Click and Collect

[cessna152towser]

I sold an item a job lot of wagons a few weeks ago to a buyer who paid promptly and asked me to send the item to what he said was the click and collect address which he normally used.     He asked me to hold the item as he was bidding on other items ending a week later.  He then successfully bid for a loco and two more wagons and paid for these as a single order.   I sent the items to the Premier Store and notified him once tracked delivery had been confirmed to me.   I heard nothing further for almost a week, so assuming the matter was concluded I left positive feedback.    In response, he then messaged me to say that the store would not release the parcel without the EPC number.    I checked on an eBay help forum and ascertained that the EPC number is the code which eBay give you as part of the buyer's address.   Luckily I had the foresight to write this number alongside his name when I sent the parcel.   I checked back on my eBay sales to fetch the EPC number for him and found that the two payments had actually attracted different numbers so I gave him both numbers.   He has now got back to me that the shop are still refusing to release the parcel as they say these are not the correct numbers.   As I understand it from my reading of the eBay forum the store must either release the parcel to the buyer or return it to sender.    Has anyone else ever sent anything to a click and collect address and if so is it always such a hassle?

[Hal Nail]

It's a bit unfortunate but I can understand the store being wary.

 

I'd try phoning the store as the seller and confirm they are valid - although how you prove you aren't just a mate of the person collecting might be a problem.

 

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

As far as I know, there are different codes in use.

 

There is the now Standard eBay code, that is inserted into the customers address, and has "eBay" in it.

 

Then, but only if the customer has clicked on or otherwise selected the click and collect option when making payment, a different code is produced, with "ecp" in it.

 

When a customer selects the click and collect option, the seller isn't automatically informed that it is a click and collect order...

 

The customer's address isn't shewn, just the click and collect shop's address.

 

This can lead to confusion, as we have all gotten used to not writing the standard eBay code on address labels, as that code has no use whatsoever unless the shipper uses a computer printed label via certain providers, when it is automatically removed from the address, and a QR or Bar Code printed instead...

 

When you then get an undeclared click and collect order, it's very easy to misread the code as a standard eBay code and leave it out!

 

So, in conclusion, the standard eBay codes usually include "eBay", and are optional.

 

A click and collect code usually has "ecp" in it, and are necessary! 

 

I hope that you can get this situation rectified.

 

As I see it, you have been asked to send to a shop address, but possibly the buyer has not selected the official click and collect option...

 

Therefore, you won't have an ecp code issued.

 

Only the standard eBay code.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Ruffnut Thorston
Typo

[cessna152towser]

56 minutes ago, Ruffnut Thorston said:

As I see it, you have been asked to send to a shop address, but possibly the buyer has not selected the official click and collect option...

 

Therefore, you won't have an ecp code issued.

 

Only the standard eBay code.

That would appear to be the situation.     I have not previously been asked to send to a Click and Collect address.   I was unhappy about doing so but then I checked and my eBay settings were at the default position so Click and Collect had been offered as an option at the moment of sale so I felt obliged to accept it.  I wrote the eBay code on the parcel label alongside the name of the recipient and I had assumed that covered everything.    So far I have heard nothing further from the buyer.

[SteveyDee68]

I’ve had experience of this on a number of occasions as a buyer using click and collect, and it is usually down to the seller not putting the ECP code on the parcel. It is definitely a flaw in the eBay system, as it should be made much clearer to sellers that they need to include the ECP code.

 

I have had it resolved a number of ways (a) the click & collect location calls eBay and eBay talks them into releasing the parcel (usually I have had an ear bashing off the eBay rep, though why I got it as the buyer I am still unsure) (b) the parcel gets returned to the seller and we try again to a different address - sometimes I’ve paid for the second postage (especially if I scored what I considered a bargain price) and sometimes the seller has paid (their mistake) (c) parcel gets returned and the sale is cancelled.
 

Is there a way for the seller to contact eBay and get it noted on the sale details that the ECP number was accidentally omitted, so that the click and collect venue can call eBay and get that confirmed so as to release the parcel?

 

Good luck on getting this sorted.

 

Steve S

[AW]

I had a click and collect issue (as a buyer) a few months ago, which appeared to involve a missing ECP number. I'd previously bought a number of items from various sellers and requested them to be sent to a local newsagent. All went well. In this case I'd selected a local Argos as the click-and-collect option, but a week or more after despatch I'd had no collection notification. I contacted the seller to let him know and see if he could locate it, but the courier was Hermes and he seemed to think (from past experience) there'd be little chance of speaking to anyone there, and that neither of us was likely to see the item again. He refunded me immediately.

 

A week or so later I got a by then completely unexpected collection notification, and trundled off to Argos to see if it really had turned up (it was now over two weeks from despatch by the seller). Sure enough they had it, and there was no problem collecting it. Out of idle curiosity I briefly spoke to the lady at Argos explaining that the parcel had been MIA and that I wasn't expecting to get it. She told me that it had only arrived with them that morning and she'd had to ring eBay to get the missing ECP code. As I don't sell on eBay I'd no clue what this was, my only interest as a buyer being the collection code itself. I presume that once she had the ECP code Argos could then register it as having arrived with them, which triggered the collection email to me.

 

It didn't seem like Argos were culpable at the time (for either the delivery delay or the missing code), but reading the OP's tale I'm even more impressed now with their pro-activeness in resolving it.

 

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

If a package is sent to a click and collect address using, for example, Royal Mail Signed For post, there is then a label on the package with the tracking number...

 

If the seller can tell the buyer the tracking number, then that may be a way to help prove that the customer has a legitimate interest in the package?

 

Maybe, if the seller can send an eBay message to the buyer, that the buyer can show to the shop (on a smart phone for example) including the Royal Mail tracking code that may be even better?

 

But, in the end, it's down to the shop...

 

If the customer is a regular click and collect customer at that shop, that may also help to resolve this kind of situation?

 

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Ruffnut Thorston
Typo

[Ruffnut Thorston]

@AW

 

The delay could also partly be due to Hermes not delivering the package to the Argos on time?

 

 

 

 

[AW]

3 minutes ago, Ruffnut Thorston said:

@AW

 

The delay could also partly be due to Hermes not delivering the package to the Argos on time?

 

 

 

 

Yep, going by what the lady at Argos said to me it had only arrived with them that morning, and I've no reason to doubt that. In effect two unrelated issues in play as far as I can tell, of which only the missing ECP number is really relevant to this thread. But I posted to suggest that the click-and-collect location can resolve this (without troubling the buyer) if my experience is anything to go by. Unless a big player like Argos has more clout than a local newsagent, or the individual staff in question are simply more interested in fixing the problem. Who knows?

[John M Upton]

Unfortunately as a seller, no one at Ebay ever bothered to tell me what these seeming meaningless codes in amongst the address details actually were and so I have always omitted them and will continue to do so.

[ianmacc]

On 17/04/2022 at 14:41, AW said:

I had a click and collect issue (as a buyer) a few months ago, which appeared to involve a missing ECP number. I'd previously bought a number of items from various sellers and requested them to be sent to a local newsagent. All went well. In this case I'd selected a local Argos as the click-and-collect option, but a week or more after despatch I'd had no collection notification. I contacted the seller to let him know and see if he could locate it, but the courier was Hermes and he seemed to think (from past experience) there'd be little chance of speaking to anyone there, and that neither of us was likely to see the item again. He refunded me immediately.

 

A week or so later I got a by then completely unexpected collection notification, and trundled off to Argos to see if it really had turned up (it was now over two weeks from despatch by the seller). Sure enough they had it, and there was no problem collecting it. Out of idle curiosity I briefly spoke to the lady at Argos explaining that the parcel had been MIA and that I wasn't expecting to get it. She told me that it had only arrived with them that morning and she'd had to ring eBay to get the missing ECP code. As I don't sell on eBay I'd no clue what this was, my only interest as a buyer being the collection code itself. I presume that once she had the ECP code Argos could then register it as having arrived with them, which triggered the collection email to me.

 

It didn't seem like Argos were culpable at the time (for either the delivery delay or the missing code), but reading the OP's tale I'm even more impressed now with their pro-activeness in resolving it.

 

 

I hope you let the seller knows and offered to pay  

[AW]

14 minutes ago, ianmacc said:

I hope you let the seller knows and offered to pay  

I did, although I got the impression that there was no way to do it through eBay where as far as I can tell the (refunded) transaction was complete. Of itself that struck me, a relative eBay novice, as odd given that this scenario must surely occur quite a bit, and there is a systematic trigger to effectively re-open it if necessary when the much delayed collection notification goes out and the collection occurs. Shouldn't eBay's systems be aware of these events? Anyway I got the seller to send me a PayPal invoice, and the payment was made outwith eBay as I understood it.

[DCB]

I have had all my problems selling on eBay where the buyers address and the delivery address are not the same. I believe eBay used to recommend not sending to any address other then the buyers address,  so now I say no corner shops or Argos.  Usually the problem is I manage to leave off eBay reference number, but eBay managed to give the buyers old addess on one occasion so off went my stuff to Portmaddog when he lived in Cambridge.   Argos denied receiving a guys parcel, but when I sent a second a 30 minute search found they had both.

My last, this buyer's wife  accepted the item, decided she didn't want it, tried to return it to the shop, failed as it was correctly addressed, so she sent it back with a letter explaining she was expecting something else.  Meanwhile Hubby was still asking where it was.  If the buyer hasn't got the same payment and delivery addresses you are better off cancelling the sale.

If you are a buyer who needs things delivered to a accomodation address, don't bid on my stuff!

[cessna152towser]

12 hours ago, DCB said:

If the buyer hasn't got the same payment and delivery addresses you are better off cancelling the sale.

Good advice.   My buyer says he is waiting for the store manager to phone him back and if not he will go and visit them again on Thursday.    The default setting on eBay is set to allow click and collect.   If I ever sell again on eBay I would change my settings and refuse to send to click and collect addresses.

[Hal Nail]

On 18/04/2022 at 23:08, DCB said:

eBay managed to give the buyers old addess on one occasion so off went my stuff to Portmaddog when he lived in Cambridge. 

i had a seller contact me the other day to say hed sent something to the address eBay gave then noticed my order address was different. Id carefully removed my old address from the default delivery addresses and paypal as well but realised later that eBay also have an address saved in your personal details and were dishing that out.

[cessna152towser]

Buyer visited the shop yesterday and manager released eBay parcel to him and he is happy with contents.

All's well that ends well.

[Quarryscapes]

Should this happen to anyone else, it may be possible to find the code retrospectively by going to your sold items and clicking on the print postage label option, which should display the address including code on the right hand side of the screen (proper computer, probably won't work on any kind of mobile or tablet). Note down number, cancel out of label purchase screen. 

 

(I haven't tested this theory as I don't have any click and collect sales recently, but I believe it should work).

[Michael Hodgson]

On 18/04/2022 at 17:16, AW said:

Shouldn't eBay's systems be aware of these events? Anyway I got the seller to send me a PayPal invoice, and the payment was made outwith eBay as I understood it.

 

Simple answer to that is what's in it for ebay? 

Once they've closed the file one way or another they really don't want to know.

[AW]

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

 

Simple answer to that is what's in it for ebay? 

 

Money I'd assumed. As a non-seller I'd assumed there'd be no seller fee if a purchase was refunded, and a quick Google suggests seller's do indeed get a "fee credit" in this scenario, less a fixed 30p charge. Albeit that the wording is full of "may" and "should" rather than "will".

 

If the sale (or the payment part) then occurs outwith eBay then eBay miss out on that fee don't they?  Or am I missing something?

 

Not specifically a ciick-and-collect issue, as this scenario could occur with anything that goes missing in transit but subsequently turns up post-refund.