Seller took too long to post, items now no good

[truckiewoman01]

Just wondering what my rights are.

I purchased 2 dresses from a seller on 26th October for a cruise that I was going on on 12th November. Seller listing says that she posts "within 3 days". I paid immediately with paypal. After 3 days with no notifications,(this was on Wednesday) I contacted seller to check telling her of my time limit.

She replied with I will post by the weekend. Still no notications so on Sunday I contacted seller again, reminding her of the time limit.

Her reply was I have been bust with work, I will post Monday.

No notifications on Monday so I contacted again - her excuse this time, my car has broken down, I should get it back Wednesday and will post then. I told her that this was no good that it wouldnt arrive in time (Melbourne to Perth) and lodged a paypal claim for a refund.

She responded to the claim on Wednesday saying that she had posted item, but when you check tracking, it says received by AP sorting centre 21:54pm Thursday so she probably just stuck it in a postbox whenever.

AP says that I wont receive the parcel until "between Thurs 13th and Mon 17th too late for me to use on the cruise.

I have had to go out and buy 2 new dresses to use instead. Do I have to just accept the fact that she posted 'a minimum' of 10 days after sale date or will paypal refund me.

Thanks for your thoughts

[trishreid88]

I agree with you Modestbods
This buyer appears to be honest.
I also understand as I too am going on a cruise very soon (11 sleeps to go yay)
and had a similar situation.
Like this buyer I purchased based on the sellers "handling" time and location. Good buyers take these things into account when they are on a deadline and I feel have every right to be a little upset if a seller can't honor their own selling terms.

How many times have we seen sellers complain and even block buyers that come up with numerous excuses for not being able to pay on time as per the terms and conditions of sale? Some sellers have even re-sold the item only to have the original buyer then pay for it. Basically this is exactly the same sittuation but flipped.

I agree with you mod that as soon as the seller was made aware of the buyers deadline they should of imediately offered a refund knowing ful well that due to them (seller) for whatever reason, not being able to hold up their end of the sale the item will not arrive in time.

I find it quite offensive the other poster is blaming the buyer for not being "organised". Like I said I too am going on a cruise very soon and each day there are little things I find I need that I had not thought about.
Sure if items are delayed due to OZ post losing it or whatever then you just have to deal with that. As I think this buyer would have done. But sheesh there are some things with postage that sellers can control and that is when they post the item. In this case the original "excuse" by the seller was work. Something they were well aware of, so why in the world would they state 3 day handling time when they knew there was no way they would get time to post that week?
The thing is the seller is the one that sets the terms and conditions of sale and if they themselves can't abide by them then they have no one to blame but themselves and should rightly expect the buyer to be unhappy.

[kimmidoll001]

I wonder how come the seller, carly050206, first posts her case in this thread on the 12th November?  Would that be because she knows the buyer, truckiewoman01, has gone on her cruise and is not able to respond to any of the sellers pathetic excuses?  Seems timely in my opinion....

[i-love-my-sheep]

Not replying to Trish, just hit reply on the last message.

Carly, I fully understand horrid work hours and the inability to leave the work place in lunch hours. Not all of us are office workers in the city that get an hour for lunch, EVERY day. I work in an operating theatre and there are plenty of time where I don't get lunch, dinner, or any break at all. There are plenty of times where I work obscene amounts of overtime. It's the nature of the job.

Due to these factors, I increased my handling time to 4 days, to allow myself extra time in the event I got stuck back yet again, or I happened to get called to go in early. I am actually considering increasing my handling time to 7 days, just to cover myself. Most of the time I can post by the next day, but there are times when I will work 7am - 6pm and even with our extended opening hours post office, I still can't get there.

When you create new listings, it will show the maximum handling time is 3 days. However, when you go to create a listing, up the top of the page is a link that says 'advanced listing tool' (or something to that effect). If you use that link to list your items, you can have a handling time of up to 30 days. Given the nature of your work, I would advice using that link to list. You need to click that link before creating your listing as it doesn't carry the information over.

I don't think it was wise to get a friend to come in here and go into bat for you. It has only made the situation worse. You can't say she isn't a friend/relative as this is her first ever message and she hasn't used eBay in the last 6 months. No coincidence tere. There are plenty of very experienced, long term sellers that read these forums, most who have outside jobs and it didn't do you any favours. She mentioned that the OP shouldn't have left it until the last minute to buy things for her holiday. Sorry, but I think buying things 3 WEEKS prior to departure was not unreasonable, especially given that it only takes maximum 3 weeks to get items from NSW to WA. It would be no different sending from Vic to WA. More often than not, it's less than 3 weeks.

As for your car breaking down, yeah, it happens unfortunately. Living in a rural area with very limited public transport, I do get that you can't rely on public transport. However, you mentioned you had to take your car to the mechanic on Monday. If it had completely broken down, how did you get it there? Could you not have taken the package to the PO when you dropped your car off? You would have needed to get back home somehow (taxi?) you could have gone via the PO on the way home.

You said you got notification the buyers package has been delivered. It's too late. She has already left. If it had been posted on time, it would have arrived in more than enough time for her. It will probably be returned to you, in which case, you have no choice but to refund the full amount, including postage.

I wouldn't give up on selling on eBay. The clothing you were selling is nice. If you still have more, then you would be crazy not to sell it. I would however, change your handling time to something that is more reasonable for you, i.e. 7 days, purely to cover you for these unforseen events. You can mention in your listings that most of the time you can post earlier than that, but occasionally, it might take that long.

If worst comes to worst, give one of the neighbourhood kids $5 to take it to the PO for you!

[digital*ghost]

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@jodiejfmelb wrote:


The very detailed explanation of what the delivery days expectation was quite interesting, the 3-6 business days would in fact be the Aust post time frame with the 0-3 days handling time added to the beginning. However, this does not take into account unforeseen circumstances that may delay the postage - unforeseen meaning they could not have been expected or known ahead of time!

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The point isn't that there were unforseen circumstances, but how they were dealt with when they occurred. 

Unforseen circumstances obviously do occurr and cause issues just like this, reasonable people can accept this, and based on the message from the buyer that the seller copy/pasted here, I believe the buyer was very reasonable - they were polite, not rude or demanding, and sent a perfectly reasonable enquiry as to what was happening with their purchase - which they would not do if they knew what was happening. 

The seller knew what was happening, the buyer did not - that means the buyer has less information (after the sale) than the seller to base decisions on, so to then blame the buyer for the decisions they made is simply unfair - if the buyer had been kept informed upfront, this entire situation would most likely have resulted in an amicable resolution. 

There are lots of things that can affect a seller's after-sale process, things you've mentioned in your post re: access to transport, post offices, etc. That's not the buyer's problem or responsibility. The seller has the responsibility to outlay any known special circumstances - or at least allow for them - when they list an item, and the only responsibility the buyer has in that regard is to ensure they are aware of what the seller has stated so that they can make an informed purchase decision - most sellers want buyers to pay attention to what's stated in a listing, going on about making allowances for things that may or may not happen, and are not mentioned, completely undermine that expectation because it's tantamount to saying what a seller states in a listing is irrelevant - it definitely is not, so I say this to you as a seller - please don't do that.

[springyzone]

Whichever way you swing it, the buyer paid for the dresses 17 days out from her cruise.

And you said in your ad you would post within 3 days.

3 ordinary days, 3 business days, it doesn't matter. Not really. Because if you had done it  within the week, there would have been time for it to arrive.

All your excuses don't really cut it. They may be genuine-they probably are-but the buyer wasn't to know that, she just knows that you said one thing in your ad and didn't follow through and then didn't follow through in what you said in your messages either. ie you are unreliable.

You ask why she never mentioned a refund-probably because she is polite and was trying to get the dresses, just hurry you along. She didn't want to cancel.

From the point of view of the buyer, this situation is about as frustrating as it can get. My daughter was in a similar situation (not on ebay) waiting for 4 bridesmaids dresses, where we were given the run around for 9 months, excuse after excuse, and received them (one of them unfinished) the day before the wedding. As buyers we were at the stage we didn't care what excuses were being made, we had had enough and I think your buyer got a bit the same way. It is actually very stressful because the buyer doesn't know what is going to happen and has no control

Things do happen and one problem okay, but after that, a buyer has a right to expect you will be doing your best for them. Otherwise it looks like incompetence.

Maybe send the buyer a message with a brief note and apology. We never got that much from the wedding shop and I actively bad mouth them to friends, they made some enemies. You have a disappointed customer but you don't need to have an enemy.

[truckiewoman01]

Thank you all for your comments especially Modestbods who put a lot of effort into her reply.

As you can all now see from the lies and misleading words that carly writes, she is simply dishonest.

I asked for a refund on the Monday and yet she posted the goods (she claims 2 days later on the Wednesday) but I believe not until Thursday.

Unfortunately paypal have said that since I received the goods its too bad. The fact that "I" never received the goods doesnt seem to have much bearing. The goods could not be returned to sender as she hadnt put a return address on the package and ebay couldnt provide one and paypal said they wouldnt as I had now received the goods.

I have appealed and I will also try for a chargeback through my bank as it was paid through a credit card.

If anyone else has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

For me this is the last straw. Having to deal with lying, dishonest, rude  people like her and then have no comeback is just not fair and as soon as this is sorted, I will be telling ebay and paypal where they can shove it.

[lyndal1838]

I hope you enjoyed your cruise truckiewoman.

If you do go for a chargeback you will have to have proof of sending the dresses back to the seller.  If you cannot get an address to send them that might be a problem.

Before starting a chargeback, are the dresses exactly as described or is there something wrong with them?  Have you checked them thoroughly since receiving them?   I only ask because there is an option in the dispute to change a Not Received claim to a Not As Described claim.  You will then be given the address to return the dresses by trackable means.

Please don't blame ebay and paypal for this.....there is one person only to blame for this debacle and that is the seller and her failure to post in good time.

[modestbods]

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@truckiewoman01 wrote:

Thank you all for your comments especially Modestbods who put a lot of effort into her his reply.

As you can all now see from the lies and misleading words that carly writes, she is simply dishonest.

I asked for a refund on the Monday and yet she posted the goods (she claims 2 days later on the Wednesday) but I believe not until Thursday.

Unfortunately paypal have said that since I received the goods its too bad. The fact that "I" never received the goods doesnt seem to have much bearing. The goods could not be returned to sender as she hadnt put a return address on the package and ebay couldnt provide one and paypal said they wouldnt as I had now received the goods.

I have appealed and I will also try for a chargeback through my bank as it was paid through a credit card.

If anyone else has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

For me this is the last straw. Having to deal with lying, dishonest, rude  people like her and then have no comeback is just not fair and as soon as this is sorted, I will be telling ebay and paypal where they can shove it.

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Fixed that for you. 

Hi truckiewoman, welcome back. I hope you had a wonderful stress free cruise.

Okay, if you haven't yet opened the parcel, don't. Call Paypal again & insist that they provide you with the sellers address so that you can send it 'return to sender' just as their CSO Jeff had told you that you could do previously, and tell them that you wish to open a dispute in order to claim for INR (ie INR in a timely manner as per contract of sale & sellers own conditions & promises). If they refuse to provide you with the address and/or refuse to open a dispute, inform them that you shall be lodging a complaint with the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service). If they still refuse to provide at least the sellers address, then do exactly that and lodge a complaint with the FOS.

If Paypal provide you with an address but refuse to let you open a dispute or they subsequently refuse your claim if they do let you open one, see your bank and ask them to do a charge-back.

Let us know how you get on.

Good luck.

edit* Somehow I don't think I need to suggest to you what to do as regards feedback for the seller. 

[modestbods]

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@truckiewoman01 wrote:

I have appealed and I will also try for a chargeback through my bank as it was paid through a credit card.

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You can only do one or the other at the one time. If you initiate a charge-back via your bank this will invalidate any dispute/claim via Paypal. Exhaust your efforts with Paypal first, and if that fails then ask your bank to do a charge-back. It won't hurt to make enquiries with your bank though, just don't initiate anything until you are done with trying to get Paypal to sort it.

[lyndal1838]

DO NOT put the seller's address on the parcel and then put "Return to Sender".......you can only put the words "Return to Sender"  and nothing else.  There must be a return address on the parcel for you to use that function.