Ebay severly under quoting delivery times then punishing me

[toranacoupe]

I received a defect for item not delivered on time, it was sent within the timeframe indicated and is completely our of my hands how long Aus post takes to send something but beyond that ebay are underestimating the timeframes which contradict Aus post estimates. for example if I bought something today and the seller sent tomorrow via Aus post standard mail ebay suggests it will arrive to NT 0871 between Dec 10 - 16 however when I estimate this through Aus post website they claim it will arrive between 16Dec - 21 Dec.

**bleep** ebay its one thing to lie to our customers but then punish us if they arent happy with the supposed late delivery even though its not late is ridiculous. Can ebay get anything right or do they deliberately just screw everything up.

[jensmanchester-australia]

Dave - For some reason the information provided through their back end to ebay is often different to what we see on the AP tracking site.

I was actually talking to ebay again today re the shipping times and did mention that for what ever reason the postage times on ebay don't seem to take into consideration public holidays, weekends etc and once again I was told that Australia Post feed through to ebay the estimated delivery times. (which I have been told on more than one occasion in the past)

We use eparcel and the estimated delivery times showing in eparcel are often different to what shows on the Australia Post site so it seems that Australia Post are not consistent with the information they are providing.

[colic2bullsgirlore]

As a seller I stipulate 3 days handling but always post same day or ASAP.

As a buyer if I had 2 exactly like items from different sellers at around the same price I would select the seller that has the

smallest handling time.

Extending handling time may alleviate some defects but on the other hand may also inhibit sales.

If you sell unique items then a longer handling time probably will not hurt sales however if you sell mass produced items

and have many competitors then a longer handling time IMO will inhibit time sensitive potential purchasers.

[transport-posters]

Yes, unfortunately the delivery estimation system is out of touch with reality.  I've had a complaint in my feedback on another account that the item took a very long time to arrive, even though I sent it off within a couple of days.  There's no point in spending the time to try and reason with this idiot as to the fact that I don't run the postage systems and eBay's estimates are just a rough guide.

I assume that for eBay to have spent the money to implement this system, it must work a high percentage of the time.  But there's always going to be these random delays which will be unfair on sellers and buyers should learn to not rely on the whole defect thing.

I certainly don't care about it when checking out a seller's reputation before committing to buy.  As long as it's almost all green positives, that's good enough for me.

[harley_babes_hoard]

I never even look at a sellers handling time and for the most part it is not even stipulated, it's just a delivery estimate that include the handling time.

[heihachi_73]

Saturday and Sunday are not generally considered "business" days (by "businesses", of course), but in the majority of this country, they are just regular days like any other day of the week. Of course, every big business like Australia Post and the banks find this the perfect excuse to cut costs and have the day off, because hiring staff for an extra day or two would drop their profit margin by a billionth of a percent. Australia needs to pull its finger out of its R's and start trialling staggered work days instead of the whole country taking the day off on Saturday and Sunday or after 5 in the afternoon. Sign me up for a Wednesday or Thursday start; five days, 40 hours, but not Monday to Friday or 9 to 5.

[lane-ends]

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@designers*n*more wrote:

Totally agree. I did the right thing by a seller I purchased a text book from. The postage was double what I was charged ie it cost her $10.50 and she only charged me $5.00. The estimated eBay delivery was Friday, I received it the following Monday. When it came to leaving feedback and the question "did this arrive before xxxx" popped up, I just ticked Yes. It's hardly the seller's fault if a parcel is not delivered on time by AP!

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Most of my slaps for "late shipment" under this new system are  from buyers who haven't left any feedback, so the default is if tracking says it late then you get a slap unless buyer actively contradicts it, if you dont have lodgement scan

[davewil1964]

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@heihachi_73 wrote:
Saturday and Sunday are not generally considered "business" days (by "businesses", of course), but in the majority of this country, they are just regular days like any other day of the week. Of course, every big business like Australia Post and the banks find this the perfect excuse to cut costs and have the day off, because hiring staff for an extra day or two would drop their profit margin by a billionth of a percent. Australia needs to pull its finger out of its R's and start trialling staggered work days instead of the whole country taking the day off on Saturday and Sunday or after 5 in the afternoon. Sign me up for a Wednesday or Thursday start; five days, 40 hours, but not Monday to Friday or 9 to 5.

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What a load of codswallop. Not counting that 'businesses' comprise the vast majority of the economy.

people who work weekends, nights, etc still get penalty rates to compensate for not having time off when normal people do.

[jfmgray]

A question for those who have extended their handling time to give themselves more time for items to arrive within eBay's estimated delivery times.

When do you mark the items as posted on ebay - when you actually post the item or a few days later to maximise your handling span of time?  I assume that eBay would start the delivery "clock" from the date you mark as posted thus defeating the purpose of extending the delivery end date unless of course you do not mark the item as posted on the day you actually post the item??

[clarry100]

No... I believe the estimated delivery date is calculated from your handling time plus the eBay estimated.
So it doesn't matter when you mark it as posted or actually mail it.
If you use tracking and get a lodgement scan and that scan is inside your handling time then you will be 100% protected against late delivery by your carrier.
In this case the buyer won't even see the delivery question, if you use Australia post.