Am I required to give the buyer a refund?

[teriosullivan]

Just a quick one.

As a seller am I required to give the buyer a refund when their items arrive outside of the estimated delivery date? I post my items in plenty of time for them to be delivered in teh estimated time. I have proof of postage and Australia Post is taking in excess of 10 days to deliver sometimes. I know its Christmas time but postage has been extremly slow. Looking at the tracking sometimes Australia Post is sending this back and forth between states and other times I can't tell why there has been a delay.

When we have proof of postage and tracking details are we required to give a refund?

Thanks

Teri

[joethenuts]

in your products that you sell. put your self in the buyers shoes , if your child was having a birthday party on saturday and it states the last date will be a wednesday and  the item does not get there until monday after., [what good is it to them . also no return policy  , mmmm.    with your items  i dont know the answere its not like a pair of socks and you get them a few days late, or a book or whatever. 

[*tippy*toes*]

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@joethenuts wrote:

the buyer has asked for there money back ,  so it would look like you will not only prob get a neg but a defect on item not ariving before the date,  because one of the questios is did you get your item by the date. 

now i will say this again , you have a few choices , increase your handling time, or change carriers, or except defects.

remember you cant blame a service provider like aus post when you employ them .  

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Oh Joe, Joe, Joe, you can blame Australia Post when they deliver late. Why is an item going back and forth back and forth between 2 states before it is delivered? Who's fault is that if it's not AP's? The carrier pigeon?

As for changing carriers, who do you suggest? You've been told countless times that using a courier is NOT an option for a lot of sellers (or buyers for that matter). If I used a courier my sales would be almost non existent because I post a lot of things to rural and remote areas that don't have access to couriers. One buyer sent me a message asking if I use a courier because their nearest one was 700km away.

Not everyone lives in the city like you do and has easy access to couriers. I don't know how many times you have to be told that. There is an existence outside the city. It's not just a big abyss when you get to the city limits.

The only sensible suggestion in your post was to increase handling time.

To the OP, no, don't give them their money back. If something is time sensitive, then they should have asked to have it sent express.

[joethenuts]

you are correct stawka  also in that small frame of time , the buyer has to notify the seller with what message to put on the product and then the seller has to print it , which is fine if the buyer gets back to the seller a bit late .mmmm

[joethenuts]

oh tippy tippy tippy   no use blaming aus post here , this is ebay not aus post ,they prob dont read these message, also the op lives in the suburbs.

anyway to  the op let us know what happens , my advice is this , if this does not happen that often just refund as its a useless product after the event.    [what do you want the buyer to do with a product that prob have happy 35th birthday tippy.  i mean next year she will be 36. mmmmm

ps these numbers are only used for these purposes only, as these numbers may not be correct at the time 

[*tippy*toes*]

As I stated in my previous post, if it was something time sensitive, the buyer should have asked to have it sent express, especially this time of year when mail can be slow in some areas. The OP might be in the suburbs, but where was the buyer? If the buyer lives in an area that has access to a courier, why didn't they ask it to be sent that way? Do you know for a fact that the seller is home all day to be able to wait for a courier to pick up when it suits them?

How do you know that they don't work full time and do their posting in their half hour lunch break? I don't know of any couriers who will pick something up at 9 or 10pm. I will repeat, sending via courier is not a viable option for a lot of sellers. it works for you and that is great. Really, it is. It doesn't work for a lot of people, for many reasons.

[joethenuts]

read the post all i have said she has a few options  and 1 was exxtend the handling time  or change her carrier.     now if 1 or both dont suit well fair enough. 

[kopenhagen5]

As said, NO refund.

I would be sending a message politely explaining postage times are out of your control and show them a timeline of when item finished and when you posted and the estimated delivery times quoted on eBay.

Explain the estimated delivery times are put on your listings by eBay as many buyers think they are put there by the seller.

It may not prevent a neg but if the buyer realizes you can't control postage time, they may simply not leave feedback.

[springyzone]

If there is any way to extend your handling time/estimated date, do that. At the moment it is showing (on one item I looked at) as one week from now and that may not be enough time, especially for things going interstate.

Really and truly though, if people are ordering things for cakes etc, they need to get their act together and order far enough in advance, not leave it till the last second. If I ordered eg 3-4 weeks out from a party and never got it, I would be disappointed but if I only ordered 8 days out, I would know I was cutting it fine & it was touch and go.

Maybe you could put a brief note in your listings that you post out fast but Aust post can sometimes be a bit slow so if they want express post for peace of mind, that is available for an extra--however much.

I say this as a buyer though-I would not expect a refund if I could see the seller posted the item out to me very promptly.

Nor would i give neg or neutral FB.

On the other hand, if a seller didn't post a party item out for eg 2 or 3 weeks, that would be a different matter to me.

[teriosullivan]

The items that this is happening are with my hand made items which have a handling time of 3 days plus the estimated delivery time. I post the items within 2-3 days. Australia Post is taking in excess of 10 days to deliver the items. I'm not talking about my icing sheets that I post within 1 working day. You can clearly see on the tracking that they we posted in plenty of time for delivery but are taking 10 days  plus to arrive.

[joethenuts]

springy one week from now is plenty he is in melbourne prob 15 minutes away from us.

in the sun today there was a person who got a card last year that took 10 days to go 2 ks , they said they could of walked and stopped for a cuppa tea in every house on the way and got there faster on page 14 .  and yes i would and a lot of others would order these products well before the date. buyers look one way straigt dellivery by bla bla date, product price. 

i put my store on holiday mode at 1 in the morning but for a change did not block my items , it says cleary closed to the 11/1 /16 i have had 3 orders already , so looks like i will have to go to full holiday mode. 

what a lot of you are missing is the op had got a message from the buyer wanting there money back parcel not opened as its too late.for them to use.

what do you all think his answere is going to be on thye feed back if the op tells him n o.

how many stars for late delivery and after the item missed the party , what do you think the buyer will give a green or a red. 

the buyer does not give a damm if its ebay or the seller that puts the dates on ,