How long should a seller be given to ship and item out?

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by x2drich2000

More importantly though, you need to look at what they say their processing time will be. If they say it will ship in a week, then you should expect that it could take a week. If they say it will ship in 24 hours, then that should be your expectation.

DJ

Bingo! That's exactly why eBay has a way for sellers to specify their own shipping windows. And even when they go outside their stated timeline, consider that they probably set that up a year ago, and there could be extenuating circumstances that slowed them down this week. Ask them nicely if there's a reason for the delay before raking them over the coals.

A couple more things to keep in mind before griping at a seller because you think they should ship quicker:

How many items and of what type do they sell per day/week? If it's 3 cards per week, expecting them to drop those in mailers and in the mail box the next day is probably reasonable. If they have a couple hundred items of all different shapes and sizes ending the same day, expect them to be human and not have all that packed up within 24 hours. Also, not everything fits in a mail box, and if your postman is like mine, he won't be happy with you foisting a hundred or so packages on him because you don't want to schlep them to the post office yourself. In my book, an unhappy postal worker is not a good thing, and you'd be better off waiting another day or two rather than trusting Furious George to handle your purchase.

And not everyone uses eBay to print their shipping labels or takes the time to enter the tracking numbers into eBay to show you that your package has been shipped. Personally, I use stamps.com simply because I don't like the way and length of time that eBay stores shipping information. The buyer gets an e-mail when the item ships with the tracking number for their package, but I still get hot e-mails from people demanding to know why their package hasn't shipped (because it doesn't show as shipped in eBay) despite having received that e-mail.

Bottom line is, just remember that everyone doesn't necessarily do things your way. They have their reasons, and it's usually not that they're just a lazy jerk.

[wonkaticket]

Agree with Leon 5-10 business days perhaps even a few days more. People have to remember not everyone who is selling on eBay is doing it full time, some have day jobs.

Buyers should be patient same for sellers on the payment thing. Nothing like getting on a plane bound for Asia. Landing getting to my hotel opening my non-business email and having 2-3 unpaid item reminders for something that ended 24-48 hrs ago at $47.55.

Cheers,

John

[Exhibitman]

Good points Leon and John. I try to ship w/in 24 hours of payment but that doesn't always hold true so my default Ebay setting is several days. I have no issue as long as the seller sticks to a listed time frame. I definitely hate receiving the multiple pestering emails from sellers--seems like it is always a cheapo item where that happens. I wait an extra day or two to pay those, just because...

[LEHR]

When I sell on ebay (rarely) I always state in my auctions that I will ship withing five days of receiving payment. This time frame was due to my previous work schedule where at times I could only get to the PO on Saturdays. If I have the time I'll ship the item out the next day after receiving payment.