quote:After writing about a hundred "The mail is slow. All the airports are shut down by blizzards" letter, I changed my ebay page to say
SHIPPING AND HANDLING TAKES 10 DAYS, and added a paragraph explaining I have no control over the postal system, so buy insurance.
Wow... how hard is that? The point is that people expect to be prioritized, and if you can't do that they need to know not to expect it from you before they bid.
If I buy your seeds and they don't show up for two weeks I'm going to be pissed, plain and simple. The more I've paid for shipping the more pissed I'm going to be. Group me in your "East Coast Male Nutcase" stereotype if you want, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Now on the other hand, if it says clearly right in your listing not to expect it for two weeks (or ten days, and it clearly does), nobody has any excuse to pitch a fit if it doesn't materialize on their doorstep within minutes. If they do, it's their own fault for bidding on an auction they don't accept the shipping terms for.
Anyone who's been buying on ebay long enough has been screwed at least once, and found out just how protected they are. There is a very short amount of time you can report a problem and expect anything to be done about it, and I've had more items than I care to remember never show up after a month of "I'm getting it ready, I haven't been able to ship it yet, my mother died, my car broke," and on and on and on and by the time I realize I've been scammed it's too late to do anything about it. This only has to happen once to turn an otherwise happy, trusting ebay shopper into "nutcase who's wound too tight" who wants to be reassured that it isn't about to happen to them again with you. If you aren't going to be able to ship the next day, say so in the listing and it's their own damn fault if they don't like it and bid anyway. Otherwise, it isn't unreasonable to expect what's mine to be out of your possession the first business day.