What would you do?

Very true, problem is one gets used to it,regularly have books delivered from Amazon in less than 24 hrs. The difference between first and second class postage is 50 pence on a 1KG parcel, hardly going to break the bank. Particularly when most ebay sellers overcharge on postage anyway.
Have marked the seller down slightly for slow delivery, but still an overall positive.

Davex.

You should not mark someone down in the Detailed Seller Rating for using Second Class. That is suppsosed to be for speed of *DISPATCH*, not delivery.

In my sales I usually state what type of postage it will be, and often offer the buyer a choice of Second and First, or First and Special Delivery, etc.

Hi folks,

Have you guys who post next day forgotten that the majority of people actually work Mon-Fri? Many private ebay sellers have no chance to reach a PO in the week. Getting to one in your lunch time is usually just not possible..even if you could cart all the parcels to work with you.

You must be lucky in either having flexi work patterns, being unemployed or retired, working p/t or having a very local PO. My personal 'irritation' is the ever growing number of very impatient people..especially on ebay. Everyone seems to want their items within 24-48 hours, which in many cases is simply not realistic.

I live in a large urban town and yet we had 10 local PO's closed two years ago and another 8 closed in the latest cuts a few months ago.

I start a new job soon and like thousands of other private ebayers will be working M-F with no access to a PO until Saturday mornings...

cheers Steve.

I've no problem with that as long as the seller states explicity in the listing that they only post on Saturdays (or whenever). If they make no mention of when they post parcels then I expect it to be in the post on the working day following my payment, otherwise the listing is misleading IMHO and I'll mark them down on dispatch time.

As for 1st v 2nd class I always send second class but I also make sure this is clearly shown in my listings. Past experience has shown me that there's rarely any difference in when a package actually arrives if sent via recorded delivery (usually 2 days whether you pay for first or not) so I don't give people the choice.

I don't think people expect miracles but they do expect honesty. If you can't make it to the PO until Saturday fair enough, at least if I know that I can withold any payment to you until Friday - everybody's happy.

Probably a good idea to mention "Only Post Saturdays" then Steve, although it's a faint hope that the buyers will take that into account, but at least you will have tried!

The trouble is that the power has been skewed totally in the buyers favour and the poor seller is vulnerable to all sorts of hazards. Bad buyers exist (just as bad sellers do) but the eBay systems do not recognise their existence.

Fair two way feedback was not perfect, but it was self-policing and equal. Only being able to leave positive feedback for a buyer is not fair IMHO. They now feel no inhibitions and potentially could cause a lot of trouble.

I've also noticed a tendency when a package is delayed for a certain type of buyer to go straight to the PayPal claim system without even mentioning it to the seller. That's a bit annoying when things could so easily be sorted without The Procedure being invoked.

Still, there is no better place to buy and sell even now, so I guess we're stuck with making the best of the few niggles.

Totally agree, I think most people are happy to wait, providing they know that will be case. However if I am told delivery is first class despatched within 2 days than that is what I expect.

Davex.

50 years ago your letter would have been delivered the next day, and possibly even the same day by second post, if you lived fairly close! There was no 1st and 2nd class, far more volume of mail and a heck of a lot quicker too. Such is progress.

Indeed so, but the postal service has got into trouble because we all use the Internet. One thing dies, another replaces it.

If I had written this reply in a letter, even 50 years ago you wouldn't have received it as quickly as this!

I was doing some research for something I was writing and had to find out how long it would take a letter to reach Motherwell from the Somme trenches in 1916 at the height of the battle, to my astonishment it was only three days!

I have seen a seller give negative feedback, tick the positive feedback box and then write what you like!

It's tempting, but actually specifically forbidden by eBay rules. If it gets spotted it will be removed and if repeated will cause more problems than it's worth I'm sure.