day.

I'm sure that a lot of buyers on eBay believe that they are actually buying directly from a large entity called eBay, and don't realise that it's actually from a (much) smaller seller who is just using eBay as a marketplace.

subjecttocontract

I have the perfect solution......change your business model, never agree to post, mark everything as collect only or like me, just use eBay to buy stuff.

soolin

subjecttocontract said:

I have the perfect solution......change your business model, never agree to post, mark everything as collect only or like me, just use eBay to buy stuff.

But then how would I afford all my holidays 😀