Online shops witb late despatch time

If only it was that simple. That's what I do for everyone, but what happens is that the address you enter when ordering is not the address that gets stuck on the label - some system between the webshop and the courier 'corrects' it with the missing fields.

That wouldn't matter if UPS used the postcode but they evidently don't.

For my last Farnell order I put in the address something like:

and it ended up pinging back and forth between UPS depots for a fortnight as 'address not recognised'. What I had hoped to do was redirect the delivery to get it sent to a UPS locker from where I could collect it, but it was never offered as an option even when logged in to UPS - it seems the sender has to enable that feature.

Theo

As a seller, there are also time limits you have to abide by. eg if you say when listing you will despatch parcels within one day, then that time limit stops when you purchase the postage through the ebay system or give them a tracking number. That's the 'despatch' event. It doesn't matter if the courier doesn't show up to collect them until 7pm the next day, you've met your target for doing your side of despatching and what the courier does is out of your control. With the tracking number, ebay then gains visibility of what happens to the parcel via the courier system.

So when you get the 'item despatched' notification at midnight, it doesn't mean the seller has found a late night post office and handed it over, it just means they've purchased the label in order to meet their target. They may not have actually packed it yet - if they know local collections are usually 11am then there's time in the morning to pack it.

(the same happens for Amazon Marketplace sellers who are doing their own shipping)

Theo