My biggest gripe and the result of my only neg in all my years of trading is due to the joint Ebay/Royal Mail bull**** policy…. Better known as the “your item will arrive by such a date” this load of crap takes no account of the peak posting season and fills international customers heads with the false hope that their item will arrive on a certain date when it can’t possibly do so, prime example was the non English speaking newbie that gave me a neg on Boxing day when his item did not arrive on this day as promised by you guess who, (no amount of explaining to this guy would convince him that the delivery date was complete ******** and it’s Christmas for Christ sake, use some common sense) 
After a lengthy conversation with Ebay calling them ****ers and asking them to change this nonsense into a realistic delivery period they reply by stating that this is the guideline provided by Royal Mail, (yeah like 5 days to the US if posted between Xmas and NYE, get real!), this causes so much grief for international sellers as customers can be impatient and buy into the information they are fed.
The real kick in the teeth is having to tell customers that they will have to wait 35 days before you can act (Royal Mail policy) add to that all them bank holidays at xmas and you end up with about 40 days or something stupid, the customer does not want to hear that when ebay has already told them it should have been there weeks ago, Royal Mail will not act for 30+ even though they tell ebay to tell its customers it WILL arrive after seven, you then have to refund the buyer even though you have provided tracking info and proved the item is en route, Royal Mails 35 day timeframe finally lapses but the item gets delivered after you have already refunded so when you lodge a claim to RM claiming it was lost they say, our records show that the item was delivered, sorry **** Off even though it was delivered after their own 25 working day deadline had lapsed.
There’s more but I think I have just used up this week’s moan and groan quota.
After a lengthy conversation with Ebay calling them ****ers and asking them to change this nonsense into a realistic delivery period they reply by stating that this is the guideline provided by Royal Mail, (yeah like 5 days to the US if posted between Xmas and NYE, get real!), this causes so much grief for international sellers as customers can be impatient and buy into the information they are fed.
The real kick in the teeth is having to tell customers that they will have to wait 35 days before you can act (Royal Mail policy) add to that all them bank holidays at xmas and you end up with about 40 days or something stupid, the customer does not want to hear that when ebay has already told them it should have been there weeks ago, Royal Mail will not act for 30+ even though they tell ebay to tell its customers it WILL arrive after seven, you then have to refund the buyer even though you have provided tracking info and proved the item is en route, Royal Mails 35 day timeframe finally lapses but the item gets delivered after you have already refunded so when you lodge a claim to RM claiming it was lost they say, our records show that the item was delivered, sorry **** Off even though it was delivered after their own 25 working day deadline had lapsed.
There’s more but I think I have just used up this week’s moan and groan quota.
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I do sympathise for a business seller like yrself Andy - must be a right headache
