Is the Seller misleading me about delivery?

ih8stress

I bought an item on Wednesday on Ebay and was given a tracking number that day.
Lots of feedback mentioned very quick delivery so I stupidly didn't ask the Seller if it could be sent quickly, especially as I had the tracking number.
On Thursday the tracking was still saying 'we're expecting your parcel to arrive with us soon and we'll update tracking once we've received it'.
I messaged the Seller to ask if it could be sent by first class if being sent second, which I would obviously pay for.
The reply was that the Courier had already collected it that morning. They provided a photo of the labelled package on Thursday.
On Friday the tracking finally updated but said 'we've received your parcel at the ParcelShop and will be collecting it shortly', which they did.

At this point I was confused as the Seller had told me that a Courier had collected it on Thursday but I have never dealt with Evri so not sure of the process.

Do Couriers collect from a Seller and then take it to a ParcelShop for Evri to collect? This sounds unlikely.

Is it more probable that the Seller arranged Evri on the Wednesday and printed the label off and thus had the tracking number to give me, then actually took it to the ParcelShop on the Friday?

In complete contrast I ordered an item Tuesday evening from Ebay, again being delivered by Evri. It arrived Friday dinnertime!

forgotmyname

Evri are very hit and miss and probably varies depending on the area also.

Ordered some stuff from AliExpress a few days ago with 8 day delivery estimates. Not too fussed about the time but noticed that
several packages all passed through customs today and Evri have emailed to say they have them.  Thought they would all have
the same delivery day but some will be on the 27th and others on the 29th with one estimated on the 4th.

27th/29th I thought may come at the same time but no idea why one is marked for the 4th?

soolin

Assuming this was Evri, and Evri is mentioned in OP but also 1st and 2nd which is usually RM , then it is worth noting that there has been two recent episodes where Evri has been down entirely. Vinted and eBay both had warnings on their postage page that Evri was currently experiencing issues with the system and it lasted several hours. 

DullGreyGuy

ih8stress said:

I bought an item on Wednesday on Ebay and was given a tracking number that day.
Lots of feedback mentioned very quick delivery so I stupidly didn't ask the Seller if it could be sent quickly, especially as I had the tracking number.
On Thursday the tracking was still saying 'we're expecting your parcel to arrive with us soon and we'll update tracking once we've received it'.
I messaged the Seller to ask if it could be sent by first class if being sent second, which I would obviously pay for.
The reply was that the Courier had already collected it that morning. They provided a photo of the labelled package on Thursday.
On Friday the tracking finally updated but said 'we've received your parcel at the ParcelShop and will be collecting it shortly', which they did.

At this point I was confused as the Seller had told me that a Courier had collected it on Thursday but I have never dealt with Evri so not sure of the process.

Do Couriers collect from a Seller and then take it to a ParcelShop for Evri to collect? This sounds unlikely.

Is it more probable that the Seller arranged Evri on the Wednesday and printed the label off and thus had the tracking number to give me, then actually took it to the ParcelShop on the Friday?

In complete contrast I ordered an item Tuesday evening from Ebay, again being delivered by Evri. It arrived Friday dinnertime!

No, dropping it at the parcel shop just saves you having to wait in all day for the courier to decide to arrive (or not). It is however arguably "with evri" at the point the shop scans it in with their Evri scanner.  The courier tends to go to the shop as the last point in the area to give them the parcels that people haven't been in for and to collect whatever has been dropped off there by customers. 

I dont sell often on eBay but when I do it tends to be multiple items and it's likely that different items are going with different couriers. Those I can I will use a drop point but others dont have one near by so I await their collection. If I get a message from someone after all the parcels are gone I'm unlikely to spend time remembering which parcels gone which way with whom and just say "its with the courier" if all the parcels have gone (obv if ones still waiting by the door for collection then I need to double check)

There is always an element of pot luck with these things, I've bought a 3 day service, dropped it to the shop just as the courier was coming in and it's been delivered the next day. I once sold a very expensive item (for me) and it moved quickly to Birmingham on the tracking and then got stuck there for over a week before suddenly being delivered in Edinburgh whilst the tracking still said it was in Birmingham. Thankfully the buyer was reasonable and said it was in pristine condition when it arrived so its not been bouncing around the back of a van or such for a week.

GadgetGuru

It's Evri.
Forget the delivery timeframe - just be grateful if it arrives in one piece.

ih8stress

Thank you to everyone for your replies, which I appreciate, as usual

The delivery was through Evri, I mentioned 1st and 2nd class as I didn't know if they did this option.

The Seller stated it had been given to the Courier, then also said it had been dropped off - not confusing in the slightest!

Maybe the Parcelshop scanned it a day later then, who knows?

Anyhow, I got the parcel a day later than I hoped (though still within the Ebay time-frame) just about in one piece, very battered.

Annoyingly every single feedback stated very quick delivery and well packaged, which is why I chose that particular one. Sod's law mine is the exception to the rule and it was a present. Hey ho

soolin

If you received it within the eBay time frame, which is always an optimistic guess, then it does warrant the comment fast postage.

ebay estimates are dire, I am becoming a bit of a ranter on the subject. For instance I am currently away, my holiday settings are on until 11.30 pm tonight although I switched them to allow sales yesterday which according to their blurb means buyers are given estimates that allow for me being away until the time stated on my holiday listings, and only after then does my 2 day despatch and RM 2nd class get calculated. There are exceptions for offers and items sold via GSP.

I sold 3 things yesterday, all show an estimated delivery date of between Friday 29th and Tuesday 3rd. I wouldn’t even be late posting by the 2nd as that would be day 2 yet by then my items would already be well into the delivery estimate. To make it worse, my own sold page shows that I need to post by the 3rd, ie the last estimated delivery date shown to the buyer. On the 4th buyers could open an INR. 

ih8stress

I agree @soolin about Ebay and their estimated delivery dates. I send mine mainly by RM48 but according to Ebay they are expected to get there ONE day after my last posting date - despite RM saying they deliver within 2-3 days!

I extended by despatch time to try and compensate for any delays and try and arrange collection on the first day if possible.

I don't think buyers should be able to do INR or SNAD for late deliveries when it is outside of our control.

Hope you had a nice holiday

soolin

ih8stress said:

I agree @soolin about Ebay and their estimated delivery dates. I send mine mainly by RM48 but according to Ebay they are expected to get there ONE day after my last posting date - despite RM saying they deliver within 2-3 days!

I extended by despatch time to try and compensate for any delays and try and arrange collection on the first day if possible.

I don't think buyers should be able to do INR or SNAD for late deliveries when it is outside of our control.

Hope you had a nice holiday

Incidentally, I think it's about to get worse. RM are warning about delays in postage, yet ebay are still showing impossible EDD.