eBay tell buyers purchases will be delayed

by Sue Bailey

This post was written in October 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

eBay have started telling buyers that there may be delays to deliveries because of the postal strike. The message below is displayed as they sign in to My eBay for those who have accepted the default notifications-on setting.

Postal Strike may delay your purchases

Frankly, this is crazy. The terrible wording of the notice has already lead at least one buyer to assume that it would take “a few weeks” to get their item: you can bet more are just not bothering to continue to purchase now. eBay, remember, are just a venue. Any seller worth their salt is communicating with their buyers about the postal strike; any seller who isn’t bothering to keep buyers informed is going to get the feedback and the DSR stars they deserve. eBay have no right to interfere in transactions like this.

Updated to add: We’ve just heard from eBay that they will be changing the wording on this message slightly, so that it doesn’t wrongly give the impression that buyers will have to wait weeks. The message is only visible to those members who have already bought something, so perhaps it isn’t quite as disastrous as I first thought.

Updated again: This may be is the new version of the message,

New Version

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Author: Sue Bailey
Posted at: Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Filed Under Featured
 

Comments

6 Responses to “eBay tell buyers purchases will be delayed”

  1. Shane Blonque on October 11th, 2007 8:16 pm

    … and besides, surely it’s “contact the seller directly”

  2. Sue Bailey on October 11th, 2007 8:20 pm

    Shane, thank you - I was so cross about the announcement itself that my normal grammar pedantry abandoned me :-D

  3. Chris Dawson on October 11th, 2007 11:57 pm

    It’s midnight and the wording has still not been altered :-(

  4. Mark (Villainous) on October 12th, 2007 12:53 am

    And probably wont be anytime soon, cos it will take a back seat to the usual Friday meddling, meaning early weekend buyers who are checking their buying accounts will be greeted with it.

    Lovely.

  5. Sue Bailey on October 12th, 2007 7:03 am

    It’s 8am (in the UK) and it still hasn’t been changed.

  6. Chris Dawson on October 12th, 2007 10:43 am

    Yippee! Better, but still dodgy grammar!

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