My "I hate UPS and Annoying Ebay Sellers" rant

[jenarelJAM]

Okay, so after spending countless hours searching for my first ever new "higher-end" cellphone (I've got an old, only half-functional, Moto V551), two weekends ago, I finally decided on the Samsung SGH-D900. And where do I go to buy it? Well, as it hasn't been released in the US, and probably never will, I had to go online. Most online stores were selling it for ~350+, but I managed to find it on ebay for $273 shipped. Excellent. At the same time, I also ordered several other items, an adapter to use a 3.5mm headphone jack, a 2gb memory card, etc. Last Wednesday, I ordered a flash cable to reflash the firmware, and thursday night, I ordered a packet of pda screen protectors that I can cut and put on the screen to protect against scratches.

Now, on Friday I received the memory card, and yesterday I received the flash cable and screen covers... no phone. I was hoping for the phone to arrive on friday, almost expecting it to arrive yesterday, and sure it would arrive today.

Well, I just found the tracking number from an email on my mom's email (used her paypal account for purchase), and it won't be here 'til thursday!!!

Now, I'm sure everyone reading this is going to go "chill dude..." I'm not really mad, just extremely frustrated. This phone is like... it's like getting a new paintball marker in the mail, and waiting for it to arrive, day after day. I'm sure you (A-Tach, dealers, and going_home excluded ) know what I mean.

I've already got somewhere between 45-50 MB in phone wallpaper downloaded and organized for upload (at 240x320 resolution, that's a lot of wallpapers ), ringtones cropped from mp3's, and I've researched and downloaded every possible bit of software needed to reflash my phone the moment it arrives to have it in exactly the condition I want it. I want this phone... now...

Now, I always ship USPS, personally. I've just had better luck with it, but this is ridiculous. Everything besides the actual phone and 3.5 mm adapter shipped via USPS and guess what, I've received it all in about the time frame (or faster) that I expected. The adapter has a good excuse, it's being shipped from Hong Kong.

Now, I told you I just found the tracking number. What I also discovered, when I checked the tracking is that the Ebay seller didn't even ship the product until last Thursday.
Ordered monday... shipped thursday... and this is a powerseller, who probably sells several hundred items a day. He should be taking shipments to UPS daily...

And yes, I realize that this makes UPS a bit less of a bad guy... They're taking a week to ship a package. That's about normal I guess. But compared to USPS, which took four days from time of order for the memory card, and 3 and 2 days from the time of order for the flash cable and screen protectors... And that's from the time I ordered it on ebay. Shipping time is a day less than that.

I guess I'm just spoiled by my good luck with USPS and the people I've dealt with on AO...
sigh...

[jenarelJAM]

He likely does take shipments to UPS daily. And if he is a powerseller, the weekend orders(ones ahead of yours since you ordered on Monday) go out first.

Nobody realizes the time it takes to do all this stuff. For an order to go out within 72 hours is reasonable. Especially for powersellers.

I just dont see how you getting a $350 phone for $273 but having to wait 3 days is a bad thing. Obviously this guy has great deals, and does lots of business. A couple days wait until shipment is expected with the volume and discounts he is doing. You could have paid the $350, and likely gotten it quicker.

Also...expect that sellers that use eBay & PayPal will usually wait a minimum 24-48 hours before shipping. Fraudulent payments/purchases are usually caught within the first 1-2 days. Waiting is prudent for sellers.

Ah, didn't think of weekend orders...

For the record, the $350 (actually that was a guess by me) is what retail would be. Tons of them are being sold on ebay for roughly $270-280 shipped. Retail goes from $270+shipping (cheapest I could find) to a more common $400. It wasn't <i>that</i> great a discount.

And that really interesting about the waiting before shipping... I paid via paypal credit card... I thought that once the funds had transfered, it would have basicly locked me in. I don't know much about fraud...

And also, I'm not mad, I'm just the kid who's waiting anxiously on his doorstep for his new toy...


(figuratively of course)