Completely over how hard it is to contact eBay & the constant Delivery issues. Not reliable service!

[14design0000]

I am completely over how hard it is to contact eBay & the constant delivery issues experienced when buying on eBay. Purchasing on eBay is no longer a reliable option. Sellers constantly change the expected delivery times after purchase. I have screen shots I take each time now because of so many issues and these show this is constantly happening. The expected delivery times are part of the information used to make a purchase by a buyer but eBay allows sellers to fraudulently change his over and over again.  eBay has weighted delivery times to the advantage of the sellers and completely ignored the impacts on buyers. Now when and item is not received by the date of expected delivery, it just keeps changing the date to suit the seller and buyers are prevented from making a claim. This is unethical and a scam that puts buyers at a disadvantage when they are relying on delivery times as part of their purchase decision. Sellers are also generating a e-label to creat a tracking number but then not actually sending the item for weeks, and refusing to provide refunds when in fact the item has not been picked up for delivery at all. A buyer is left waiting for weeks and sometimes months longer than the expected delivery date due to this scam, when in fact the item hasn’t even been sent at all. I have followed up with couriers who inform me that this is in fact the case that an e-label has been generated giving a tracking number, but the item has not yet been provided to them by the seller. eBay continues to support these unethical practices by sellers and offers no genuine recourse to buyers as the goal post to lodge a claim keeps shifting. eBay also has made themselves almost impossible to contact, no phone number, no email, just some auto bot chat that goes nowhere and offers no real information. What **bleep**y customer service they are providing. I am so over eBay practices and customer service. I’m giving up using this as purchase option. Just too hard and a horrible experience now time after time. Shame on you eBay for your lack of being able to be contacted, your poor customer service and in supporting unethical practices by sellers. Buyer beware this is not the best option if you want a safe, secure and ethical purchase experience. Go elsewhere, vote with your pockets and feet. I have tried for so long to use eBay, it used to be a great experience but no longer the case!

[shoppingbag*]

Sounds like you buy a lot of things from China from sellers who have very bad feedback. We are in the middle of a Pandemic, which means that ALL MAIL can be slow and I have seen this message on the tracking for every item I have bought. Some of my items get to Australia quickly but sit on a wharf for weeks. I am still wondering where my item is that arrived in Australia May 20th. I still have almost a month to complain before it times out. I fully understand the situation, so try to have lots of patience. As a seller myself, there is no way I can change delivery times, as these are put up by Australia Post, so I doubt that any sellers can do that. Sometimes parcel delivery times can change because of unexpected lockdowns even in Australia, and in other countries, sometimes outgoing mail is restricted for one reason or another. If you want to continue buying in the middle of a global pandemic, then you need to have a lot of patience, as no amount of complaining or jumping up and down will change the situation. It is what it is. It is unfair to assume the the seller is always at fault without knowing what their situation is. When a postage label is printed on eBay, it automatically marks the item as sent, and this is out of the hands of the seller. If a seller is slow in taking it to post, it may be because their listed posting time is not instant and you should check the listing to find this.  Not everyone lives on the doorstep of the Post Office, and not everyone can always get there instantly because of many reasons to do with the pandemic and personal reasons. ASK the Seller is always the best option. There are a few (very few that I have come across) that will lie to you about when they sent the item etc. but as we do not live in a perfect world, you must expect to occasionally come across these sorts of sellers, there are just as many bad buyers.  We all want to get our parcels as quickly as possible, but also have to accept that if we are too impatient to put up with the current situation, then maybe put off buying until the pandemic is over and everything gets back to normal. For your own sake give a little thought to what I an telling you. Getting upset over things that are out of your control is totally counterproductive.

[14design0000]

Thanks for replying, but your response doesn’t actually apply to this situation. It does feel a little like a lecture on what I am allowed to feel about my purchase experience on eBay and that’s not helpful. It is deceptive when sellers promise fast postage in their listing and promote that and then this simply isn’t the case as after purchase the postage times are delayed and delayed by excuse after excuse. The expected date of delivery times are part of the item description and part of how a buyer makes choices on a purchase. When a seller lists a expected delivery time that they have no intention of fulfilling this is false and misleading information being provided to the buyer. In my experience the sellers in this situation are knowingly manipulating this to get sales and then buyers are left waiting sometimes months for delivery. Whatever way you look at it, it’s a rorte and unethical and eBay should be on top of this and not let it continue as it’s deceiving buyers. I have already made a decision to avoid future purchases with eBay as it’s become an unreliable and fraught experience. In any other area of consumer activity there are clear laws and consequences to protect buyers. eBay sets themselves outside this by not even having a communicable customer service with no genuine means of contacting their customer service, no phone number, no email, nothing but an auto bot that only allows predetermined questions that goes nowhere but circles, less than helpful. That tells me they know there is a problem and are hiding from it! I am not sure it’s even legal under Australian consumer law to not have a contactable customer service. As for your comments about ‘complaining and jumping up and down’, this is a forum that hopefully buyers will find some useful and honest information about buying experience on eBay. Sadly the experience of purchasing on eBay has deteriorated massively over time. I am a very longtime member and its gotten to the point where I’m turning away from purchasing on eBay because of all the issues. While I’m sure there are some reliable sellers it’s too much of a lottery to trust it anymore. It maybe as you and others say mainly overseas sellers and the sellers from China creating theses issues but if this is the case eBay should be addressing the issues and concerns and not hiding from it and obscuring their customer service. I’m heading elsewhere where to services that are more reliable and who have a proven track records with postage times despite the pandemic, which appears to have become the excuse for everything. I have used some sellers online outside eBay that are amazingly brilliant in their postage times. Some have almost next day delivery even during the pandemic. If they can do it then why can’t eBay? The pandemic has become an excuse for bad practices. Amazon for one is reliable and brilliant with postage times and are very competitive on prices. But there are also much smaller sellers I have used who have been equally reliable, reasonably priced, fast postage and who are safe. I guess in the end customers will vote with their pockets and unreliable services and poor customer service will pay the price. It’s not helping the genuine sellers this bad behaviour either as in the end it tars everyone on the platform with the same brush. It’s not really worth a buyers time to have to work their way through convoluted processes of determining where a seller is really located or if they can be trusted, and do they tell the truth about postage etc. Too poor an experience, I’m of to more reliable online sellers.