Doing business w/ eBay

[dic_7521]

Until just recently my last foray into the twisted psychopathy that is eBay was years ago. I thought it might interest somebody or another to know that the years since have been good years. Quiet, peaceful, at least somewhat sane - for me anyway.

… & then I went crazy & tried to buy bicycle panniers from an eBay seller. My panniers got to within 30 miles of the Southern Indiana porch that they’re supposed to be on right now, then took off for Houston, TX. Much of my day since has fallen into the dark & dank place that is late-stage capitalism. I’ve discovered that, these days, when the bio-mass hits the fan & you pick up the phone the whole world laughs at one who thinks he’s going to circumvent impenetrable barriers to human solutions. These days you don’t even get a human reply to what, I guess, is an impossibly stupid question …

”How & why was the provided delivery address “corrected” in the dead of night without input from buyer OR seller (that I know of)?

The only thing I know for sure at this point is that nobody involved with this actually WANTS to do business like a grown-up person, & that’s fine. I can dispute a CC charge. I have a couple of yards of heavy canvass with saddle thread & wax. I have useful hangers on the panniers that require replacement, & I have time for anything BUT this wildly non-functional stupidification of our economy.

Clearly, eBay can get by without me, & I’m just as able to get by without eBay. That applies to FedEx as well. Moving forward, any who absolutely MUST ship w/ FedEx can do w/out my business, & if the only place to get it is eBay I don’t need it.  When I bought & paid for panniers my expectation was that they would soon be riding around on my town bike, & not in the back of a FedEx truck in Texas. Sadly, an eBay seller who might be more or less reasonable is caught in the middle, but I’ll also be sparing her any future grief related to me & my expectations.

My question for eBay - How much business do y’all lose each & every day because you CHOOSE to be non-functional automatons?

[ed8108 · Accepted solution]

dic_7521

My question for eBay - How much business do y’all lose each & every day because you CHOOSE to be non-functional automatons?

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Ebay appears not greatly concerned.

Since Ebay has created various income streams in addition to fvf enabling it to continue to remain profitable at the present time.

[kathiec]

EBay's not here. This is a member-to-member forum. But I'm curious why you think your package being misrouted means the address was "corrected in the dead of night"? I had a package mailed USPS from Dallas to Fort Worth routed through Puerto Rico. Things like that happen with all carriers and have nothing to do with eBay.

As to your final question, eBay had revenue of $10.06B in the twelve months ending September 30, 2023, with 1.64% growth year-over-year. Revenue in the quarter ending September 30, 2023 was $2.50B with 5.04% year-over-year growth. So it doesn't appear eBay's buyer attrition is as great as you might think.

[chapeau-noir]

I'm trying to boil this down to what actually happened. You purchased the panniers, they were misdirected (frustratingly when they had neared your address), Fed-Ex corrected the address en route so now presumably they're on their way to you. I think that's correct? 

At this time this is a delivery service problem - not an eBay problem. Shipping companies have internal tracking where corrections like this are made, and some Fed-Ex routes are independent contractors. I dislike shipping with Fed-Ex because this kind of thing has happened to me before, though the majority of times it has been OK. I had one package to one of my customers (on another website) bounce all over the place until it finally arrived to her.  Frustrating, yes, but not everything works. 

Where is your package now - tracking is easy to check.

[doc-holmes]

Who else read this in Jordan Peterson's voice? 

[12345jamesstamps]

I had a FedEx package mailed on Nov. 20th from New Jersey to San Francisco. Got it Nov 22th in the morning.

I paid attention to tracking and such. I buy from this person about twice a month where they use FedEx.

I guess my city has great delivery service as some other cities do not have great delivery service. I guess it depends what city you live in.

[soh.maryl]

Not sure why you want eBay to be responsible for the actions of the delivery company.  

[mudshark61369]

@dic_7521,

If you do not like to get packages sent via FedEx, you can click on the Shipping, Returns, Payments tab on a listing to see what service the seller uses, if they use FedEx, you can message them to see if they will ship via another service before buying from them. If they refuse or do not respond within a few days, buy from another seller.

If Fed-Ex is responsible for the mis-direction of your package, then you should be trying to contact them to find out if the package was placed on the wrong truck by mistake, or possibly if the seller had the package redirected. 

eBay is not responsible for shippers mistakes and can't help you with that.  If the seller had the package re-directed you need to get that info in writing from a FedEx store by taking a copy of your order details or a phone/tablet with you to show a clerk that your address should have been where the package was to be delivered.  If it was the seller who redirected it, then ask the clerk to write that on company stationary  in general saying the sender redirected the package. You should also ask if the package type/size/weight was appropriate for what you ordered.  If it was not ask them to write that out, again in general, then sign and date the note.

 If the package does not arrive by the last estimated delivery date you can file an Item Not Received (INR) dispute. However, if the tracking is not showing a delivered scan, ebay may extend the time before they allow you to ask them to step in and process a dispute so FedEx can correct their error.

    If the package gets a Delivered scan and you file an INR dispute, it will be decided in favor of the seller, but in the message you receive saying that, there will be an Appeal button. You can appeal and write out what has happened then post a Clear photo or a scan of the note, and ebay will force a refund.  Whining because there is a process for getting a refund doesn't help you. Reading the terms of the Money Back Guarantee instead, and following its terms or taking the suggested actions above, will help you and shouldn't be the cause of falling into dark places.

[voneaviation]

Answer. Not nearly enough or they'd be useful at least some of the time.