Slow shippers and how to change that.

[arveejay]

I have been buying and selling on EBAY since 1998. The US sellers are getting lazy when shipping a sold item to the buyer. They always have some phony reason as to why they are so slow but only a fool believes them. Example, I recently bought 3 items at the same time from ebay and 2 items from Amazon. The Amazon orders are scheduled to be delivered today and 2 of the 3 Ebay items are likely to be here next Tuesday and the third has not even been shipped yet. It's pretty discouraging because when I sell something on Ebay I ship it same day priority free, and when I buy me a Christmas present it likely won't be here till next year. I buy a watch from Japan and get it in 3 days but if I buy it from 500 miles away it takes 7 days at best.

I think Ebay should hold payment till item is shipped and I don't mean till label is printed. One item I am waiting for had a label printed 4 days ago and it has not been shipped yet. If Amazon starts shipping collectible things like ebay does, I believe ebay will be in trouble.

[rock.star]

EBay holds the payment until the tracking number shows delivery. 

[eburtonlab]

Keep in mind that when you purchase on eBay, you are purchasing from an individual seller -- most likely using retail shipping services -- and not from a trillion dollar corporation with automated warehouses in all fifty states and a hundred countries using fleets of delivery vehicles paid for by a subscription service to deliver overnight.

You cannot make a particular seller ship an item faster.

You can, however, choose to purchase from better sellers that ship faster, rather than poor sellers that ship slower.

On eBay, examining the estimated delivery dates and seller feedback can help you to determine which is which.

If Amazon starts shipping collectible things like ebay does, I believe ebay will be in trouble.

If Amazon starts shipping collectible things like eBay does, Amazon will not be able to store a specific, unique collectible item in multiple warehouses around the world. Amazon is fast because Amazon ships commodity items that are manufactured by the tens of thousands, not one-of-a-kind items like many individual eBay sellers do.

[disneyshopper]

If sellers are consistently shipping slowly, their seller metrics will suffer, as ebay evaluates sellers on the 20th of each month, and slow shipping is one of the metrics.  Too many defects and those sellers can be restricted or suspended.