Delivery time lies

Hi all, ordered a computer tablet from Malaysia because it gave a delivery time of a week. Made the purchase and waited three days before asking for a tracking number and postage confirmation. Their reply was, please be patient and wait 20 to 30 more days for delivery, have a nice day.   I replied that I will be expecting delivery by the end of next week or I will be considering further actions. The tracking still shows that Aust Post has approved of the delivery, but no events, so it will not be here within the promised time frame. I bet they are just drop shipping out of China and we, the buyer are mislead from the beginning. It is not only the Chinese who are getting away with the lies. I may as well have purchased it directly from China, and saved around 30%.

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Re: Delivery time lies


@digital*ghost wrote:

I'm not sure I really understand this thread - eBay's ETAs are only influenced by the seller, but they certainly aren't created or decided by them (and by influenced, I mean that it's based on the handling time and service selected), so they aren't promises being made by the seller. And even then, it's not like eBay's calculation system is perfect - they view all couriers as "express" delivery services, when in a lot of cases nothing could be further from the truth. 

 

I mean, I once bought an item from Belgium, and eBay's ETA was 3 days away from the purchase. I immediately dismissed that and gave it a good few weeks for arrival. Another time, I purchased an item from within Australia on a Saturday, eBay's ETA said delivery on Monday, so not even 1 full business day passing....and that Monday being a public holiday. Smiley LOL


I've bought items within Australia where the ETA was 3 weeks away. So obviously a seller can influence it, as you said. Maybe not right down to the exact dates etc but they have enough control they can prevent an item showing as one week delivery if they know it is more likely to be one month.

 

I don't think I am an unreasonable buyer and I don't expect parcels to arrive to the exact date, I allow leeway, but I expect the ETA to be a ball park figure.

 

It just makes for disgruntled buyers if an ad says one thing then the seller says another that is very different.

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Re: Delivery time lies

That's one of the reasons why I would love to have the ETAs removed from my listings all together.

The seller's reply was probably canned and based on maximum timeframes. I have a stock standard reply for similar enquiries from international buyers as well. It's true that quite a few will receive a package in around a week, but I always advise an average of 3 weeks, as well as to allow at least 4 weeks before requesting further action.
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Re: Delivery time lies

I hate buyers that ask for tracking details and has an item been posted yet when buyers don't give sellers enough time to do these things.

A listing states item will be sent within 4 days for example, and then a buyer asks an hour after purchasing an item has the seller posted yet c'mon really.

Even after 3 days you jumped and I don't see why lol.Woman Tongue

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Re: Delivery time lies


@springyzone wrote:

I've bought items within Australia where the ETA was 3 weeks away. So obviously a seller can influence it, as you said. Maybe not right down to the exact dates etc but they have enough control they can prevent an item showing as one week delivery if they know it is more likely to be one month.

 

I don't think I am an unreasonable buyer and I don't expect parcels to arrive to the exact date, I allow leeway, but I expect the ETA to be a ball park figure.

 

It just makes for disgruntled buyers if an ad says one thing then the seller says another that is very different.


I'd agree with you if seller's had any degree of control over delivery times, but at the end of the day they have none, and on eBay that makes setting up handling times / postage services very much a double-edged sword.

 

I'm certain the seller I purchased from in Belguim would have been horrified if I told them eBay was saying I can expect to receve my purchase 3 days after I paid for it. 

 

A seller has to decide between telling people how fast they will post an item, and how fast it's likely to be delivered, because they can't do both thanks to ebay displaying optimum timeframes to encourage sales - this is especially true for international postage items. eg Australia Post don't quote delivery timeframes, they quote arrival at destination country timeframes (that is, when it hits the shores, before it's even looked at by customs). eBay then take that estimate and base their ETAs to international buyers on it. With my 2 day handling time, US buyers would often see an ETA around 8 days away, which is frustratingly unrealistic. 

 

If I was selling internationally here, I would be faced with the choice of having an extra long handling time to try and provide something even close to resembling an accurate international ETA, thus likely costing me local sales and increasing the instances of buyers messaging me to ask if I can post sooner etc, or have an actual handling time but significantly increase the risk of dissatisified international buyers. 

 

ETAs should be largely dismissed, IMHO. 

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