Two conflicting estimated delivery dates

[shoppingbag*]

I have purchased two items from different Sellers. One marked as "posted" one is not. In "purchased items" both are shown as being overdue (they are both very local and have had plenty of time to get here unless the seller took a long time to post)

However, when I open the listings, I get an entirely different estimated delivery date for both of them. Just another eBay Fiasco??

[countessalmirena]

One of my family members is coeliac and another is gluten-intolerant - so I'm well accustomed to sourcing fantastic GF chocolate!

If it's good quality Belgian (or Swiss) chocolate, it should be GF. To be absolutely sure, though, I buy Haigh's GF chocolate for the two affected family members. It is of superb quality (although I still prefer my Ganache chocolate). Easter time is when Haigh's go mad with GF Easter eggs.

Another family member with diabetes has driven me to sourcing sugar-free chocolate as well. There are several makers of sugar-free chocolate, but the most readily available of these products are NOT Belgian chocolate and have an odd taste and consistency that isn't quite chocolatey. Cavalier Easter eggs are an exception, and I'm fortunate enough to have stockists of the eggs as Easter rolls around.

[countessalmirena]

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@shoppingbag* wrote:

I am one of those deprived people who have to make sure it is Gluten Free. Can't wait for the vaccine, it would be lovely just to have a donut, haven't had one for 15 years.

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Oh, and re GF doughnuts... I have become used to making gluten-free deliciousness of all sorts ever since the diagnosis of the affected family member, as well as goods that can be purchased. I prefer baking and cooking the things myself because I KNOW I am scrupulous in not only avoiding sugar, but also ensuring that the product is low-GI to avoid any blood glucose spikes, and by minimising carbohydrate intake as carbs are converted to sugars.

High-GI foods are like sellers whose items are delivered so quickly to the buyer that the buyer first cries out, "WOW!" and jumps around in glee, only to become glummer as the excitement of the delivery wears off. (Clumsy way of heading back to the topic!...)

[imastawka]

I see Cavalier has palm oil/kernel in it.

That's contributing to the decimation of the Orangutan's habitat.

Sorry Countessa - big no-no

[countessalmirena]

I didn't check that. Normally I would. Oh darn it. That means... right, I'll have to make this year's sugar-free chocolate eggs myself.

I can see there are smaller sugar-free chocolate eggs made by Sweet Switch.

[springyzone]

I think Hahndorf's make quite nice chocolate. A friend & i occasionally drop in to one of their shops for a coffee & one of the free assorted chocolates they come around with. It's always a bit of a ceremony choosing which one.

My friend is gluten intolerant & her 2 daughters coeliac but they can eat quite a few of the hahndorf chocolates.

I could not guarantee they are sugar free though, in fact I strongly suspect not. Nice, though.

[countessalmirena]

Sugar-free is the problem.

And... I almost forgot about my lactose-intolerant brother-in-law. There was a brand of dairy-free chocolate eggs that I purchased last Easter...

Extended family lunches and dinners are a fun time. I was once driven to literal tears in the darkest hours of the night trying to get gluten-free pasta dough to form ravioli without breaking. (Yes, I could have bought GF pasta, but I love making pasta from scratch (with the help of my beautiful red pasta machine when it comes to rolling out the pasta).

[springyzone]

Countessa, if there is ever a big ebay boardies party/get together, we'll know who to dob in for the catering.

It'll be at your place, right?

[*tippy*toes*]

I make a mean gluten and dairy free cheesecake. Not sugar free, but it probably could be. Every time our grandkids visit (twice a year), I bake something with the eldest (5yo at the moment). It's become "our" thing. Mine and hers. Being gluten and dairy free, she'd never had cheesecake. I found lactose free cream cheese. She loved it! Even her godawful mother, who hates everyone and every thing, said it was scrumptious. 

Gluten, lactose and even sugar free is so easy these days, compared to when we were kids. There are so many alternatives. Having a young cousin who is intolerant to EVERYTHING, except a handful of things, has helped find alternatives to pretty much anything. Gluten and lactose free chocolate mug cake......YUM!

Back in the day, most dark chocolate was lactose free. Most these day have milk solids in them. There is one from NZ, that the name escapes me at the moment, that is lactose and gluten free. You can get it at Big W and is in a gold wrap. Only the dark chocolate contains no milk solids. OK, I just googled it and it's Whittakers. There's one in the health food section at the supermarket called Sweet William and I reckon it tastes like horse shat. The Whittakers tastes like chocolate, albeit dark (which i prefer, and which works better with chocolate cakes, or chocolate cheesecakes).

[countessalmirena]

tippy*toes, you could not be more right about Sweet William.

Ugh.

I know exactly which lactose-free cream cheese you're referring to! It's that blue one, ... um... Liddell's! Also in their range is lactose-free sour cream, lactose-free block or shredded cheese (which is frankly not very nice - I tried a bit once) and lactose-free yoghurt.

(The way to woo horrible daughters-in-law - mother of your eldest granddaughter? - is definitely cheesecake.)

There's a really good "special ingredients" place in Prahran market... "The Essential Ingredient" ... for gorgeous cooking chocolate. However, it is not sugar-free. That is the frustrating thing. Sometimes one's faced with people who don't want to include sweeteners as an alternative to sugars, simply because of the scaremongering by the big sugar companies... and sometimes there's reluctance because of the laxative effect of the sugar alcohols which are sometimes used in sugar-free treats. There was that huge scare campaign against aspartame...

I still have to import tagatose from the US as it is not sold in Australia (to the best of my knowledge). If you've got to avoid sugar but love caramel, or toffee, or crème brûlée, or anything which requires caramelisation or the maillard reaction, tagatose is what you need!

L-glucose (which isn't naturally occurring, but must be synthesised in the laboratory) was a very promising sugar alternative, being a mirror-image compound to "normal" glucose (D-glucose). Because it's a mirror-image, it isn't metabolised in the human body, which means zero calories. However, it's terrifyingly expensive to manufacture, so it has no commercial viability (unless at some future time someone finds a way to manufacture it less expensively). And... it does also produce a laxative effect. Hence... not suitable (in my view) for someone with a serious approach to chocolate.

[wp_extras]

I’m a seller on eBay and have been complaining to CS because the estimated time they show to buyers are over inflated. What I mean is that if a customer buys something from me now (10pm local on a Tuesday), it is showing that it would arrive by Friday of the same week. Now even AusPost doesn’t give those types of delivery estimate. They give 4-6 working days as rule of thumb.
They problem is when you have an irate buyer because they didn’t get their order within two days, as a seller I have to deal with that. When I try to talk to CS, their excuse is that it’s an “estimate only”, and I have to explain that to the buyer. By this stage, the horse has already bolted, and eBay was the one who left the gate open. Now they are telling me to go get that horse back as it’s my responsibility.
I have a perfect strike rate for getting my orders out same day but eBay is causing the problem by giving buyers the wrong impression.
Got chat records about my complaints and when I ask for a solution their incorrect estimate, they quote algorithm that even CS can’t explain, let alone fix.