How can one give negative feedback regarding Australia Post without it reflecting on the seller?

[tsmurf8_8]

Sellers make promises that Australia Post can't (won't) keep.  It's a shame really, gives the seller a low rating meanwhile Oz Post just sit back and please themselves!

[*tippy*toes*]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@irathesquire wrote:

I have a feeling there are things that sellers can do to make their packages more likely to arrive on time.

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Such as what, for example?

A seller is responsible for posting items within their handling time, so I put it to you that the only reason you feel like there is "on time delivery" is because eBay has taken it upon themselves to give you an estimated date of arrival. If those dates weren't there, how would you judge an "on time delivery"? 

I once sent two packages to the same address on the same day (well within my handling time). They arrived a week apart - what do you think I could have done about that? 

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Exactly the same happened to me. One went directly to their local sorting centre and was delivered 2 days after postage. The other went via several automated sorting centres, including interstate (parcel ping pong) and arrived 9 days after the 1st. Thankfully the buyer was happy with what he bought.

I'd also like to know how sellers can make their packages arrive on time. Does irathesquire want us to hand deliver each one around the country to ensure it arrives before the ridiculous estimate? If that's the case, I will be altering my postage costs accordingly.

Irath, there is something us sellers can do and some of us do it. We put a long handling time on our listings, so that you *think* your parcel is arriving quicker because it arrives before the estimate date. If we had a same or next day postage policy, the parcel would still take as long to arrive, only the estimate dates would be different. Therefore, if you buy from me, you are tricked into thinking your parcel arrived quicker than from other sellers.

[digital*ghost]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

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We put a long handling time on our listings, so that you *think* your parcel is arriving quicker because it arrives before the estimate date. If we had a same or next day postage policy, the parcel would still take as long to arrive, only the estimate dates would be different. Therefore, if you buy from me, you are tricked into thinking your parcel arrived quicker than from other sellers.

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Those tricksy sellers. 

As far as I'm concerned, eBay giving delivery "due dates" is like a Target employee going into a restaurant and telling diners how long it's be until their food arrives, but only using the optimum times based on the fastest the chef was one day. They might even be within range a lot of the time, but that doesn't change the fact that they have no business being there and while the diners might first be happy to have a timeframe for their wait, in the end it just creates frustrations for everyone except the Target employee, who should just b*gger off.  

[irathesquire]

First of all, let's not get defensive here. I'm not accusing any seller of mishandling the transaction when the delivery took longer than expected. If you're an honest seller you would like the item to be delivered as quickly as possible, no? I'm more suggesting that there might be something that can be done to make delivery faster.

Now, the mentioned seller for some reason has twice managed to get the delivery time to within four weeks (from China to Australia), even when others have failed. Now, I have no idea how they did it (only thing they do different is somehow they have tracking even when it says economy delivery). I'm waiting for the late packages to arrive to see if there is a difference in packaging or the like, or if it is just by coincidence that a particular seller has been on time.

[digital*ghost]

I'm not intending to be defensive, though I'll admit it's easy to feel that way when there's a constant, underlying sense that buyers expect me to deliver on eBay's promises, when all I can actually do is deliver on the ones I make, and I try to be careful about promising things when there are third parties involved who I can't influence and/or control.

When someone contacts me directly and asks me for a delivery timeframe, I pretty much have to explain that while I can guarantee dispatch, I can't guarantee arrival, not even when express is used within Aus Post's next day network, because I've had packages that were not delivered until 4 days later. As a seller, I want my buyers to have realistic expectations, so I am honest with the expectations I attempt to set out, and strive to exceed them wherever possible. Having eBay force me to provide expectations that I have very limited control over ticks me off, so this underpins how I approach topics like this (or in short, it's not you - entirely - it's eBay). 

I am curious about what could possibly be done to ensure faster delivery, though? I address the packages very clearly and legibly, making sure as much as possible the address can't be damaged by weather etc, I also correct the many and varied errors that are within the ones provided by some buyers (for example, a large percentage of buyers include the capital city, or the council city area, in their address, which can cause delivery delays if I put them on the package, many include the wrong postcode, sometimes I don't even get a suburb or street name but can still have enough info to narrow it down to the right address without having to contact the buyer and wait for confirmation), and I post same day on about 90% of orders, with the ones coming in late afternoon going out the next day.

Once Australia Post has it, I'm at a loss to know what more I can do to ensure it gets to the buyer faster than AP choose to process and deliver it. I can't instruct them to fly it over to an interstate destination on the next jet plane, I can't tell them to ensure it doesn't get mis-sorted, I can't tell them not to take it by road (as many packages are), because none of those factors are within my control... 

[*tippy*toes*]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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Those tricksy sellers. 

:

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Oh I know, some of them are pure evil with the tricks they play. Not only do they trick buyers with longer handling times to fatten out the dodgy estimates, they also go around to the different sorting centres marking certain eBay parcels for slower delivery. After all, sellers have full control over how long something takes to be delivered. Does that make them some sort of god?

[*tippy*toes*]

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@irathesquire wrote:

First of all, let's not get defensive here. I'm not accusing any seller of mishandling the transaction when the delivery took longer than expected. If you're an honest seller you would like the item to be delivered as quickly as possible, no? I'm more suggesting that there might be something that can be done to make delivery faster.

Now, the mentioned seller for some reason has twice managed to get the delivery time to within four weeks (from China to Australia), even when others have failed. Now, I have no idea how they did it (only thing they do different is somehow they have tracking even when it says economy delivery). I'm waiting for the late packages to arrive to see if there is a difference in packaging or the like, or if it is just by coincidence that a particular seller has been on time.

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Please, tell us your suggestions. We would all love to hear them. I for one would love to be able to get the parcels to my buyers before they've even decided to buy them. How cool would that be? Your suggestions could the ones that revolutionise the whole eBay and postage experience!

[lyndal1838]

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@irathesquire wrote:

First of all, let's not get defensive here. I'm not accusing any seller of mishandling the transaction when the delivery took longer than expected. If you're an honest seller you would like the item to be delivered as quickly as possible, no? I'm more suggesting that there might be something that can be done to make delivery faster.

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Why shouldn't sellers get defensive when you keep intimating that they are dishonest if the mail is not being delivered as fast as YOU think it should be?

Instead of "suggesting" that there is somethig the seller can do to speed up the delivery, tell the poor bl**dy sellers what that happens to be so they can try to meet your expectations.

Even making the buyers pay for Express Post is not guaranteed to be effective....especially if one or other of them is not in an Express zone.

[irathesquire]

... So you think that it is ok to go "I've taken your money, I've sent the items. You're now on your own now, and I'm not even going to reply when you try to contact me. Bye!" is the attitude of an honest dealer? Just because AP is a **bleep**py service it's perfectly fine to just not even try?

That's an incredibly fine line before "not even bother to write down the right address so that the item gets sent to the right place".

[irathesquire]

Oh, and get, just so that we are clear: I for one don't think that it's the sellers' fault when they've done all they can to make sure the parcel arrives as quickly as possible. However, if the mere suggestion that there is a way of making the package arriving on time (because someone seems to be able to do it) and not even curious as to how that can be done (And before someone who doesn't see to be comprehending what I'm saying ask me again: I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THAT METHOD IS, I AM JUST SUGGESTING THAT IT MIGHT EXIST), I can help but feel that has crossed into the line of "it's never the seller's fault if the package doesn't arrive on time."

[padi*0409]

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@irathesquire wrote:

 "it's never the seller's fault if the package doesn't arrive on time."

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As stated previously in this post, if the seller posts within their postage and handling time then they have done their best for the buyer.

It most certainly is not their fault if (a) Australia Post is slow to get the item to it's destination when (b) eBay gives an unrealistic estimate of the arrival date (which does not take into consideration weekends, public holidays or AP's tardiness.)

It says something about eBay's ETA's when sellers are forced to pad out their handling time to try to ensure the item is received within those estimates, or face the prospect of having limits put on their account for something that is most certainly not their fault.