eBay have been banging on about service for a long time. Instant gratification and next day delivery are apparently becoming the norm for ecommerce. Sadly I’ve had a slight edge taken off my enjoyment of a purchase I made on eBay today as it’s apparently going to take anything up to 6 working days for my item to arrive.
You may remember I was raving a few weeks back about a Fujitsu Laptop from Dabs that sold £1/3million from one eBay listing in one week. It’s a with 4GB Ram, 500GB Hard Drive, DVD, HDMI. Bluetooth, Webcam and Windows 7 and was offered for the paltry sum of just £279.99. I spotted it again on the Weekly Deals and it was just too tempting to miss this time around so I bought one. (Dan might buy one too, but he’s also toying with the dark side of a funky Apple Mac notebook).
It’s only this evening after this afternoon’s purchase I’ve realised the price had dropped to £269.94 and I’ve figured out the reason why. The original £279.99 included 48 hour deliver, the new £269.94 price offers a some time never delivery by Yodel so I’ll be lucky to see my new laptop by the end of next week.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with Yodel’s slow boat delivery service if that’s what you want, but on checking back there was no option to upgrade to a faster delivery. For some reason Dabs have decided that me saving a tenner and them substituting a 4-6 day delivery expectation instead of a 2-3 day delivery service is a better deal.
Well I never noticed the price difference but I’ve certainly noticed the delivery time and it’s a tad long and a little annoying. Come on Dabs, despatch fast, ship fast, deliver fast… That’s what eBay tell us buyers want and I agree with them.
…And before anyone tells me I should have read the listing details yes I should have done (I did read them on the original listing does that count? :-)). I still reckon if you’re after a laptop this weekly deal is though. I’ve bought one, why haven’t you? :P)
Edited to add: The laptop arrived next day, astoundingly fast delivery and a brilliant laptop to boot! Please also read “When did we get it? We got it now!” to find out why Dabs had temporarily extended delivery times and how their service massively exceeded their normal expectations let alone their short term extended delivery promise.
14 Responses
Do we really want everything now?
I can understand that there will always be a need for urgent machine replacement parts, legal documents, medicines and many other urgent matters, but do we really want to live every day expecting instant everything.
I can’t help but think that this ‘I want it now’ attitude has created more problems than it solves.
Without wishing to sound like an old fuddy duddy (which I probably am) it seems that many people seem to think that life owes them a debt and don’t appreciate that sometime you need to work hard, save up and wait until you can afford that PC, pair of shoes, etc before you can have it / them.
“I want it now” devalues the worth of an item.
Life rarely goes to plan, but planning is part of life. I always have a spare printer cartridge to hand and order the next one immediately after replacing the old cartridge. I know that I can order one and pay next day delivery, but do I really want to live on the edge.
Paying extra for super fast postage is I suggest another example of ‘instant everything’ and is just one pressure in our already stressful lives.
Regards
Mr Fuddy Duddy
There is only one reason why we “want it now”. Becuase we can.
Remember when we might have to wait upto 28 days for delivery of mailorder goods?
The day when it is deemed necessary that a bog roll holder must be delivered the following day is the day I check myself into the asylum. while for things such as printer cartridges, new shiny tech toys etc it is a valid point, for many utilitarian goods it is simply not the case, I mean heaven forbid your bog roll ends up on the floor for a week 😛
I am slightly wary of eBay’s recent foray into “fast n free” as it does contradict our 2 choices of “slow and cheap” or “fast and expensive”
Quick delivery is one of the ways you demonstrate to the customer that you care about their purchase. The other being careful packaging. And I wouldn’t expect a £300 order to be delivered economy – the longer something is in transit, the more likely it is to be damaged by the carrier. Dabs must be in a vice trying to keep the price down, but yes I would pay the extra for a proper carrier and next day service.
Does anyone remember Amazon’s economy delivery Securicor Omega (IIRC) which was basically a warehouse system when anyone who fancied making a bit extra money picked up parcels and promised to deliver them – eventually? Taxi drivers, old white vans, all sorts turned up with you parcels. Guess we are going back to the good old days.
I remember when 28 days for delivery was the norm. until we globalised. I feel any delivery service that is quicker than the time a cheque takes to clear in a bank is speedy!
Hi Chris
Just read your feedback and other comments on delivery from Dabs Outlet. I work for Dabs.com so wanted to respond.
We did extend our delivery message to 5 days across our whole store for the last couple of days, however this wasn’t to save costs, it was because we took over eBay’s homepage this week and the expected sales increase could have caused delays in delivery.
Parcels were sent on the usual 2-3 day delivery schedule, we just wanted to be honest with customers in case of delays due to sales volume increase.
Now this activity is over we have moved back to the standard 2-3 day Free delivery we have always offered.
We have checked your order and it has already despatched and should arrive within 3 days of purchase, you should have received an emailed with the details.
Thanks