Changing Expected delivery date and other annoying eBay problems

[crammondmusic]

 I'm waiting on a pair of earrings from Korea that I ordered on the 12th November! I buy quite a few things on eBay and i know that the expected date on this item has been changed. It now shows as 6 Jan.

2 months to send and receive a pair of earrings???? How is it coming? By pigeon?

Sellers always blame shipping, or Australia Post, yet I can order an item 2 weeks ago from Hong Kong and get it in 10 days, so mail is clearly not being held up at this end.

I emailed eBay about this changing date. They say that there is no way sellers can change the estimated date as it is based on mailing standards to Australia etc. What they didnt say was that this expected date is controlled by eBay itself and it changes daily based on mail and shipping information. Its fine in theory save for a couple of things.

1) They have altered my contract with the seller without notifying me and without my permission.

2) It prevents me from opening a case for a refund until after the 6th of Jan.

3) Given that this date is changed daily it is feasible that a case will never be able to be opened since the date just gets changed and changed and changed.

The other big thing they need to investigate is sellers trying to blackmail the buyers into leaving positive feedback or changing negative feedback in order to receive a refund. I have had a couple of Chinese sellers say that they will refund me if I change my negative feedback. I wont do it because other buyers should see the real story of the seller.  I I actually had one seller who sent me the wrong sized item ask me to accept 25% of the price of the time plus an extra 1 Euro if I changed my negative feedback!!!!!! In the case In these cases I just open a refund case through either eBay or Paypal  but constantly changing the expected date means that cases cant be opened until it expires, and if they change it every day it may never expire on item not received cases.

eBay's standards are really slipping now.They have become lazy and greedy. Why do we buyers have to point out to them that a seller suddenly has XX negative feedback comments on their account and that they should be investigated? I did this on a missing item I had.

Why can sellers offer you a small percentage of the purchase price as a refund when they screw up and send the wrong item or wrong size?

Why does the buyer have to pay for return postage up front and then try to recoup the cost of the postage from the seller? To me thats crazy. I return an item to the seller which means that I have paid for something I no longer have and have paid postage to return the item that they screwed up in the first place. So I have paid 2 lots of postage and paid for the item and now have no item and no bargaining power. The seller can merely ignore your refund requests or string you along until the date to claim a paypal refund has passed. Why wouldnt they? They have your money and the item, and negative feedback appears to mean nothing to eBay.

Lift your game eBay.

[padi*0409]

It would pay you to click on the seller's feedback before you buy, you would then discover they are registered in China and have shocking feedback.

Most respondents here recommend being very wary of high-volume sellers with less than 99.5% feedback.

[countessalmirena]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

You are, of course, aware of the pandemic thingy happening at this time.

Whilst I understand you think it's unfair and shouldn't apply to you, said pandemic thingy has severely disrupted society. Including postage even within Australia.

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Pandemic thingy - we enter now into the realm of such specifically technical terminology that my eyeballs perform somersaults and rubricate like methyl orange in an acidic solution.

[cdd400]

Agree completely.Same problems here.No response from ebay!

[sandypebbles]

I doubt it is the same problem from four and a half years ago

How did you contact eBay?

How long since you opened the dispute?

[cdd400]

Lol.It is the same problem currently.

Orders having delivery dates extended by Ebay it would seem indefinitely when they dont arrive by the original date given at purchase.

Inability to leave feedback on items after the cutoff period of 60 days? Even though Ebay extend the delivery date cutoff!

Plenty of annoying and downright underhanded goings on in Ebay.

[mark88880]

I may be replying to an old thead, but the problem seems to be unresolved.

I have been having the same problems. I have let it go many times, particularly when I thought I was helping a small home business during lockdown. Lately, its appearing much more common, probably due to my increasing purchase of home office and hardware items and for those items, the rise of drop shipping, sellers clearly lying about item locations and Ebay's tolerance of it . I'm having Ebay items purchased from overseas arrive in less time than items sellers claim to be located in my own city (Sydney) or Melbourne. I'm having no problems with Amazon deliveries, quite the opposite. When I enquire, the delivery date extends and I can't lodge a refund application, causing a duplicate purchase when I buy the needed item at Bunnings, Officeworks or the like, which is what I was trying to avoid. My solution will be to shift as much as possible to chain stores and Amazon.

[mark88880]

PS I'm surprised by local sellers defending this. Aren't these Chinese sellers posing as local hurting your sales?

[sugar249]

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@mark88880 wrote:

PS I'm surprised by local sellers defending this. Aren't these Chinese sellers posing as local hurting your sales?

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My problem is I look at you feedback left for seller, and it is all glowingly positive,  if you are having so much problems, why isnt your feedback reflecting this, if you really want to help other buyers

[dvd.horder]

it happens

[mark88880]

Smart - blame the departing customer.

Anyway, I've explained that, but to elaborate:

I make a point of leaving positive feedback when an item arrives as described or doesn't arrived/arrives broken, but is refunded and the seller gives me what seems a reasonable excuse. I've begun leaving neutral feedback with an explanation for good item/bad delivery. As a seller, you have a problem with that?

I frequently buy items disclosed as located in China and that's fine, since I can base my purchasing decision and price on real information.

In recent months, in relation to alleged local items, I've come to realise the extent of seller dishonesty about item locations and delivery delays, e.g. item disclosed as located in Sydney or Melbourne, doesn't arrive after 3 - 4 weeks, you enquire with seller, Ebay postpones estimated delivery date (presumably because of something the seller did) and you get an answer from the seller like:

Covid related delays. Please be patient.

or

Your item is in a sortation facility. Please be patient.

or

Please ask the Fastway (sic) to check it for you.

or (my favourite for an alleged local item)

The delivery of the order may get procrastinated due to the arrangement and process from the local authorities.

or (close second)

Inbound international deliveries in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia may be delayed due to a covid – 19 disruption at our Melbourne Gateway facility. Would you mind waiting for it?

You then look at the tracking information and see an entry from the date of your purchase or the following day like "Your shipping information has been submitted" or "your item is in a sortation facility" and nothing further for weeks. That item's on its way from China, right?

In the meantime, I've had Chinese items (Ebay and non Ebay) and US Amazon items arrive in 10 days and interstate Amazon items arrive next morning after an evening purchase. The delayed items are mostly things I could buy same day at Bunnings or Officeworks. I want to support small local business and it would be nice if Ebay fixed the problem, but otherwise, what do you think I'm going to do?