How long should I wait for someone to ship a guitar on eBay?

Wazmeister

Unacceptable imho.

I would post the same day, all things being equal.

SPECTRUM001

skunkwerx said:

Its not a guitar but I ordered a poker chip last week, the est delivery dates were 4th-7th.. so far nothings arrived. It was marked as despatched but that means nothing as they can do that at any point. 

Off piste, but do you mean a single poker chip - ie a circular piece of plastic with £5 printed on it ?

Whitecat

SPECTRUM001 said:

skunkwerx said:

Its not a guitar but I ordered a poker chip last week, the est delivery dates were 4th-7th.. so far nothings arrived. It was marked as despatched but that means nothing as they can do that at any point. 

Off piste, but do you mean a single poker chip - ie a circular piece of plastic with £5 printed on it ?

Or maybe he means it in the Les Paul sense?

TINMAN82

You’ve been patient. I recently had eBay feedback from a buyer (of an acoustic guitar) stating “slow delivery”. Courier had picked it up 3 working days after payment and had it delivered by 5 working days. I usually try and get stuff away slightly quicker but hardly excessively slow!

p90fool

TINMAN82 said:

You’ve been patient. I recently had eBay feedback from a buyer (of an acoustic guitar) stating “slow delivery”. Courier had picked it up 3 working days after payment and had it delivered by 5 working days. I usually try and get stuff away slightly quicker but hardly excessively slow!

No, that would've been fine, people have busy lives and work long hours etc, but in my case the courier can't even begin to start fannying about until the guy actually hands it to them.

skunkwerx

Whitecat said:

SPECTRUM001 said:

skunkwerx said:

Its not a guitar but I ordered a poker chip last week, the est delivery dates were 4th-7th.. so far nothings arrived. It was marked as despatched but that means nothing as they can do that at any point. 

Off piste, but do you mean a single poker chip - ie a circular piece of plastic with £5 printed on it ?

Or maybe he means it in the Les Paul sense?

Haha yeah the Les Paul sense.

I’ve found all my small items have taken ages lately to arrive. Though doesnt help the Op as its the seller just not having sent it yet. 

chillidoggy

I always start the ball rolling with a polite message because for all I know the bloke might have had some other problems. He might have been run over by a bus, or he may have some family emergency. That way, if it needs to be raised to a dispute, I’ve been seen as being reasonable.

Years ago I bought a black Les Paul off a guy who never replied to my subsequent messages as to when he was going to post it for three days. Finally, I got a message apologising as it was his 21st birthday and he’d been on a weekend bender with his mates and only just surfaced. I gave him the benefit, and the guitar duly arrived.

Philly_Q

I wouldn't take any notice of the expected delivery dates, it's the lack of communication which is worrying (or at best discourteous).  If there's a genuine reason for delay it would only take two minutes to contact you.

Some people are just weirdly inconsiderate though.  I've always felt that on eBay, where it's a transaction between two private individuals, the expectation would be that the buyer would pay and the seller would send as soon as possible.  But there are people who'll happily log on to win an auction, then wait three days to pay for the thing.  And sellers who think nothing of taking someone's money then sitting on it for a week.

JohnS37

Message the seller through eBay and email as well if you know his address, but the important bit is to send a DM through eBay asking where the item is and when it was/will be dispatched.  If you don’t get a satisfactory reply to the DM then open a ‘case’ with eBay.  That way you have registered your concerns and if it all falls through you will be able to pursue it through eBay and get your money back.  I have done this and obtained a full refund when I paid for an item but the seller went AWOL.  In this instance eBay were very efficient.

Jalapeno

JohnS37 said:

Message the seller through eBay and email as well if you know his address, but the important bit is to send a DM through eBay asking where the item is and when it was/will be dispatched.  If you don’t get a satisfactory reply to the DM then open a ‘case’ with eBay.  That way you have registered your concerns and if it all falls through you will be able to pursue it through eBay and get your money back.  I have done this and obtained a full refund when I paid for an item but the seller went AWOL.  In this instance eBay were very efficient.

This !

I bought a LP BFG on Reverb last night and had the seller phoning me up within an hour about collection.

PonchoGreg

The lack of Comms would worry me more than the shipping time (especially if still in the delivery window). I recently took a week to ship a guitar to someone on here but made the reasons very clear from the start - had to get a box delivered first, and then preferred not to ship on a Friday so the guitar wouldn't spend a weekend in a cold warehouse. I communicated all this to the buyer, and kept him updated on the progress throughout the week (box delivered, courier booked, etc). Really doesn't take long, and I would never have thought of taking payment until the courier was booked.

And that was on a forum sale too, where I feel we can be a bit more informal. For an eBay sale I'd make damn sure I have everything lined up to ship within a couple of days of someone pressing buy.

Adey

PC_Dave said:

I bought one recently - the sellers page said ships within 3-5 days, but he shipped the day of purchase.

What a complete bastard, conning you like that !....

Alex2678

I made a purchase recently, waited until after the expected shipping date, asked if everything was ok, an attempt at a nudge, only to be told ‘yep it’s all good’ spent the next few days chasing to get hit or miss replies about working away and being busy and ever moving estimates for when it would be sent, and a week later the person was asking me to be more patient. I explained that they had my money and seemed to be avoiding giving me a clear idea of what was going on, and for all I know they were pulling a fast one, and from then they dispatched it and were really polite and communicative. 

As others have said sometimes things are delayed, such is life, but if a seller got someone’s money, they should be prepared to talk to them 

p90fool

Well, I sent him a friendly message and he apologised for the delay, then I had a notification it has been shipped.

No tracking info as yet, so we'll see.