Slow Shipping On Ebay- Getting Worse

My understanding is that sellers are required to ship items no more than three days after payment. Lately I have encountered very long shipping delays of up to two weeks. If I buy overseas I expect it will take longer. If I do so, however, the vendor still needs to ship once payment is received. I had one seller delay mailing for two weeks. He said he was 'busy'. He was in Poland but I am still waiting for a stamp I paid for on May 20 from seller in California. Another still waiting for delivery from Texas.Both claim they mailed but they did not check that they had. I doubt they did.

I wonder if it is some seasonal thing. Anyone else notice this lately?

I think it's seller indifference and ebay's lack of any effective enforcement. I saw one item recently where 'an extremely late shipping date' warning was even given by ebay in the item listing.

For the past few months, all of my purchases have arrived very quickly...even those from overseas.

Stamps1962,

If you limit your ebay buying to sellers who offer next day shipping, problems of the type you report would be less likely to occur. However, some buyers wait a week or two to pay and then expect next day shipping.

Clark

Clark- I am not one of those buyers. I usually pay immediately.

I pay immediately and recently 2 purchases have had sellers 'forget' to mark the item as shipped until I emailed them. The last item I bought from a seller in Latvia ran over ebay's guestimate on the arrival date. But letters from Latvia take anywhere from a little over a week to over 3 weeks to arrive. ebay pays lip service to customer service, but as long as ebay gets paid and buyers don't desert in droves they're happy with their profit and business goes on as usual.

When I sell on ebay I generally ship as soon as payment clears. Very seldom do I wait more than 2 days. But as an indication of the of the timeliness of payment makes me think the buyer isn't in a real hurry for the item so that might delay shipment somewhat. So I guess the rate at which I ship is a factor of how fast I get payment. I buy from a major dealer in GB and sometimes my item arrives within 4-5 days of payment. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly they come. On the other hand, I buy from a dealer in NY (you you all know him) and sometimes those take a week or 2 to arrive. I guess it all depends. Wolf-==-

Recent items I've bought on ebay have arrived in very short time. Thye most recent one was estimated by ebay for delivery on June 6, it actually arrived on May 31st.

snail mail?

The item from Texas arrived today. a souvenir sheet mailed in a large flat envelope wit NO stiffener or reinforcement. It was creased right down the middle.

This opens up another peeve, poor packing- cannot imagine what this seller was thinking mailing this like that. Moronic...

Update, here is his reply, I laughed for a bit when reading it:

'The problem is that when I sent it that was the time I didn't have the cardboard. Don't return it the cost to send it back would be too much and if it's damaged its worthless. I will send you a refund by the beginning of next week. I apologize for the inconvenience and your understanding.'

So, I guess anyone buying from him needs to ask if he is out of cardboard?

I would have given a buyer an immediate refund in his place, it is under $10. He has to wait until next week?

I swear the quality of ebay sellers is not what it used to be..

And so pointless. I just bought a box of stiffened envelopes for my ebay sales. Cost works out at less than 10p - say, 15c - per envelope.

I guess it never occurred to him to raid his cupboard for a cereal box to use?

What I didn't mention was that, although he provided no protection against creasing, he did enclose the souvenir sheet I bought in some waterproof plastic that he apparently sealed shut. It took several minutes to extract from that.

He has low feedback, probably a newbie seller. Some of these people make me feel like Einstein.

I usually buy from sellers with whom I have dealt before. These are people who ship quickly and pack the stamps well.

It is always a "craps shoot" when you buy from somebody new. I've been lucky lately, but in the past I have received items which have been folded in half, or otherwise mutilated by the seller. An old Serbian gutter block which was folded in half so that it would fit in the glassine comes to mind.

I once bought a nice set of lightly used Lighthouse album pages. The clueless seller used a page cutter to whack off the entire left sides of the pages up to the frame line, apparently just to fit them in the envelope. Then he was arguing with me that this did not affect the value. I filed a claim and he refunded, I wound up tossing them.

Buyers who are concerned about timely shipping should stay with Top Rated sellers.

Charge 10 times the actual cost of shipping.
Poorly package your item.
Screw up your address.
Take 1 day less than forever to ship.
And ban you for life if you even remotely think about giving them less than aa 5 star rating.

That's fair... isn't it?