eBay

rose-dee · ‎12-10-2015

This morning I noticed a big, bright ad on my landing page promising "Last Minute" Christmas gift delivery for items listed by participating sellers, i.e. promising these items would arrive before Christmas. That in itself got me shaking my head in disbelief. But wait -- read the fine print:

http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/ca/termsandconditions/LastMinuteGifts.pdf?_trkparms=clkid%3D17868...

Note the final sentence:

"Participating seller is not responsible for delays in delivery caused by events beyond its control such as, but not limited to, delays caused by the shipping carrier, severe weather or force majeure."

So exclusions apply. Hmm...Where else could we use that wording?

It seems to me that it's a blatant contradiction that eBay is willing to add such exclusions to a specific promo but not to the on-time delivery policy.

treasure.hunter.d · ‎12-10-2015

Another interesting thing from this morning...I heard some schmuck from Ebay on the radio saying to go to www.ebay.ca/holiday to grab all of your gift idea. It would seem that Ebay is now in direct competition with sellers as all of the non-jewelry items for sal at that address are from a seller name " holidayfestivefavourites" I daresay that is not a seller like the rest of us getting that prime ad space and on air boost. Maybe this is already happening and I am not aware of it but I did not thinbk that Ebay itself was actually in competition with we sellers.

Little bit of a conflict of interest that wouldn't it be?

pjcdn2005 · ‎12-10-2015

It looks like holidayfestivalfavourites is acting as a fullfilment center for those items. If you scroll down, there are different sellers for most of those items and they are from different areas.

pjcdn2005 · ‎12-10-2015

We don't know what they mean by 'not responsible'. Does it mean that if the item is late the seller doesn't have to refund the buyer? If so, that's no different than the norm. It doesn't say that the buyer can't check off the box that says the item was late.

On your listings under the shipping tab - * Estimated delivery dates- include seller's handling time, origin Postal Code, destination Postal Code and time of acceptance and will depend on shipping service selected and receipt of cleared payment Delivery times may vary, especially during peak periods.

Although the disclaimer for the promo is much bigger than the disclaimer on our listings, I wonder if the both disclaimers mean basically the same thing?

rose-dee · ‎12-10-2015

I was actually thinking more in terms of getting a pass from eBay on the on-time delivery question (after Feb. 20th) if a buyer answered "no" when a postal or other delay caused the item to arrive late. Of course, I know that's highly unlikely to ever happen -- simply wishful thinking on my part.

I just find it rich that when eBay needs to offer a promotion they are quite willing (and somehow able) to exonerate sellers whose items don't arrive for reasons beyond their control, even though the ad is touting a "guarantee" of receipt by Christmas.

How exactly this would be managed in practice, I can't imagine. It would seem to depend upon the seller's bona fides in reporting a weather or other unforeseen delivery delay. And then who exactly decides whether the delay was out of the seller's control?. I can just hear the complaints from buyers now -- your promo guaranteed I'd get it by Christmas, now you're saying it's not the seller's fault that it didn't arrive?

pjcdn2005 · ‎12-11-2015

I was actually thinking more in terms of getting a pass from eBay on the on-time delivery question (after Feb. 20th) if a buyer answered "no" when a postal or other delay caused the item to arrive late. Of course, I know that's highly unlikely to ever happen -- simply wishful thinking on my part.

I realize that. But I'm saying that what ebay is saying in that promo is basically what it says on our listings so we don't 'know' that the sellers involved in the promo will receive any 'pass' for the late delivery question. Maybe ebay will make some sort of exception with them but based on the wording in the disclaimer, we have no idea if they will.

rose-dee · ‎12-12-2015

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
I was actually thinking more in terms of getting a pass from eBay on the on-time delivery question (after Feb. 20th) if a buyer answered "no" when a postal or other delay caused the item to arrive late. Of course, I know that's highly unlikely to ever happen -- simply wishful thinking on my part.

I realize that. But I'm saying that what ebay is saying in that promo is basically what it says on our listings so we don't 'know' that the sellers involved in the promo will receive any 'pass' for the late delivery question. Maybe ebay will make some sort of exception with them but based on the wording in the disclaimer, we have no idea if they will.

Yes, except in this case it is eBay itself is making this disclaimer/exclusion, not the individual seller, which you would think carries more weight. My point was that if eBay is willing to openly display this disclaimer for a promo, why can't they make it an across-the-board policy?

Or did eBay simply include this disclaimer in order to give sellers a false sense of security and thus entice more of them to participate in this promo? It certainly doesn't help to reassure buyers.

I'm sorry -- my cynicism metre is on "high" today.