Sendle as eBay's preferred carrier

[1076johnw]

Sendle has been the default postage method for local eBay sellers for some time now.

Sellers should be aware that Sendle are not couriers, they are courier brokers who farm out a vast proportion of their parcels to Aramex (formerly known as Fastway) and Couriers Please. At the moment, I have two separate parcels that are 

“currently being processed at a sortation facility” by Aramex for the seventh day in a row.

Aramex are not so much couriers as an invitation to grief.  Here is their feedback .

https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/aramex-courier

94% of the 1,446 reviewers rated them one star out of five (and many of those lamented the lack of a zero star option) Pretty impressive, huh?

And if you’re wondering how they went in their previous incarnation as Fastway Couriers, well here you go:

https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/fastway

93% of the 7,929 reviewers rated them one star.

So, my question to sellers is, do you care enough about your buyers to refrain from using Sendle or is it a case of  hey, they'll pick up my parcel and they’re cheap – who cares?

For my part, as a seller, I'll use Australia Post every time - they're not perfect by any means but still a whole lot less likely to result in complaints from buyers over postage time. As a buyer, I'll be checking the seller's postage details to make sure they're using Australia Post and not Sendle or Aramex.

[*sons_and_daughters*]

I have never used a courier service for ebay and probably never will. However, I've had quite a few deliveries from Fastway (before they became Aramex), and I personally couldn't fault them. Most items were here overnight from interstate. Another took 2 days. I was actually quite shocked after reading all the horror reviews.

As for Product Review. That site used to be awesome. People would post both good and bad reviews, so you got a good idea. Myself included. These days, it's pretty much only for bad reviews. It makes it hard to get an idea of the product or service you are looking at. Like, would you consider buying the latest and greatest Dyson vacuum if you went to the site and saw 250 bad reviews and only one good one? Of course you'd be turned off. Problem is, you're not seeing the 750,000 people who think it's the greatest thing ever invented.

Product Review used to be my bible when I wanted to buy something. That is no longer the case, because there are so few good reviews of items that are more than likely pretty darned good. People these days only want to leave a review if something is wrong. They don't even consider it if the item is awesome. 

[gutterpunkz05]

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@1076johnw wrote:

Millions? Really? What's your source for this estimate? 

And what would Australia Post refuse to deliver that Aramex would otherwise deliver weeks later, pray tell?

By the way, Fastway were the first business in Australia to receive over four thousand negative reviews, but if you want to believe there's no issue with them, go ahead. 

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Millions,  Yes!    Estimate  Yes!  (logical)

Given AP  delivers close to  2 Million parcels per day (2020)   and   Sendle is attempting to become a major competitor to AP.    If  Sendle has managed to  achieve a mere  1%  Of  Market share,  20,000 items per day,

then they will deliver 1 million items  every 50 days  or  approx  7.3 million deliveries per year.

Now, working on 20,000 deliveries per day,  5 bad reviews  per day =  0.025%

leaving   99.975%  of customers satisfied with the service.

[sandypebbles]

Are you an Australia Post plant?

Asking for a friend 

Another 'I don't like factual answers so I am going to call people names and not post on the forum again'

Oh dear 

[cezm]

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@1076johnw wrote:

Millions? Really? What's your source for this estimate? 

And what would Australia Post refuse to deliver that Aramex would otherwise deliver weeks later, pray tell?

By the way, Fastway were the first business in Australia to receive over four thousand negative reviews, but if you want to believe there's no issue with them, go ahead. 

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4000 negative reviews out of 37 million parcels pa - pretty good, I'd say

Two years ago, multinational logistics, courier and package delivery company Aramex occupied 15,000 square metres of industrial space around Australia. Today, it has 24,000 square metres over 31 depots and delivered 37 million parcels in Australia last year.

How logistics companies are dealing with the huge surge in online shopping (commercialrealestate.com...

[jteh001]

It may be more constructive to ask more specific questions - such as, in this case:
"Does the courier service provide for actual human beings I can speak with in order to resolve any shipping issues that inevitably come up?"

In Sendle's case, they dont have a phone number or online chat option - but instead have an online contact form that they say they'll respond to in 2 days time, and the 'Late Parcel Enquiry' button on the tracking page is greyed out until their arbitrary, subject to change without notice, estimated delivery window has elapsed.
The various shops and whatnot who serve as drop-off points for Sendle don't have any means of assisting people either - and the various assortment of couriers they outsource ruthlessly to are opaque to the sender.

Australia Post, however, do have all sorts of contact options - including actual Post Offices located in population centres all around Australia with people who can actually pick up the phone, call each other, lay eyes on any potential bottlenecks or issues, and work with the sender to resolve said issues.
Sure, AusPost upper senior management are drastically overpaid compared to all the people who do the actual work, and political meddling in this weird public private organisation isn't helping at all - but the core infrastructure of people is still there (for now).

[sugar249]

Yes Australia Post do have Post Offices all over the country,  but to say they will pick up the phone and call is a load of rubbish,   if they can't determine an issue from the tracking on the EPOS terminal,  they will tell you to ring the help desk.  They have specifically being told that is the start and end of any assistance for parcels / letters.  Sure you have a person,  but not much else.

[davewil1964]

Sendle is a courier broker, not a courier company.

They don't transport any freight, nor do they have any real control over the couriers (usually the cheapest - ie Fastway/Aramex) they contract delivery out to.

I dread getting stuff sent with couriers, and I definitely wouldn't use them to post.

[bmanly3]

I got an offer from ebay for free postage for 1 item and I was going to use it and then I read the fine print and it said for Sendle postage only so I didn't do it.

Most of my customers use a PO BOX and couriers can not deliver there unless the PO BOX holder pays and extra fee to Aust Post to accept these parcels. I have seen couriers in the queue at my local PO be turned away with their parcels with the CSO saying we don't take couriers parcels. Here is what it says on Sendle's website: 

A physical street address is required for all Sendle deliveries

If only ebay offered an Aust Post free bee I'd snap it up in an instant.

[springyzone]

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@sugar249 wrote:

Remember the review site you are using, is built for complainers.  Maybe thats why you like it

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😁Hey, that's a bit harsh. I'm an ambassador reviewer on there. I think it is a good site.

BUT, like any feedback site (including ebay), I think the tendency for a lot of your average people is to only bother writing a review when they are hopping mad about something. It isn't as common to go in and write a good review, not unless you're the sort of person who likes to write anyway.

The best way to use any review site (in my opinion) is to pick a product you are interested in and look for common themes/comments  that run through a number of reviews. That review site saved me quite a bit of money(thank you, paypal!) on one product I had paid for as when I had trouble and looked up the reviews, I found everyone was having trouble and the company had gone into receivership. Similarly, a fridge I had to have replaced, I found almost every review after mine had the same problem. Had I been in the market, that would have been a red flag.

So I wouldn't knock the site as such, but I would realise that just because Aust Post or sendle might have 90% bad reviews, it does not mean 90% of customers are necessarily unhappy with them. Lots of customers just won't bother writing a review.

As a seller, what i would do is i would be willing to try out both services but if I consistently had trouble with one, I would definitely switch to another. Digital ghost mentioned that the service uses different carriers. I don't blame JohnW for switching as it sounds very much as if the Sendle service in his area is causing grief.

Sellers on ebay can't afford to have items delayed too often. A glitch now and again, sure. But not consistently, it could hurt your ebay account or at least your feedback.

[sugar249]

I don't think that because you are an  ambassador reviewer, makes my comment harsh,  

An Ambassador doesnt say that the majority of reviwers are complainers,  you narrative just confirms that mainly complainers write reviews.