I have a question for the experienced eBay sellers on here.
On Saturday, June 13, I ordered an item (used laptop) from a seller on eBay. The listing estimated the delivery time as between Wednesday, June 17th and Sunday, june 21st. it also listed the shipping method as USPS.
On Tuesday (June 16th), I got a notification and tracking number saying the shipping label had been printed. It was actually being shipped FedEx Ground. Then nothing appeared to happen for three days.
This afternoon (June 19th), I checked and the item was finally picked up at 5:45 PM local time. FedEx also estimates delivery as taking place on Tuesday, June 30th - 9 days later than the latest estimate on the item listing.
I was hoping to use the laptop next week, but if the FedEx estimate is right that won’t be an option. In any case, getting the item picked up on a Friday after I ordered it on the previous Saturday didn’t help things. I don’t know if shipping FedEx ground instead of the listed method is helping matters, either.
What recourse might I have at this point? Could I refuse delivery or otherwise get my money back, or am I stuck with no option other than to leave bad feedback for the seller?
As a buyer, you can do whatever you want. Ebay is 100% biased in favor of buyers.
But, returning it isn’t going to get you a laptop any faster, so unless you don’t need it after next week, I’d just suck it up and leave the seller poor feedback.
But, really - shipping times are estimates. There is no way I’d buy something that I had to have by a specific date on-line!
The delivery dates in the listing are estimates, but they do assume the seller ships within a reasonable timeframe. If the item arrives within that period the seller automatically gets five stars. If it doesn’t then the buyer is able to leave whatever feedback they deem appropriate. My guess is this isn’t a very experienced seller (at least not with shipping heavier things) and USPS was too expensive, so they seller hemmed and hawed and finally figured out Fedex ground was the least expensive method.
You don’t have many options, unfortunately. You could leave bad feedback or return it. You could also send a NICE message saying you’re disappointed they waited so long to ship it, and not via the faster method listed, and ask if they could refund a few dollars. DO NOT threaten them with bad feedback as that’s feedback extortion and could get you in trouble. Don’t mention it at all if you contact them.
I sell on eBay and know a lot of excellent sellers. We’d never let this happen even if we had to eat money on the shipping. I’m so sorry it happened to you. Bad buyer experiences are bad for all of us who sell on eBay.
I have been selling on ebay for 15 years. You potentially have a few things going on here. I have sold several notebooks over the years and sometimes they are bear to get the right shipping box and rigid and cushioned packing material for then double boxing it for protection. A 3-4 lb notebook + adapter turns an 8-10+ lb shipping box. If you have an inexperienced seller they were probably scrambling for a day or two to get a right sized box, then they probably wasted a day checking shipping options to find the cheapest (and thus slowest FedEx home is like molasses) way to ship. Assuming you are at some distance from the seller USPS shipping charges can be very dear once you get past 2 to 3 lbs if you are shipping cross country.
The Tuesday to Friday skip is the only unexplained piece to me. It probably means that was the soonest he could get to the Fedex shipping office or he had transportation issues. You can’t just throw a Fedex carton that size in FedEx drop off box. Having said that the 3 day delay is kind of pokey. I generally ship within 24 hours Monday though Friday.
Having said all this you partially created this timing problem by not telling the seller upfront that you had a very hard deadline for receiving the notebook. With the exception of the 3 day mystery stall everything else is within acceptable timelines. You can leave bad feedback if you wish but you bear a partial chunk of responsibility here for not communicating your required timelines. The delivery estimates on the sites are estimates only.
I completely disagree with this. I’m guessing the OP relied on the information in the listing, which they should be able to do. They shouldn’t have to go to any extra lengths to get their item when the listing says they will. There are no allowances for not being prepared with a box or delivery service. The only exceptions are issues with the speed of the delivery service itself.
I ran the same information on what it would take to send my laptop through both services from Seattle to Kansas and Fedex was $3 cheaper. It seems like the heavier a package gets, other options are becoming more competitive.
If you are buying something you absolutely need by “X” date from a private, quite possibly minimally experienced seller or the shit hits the fan, and you do not tell them this upfront and rely strictly on the ebay default shipping projections you are asking for trouble. You can stand on “they should have been fully prepared!” but in the real world a heads up that you need it by a specific date would be a big problem solver vs hoping for the best.
It operates independently from the Aircraft based express delivery end of the business.
They used to be a nightmare. In my area they use independent contractors for the last mile. The terminal was to hell and gone (cheap rent) and was only open a couple hours in the morning while the contractors loaded up. If you had a signature required shipment and couldn’t be home all day it was a total PITA.
Since FedEx bought out Kinkos, they will leave package at the store for you to sign and pick up…EXCEPT if it is hazardous material…which is one reason ground shipping will always be around.
Ebay calculates the “estimated” delivery dates based upon both zip codes, the date you are viewing the item and the shipping charge (method). It’s not a guarantee and the seller has no control over what dates are being displayed. I note in my listings that I ship on Wednesdays only. I can’t help it if you are looking at my listing in zip code 12345 from zip code 67890 right now and it says you can expect estimated delivery from 6/24 to 6/27. Not going to happen.
If I want to ship something via FedEx even though my listing says USPS, I can. When I am putting up a listing, Ebay basically tells me what my item weighs and how much shipping will be based upon my chosen method. It’s not an exact science, so I basically go along with it averaging out in the end. When it’s way over and I’m not making any money off my item, I’ll see if it’s cheaper to ship another way.
eBay does lots of “helpful” things that aren’t actually helpful at all, because they have bad information and a really noisy UI that’s easy to get confused in.
Not long ago, I listed a collectible card, and eBay “helpfully” autochecked the box to allow international shipment by sending to one of their local fulfillment centers that would remail. Normal shipping for this is like $1.50, because it’ll fit in a small bubble-mailer envelope. And that’s the price that eBay displayed to everyone, until the guy who won the auction tried to pay for it, and eBay made the shipping $20 for international shipping.
Bad - Although it has Windows 7, pretty much no drivers are installed. This includes the wireless adapter driver, so I can’t actually connect to the Internet to get the drivers (or do much else). I suspect he just copied the operating system from another computer.
The listing mentioned no issues. Ebay describes items sold as “used” as such:
Used: An item that has been used previously. The item may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but is fully operational and functions as intended.
This thing sure doesn’t fit the bolded part, although I don’t know what eBay would think. I’ll also point out that it was kind of dirty, although some wipes took care of that.
Now I just want to send it back to him and be done with this. I probably could spend a couple of hours getting the thing working, but I’d rather let him worry about it. Shall I communicate with him first, or contact eBay?