Sellers Opinin please

[trishreid88]

Hi all.
I have posted regarding this same item on the buyers board but there have been some developments and I would really like the opinion of sellers specifically.
I recently purchased an item using the Australia only search tool. Found an item with NSW listed as item location. This along with the postage terms is why I purchased the item.  I won't go into the whole story as that is on the buyers board.

Item finally arrived today (Sale date was 25th Oct) Item was posted from Germany.
So my question to you sellers.
If you were selling in the same category would you prefer a buyer to penalise a seller for false and misleading item location or
would you rather a buyer just be thankful the item arrived irregardless of the fact the seller misrepresented item location and also did not follow their own postage terms stated in the listing?

I understand buyers and sellers mentality is often different from each other and that is why I am asking you to answer from a sellers perspective.

[trishreid88]

I-love-my-sheep.
I have received a response from the seller. It seems you were correct in what you you suggested on my post on the buyers board and that they shipped on the 27th but forgot to mark item as sent on ebay untill 30th. I can accept that. However that being said the item did arrive outside of their estimated delivery time 3-8days. I only count from when they post.

Regarding shipping from overseas, while I do understand what they say in their email, there has been NO communication and is not mentioned in their listing at all that items will be shipped from overseas if out of stock. Going by their FB things seem to ALWAYS be out of stock localy. Sorry But I am not sure I buy it. Either way they should have let me know that there would be a delay in shipping if they were out of stock and sending from OS. I would have asked to cancel the transaction if I knew that.
And the problem is I believe they know that and that is why they don't notify the buyer. But I could be wrong.

This was the seller response.
I will be contacting them back.

Dear customer, 

Thanks for your update. 
Actually your order was shipped on 27th, Oct in our shipping system. 
Our team just forgot to change the status with all orders on eBay that day and we remarked the status as "dispatched" on 30th. So you received that order status changed notification message through ebay. 
Actually all orders are shipped from our warehouse in NSW but sometimes items are transferred/ shipped directly from other warehouse when the item is out of stock in the local warehouse. Hope you can understand. 

Should you have any other concerns, please feel free to email us anytime. 

With best regards,

[i-love-my-sheep]

The estimated delivery times in the listings should be taken with a grain of salt. They are rarely correct. How would eBay know how long it takes for mail to go from one area to another? Things happen, delays happen and when they do happen, buyers start to worry that their item is lost, because the estimate in the listing says it should have arrived by now and it hasn't. I always message interstate buyers to give them MY estimate on how long it could take for their item to arrive.

HOWEVER, your seller stated in their listing that they ship from their warehouse in NSW. There was no mention of shipping from elsewhere if they were out of stock. If they were out of stock, they SHOULD have sent a quick message explaining what had happened and that it would be shipped from elsewhere. They could even have a message already typed up whereby they only need to add the buyers name to the message and send it. Most buyers would be happy with that, unless they needed the item in a hurry.

It took an investigation on your part for them to admit they had shipped from elsewhere. If you hadn't contacted them, they would never have told you otherwise. That to me is NOT good enough. A good seller communicates when something changes or something isn't right. There is no excuse, regardless of the volume they sell.

If you plan to email them back, ask them why they couldn't take 2 minutes to fire a message to you informing you the item would be posted elsewhere, especially when there is no mention of such in their listings. It would be interesting to hear their response.

[trishreid88]

I did send them an email back and this is their reply.

Dear customer, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 
Yes it is our fault that we did not contact you in time. 
We didnt get the information from our warehouse instantly when the order was transferred from other warehouse as there are so many orders need to handle every day. 
For this inconvenience, we will issue you a refund of $1.5 as compensation. Is that okay for you? 

Thanks for your time and looking forward to your reply. 

If they have so many orders to handle that they can't follow up with buyers I feel that is pretty poor business practice.
I do appreciate the offer of some refund even if I don't completely belive it.
I do NOT want a refund though. I simply want them to be more honest and improve their business practices that I feel are unfair to both buyers and competitors.

I do not want to leave poor FB but I am not happy so I might just not leave FB at all.

Any advise on how I should reply to the message? Like I said I don't want any refund but part of me thinks maybe I should call their bluff just to see if they are being honest.