You get the choice of searching only for items that can be clicked-and-collected, which is a proxy for "item is in the UK", I can't see why you think having something delivered to your address is in anyway unusual?
Andy Burns formulated on Sunday :
Try - Search for items which you can click and collect, but having selected your item opt for delivery to your address..
Jim GM4DHJ ... formulated the question :
I buy regularly from ebay and have always been lucky with home delivery..
And a sort one.
Hmmm, I must try that.
SteveW
I think it depends on shipping dates.
I ordered an item from Hong Kong, with a 3 week delivery. It did indeed take almost three weeks, but most of that delay was before shipment. Once shipped, it arrived from Hong Kong, to Germany, from Germany to Birmingham, from Birmingham to Manchester and then to my house within 24 hours!
I think some suppliers stockpile orders and bulk ship them to Europe. If you happen to order close to their bulk shipment date, you'll get a fast delivery.
SteveW
And staff that aren't a complete waste of space!
I've had problems with three click and collect items.
The first was toner cartridges, needed urgently as my children couldn't print out their homework - Sainsburys accepted it at goods inward, but didn't put it in the ebay cage and didn't register it on the system. It took over a week before they found it and only then because I was hassling them.
Argos then moved into Sainsburys and they took over the click and collect service.
The second item was a white metal kit for an N-gauge LMS Beyer-Garratt - no longer in production and one of the earlier kits from before the moulds deteriorated, so not easy to replace. Argos booked it in, then lost it. Again, only repeated visits and pressure got them to search properly and find it.
Finally, a box set of DVDs was dispatched and I received notification of delivery and a copy of the signature from the carrier, but no Ebay notification. Again Argos claimed not to have received it, not to recognise the signature and as they'd have had it for more than seven days (due to the lack of notification to me from Ebay and the courier's email being in the junk folder), that they have returned it. Only on the second visit (yesterday), armed with the courier's email, did they bother to search properly - and again they found it.
I wonder how many other people, who are not so persistent in chasing them up, are claiming back from suppliers for non-delivery, while the goods are sat there? I wonder what is happening to those goods when they have sat there, unregistered on the system, for a few weeks?
SteveW
In 13 years, I have bought well over 400 items via Ebay, including some items costing hundreds of pounds. I have only ever had two sellers try to pass off dud items (a non-genuine SKY+ remote that did not have the extended functionality that I bought it for and a clogged and seized shower pump that was described as in good condition and was bought as a temporary measure) and both were quickly resolved.
I had a number of MR16 LED bulbs that I ordered from China. The seller contacted me a couple of days after they were due and told me that they were delayed, stuck in London, due to a strike and offering me a full refund, shipment from another source or just to wait. I told them that I was happy to wait and I received the order a few days later. I then discovered that the supplier had refunded part of my payment for the inconvenience!
My main problem, which is nothing to do wit Ebay or the sellers is the click and collect at Argos (formerly Sainsburys) that have a habit of misplacing items - as I have mentioned in another post tonight.
SteveW
The Chinese vendor wasn?t pretending to be in the UK but offered a delivery time that I thought was very optimistic but as I wasn?t in a hurry that did not really matter if it was a false claim. And as the item was well in excess of £15 value I was fully expecting to pay UK VAT to HMRC. though occasionally you get lucky and for some reason like work overload something gets through. In this case the item arrived within a couple of days as I said via Amazon and Germany , I don?t know if the upfront price I paid allowed for German VAT or it was lost somewhere but I certainly was not asked for anything extra and coming from the EU would arrive here with no more to pay. TBH I rarely import much anymore but the USA used to be so much cheaper even with UK Vat that was worth doing but their postage rates have eaten into that.
About 12 years ago one of these came through and HMRC must have been busy and let it past without demanding their cut, saved a few bob.
GH
Even PayPal have refunded the VAT element where the seller has refused to provide a VAT invoice or receipt and I'm out of time for eBay.
If HMRC was serious about stopping this kind of VAT fraud I would happily assist, but they're not! I guess the amounts are too trifling.
The only problem I've had is when the supplier sent out a second item, several weeks after I'd collected the first one, I informed the supplier and argos that I'd already collected it, they wanted me to take it away and arrange for it to be collected, I told argos to send it back to the supplier, then a few weeks later argos told me again the item was ready to be collected, so I did!
ok, but the technique works as a filter for "the item isn't overseas", which iw wat the O/P requested.
Having said that however on Amazon even when buying from China etc, it seems quite reliable, and some of the vendors who are actually in this country can be far slower! Brian
Milk frothing thermometers are a strangely niche item. Loads of places selling posh coffee machines for *hundreds* of pounds, and not a £3.50 Kitchencraft thermometer in sight.
That's not quite true. John Lewis had a jug+thermometer ponce-packed combo for £25.
After the first themometer bought it (dropped, I suspect ...) I ordered 2 for £8 inc. P&P - delivered in 10 days from goodness knows where ....
Next order, I'll try.
The thing is 9 times out of 10 delay isn't a worry. But when it *is* a factor (and I am willing to pony up a little more £ as a result) it would be nice to restrict searches to such sellers.
Generally, eBay seems set up much more for sellers convenience than buyers. Which is pretty old-school. Hardly a disruptive new business model.
See also: Amazon.
If either outlet wanted to be *really* disruptive, they'd require sellers to explicitly list which courier(s) they will be using to despatch your goodies, and allow customers to add that to their parameters for buying. With the caveat that I realise there may be occasions where that detail isn't known in advance. But even then a seller can decide whether they want their new shiny delivered by <unknown> or <DPD>, <Parcel Force>, <UPS> etc.
Alternatively - and I may be talking out of school here - Amazon could enter the courier/delivery market directly and sell that service to 3rd parties. (Which is already what is happening in some cases).
We're lucky that there is a courier pick up 50 meters up the road. Unfortunately they don't offer a locker service (yet ?!). If they did, the list of attractions for our postcode just got longer by one.
Well the item I wanted was ordered just after lunch Friday, and put in my hand about 2pm Saturday.
One of the best online orders I've had (a homebrew suppliers own website) was ordered around 3pm Friday, and delivered just before 9am the next day. When such performance is possible, the attraction of trudging anywhere - especially for a single purpose - does dim rapidly.
Ironically, homebrew is one niche area I would hazard a guess won't go completely online.
My view of the future is where "shops" still exist, they will be more like market stalls under a big supermarket umbrella - extending the Sainsburys/Argos vibe.
They already do run their own delivery service, for "sold by amazon" or "fulfilled by amazon" products.
Probably only makes sense if the product is already in an amazon warehouse.
depends, some clever software could create a virtual warehouse by running lorries through hookup points and transferring goods around until delivery.
I say "clever", but there was software capable of doing that 20 years ago. I know, coz I wrote it (well, part of it ....)
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