We were wondering what would happen to eBay’s grand plans to create a nationwide fulfilment network when the news broke that Sainsbury’s were to acquire eBay’s partner Argos. Now we know, Sainsbury’s are going ahead to expand and grow eBay’s Click and Collect at Argos with the launch of 200 newly-designed digital Click & Collect points in stores across the UK.
The digital collection points for Argos’s exclusive Click & Collect partnership eBay will launch in Sainsbury’s Click & Collect stores. Customers will be able to pick up their Tu clothing, eBay and DPD parcel deliveries from Sainsbury’s stores and 30 Sainsbury’s Click & Collect points will also offer Argos online collection.
Tablets will be available in all the new Click & Collect points to enable customers to ‘check in’ digitally, which will significantly speed up the time it takes from arriving in store to receiving parcels for collection.
Tanya Lawler, UK Vice President, eBay, who envisioned the partnership with Argos said: “We know that shoppers love to Click and Collect. Building upon our exclusive Click and Collect partnership with Argos, by establishing 200 further collection points in Sainsbury’s stores, means even greater choice and convenience for shoppers”.
eBay also have a click and drop service with Argos, enabling consumers selling on the site to conveniently send parcels at a reasonable cost to anywhere in the UK. Coupled with eBay’s Global Shipping Program, this has the potential to allow a consumer to post a parcel to over 100 countries around the world.
13 Responses
I opted out of offering ebay/Argos click and collect after a short trial.
I gave it a try in the first few months after the launch, but thought the level of goods returned was too high. They were returned because ebay buyers weren’t going in to Argos to collect before the time limit ran out and Argos sent the parcel back. It definitely seemed much higher than Royal Mail returned parcels marked “not called for” that had been sent to home addresses.
Looking through ebay listings, I can see that not every seller offers it, perhaps for the same reasons.
Has anyone stuck with the Argos collection the whole time got any feedback on their level of returns? Did they drop to normal levels?
I’m thinking about giving it another go. Another 200 collection points, possibly nearer for buyers than their nearest Argos, might be worthwhile.
Collect + have 5000 points of collection that few buyers are aware of – Argos tend to be in town centre or business park locations which means a drive through traffic hence the high rate of non collected items; Collect + tend to be smaller outlets, where you can park outside on your way past. Not sure why ebay missed this.
Argos Click & Collect started off not very good, we did get a lot of returns but this was more of an eBay problem (no surprises!) the problem was that buyers were buying things and eBay were selecting Argos Click and Collect as their default address, unknowingly to the buyer so things were getting sent to Argos when buyers did not want it to.
Seems they have sorted it now so that it is more obvious and we get very few returns.
Ebay have not “invited” us to join, so no feeback on that service as a seller.
As a buyer it can work well, I have used it a couple of times but there does seem to be a problem with the service.
On arrival at the collection point, my paperwork was scanned onto some device and then the guy went to look for it.
The item could not be found, this was down to human error, the guy was not that bright.
Problem: On checking the system, I was then told the item had been collected, I tried to dispute this but it fell on deaf ears.
I had another item to collect, repeat the above, both items could not be found and were supposedly collected.
Enter man in Grey suit (manager), looks for both items and then looks on device and tells me they had been collected.
I protest and try and explain that if they had been collected,that would have been mentioned when they first checked the paperwork or they would not have gone to look for the items.
I am dispatched with a promise to look into it and return 30 minutes later. Manager has gone home and I speak to a more intelligent member of staff, who calls Ebay on a direct line. It is confirmed that the item was updated as collected at the time I was in the store and within 10 minutes of each other.
The items are then found and I am on my way.
It would seem that once the paperwork has been scanned by the collection point the item is updated on Ebay as collected, even though you have not been given the item.
We post 150-200 packets a week via Royal Mail PPI and after 5,000+ items posted have only lost 22 packets with 3 items packets for one reason or another.
I ran another MO business many years ago for 10+ years and found Royal Mail too be very efficient with very few lost items.
Thanks for the replies.
Sounds like it’s time to give it another go.
Have tried this service with Argos, but even items that were signed for by Argos staff have gone missing and eBay wont accept responsibility and neither will Royal Mail. Be really nice if eBay had some form of tracking for the item once it arrived at Argos so sellers could check on its progress, until that happens I wont be offering it as a service.
A bit off topic.
Has anyone noticed an increase in returns opened but never returned and when they time out the buyer escalates to eBay and eBay refund the buyer with the message below ?
We’ll be issuing the buyer with a refund in this case. You don’t need to do anything else. This case won’t be included when we evaluate seller performance. Note: It may take up to 24 hours to update your seller standards dashboard.
The scam method is doing the rounds some other forums I have had this happen about 6 times in the last month of so and did some googling to find out what was happening when I was worried about account damage it might cause.
It seems there is a new loop hole to get your goods and your money back this time at eBay’s expense for once.
If you have the volume (approx. min 5 per day) KEEP CONTROL and use Royal Mail’s PPI service. It’s secure, comparatively inexpensive and convenient.
Agree with Gav!! Not everyone who buys it can be nearer to Argo’s so it could be a hassle. By this way, they has to keep tracking the parcel every time whether it has reached the Argos in order to go and collect. If the time is over, then its gets returned back to seller which could be uncomfortable for both buyer and seller.