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!

[maranock]

Also keep in mind, since you mentioned a Chinese seller, that if your parcel gets caught up in customs as many random packages do, it will take an extra week or two to get through there. Still something the seller has no control over.

[irathesquire]

You mean, including basic things like writing out the addresses clearly and correctly, try to find out what happened to the item and keeping the buyer posted when things go south, right? Not just "I've dumped the item to AP. I don't care what they do to it since I've already got the buyer's money."

[irathesquire]

I know. Which is why I didn't mind at all when one of the items was late, because the seller keeps me posted and actually replied when I asked about the item (and know what's happened to it. Gave me hints as to where it might be, etc). Unlike some others who seemed to have disappeared into thin air after eBay tells me that they've sent the item (BTW, does eBay ask for prove that the item is sent when sellers tell them that the item is sent? Because what is stopping scammers from telling eBay that they've sent the item without actually sending it?)

[padi*0409]

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@irathesquire wrote:

You mean, including basic things like writing out the addresses clearly and correctly, try to find out what happened to the item and keeping the buyer posted when things go south, right?

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Obviously a good seller would do all those things, and the vast majority do so otherwise they wouldn't last long as a profitable business.

[lyndal1838]

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@irathesquire wrote:

 (BTW, does eBay ask for prove that the item is sent when sellers tell them that the item is sent? Because what is stopping scammers from telling eBay that they've sent the item without actually sending it?)

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If an item is sent with tracking then of course there is proof that it has been sent.

If it is untracked then no, there is no proof....all anyone can go by is the fact that it has been marked as sent by the seller.

BTW, the shipping time for items from China depends on where in China the items are located.  It is a huge country and items can take a considerable time to get to wherever they need to go to be shipped overseas.  Items from Hong Kong are usually much faster than from mainand China.

Several sellers that I deal with send their items to Hong Kong for shipping...one even sends his items to Singapore and it seems to work.  Those items do arrive promptly.

[digital*ghost]

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@irathesquire wrote:

... 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".

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That's a rather dramatic interpretation of the text, don't you think?

I mean, how did we get from people saying the seller can't influence how long it takes Australia Post (or other carriers) to deliver a package, to that meaning a seller has no responsibility for assisting when a package doesn't arrive?

Your suggestion was that there's something that can done to ensure faster delivery, and you seem to be basing this on a few transit times from overseas sellers. It seems like you don't know what the cause of the variation is, so have concluded that it must be something the seller has done... I would ask why? As in, why do you feel like that is the most logical conclusion, rather than the notion that transit times can vary according to mail volume, postage service used (eg some countries have economy and priority services with different transit times), method of transport, distance travelled, customs processing (where applicable) and so on.

No one here is saying it's ok for a seller to abandon a buyer once they've handed the package over, what we are saying is that they can do everything in their power to process an order quickly, ensure it should arrive safely, but can not control transit time. 

[englishrosegardens]

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@irathesquire wrote:

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."

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You've admitted you don't know how it works so why are you trying to tell sellers that we are just too lazy and/or uncaring to do anything about it if our items happen to be the unlucky ones that take a bit longer?  Your statement that I've bolded in red shows just how ignorant you are - it's not the sellers who are "able to do it", it's AP that "does it".  When items are delivered on time we're just 'lucky' that AP did their job properly.  

We have absolutely no control over how AP work (or overseas postal systems) and all we can do is address letters and parcels as clearly as possible - often after spending half an hour trying to figure out the buyer's proper address (a complete waste of time that umpteen sellers have to go through for each buyer that's too lazy or inept to enter their address properly - I've had people put their address as "Caloundra, Brisbane" but some aren't so obvious).

Blaming a seller for how long AP takes to deliver is like asking a shop to order in something for you, and then blaming that shop for the length of time it takes to arrive, even though they ring and order it from their supplier straight away and ring you as soon as they receive it.  They have no control over how long their supplier takes to send it or even how long their supplier might take to procure it, so it'd be unfair to blame them when they've been as efficient as they possibly can.  In the same way, sellers can't be blamed for how long AP take to deliver.  Once we lodge our letters/parcels with them it's out of our hands and a reasonable buyer will know this.  

I recently had two letters take three weeks to get from rural Victoria to Sydney - both were posted together and both arrived together.  I posted the day after the buyer paid and there was absolutely nothing more I could have done.  All I could tell the buyer is that occasionally mail will take the scenic route and ask would she wait another week to see if it arrived (it arrived 5 days later).  Ringing AP would have only clogged up the system and wasted their time and mine.

[irathesquire]

And getting all defensive and accusing me bad-naming all sellers when I just mentioned that there might be little things that the sellers can do to increase the chances (like making sure that the address is written correctly etc, everything that WAS NOT MENTIONED AT THIS THREAD AT ALL before) isn't a dramatic escalation?

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@irathesquire wrote:

I know. Which is why I didn't mind at all when one of the items was late, because the seller keeps me posted and actually replied when I asked about the item (and know what's happened to it. Gave me hints as to where it might be, etc). Unlike some others who seemed to have disappeared into thin air after eBay tells me that they've sent the item (BTW, does eBay ask for prove that the item is sent when sellers tell them that the item is sent? Because what is stopping scammers from telling eBay that they've sent the item without actually sending it?)

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the answer to your question is a simple one, and one that eBay widely advertise.  That would be eBay's Money Back Guarantee (MBG).

The MBG has a history of refunding buyers when items do not arrive.  So, if a seller marks an item as 'posted' and it does not arrive you make a claim under eBay's MBG.

[englishrosegardens]

Most sellers already write (or print) the address clearly and according to AP's preferred format, which is something the majority of buyers seem never to have heard of. My letters are all addressed in the same manner but it doesn't stop some taking ten times as long to get there.

You can talk to lots of people who never even buy on ebay and they'll tell you how erratic AP's delivery times are these days - five days to send a letter from one side of Bendigo to the other, over two weeks to get a letter from south-west Victoria to north-west Victoria, etc, etc, etc. Nothing else has changed except AP's delivery times.