Seller changes delivery arrangements

[meggconnolly]

After winning an auction and paying via PayPal within half an hour the seller emailed me thanking me for the prompt payment and to tell me they were on holiday until 24 August and would send the item upon their return. The information provided when I was considering buying stated that the seller shipped within two days of confirmed payment, it also indicated that the estimated delivery time was 13 or 14 August. I purchased this item for a special event on 23 August, so it is no good to me after that. I emailed the seller asking her to arrange for someone else to send perhaps, I have not heard back. Is this sort of behaviour by a seller acceptable? I also checked their other items they have the same delivery dates. I would have thought they knew they were going on holiday and adjusted the delivery info accordingly!

[digital*ghost]

Does the seller have a store, and were there any holiday notices on the listings?

If the seller didn't have a notice regarding holidays showing, then they are technically obliged to send within their stated handling time, but I ask the previous two questions as a seller can put their store in holiday mode with a specified return date but the estimated dates for delivery (which is placed there by eBay, so the seller can't change or adjust them at all) unfortunately do not change or update when a store is on holiday mode.

[julie-in-oz2]

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@meggconnolly wrote:
After winning an auction and paying via PayPal within half an hour the seller emailed me thanking me for the prompt payment and to tell me they were on holiday until 24 August and would send the item upon their return. The information provided when I was considering buying stated that the seller shipped within two days of confirmed payment, it also indicated that the estimated delivery time was 13 or 14 August. I purchased this item for a special event on 23 August, so it is no good to me after that. I emailed the seller asking her to arrange for someone else to send perhaps, I have not heard back. Is this sort of behaviour by a seller acceptable? I also checked their other items they have the same delivery dates. I would have thought they knew they were going on holiday and adjusted the delivery info accordingly!

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The "estimated delivery time" in the listings are crystal ball predictions by ebay based on what Australia Post may or may not do, the seller has no control over this. The handling/shipping time after you pay is what sellers are in control of not how third parties behave.

[phorum_junkie*]

While I think it is totallly wrong for a seller to delay posting that long without telling bidders while the auction is live it is also wrong to rely on ebay's more than optimistic delivery times, they are what AP tell them and we all know how reliable they are..............not.  If the seller gave a handling time of two days then you should not have been surprised, or annoyed, if it took 12 to 15 days for the item to arrive depending where in Australia both the buyer and yourself are situated.

If you need something within 3 weeks of auction end you should confirm with the seller before purchase if they are willing to post express post with a reasonabe handling time or better still buy time sensitive items from a B&M store.

[davewil1964]

They are not even in accordance with AP any more, PJ.

eBay quote standard delivery as 1-6 business days. AP have quoted 2-7 for over a year.

[honest.johns.phones]

depending on where your post codes are in relation to each other eBay will even say 2 day delivery from the buyers perspective.

A responsible seller when turning on holiday settings will also block people from making purchases which is a setting they can choose.

Simple if you haven't received your item after 10 days, open an "item not received" case

[willpetewaitara]

Forget some of the "eBay forum experts" who seem to have diverted your answering your original question to a squabble about postage times. Some of them just dribble **bleep** all day on these forums.

Just go straight to Paypal and file a claim for a suspected fraudulent transaction and demand a refund. 

I had a similar thing occur and Paypal froze the transaction immediately. Once the Seller is aware Paypals frozen the money, generally speaking you'll get it back asap.

Other thing make sure you leave the Seller a big fat NEGATIVE

[springyzone]

You posted this comment on Friday 8th Aug (as far as i can make out), which means you probably bought a few days earlier than that.

As far as i am concerned, you as a buyer had every right to expect that whatever you purchased would turn up within 2 weeks. As I write, 24th Aug is still 12 days away.

Quite often on this forum, people seem to throw it back on the buyer that they should have checked this or that out before bidding etc and I agree with that for quite a lot of things, but really and truly, if you bid on an item located in Australia, unless you  or the seller are in a more remote region, most items will arrive within a couple of weeks. It's not an unreasonable expectation.

If a seller had a big note up saying they were away and could not post the item till after 24th Aug, I would say that was the buyer's fault for not reading a listing properly. But if a listing had no warning, then I would expect the seller to refund the money or else I would be putting in a paypal claim asap.

[digital*ghost]

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@willpetewaitara wrote:

Forget some of the "eBay forum experts" who seem to have diverted your answering your original question to a squabble about postage times. Some of them just dribble **bleep** all day on these forums.

Just go straight to Paypal and file a claim for a suspected fraudulent transaction and demand a refund. 

I had a similar thing occur and Paypal froze the transaction immediately. Once the Seller is aware Paypals frozen the money, generally speaking you'll get it back asap.

Other thing make sure you leave the Seller a big fat NEGATIVE

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Extremely poor advice. >_<

If you bothered to read my post properly, I asked some clarifying questions (as yet unanswered) to help determine the most applicable advice, but followed it up by acknowledging that if there was not any holiday notices on the listing advising of delays to order processing, then the seller is obliged to post within their stated handling time.

If there was holiday notices, then it's an entirely different situation. A buyer not seeing or reading a holiday notice doesn't suddenly mean they can expect their purchases to be posted immediately or that the seller is a fraud. 

[meggconnolly]

Thank you for taking the time to provide this info, my emal to the seller explaining the item was for a special occasion resulted in them arranging for it to be sent immediately and I received during the week, very happy.