[coolcity]

As a frustrated seller on Amazon I thought I would add my experience here. You won't all like it! But it's true nontheless.

The first and most glaring issue that seems to spring to mind here is the ignorance of people regarding delivery so that's the one I'm going to discuss here. Let's get something clear from the start. If your item is "late" it is nobody's fault. The logistics of delivery are complicated, with orders having to be picked, packed, collected by the carrier, sorted at a depot, passed on to at least one more sorting centre before finally being placed on a van for delivery to you.

The number of things that can go wrong here, from equipment breakdowns, shortages through staff not turning up that day, items being lost or misdirected, accidental damage during packing or en route not to mention what must be one of the most difficult parts of the operation - simply getting through 21st century UK traffic with traffic jams, bad weather, accidents and so on to contend with to get the item to where it's got to go - and anybody with an ounce of common sense can see that it's obvious that not everything is going to get there on time, and more to the point, it's almost impossible to actually guarantee it! I'm very experienced in logistical issues and frankly I'm amazed that anything arrives on time these days. Generally I think the carriers do a fantastic job overall and are sadly not appreciated by an ever-impatient public who want their stuff yesterday. Remember, it's not an emergency service!

One other major point is that the Amazon marketplace features items from various sellers, from one man bands and small businesses such as myself, to major international companies as well as Amazon's own sales channel (Amazon tend to look into something that is selling well then undercut that seller by offering it for sale themselves - just one of many examples of the shoddy way they treat their own customers, those customers the sellers who are already paying them hefty fees for the privilege of selling on Amazon). Yet most buyers do not seem to realise that they are often buying not from Amazon but from a seller on Amazon.

This often becomes even more confusing because you can combine items in one basket and make one payment, leaving you, the buyer, to think you are buying from Amazon themselves (or from one seller). This isn't just my opinion, I often get messages from customers about faulty or delayed items etc. that they have actually purchased from a different seller but don't realise it. Never a "thank you" though for wasting my time and providing them with an explanation.

To add to the confusion, there is generally either a Standard or an Expedited (express) delivery service, but these can vary from seller to seller, and from item to item. For example, if a buyer buys a low value item, say £10 or less, your standard service - especially if free shipping - is likely to be second class postage which can take anything FROM 3 working days. Expedited again could be anything - I use next day Special Delivery but a seller could use Parcelforce 48, correctly claiming that this is generally quicker than standard post.

Bottom line though is it's a bit of a lottery. Small sellers such as myself will not be in front of a screen all day and thus not necessarily get an order out the same day. Even large businesses might have a particularly busy day, (staff shortages, equipment breakdowns etc.etc) and might not get your order out as quickly as they would at a quieter time. (TIP: Mondays are generally busy especially for a small business with the whole of the weekend's packing to do). But you need to remember that regardless of the level of automation and the amount of staff, people are human, machines are machines and things can and do go wrong.

Sadly most of the buyers who complain, especially about late deliveries, are usually the ones who are ignorant of the general terms and conditions of the seller themselves and the actual delivery times. As a case in point I myself have recently received a neutral feedback, nice comment but a score of 3 and an "Arrived on Time" mark of "No" EVEN THOUGH delivery was made well within the estimated delivery time for the item.

Feedback and claims against sellers is something I will raise at another time, suffice at say at this point that even a single a poor comment and especially a claim can badly affect a seller's sales and should be done as a last resort.

Remember: A "late" delivery is almost certainly not the seller's fault, nor is a faulty or damaged item. Sellers WANT to be successful and do not deliberately want to send out items late, or damaged. More importantly, yet THE one issue that the seller ALWAYS seems to get the blame for, is that the SELLER has virtually NO CONTROL WHATSOEVER over delivery times and generally can not track your parcel. Somebody moaned about this earlier but it is a fact that most delivery services, tracking details will only tell you - and the seller - whether the item has been delivered or not. If it hasn't there is little if anything that the seller can do. Royal Mail ask customers to allow 15 working days from the point of delivery before the seller can make a claim and buyers need to appreciate this before claiming. You don't like it I know, but it's not the sellers fault and as long as the seller does refund or replace AFTER this specified time you should accept that and not blame the seller for the carrier's poor service.

WHY you wanted the item quickly is irrelevant to the seller, there's nothing he can do about it and you also need to remember that there are many fraudulent claims too, so sellers need to establish that the item really is missing before handing the money back or sending a replacement.

As for items received faulty, if you as a seller open boxes to check prior to sending then buyers will complain that the item is not new as it's been opened, so you can't win. For electrical items, who would you prefer to repair it, the seller or the manufacturer? I note that somebody complained earlier about being fobbed off to the manufacturers regarding a faulty item. Again a little common sense is required here. If you return it to the seller he will then simply have to return it to the manufacturers for repair so quite simply it is going to take longer, unless you want him to get his toolkit out! That's why most manufacturers for the vast majority of electrical items provide help and support on their websites and in many cases include warranty details in the box. There's a reason why the manufacturers do this which really should be obvious and not need explanation. Many of you will quote the (ridiculous) laws that state that it's the seller's responsibility, but at the end of the day would you rather get your item sorted or argue the toss over some silly law brought in by some idiot politician?

In most cases a bit of patience and common sense, and understanding of the fact that we're only human, things do go wrong sometimes and always will, and respect for the fact that in most cases it's not really anybody's fault in a negligent way, and everybody will get along a lot better. Unless the seller - even if that seller is Amazon - is not doing anything about an issue after a reasonable amount of time then STOP complaining all the time, you're not helping, we're not your enemy and you are taking up a lot of valuable time needlessly. Small businesses can not simply drop everything because one customer has a problem, to ignore the rest of your customers in favour one one complaint is NOT good business even though it doesn't seem that way to you. Just allow a decent amount of time, try to put yourself in charge of a busy operation or think about things you need to do in your life but never quite found the time to, and you will give yourself a better understanding of what sellers have to deal with. Most importantly remember it's their livelihoods you are screwing around with. Would you like it if money was deducted from your salary simply because you haven't had the chance to respond to an email or something you packed arrived broken or late? Nope, I thought not. So why punish somebody else the same way?