My New Ebay Pet Peeve
ElvisP
Posts: 1,066 ✭✭✭
My new pet peeve is sellers who immediately upload a tracking number and don't take it to the post office for several days!! When you contact them you get some lame excuse like it was shipped, I will check with the PO or the PO sometimes doesn't scan all packages now etc. Then miraculously, usually the next day the tracking shows it was accepted at the PO. This seems to be happenig more frequently lately. I always go to the PO the same day payment is received or the next at latest. C'mon people I paid you quickly and in good faith, take the damn thing to the PO. Ok thanks for letting me vent.
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I sell pretty infrequently, but here is a counterpoint to consider. As soon as you pay for the label, it uploads it. It is rare that an ebay sale package actually fits into the outgoing mail slot for my neighborhood mailbox, so in order to get it going, I have to find a regular mailbox or go to the PO. I find it irritating to go to the PO, because they never seem to staff appropriately or they just don't care and lines are stacked up EVERY time I go to ANY post office I have ever visited. I used to have flexibility in my job and traveled throughout the area and have visited dozens of post offices in different areas and it is ALWAYS the same old story. Wait in a huge line. I also don't always have time to go, especially daily and no longer have that flexibility of traveling during the day. Again, I sell infrequently, so I feel this is a fair excuse in my case, but I also get where you are coming from, as I am primarily a buyer and have experienced similar.
when I drop off at my local (but not my towns post office), they will scan it as accepted right away. however I noticed sometimes when I leave it for pickup, they won't scan it in until later at night and even sometimes the next day depending on volume.
I always drop off asap (usually same day if feasible). however, USPS has been notorious for missing/skipping scans lately. and sure, in my busy life I will drop everything to ship something. I hate sitting on a package. however if the seller shows for instance, 3 days handling, well then you really can't be mad.
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from what i noticed, it's big sellers that do this a lot, but they usually ship within 24 hours after uploading the tracking number, the sellers i buy from anyway
counter point to your counterpoint:
https://tools.usps.com/find-location.htm?_gl=1*1etanle*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE1OTE5MjM2MjIuRUFJYUlRb2JDaE1JbkpLRHlvbjc2UUlWcllGYUJSMGJ5QXBfRUFBWUFTQUFFZ0pFRF9EX0J3RQ..*_gcl_dc*R0NMLjE1OTE5MjM2MjIuRUFJYUlRb2JDaE1JbkpLRHlvbjc2UUlWcllGYUJSMGJ5QXBfRUFBWUFTQUFFZ0pFRF9EX0J3RQ..
plus you've printed the label at home, right? because it's already uploaded. zero reason to stand in line at po. so that's out.
and there's a lot of pains doing business on ebay. no excuse not to do it or tease the customer for days because of easily solvable and not really legitimate excuses.
As a seller who has a store, you get rated on how quickly you upload tracking and “ship.” Whenever the situation happens to me as a buyer like the OP explained, I assume its because they don’t want to get dinged on their shipping rating if they can’t actually make it to drop off packages. So if they can’t make it to the post office for 3 days, instead of having it sit there with no tracking and getting dinged, they upload tracking to appease eBay and have it sit for three days that way because all eBay is concerned with is if tracking is uploaded. It is annoying because most card purchases are shipped in small enough packages that can be dropped in the drive through boxes scattered around towns and don’t have to actually go into a post office and wait in lines etc.
There are only 3 options I see to get the package into the PO system, using the preprinted labels.
1). You send it out in your outgoing mail (community mailboxes or in some cases the people with the more rural old school mail boxes in front of their homes. (Limited space)
2) You drop it in a random USPS mailbox (those have all but disappeared)
3). You take it to a post office
Using my latest sale as an example, I sold a medium flat rate box filled with used toploaders. This will not fit in outgoing mail or a random mail box. I had to go to the PO. I can leave it on the counter, which is probably legit in most cases, but there is a slim change if they get busy and someone grabs it up when nobody is looking and the packages start to stack up. Then, it never gets scanned in by the PO and now I look like I never sent anything. If I hand it over personally, it's scanned in and now the POs responsibility.
I am not arguing with you, but merely pointing out that not everyone is going to run to the PO daily. A 2-3 day wait, although perhaps painful to some recipients to watch, is not unreasonable in most cases. I usually don't even start to worry about my deliveries unless everything else around it has been delivered and it's been at least 10 days. Then I start with a simple "was it mailed" if there is no tracking or the number has never updated.
What a world it has become when these are the complaints. 40 years ago every mail order form said please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.
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Nick, I wouldn't disagree with that point, but I have noticed a large uptick in slow shipping from many sellers both large and small. I recently stopped buying from one of my longtime favorite sellers over slow shipping.
When I asked what had happened he said that he has too many orders and wasn't willing to hire anyone to help. Well, he has one less customer to worry about now.
i would simply say that if you cannot ship promptly, because either you cannot or will not, perhaps you should not be selling cards on ebay.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I ship multiple packages everyday. I print postage at home and I drop off before 5 o’clock pm everyday when all packages are picked up to go to local dc. 90% of the time they are scanned later that evening but I have several that were not scanned until they were delivered. All that to be said not everyone is making an excuse.
I think buyers AND sellers could practice a bit of patience here.
Sellers seem to want immediate payment and buyers want the item shipped immediately as well.
I guess most of the whiners don't remember the days before ebay when you bought from a card shop and paid much more for your item, or an ad in SCD and didn't even get to see a picture of your card, then when you got it it was misrepresented.
Relax and try to have fun collecting. Buying cards has never been cheaper or easier.
BTW, I almost always pay immediately when buying and ship in one business day when selling.
Key words being "40 years ago".
Sure we could go back to the days of no air conditioners, too. But why would we?
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100%. And there is no need to go to the counter at the post office. Every post office has drop boxes both outside via drive thru and inside. YOU prefer the pain of going to the counter to get it scanned in, thus causing yourself the aggravation of lines and making customers unnecessarily wait.
I also noticed slower shipping time in the last year or so from many sellers.
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See, Joe got my point.
when you print the label, it automatically starts "tracking" the package. So a seller may be mass printing labels from all of their sales; it takes time to package these things up, especially if they had a lot of sales that day.
Covid has brought a whole new ensemble of watered down ebayers.
I usually always print label when I know I'm going to PO and get scanned in at counter. If I do not get to PO after printing label, I contact buyer and give a heads up. Takes a bit longer, but keeps buyer happy.
That makes 1.
I have a situation where I scheduled a pick up for two Priority Mail packages on June 15th. They were both picked up on the 16th, but only one was scanned and arrived at its destination in three days. The other one didn't show it was accepted until the 21st at its point of origin whereupon it went to the main distribution center. I received an update on the 25th that it was still en route and of this morning it retains that status. I usually have great success through USPS, but something is happening.
Because getting that card 24 hours faster than the uploaded projected time is important in todays world
Actually, the person who hasn't received the package (2 sets of 2009 Topps American Heritage) is in the process of moving and had hoped the sets would arrive before his change of residence early this week. When there are delays I worry that the package may be damaged. It's nice to have transactions resolve quickly, but when there is virtually no news after so many delays I worry.
Boy am I old school. When I sell something I put it into a bubble envelope and write the buyers name on the front with a pen based on the packing slip that I include. Then I drive to my local Ace Hardware which has a post office inside and pay the $4, get it scanned and labeled. My receipt has the tracking number that I enter into ebay right after marking it shipped. This is done next business day 99.5% of the time, even though I say 2 business days.
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The definition of promptly varies depending on your perspective. I feel when I do sell, that I ship things very quickly. It is always within the time frame I specify, although maybe that is not fast enough for some overly impatient buyers. I was simply making a counterpoint to the original post though. I would also say that if you sell items periodically as a side thing and not consider it a full time business, then it fits in when time permits. If your customers don't like the service, that will reflect in your sales.
If someone buys a card on Sarurday afternoon and the seller prints the label and boxes up the item.....the package doesn't actually get sent till Monday. As long as it's not like 6 days....I'm ok with it. A day or 2 is actually totally fine. Most guys don't do this full time or live near a USPS and most boxes now only open like 2 inches for an envelope. So that is not an option for boxes.
Good common sense statement. Many buyers will have a aneurysm if you take even four days to ship.
Some sellers actually work day jobs and can't run to the P.O. whenever they feel like it.
One could also say if someone throws a fit if they don't get their item in 2 or 3 days, perhaps they should go to their local card shop and purchase their cards. You get them right away.
Oh, no card shops? Could that be because everyone want to buy cheap on ebay?