[quote name='major morgan']I have no problem with waiting if I at least got a response to my invoice/message saying that they need some time to pay me. It's the non-responsiveness that is truly irritating. Taking 10 seconds to send a message saying "I need PP funds to transfer before I can pay you" or something to that effect shouldn't be asking too much, is it? The first bidder I mentioned doing this actually said they "forgot" to pay me.
On the flip side, I don't think there'd be very many buyers who'd be happy if a seller waited 2+ days to ship an item without any sort of communication. It's just a matter of courtesy, really. I was out of town for a few weeks last winter and a lot of my BIN items were selling. Since I had no access to the items, I immediately messaged the buyers telling them I couldn't ship until I got back home. All of them said it wasn't a problem and some of them even thanked me for letting them know.[/QUOTE]
To be honest, I'm not taking the 10 seconds or however long it takes to send a message to a buyer to let them know when I'm going to pay if I'm going to pay in that first 48 hour window but for some reason I don't pay immediately. They are getting their money in a reasonable amount of time within the rules of eBay and within the personal guidelines most sellers set for their buyers. If for some reason I wasn't going to be able to pay in the first 48 hours, then a message is definitely necessary, not only as a courtesy, but also so the seller doesn't go off opening an unpaid item case.
As to your flip side argument - buyers need to read the fine print. I believe I specify a three day handling time to ship the item after I get a cleared payment from them. eBaying isn't my main job - sometimes I don't have the time to print labels, scrounge around the box/mailer collection, securely pack everything, then hustle it over to the post office. Sometimes if there are multiple items being sold to multiple buyers, I try to pack and ship them off all at the same time. So if one of my buyers is taking longer than another to pay, then that first buyer is going to be waiting just a little bit longer - but it's all within the specified time frame I gave them.
I've bought things from sellers who have had an extended shipping period of like 10 days or something - I assume they ship out once a week or so. I paid immediately then waited a week before they even got it in the mail. Would I have liked it in the mail the next day? Sure, because why not get it sooner? But they specified it would take them a long time and I agreed to that by bidding on the item. If I was in a rush to get anything, I certainly wouldn't bother getting it off eBay. Even with a couple days handling time and say, 2-3 day Priority Mail it could very well be a week before the item gets to me.
And if you're going out of town - eBay has a vacation mode (if you have a store). I would actually be somewhat annoyed if you specified X amount of handling time in your listings but then were out of town for three weeks on vacation and you didn't bother to set your account to vacation mode to specify a longer handling time prior to my purchase of the item, or if you didn't update your listings with a note saying you wouldn't be able to ship between X and Y dates. (Obviously some kind of emergency would be a different situation where some more human understanding would be necessary.) While I just said I wouldn't buy anything off eBay if I was in a rush, I still expect sellers to live up to what they advertise in terms of mailing methods (i.e. paying for one method but the seller actually uses a less expensive slower one), handling time, etc.
off. Happens every few months. Just be nice and professional don't get emotional in the messages cause ebay reads those if there is a claim or any problems.
