What's Happening To Ebay Sellers ?...

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Hello all. In the past couple of days I’ve had bad experiences with two ebay sellers after purchasing model train items. It used to be that when you bought something they got it right into the mail to you within a few days, but now they take their sweet time and lolly gag and if you write them and ask what the hold up is they get testy with you which is what happened to me. I purchased a couple of items last week that are just now being shipped. One seller told me he had been very busy and couldn’t get to it until recently and the other told me that he only ships out once a week and that he made this clear in his listing. I wanted to tell them both off in language that I can’t use on the forum here but held back because I was concerned that my items might arrive damaged or broken…

Has anyone else had any experiences like this ?.

Tracklayer

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Well, was the listing clear?

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Personally, I don’t see a problem. In the old days, as long as the item was delivered within 10 days (bought and sold on eBay since '99), all was good. If you just purchased it last week, and this only Tuesday of this week, I say give it a bit more time.

On the item of the seller that ships once a week, give him a break and READ the listing!

I feel sorry for such impatient people. Some folks do have a life beyond trains. Having said that, if it goes past 10 days or so, then send an email.

4

Not every seller on Ebay is a business with a shipping department that gets items out the next day. A lot of sellers are hobbyists selling items in their spare time.

How long it takes someone to ship me an item ranks #437 on my list of things in life worth worrying about.

5

That is something I’ve noticed too, from both sides. Not only as a buyer, but as a seller too.

As a seller, you do have a commitment to eBay to ship within a specidfied time period, that you make when you sign up. Being too busy either means that business is soooo good, you’re overwhelmed, or your life is in total disarray. In either case, you need help or you have to back off your eBay amount.

As far as I am concerned, shipping once a week is bovine excrement. Nowadays the mail runs 6 days a week,(for now) priority boxes are free, and you can print postage at home or at a business. The same Paypal account that you collect money with will also pay your postage. If you are only home one day of the week, schedule your auctions to close maybe 2 days ahead of that, to give buyers a chance to pay.

However, as a seller who ships on the next business day after payment, I’ve seen a recent trend with buyers. All my listing state that payment is due withing 4 days, after that eBay automaticly starts a non payment case. about half of my last 4 months transactions have had cases started on them because of late payment or non-payment. We’re not talking about alot of money here, most of these items are in the 15-50 dollar range![:O]

I think some of these are auction where there is some buyers remorse, maybe some over-zealous bidding. Maybe they found the same item cheaper, some may have thought they would be out bid and forget about it, and some may have just forgotten about it.

In either case, all you have is a feedback score. Before you commit your money, check the score. For my money, if its not in the 90’s, I keep moving. If the listing say they ship once a week, then sobeit. But if it doesn’t, and you feel you have been strung along , then by all means, let your feedback reflect it. I’m not saying slam them to the mat, but be fairt and objective and be sure you are on solid ground, in case the other party objects to eBay.

6

I buy all my MRR stuff on Ebay. Sometimes from a person who just deals in MRR stuff. They will ship the same day. Others will state in there listings they either shipp twics a week of sometimes once a week. I wouldn’t worry either.

MIKE

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Even large sellers are shipping only once or twice a week. The package delivery folks give them a price break if they save up their shipments and settle for pickup on a set time & date. Saves money in the long run. From my experiance I have had good results from eBay sellers - And I have neen selling/buying since 1998. Some of the larger model trains sites only ship when they have a certain level, others like Walthers ships very fast.

Jim

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Are we talking about used items sold by individuals, or new items sold by eBay stores?

Rich

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I would say 90% of the e-Bay stores I buy from ships the next day after cleared payment while 10% ships within 48 hours after cleared payment.All within reason.

I did have one seller to send a message stating he had a family emergency and would ship ASAP and asked if I would like a refund. Of course the answer was no…

He sent a pack of KD #5s for my “inconvenience” which he did not have to do.

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Yes, I have overlooked, misread, or forgotten details that people post in their attempt to be ethically virtous and informative, or that they include as a courtesy. When I make my error or oversight apparent, sometimes the poster gets testy with me too.

Poop happens. [8-|]

-Crandell

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No Rich. These were new items being sold by ebay model train businesses.

Tracklayer

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No maxman, it wasn’t. In fact the seller didn’t explain this to me until I complained…

Tracklayer

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Interesting, I thought this would be about certain ebay seller increasingly asking full MSRP for very used very broken items like they were made out of Myrrh.

As a seller I always say I will ship withing 3 days of payment, the trouble with Fleabay I been having of late is buyers who win, then take there bloody sweet time paying up! When I sell, I usually recieve payment within 3 days, no prodding necessary, but I sold something recently, but after three days received no payment, so I sent a freindly note with the invoice statement letting his know his item was ready to ship once i recieved payment. no responce, waited another 3 days, sent another friendly invoice, nope, waited another 3 days, another invoice, nadda…so three days later I’m thinking about opening a case for non-payment on day 15 and bang, the I get a paid notice, no explaination, no “sorry I was …”. I didnt have anything else to go to the post office so I waited till I did 2 days later. Third time this has happened in as many sales. Not going to waste any gas on slow payers. This is getting to be alot more common, I suspect its people who use sniping programs and then don’y bother to check up on what they’ve actually won.

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All kinds of sellers and situations out there - with feedback reviews being the best indicators.

I only had 35 auctions this Christmas time and managed to get each item to the PO within 2 days of payment receipt. To me that is a big deal, but I am retired and can easily do that. Others may not be able to do so. Bit of course, still others will take their sweet ol time about it.

BTW, while there are sellers that take their time, there are also buyers who do likewise in making payments…

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Leave them negative feedback. Also look at their feedback to see if they had complaints about slow shipping.

It shouldn’t take a seller longer than two days after the payment to ship items. Weather its business or a regualar guy. I hate when that happens. If they get nasty with me for asking, I’m leaving negative feedback, to warn other buyers.

17

WE all tend to be impatient when ordering online, we are used to the “instant gratification” of buying at a store, and wonder why it isn’t on our doorstep the very night we order it.

That was going to be my point. Some hold for a few days, some hold till payment clears, some hold awaiting items on backorders, some hold for their order to come in and re-ship to you, some may not make it clear, but just because your bid was accepted, doesn’t mean the guy {or lady} is gonna jump in their car that moment and ship out that very instant. 50 trips to the PO to do so instead of one, would increase costs for the seller that would get passed on where? to the buyer.

Even a “ebay-tailer” may have another job to have to ship around.

If it was an “ebay-tailer” then he MAY have had to wait for the item to come in on his order to reship to you, if it wasn’t “in stock” in his hands.

[8-|]

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How fast I ship is in direct relation to how fast the winner pays, and I put this in my auctions.

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My experience with eBay sellers of new merchandise has been pretty good. I pay instantly via PayPal, and almost always the item is shipped the next day. Sometimes, with larger sellers, there may be a little delay. I purchased several items yesterday, early, from MB Klein. They are still processing the order.

I would say that 2 to 3 days is the limit. After that, the delay is inexcusable unless a notice of delay was posted as part of the eBay auction or Buy It Now.

Leaving negative feedback for a delay in shipping, however, does not seem fair under most circumstances.

Rich

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When I win,I pay as soon as I know I have won the auction.If I don’t have the money in hand (so to speak) I don’t bid.