eBay- how long is too long to wait?

[jack620]

My eBay purchases usually turn up pretty quickly, but the ER40 collet spanner I bought a month ago still hasn't arrived. The seller in Hong Kong has provided me with a tracking number, but when I enter the number into the Hong Kong Post Office website all I get is "The item (RCxxxxxxxxxxHK) was posted on 16-Nov-2012" Postage was $9.

I've contacted the seller (onlineseller68) and all he can tell me is the post office is "busy".

I need to make a claim by 24 Dec, but I think I've waited long enough. Is a month too long to wait for an item from Hong Kong or is that typical?

Chris

[Stustoys]

Hi Chris,

It took him almost a week to post it?(its just that I currently have on my list a Hall sensor that I bought on 28/10/12 and I have until 11/12/12 make a claim)

I've never noticed a pattern in delivery times. Sometimes its days, most times its weeks and some times its over a month. Many sellers have a "refund if not received in 40 days". Twice I almost made it.

I received this from one seller three days ago
"We regret to inform you that due to HongKong airport strengthen security check recently, all parcels will be 100% by X ray inspection in order to prohibit on Sending Prohibited or Dangerous Articles. That means all the mail delivery services has been delayed, and the delivery timeframe is extended to about 35-40 days. Therefore, if you still do not receive your order over 40 days since your item has been shipped out, please just reply to this email. We’ll arrange to send a replacement to you or issue you a refund."

Stuart

[jack620]

Thanks Stuart. I guess I'll just wait till 23 Dec then lodge a claim if I haven't received the spanner.
Chris

[Dave J]

Open a Paypal dispute 2 days before the due date. Some sellers will say just wait another week as the Paypal due date comes around to push you over time, once you start a dispute you can always close it if you receive your item.
It's probably a combination of things but everything slows around this time of year.

Dave

[pipeclay]

The last items I purchased from your seller arrived in less than 2 days,didnt come via post but DHL,but postage was cheap,and that was towards the end of last month.

[Dave J]

Forgot to ask, did you buy a safety spanner? I don't like the C spanners even for the smaller ER32.

Dave

[.RC.]

Seems to have been a blow out in times lately, but remember it is also the christmas period where no doubt mail volumes have gone through the roof...

[nearnexus]

Forgot to ask, did you buy a safety spanner? I don't like the C spanners even for the smaller ER32.

Dave

After years of using the standard C spanner I bought an ER32 safety spanner from CTC tools and it's definitely worth the money.

The way to go.

Can't slip and you can apply more tension if you wish.

I ground the sharp edges off of mine - it's just flat steel tooling.

BTW "onlineseller68" is actually another outlet (slightly cheaper) for CTC Tools.

I've dealt with them and when you get the invoice compare it to a CTC one :)

Rob

[jack620]

Yep, I bought the safety spanner Dave.

pipeclay, I also bought the ER40 collet chuck and later some collets from him, and they all arrived fairly quickly. Funny thing is, they had free postage and the spanner postage was $9.

Thanks Rob, I didn't realise he was a front for CTC.

Chris

[morrisman]

The ebay disput time limitation should be more like 2 months . Ive been ripped off a few times , waiting for the item to arrive , by the time you realise the vender is a crook, its too late to do anything because the time limit has run out

[Andrew C]

The fact that you have a tracking number that actually comes up on the HK tracking system is probably a good sign. A crooked seller would probably have a hard time producing one that works.

[issatree]

Hi all,
I had a Friend buy for me as he does a bit, & I'm not very good at the Ebay thing.
It has been almost a month now, as we sent the right Nos. & they ( Hong Kong ) still got it wrong for a Battery $23 but $66 here.
Then we went again for a Digital Tachometer $13 + Post, but $ 79.50 here.
They said they had sent one, hasn't turned up, supposedly sent another one, it has been lost too.
Really makes you wonder ?????.
Must remember to mention the Paypal Dispute thingo.

[_fly_]

I just had an email from a hong kong suplier.


We regret to inform you that due to HongKong airport strengthen security check recently, all parcels will be 100% by X ray inspection in order to prohibit on Sending Prohibited or Dangerous Articles. That means all the mail delivery services has been delayed, and the delivery timeframe is extended to about 35-40 days. Therefore, if you still do not receive your order over 40 days since your item has been shipped out, please just reply to this email. We’ll arrange to send a replacement to you or issue you a refund.

We sincerely apologies for this delay, and your understanding would be much appreciated. Also, please do not leave us a low score for Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR) or leave us a neutral/negative feedback directly because of this uncontrollable issue. Thank you very much.

I guess that means your going to wait while everything is x-rayed.

[matthew_g]

I have been waiting 3 months now for a plasma torch to arrive from China.
According to 6Shop-River, Chinese customs are looking for anything that may contain lithium. I am in a situation where over the years I have spent thousands through this seller, I have made no claim and they have sent me a second item by express air mail and included a second torch and 40 foot lead for my trouble. They have also told me when the other(if the other) turnes up I am to keep it.
I believe I will send it back as a sighn of thanks and keep the business relationship good for all concerned.
Matt

[Ueee]

I ordered a small lot of things from CTC on the 28/11 and got them yesterday, thats about a week and a half, so not all things are being delayed by Hong Kong post.

[jack620]

When (if) my package arrives I'll be interested to see if he really did post it on 16/11. It would be very easy for him to give me the tracking number from another package he sent the same day. Since there are no details other than the destination country, I would be none the wiser unless it was date stamped at a later date. I must be getting cynical.

[Oldneweng]

Yep, I bought the safety spanner Dave.

pipeclay, I also bought the ER40 collet chuck and later some collets from him, and they all arrived fairly quickly. Funny thing is, they had free postage and the spanner postage was $9.

Thanks Rob, I didn't realise he was a front for CTC.

Chris

There is no such thing as free postage. The total cost is just that, the total cost. How they pretend to split it up is irrelevant. At the end of the day it is just mind games.

I looked at CTC site and EBay store at the same time. Big difference in prices but offset by postage I think.

The price of 24 piece sets of 40mm collet sets seems to have about doubled in the last few months. I am sure they were about $80.00, now about double that. Maybe they just swapped price for postage lol.

Having just bought a new mill which is still sitting in the trailer while I build a large and solid cabinet for it, I am going to have a rather large shopping list when I finally decide just what to buy. I already have a 150mm milling vice and clamp kit bought on the same day. I wanted to get the really heavy stuff locally.

Thanks Rob for the info on onlineseller68. I have just made a note of this seller in my shopping list file. I have about $1000.00 to spend although not necessarily on milling gear. I still need to think about things for my new lathe which is still sitting on wood blocks and has taken a back seat for now.

Dean

[simonl]

A few things I have found. Like Oldneweng says, no such thing as free postage. Secondly, I think that some seller bang up their postage costs and reduce the actual selling price to reduce ebay selling costs. Some things seem to take an awful long time, months yet other things (from the same location) arrive in just over a week. I'm wondering if some China sellers batch post items at certain intervals to save on postage. So, if they send a batch once a fortnight and you just missed the last, well bad luck! They may even batch post based on once they get a minimum order for a certain country.

I have also complained about not receiving an item, they said wait a bit longer, so I did and still nothing. I emailed them again and they said they sent out another item which arrived in a couple of weeks. I'm tipping they never sent "another" item, they new that the original was still on it's way!

Just one of my conspiracy theories......:rolleyes:

Simon

[jack620]

Hong Kong post office advised that my spanner left Hong Kong for Sydney on 13/12. It's now in the hands of Australia Post.

So my parcel was with the HK post office between 16/11 and 13/12. Looks like the stories about delays due to security screening were spot-on.

[pipeclay]

Must be dependent on other things than that,as I said I ordered with the same seller on 19/11 and received my items on 21/11,no Aus Post but DHL,postage was $5.50 items weighed just under1kg.

[Oldneweng]

A few things I have found. Like Oldneweng says, no such thing as free postage. Secondly, I think that some seller bang up their postage costs and reduce the actual selling price to reduce ebay selling costs. Some things seem to take an awful long time, months yet other things (from the same location) arrive in just over a week. I'm wondering if some China sellers batch post items at certain intervals to save on postage. So, if they send a batch once a fortnight and you just missed the last, well bad luck! They may even batch post based on once they get a minimum order for a certain country.

I have also complained about not receiving an item, they said wait a bit longer, so I did and still nothing. I emailed them again and they said they sent out another item which arrived in a couple of weeks. I'm tipping they never sent "another" item, they new that the original was still on it's way!

Just one of my conspiracy theories......:rolleyes:

Simon


There is definitely some sellars who jack up the postage top cover price of product. I compare prices a lot and quite often I have found the same item at vastly different prices from different sellers but when postage is added they come out to the exact same total price. Very strangly often the EBay pages from the two sellers seem to have identical layouts from top to bottom except maybe colour. Word for word.

I have recently received an email from a seller in China who asked me if I wanted to change the delivery from standard to DHL and change the delivery time from 20 - 60 days, to 4 - 8 days, or even cancel the order. This was due to his concern that I might be inconvenienced by the long delivery time caused by the Xmas rush. This order was for some welding helmet clear lenses. If you have read my "Setting Up A New Mill" you will know I have been doing a lot of welding lately. Half way thru the weekend I decided that the lens on my helmet was past it and made up a new one out of a spare face shield thingy. I was amazed at how good I could see the welding after that. Ordered some new lenses that night. I should have swapped the helmet for my old one. I did check for spares and found one for the old helmet but it still did not click.

Anyway I received a reply from this seller today saying "The item has been send out by Hongkong post
air mail,transit time is 20-50 days ."

I have seen a seller that stated that it could take up to 18 days for the order to get from their remote location to the mainstream postal area. One of the things that I like about EBay is that nearly every seller uses postal deliveries. If I want to buy stuff from technology stores in Australia such as computer gear I have to search very hard to find a store that uses Australia Post because they are the only delivery service that will deliver stuff to me. I have a post box address (in S.A.) and a street address (in Vic). Because the street address is in Vic the courier deliveries come from Melbourne and get left about 60km from me. That is the end of the run.

The courier companies will not deliver to a post box address according to the stores, even tho this store / post office is also a courier drop off point and so they wont let me use that address. If they just sent it, it would get to me. What city people don't realize is that things work a bit different in the bush. If I get sent a parcel that needs a signed photo id and signature to match before it is handed over, it will be dumped in a pile of deliveries and left there. I will get it eventually because someone will see my name and tell me about it. Happened just like that with a new phone some years ago that had already been dumped at the 60km drop point, picked up again and sent to my work. It was delivered to the wrong department and I was told about it by a supervisor. No signature, no photo id. Dump and run lol.

The real funny part of this is that the stores who use only courier deliveries will tell you every time that "their couriers will deliver anywhere in Australia". They don't realize that when the delivery gets out bush (well almost) it is another local courier who does the final delivery and they have somewhat different rules to the "city" couriers. They really have no idea and have been completely conned by their couriers and I am one of the ones who suffer.

Think yourself lucky you are getting the goods delivered to your door. Not everyone is so lucky. Ah life in the bush. Would not swap it for anything.

Dean