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Ebay annoyances


Butler Henderson
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7 minutes ago, hayfield said:

However the attitude of the company in my opinion is awful, do try and contact them when there is an issue. Apparently even harder to get any form of compensation.

As a buyer you are usually covered by paypal or ebay, but sellers have trouble (sometimes from dishonest buyers).  I have sold quite a bit of railwayana as well as models on ebay, and I've had more trouble with items lost by the post office than with Hermes.  As a sender you can pay Hermes extra for cover in case they fail to deliver goods or if they're damaged, but that's a rip-off.  Their compensation rules exclude anything you're likely to be sending - for example if it's fragile, or antique, even drawings or tickets, and they can always say you've packed it badly.  When I send via Hermes I now insure separately through these people although I don't yet have any experience of trying to claim compensation from them. 

https://www.secursus.com/login.php 

 

Some of their couriers do seem to be cowboys, though most are doing their best.  The problem is with their management who don't seem to care about their customers or their workers as long as money keeps coming in.  I hope you're right about the authorities doing something about theft.

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Michael

 

From what I have heard Hermes is a nightmare to claim from, certainly they left me in the lurch and never returned my calls which they offered. Not once have I had a query handled correctly

 

As for Royal Mail, in 17 years I have had less than a handful of claims. in all 3 cases the Royal Mail's claim system was easy to use and paid out promptly on all 3 occasions, You automatically get compensation with the Royal Mail, just chose the correct service for the value of item being sent.

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15 hours ago, hayfield said:

Michael

 

From what I have heard Hermes is a nightmare to claim from, certainly they left me in the lurch and never returned my calls which they offered. Not once have I had a query handled correctly

 

As for Royal Mail, in 17 years I have had less than a handful of claims. in all 3 cases the Royal Mail's claim system was easy to use and paid out promptly on all 3 occasions, You automatically get compensation with the Royal Mail, just chose the correct service for the value of item being sent.

That's why I will always use Royal Mail!

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29 minutes ago, MartinWales said:

That's why I will always use Royal Mail!

 

Martin

 

I totally agree with you on this one, but my local Post Office is just round the corner, super helpful & friendly staff plus has extended opening hours. 

 

I was very impressed with a recent delivery by PDP, uniformed staff in a company branded fit for purpose van.

 

Hermes on the face of it has in theory a great package, but it constantly falls down across the board. For instance at my local drop off shop all the packages are left on the floor in the open, its just asking for trouble. They have invested in a bot, but it will not accept a message "delivered to the wrong property" I could go on about the amount of items being lost, could not give a dam delivery drivers, no accessible customer service, poor compensation package.

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On 27/03/2021 at 14:50, John M Upton said:

I have two dilemmas with Ebay sellers on the go at the moment, opinions invited!!

 

Case No 1:  Looking at a book, only available second hand but two copies listed in the UK on Ebay.  One is £20 including postage (actually it is £20.99, it went up by 99p overnight!) but the sellers reputation (World of Books) is appalling.  The other copy is £30 including postage and the seller looks much more reputable, 100% glowing feedback.  Do I spend that extra tenner and head off potential hassle?


Personally World of books is my first go to place to check for any book I want to buy these days. I initially found them through Amazon marketplace and then found their direct website which is normally cheaper.

 

I am up-to 40-50 books from them now without any problems.

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I went for the slightly more expensive book in the end, seems better condition and the seller even accepted a bit off with a offer so happy days.

 

As for the Garden Tray, well the company did send a actually typed by a human response in the end, immediately marked the item as dispatched and provided a Royal Mail tracking number.  Checking the Royal Mail site however reveals that the tracking number has been registered on their system but the sender has not actually physically sent the parcel to the Royal Mail yet which seems a little suspicious.

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I have purchased from World of Books and have no actual problem with them, but as I'm trying to sell off part of my personal library on Ebay I do find them an "annoyance".  When valuing books I check on Ebay and Amazon for current prices.  When a fairly common book may not be worth much, say £3, and costs me £3 to post by RM, it's annoying to find copies for sale at £2.99 + free post, or the same copy on Amazon at 1p + £2.98 postage.  W.o.B and some other traders must have bulk deals with couriers, otherwise they are just giving away some of their stock.  As a result some of my books end up at charity shops as I can't compete.
 

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15 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

Checking the Royal Mail site however reveals that the tracking number has been registered on their system but the sender has not actually physically sent the parcel to the Royal Mail yet which seems a little suspicious.

 They may not have made it to the post office yet.  Ebay marks items as dispatched as soon as the postage is paid and the label is printed (and the tracking number generated).  I currently have sold items on hand.  If I pay the postage and label them today they will show as dispatched although I can't get to a P.O. until Tuesday.

Edited by petethemole
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An annoyance that I have with eBay is when an item of mine doesn't sell, they automatically relist 7 times. 

They also change the auction duration and add the option of offers. 

I already price to the minimum I'm prepared to sell for and having to check every day for offers is an annoyance. 

Having to be available online for 7 weeks in case an item that I am not aware I'm selling gets sold is also annoyance. 

Now they've ditched Paypal, that will also become an annoyance as if I don't use Paypal for 12 months, I apparently will incur charges. 

Meanwhile, the Windows "circle of doom" is nothing compared to eBay's circle of "help links".

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Tip for emailing ebay - find the "Contact Us" page and look (near the bottom) for the "Hard of hearing or visually impaired?" - you may have to click a few options first to get to it.  Click on that link for a nice form to fill in instead of endlessly going round and round their (no)help system.

 

You're welcome :)

 

 

 

 

But ebay doesn't always work for the buyer.

 

Can't remember if I posted this here but I sold some Internet Powerlines the other week to an italian buyer.

They paid, I sent to the GSP.  A couple of weeks later, the buyer comes on saying I mis-sold them UK plugs not italian and opened a case to return the items.  I said I couldn't accept the return as  1) The listing was on ebay.co.uk (not ebay.it)  2) Two of the photos semi-show the plug clearly not being an Italian one  3) The item location says "UK".

Buyer says I should have written it in the description.

 

Went through the "Report a Buyer" and the case details to say the buyer was mis-using the Money Back Guarantee claim.  Buyer opens a case on PayPal (which is new as they used to disallow if a case was open in one, it wouldn't in the other).  Ebay closes case in my favour.

 

I use this as well as the evidence above AND the fact the ebay.it website clearly shows when you're buying things from abroad to say to PayPal there is no case to answer.  I fully expect them to close the case in my favour too.

 

Total cost is £20 odd so not a huge amount but I can't accept the return as it'll cost me more in postage I should think.

Although there is a small possibility PayPal will side with the buyer, they can post back and claim back up to £15 from PayPal.  Just hope this doesn't come out of my PayPal account!

Edited by Sir TophamHatt
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Okay, this month sees eBay ditching Paypal for good and using Adyen to process their own payments. 

So, that's another outfit (Dutch) that wants access to my bank account. 

It won't be cheaper for us punters but it means that eBay now get ALL of the fees instead of letting Paypal have a share. 

No more will we have to pay Paypal their percentage but eBay have upped their fees to claw in all the "savings". 

Further, don't forget that if you only use Paypal for eBay purposes, you Paypal usage will be ticking down .... if you don't use your Paypal account, you will be charged £12 per year stagnation fee. 

Make sure you use Paypal once a year on other sites to avoid the annual fee. 

I think I'll just be buying from eBay in future. No more selling for me.

Here are the crunched numbers posted on the Money Saving Expert website .... 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/11/ebay-axes-paypal-sellers-bank-accounts-upping-fees/

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To honest, eBay has done me well. I've sold items in auctions, many model railway bits and pieces, and seen them bid up to far more than I would have asked if I ever had a table at a show. The system has also let me reach buyers far away, who have paid quite princely sums for eBay postage; and I've picked up some real bargains. The system is very good for actually finding obscure things too.

 

- Richard.

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2 hours ago, SGP said:

Okay, this month sees eBay ditching Paypal for good and using Adyen to process their own payments. 

So, that's another outfit (Dutch) that wants access to my bank account. 

It won't be cheaper for us punters but it means that eBay now get ALL of the fees instead of letting Paypal have a share. 

No more will we have to pay Paypal their percentage but eBay have upped their fees to claw in all the "savings". 

Further, don't forget that if you only use Paypal for eBay purposes, you Paypal usage will be ticking down .... if you don't use your Paypal account, you will be charged £12 per year stagnation fee. 

Make sure you use Paypal once a year on other sites to avoid the annual fee. 

I think I'll just be buying from eBay in future. No more selling for me.

Here are the crunched numbers posted on the Money Saving Expert website .... 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/11/ebay-axes-paypal-sellers-bank-accounts-upping-fees/

 

 

I only tend to sell now on Promo weekends, so reading this link I will be even better off. I keep my PayPal account in credit, they pay no interest (like my bank) so no benefit in transferring to my bank account, plus its my model railway account, rarely do I dip into my current account.

 

I will wait and see what happens !!

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2 hours ago, SGP said:

Okay, this month sees eBay ditching Paypal for good and using Adyen to process their own payments. 

So, that's another outfit (Dutch) that wants access to my bank account. 

It won't be cheaper for us punters but it means that eBay now get ALL of the fees instead of letting Paypal have a share. 

No more will we have to pay Paypal their percentage but eBay have upped their fees to claw in all the "savings". 

Further, don't forget that if you only use Paypal for eBay purposes, you Paypal usage will be ticking down .... if you don't use your Paypal account, you will be charged £12 per year stagnation fee. 

Make sure you use Paypal once a year on other sites to avoid the annual fee. 

I think I'll just be buying from eBay in future. No more selling for me.

Agreed.  I have also been notified by eBay that I am being placed on "managed payments" at the end of this month and if they don't have my bank details by then my selling facility will be disabled.     I considered setting it up but eBay want all sorts of personal details for "verification" and my bank warned me that this account sharing would give eBay employees full access to my banking including current balance.  Further, eBay insist the bank account must have the exact same name as the eBay seller.  I can't do this as the bank account is joint with my wife.   We already have individual separate Payapl accounts which we both use for other purchases besides eBay.  I am not prepared to open another solo bank account just to satisfy eBay's whims.  No more buying job lots and re-selling the items I don't want, so from now on I will be buying a lot less on eBay.   Their loss of business, not that they will care.   This weekend, with the £1 maximum fees offer will be my last hurrah at selling on eBay.  I am looking out everything I might want to sell in the foreseeable future and listing it this weekend.  Ten days from tomorrow takes me to 15th April and any unsold items relisted would take me up to 25th April then I'm done with eBay selling. 

 

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It'll be interesting to see what happens with ebay.

With the rise of selling fee-free on Facebook, the only advantage to ebay is it's reach of people.  But that is slowly dwindling into insignificance as more specialised selling groups are started up.

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As a seller I never print off the eBay shipping label as I understand that creating a label creates a tracking number.  To eBay this indicated that you have posted the item,  even though it might be several days before the item is actually posted.  My policy is that if the person has paid then my responsibility is to post the item as soon as possible (usually early the next morning) and then on return from the post office I input tracking details.  My tracking shows that the item has actually been posted,  not that shipping information has been received.

 

As a buyer I receive tracking information from the seller but all it really shows me is that the seller has printed off the shipping label,  not that he has posted the item.  The seller in a dispute can provide a tracking number even if he did not actually post the item.  A friend would actually print off the label,  charge the buyer the required amount as calculated and then hunt down the cheapest courier he could find,  making a profit on the postage cost.  In many cases he would hand deliver the package,  although the buyer would have unknowingly negated his buyer protection policy by accepting the package.

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As you say sometimes when a seller buys a label eBay tells you its been posted, plus with Royal Mail tracking is only updated after its been delivered. As per the title of the thread these are only annoyances

 

More worryingly eBay seemingly when an item is sent through its Packlink service tends to side with the carrier than the seller/buyer when things go wrong. This is increasingly important with the mess Hermes seems to make of some deliveries, namely claiming they have delivered items which they clearly have not. This may even be a bigger issue when eBay fully drop PayPal 

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1 hour ago, hayfield said:

.......................As per the title of the thread these are only annoyances..............................

 

 

 

It is as a buyer that I am annoyed that sellers print off a shipping label thus creating a tracking number and an email from eBay telling me that the seller has shipped the item when in fact all they have done is simply print a label.  It may be days before the item is actually posted.  The title is "EBay annoyances and I was expressing in my posting what annoyed me about eBay.

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1 minute ago, GWR-fan said:

 

It is as a buyer that I am annoyed that sellers print off a shipping label thus creating a tracking number and an email from eBay telling me that the seller has shipped the item when in fact all they have done is simply print a label.  It may be days before the item is actually posted.  The title is "EBay annoyances and I was expressing in my posting what annoyed me about eBay.

 

Is it the sellers fault or eBays, I think the message should read "postage label printed" then leave it up to the seller to confirm actual posting.

 

I prefer to use my local Post Office, but for some this facility is useful

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I was going to write earlier long bank holiday weekends. I bought 2 loco kits on Thursday night. The seller did not offer combined postage discounts and sent items 2nd class. The seller thankfully used the Royal Mail and whilst it was taken to the Post Office on Friday, no doubt the Royal Mail was only collecting over the bank holiday

 

Just about to leave the house for the weeks shopping thinking it was not in the post today. Low and behold the relief postwoman was walking down the drive with a packet. The seller had sent them first class and packed both kits very well. 

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During lockdown, I swallowed my pride and sent a few eBay sales via Packlink with Hermes while they were offering free collection by the Hermes courier.  The alternative meant queuing outside a claustrophobic little Spar shop in the cold, only to sometimes find when it was eventually my turn to enter, that the post office counter was closed due to staff shortage.    I sold a couple of model railway items yesterday.   Since all last month's sales got to the buyers safely with Hermes I considered pricing the Packlink with Hermes home collection service now that the free home collection offer has ended.   I had to sign in again to eBay only to be greeted with a new page "Grant Application access" which now asks me to consent to sharing my details before I can continue to use eBay delivery services.     Not doing it, considering I only have a few remaining sales over the next few days and will no longer be selling any more on eBay due to their hair-brained "managed payments" project.  I'll take these last few items to the post office.

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3 minutes ago, cessna152towser said:

During lockdown, I swallowed my pride and sent a few eBay sales via Packlink with Hermes while they were offering free collection by the Hermes courier.  The alternative meant queuing outside a claustrophobic little Spar shop in the cold, only to sometimes find when it was eventually my turn to enter, that the post office counter was closed due to staff shortage.    I sold a couple of model railway items yesterday.   Since all last month's sales got to the buyers safely with Hermes I considered pricing the Packlink with Hermes home collection service now that the free home collection offer has ended.   I had to sign in again to eBay only to be greeted with a new page "Grant Application access" which now asks me to consent to sharing my details before I can continue to use eBay delivery services.     Not doing it, considering I only have a few remaining sales over the next few days and will no longer be selling any more on eBay due to their hair-brained "managed payments" project.  I'll take these last few items to the post office.

 

Royal Mail do now provide a collection service although I've not used it yet.  See https://www.royalmail.com/collection

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Ordered from a seller on the 5TH, got an email to say dispatched with a tracking number, expected delivery today the 9TH.

 

So I checked the tracker as I wanted to know if they would actually arrive today. The site showed still at the depot. Just after checking the postman arrived with the packet. 

 

Why use a tracker if it's not updated by anyone.

 

Rob

 

 Tracking.png.01690b90c646765d01a61ff220d0a590.png

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