The down sides of buying online

[Retro6]

I wanted to create this thread about buying online. One of the down sides to buying online is having to waste many hours of the day or days waiting in for deliveries especially when no tracking info provided or the seller takes a week to dispatch goods.

Generally its not so bad if things are being delivered by royal mail because if you miss a delivery then you know its either going to be re-delivered or the parcel will be at the sorting office. If something is being delivered by Hermes and your not in it can be returned back to sender.

Today has been one of those days I've been waiting in all day bored and still no sign of the post man and I have no tracking info despite asking the sellers to provide some details. I've got many deliveries that should be arriving today or tomorrow some will run into next week. Its now the afternoon and still no sign of the postman. I feel like going out but if I do I could miss deliveries or I could continue to wait in and waste the whole day if nothing arrives.

Many people will say "Don't buy online" but that is the only option today because the high street has nothing interesting and its expensive. Nearly everything has moved online so there isn't really an option to not buy online if you want decent things.

I guess getting the things you want and getting things much cheaper has a price and that is time.

 

[Retro6]

Oh no how will you cope?

Making a thread

In all seriousness its a modern day issue. I had a lucky buy on something on ebay I will never be able to buy again other stuff is clothing I have to order clothes online because as said above. Its really annoying having entire days wasted or when sellers are to lazy to provide tracking info.

 

[Retro6]

As above use a locker, or buy one of those parcel boxes you can leave at your front door.

That all sounds like a good idea except its not possible to do where I live there is no space to put it plus the outside area is shared by my neighbor who is in a wheelchair so he wouldn't be able to get past. I guess I could ask my Mom if I could put one outside her door but I'm pretty sure the answer will be no.

I don't normally order so many things at once but on this occasion I needed new clothes so I bought a lot but after this it will just be the odd thing here and there where I can go out and not worry about it.

 

[Retro6]

I am the opposite personally.

Shopping at....shops... is my idea of hell. Have to get up, get dressed, leave the house, drive as I live in the middle of nowhere.

Get there, cant find parking, drive around eventually find overpriced parking with hardly any spaces, go to pay, nope, cash no acccepted, download the app (FFS) then try and figure that out. Pay.

Find the shop, get harrased by the staff, can I help you? I am thinking yes, build a bloody car park.

Spend ages not finding what I am looking for to find something, similar, not as good, more expensive to be told, oh yea sorry, thats out of stock, you can order it now we can deliver it to your house the next working day.....

Even clothes I buy online now, mostly from ebay.

Food shopping I get Tesco to deliver it.

When I lived in North Carolina you didn't even need ebay because they have shops there that sell what people want. Lots of parking and its free plenty of yard sales, thrift stores etc lots of clothing stores and then there is Walmart which literally has everything. The UK has nothing in the shops, everything is overpriced and not very good and like you said spend ages not finding what I am looking for to find something, similar, not as good.

 

[Retro6]

The most annoying thing is knowing I could have done something today, the sun is out, it will be 3pm soon and still no sign of the post man it don't look like they are delivering anything today and then tomorrow I have to do the same thing all over again.

 

[Retro6]

This is where a smart doorbell such as the Ring is great - you can speak to the delivery person on your phone and tell them where to stash it if you can't get to the door in time.

The only downside I see to buying online is when something arrives broken, it's not as advertised or some other reason to return it, which can be a bit of a faff.

That is another down side particularly when buying clothes because you can't try them on before buying so there is always a risk of something not fitting right or looking a bit odd. I only go for brands I'm familiar with that I know will more likely fit. I bought some g star jeans in my size except they were women's jeans and looked really dodgy on me. These were advertised as mens jeans. I don't normally have a problem with G-Star. It happens sometimes and its part of buying clothes online you take a risk.

 

[Retro6]

The post man arrived today with a whole stack of parcels for me at 4:30pm another new postman I've not seen before.

 

[Retro6]

Yeah it is nice to go out and buy stuff its part of the shopping experience. Its part of the reason why I like going to CEX stores to look for bits and pieces. I can imagine they will be closing there stores in the not so distant future to be an online store only. Its one of the last still around.

I went to Curry's the other day because they had 120GB PNY SSD's on sale going cheap so I took the opportunity to go out to a store to buy a couple only to be told that there not available in store, they can only be purchased online. Well I went to McDonalds and had a look around Londons WestEnd but nothing much to see so I went home after a long wonder.

I can see by 2050 90% of people will not be leaving there home because everything will have moved online, including people working from home.

 

[Retro6]

You can buy better stuff on ebay. Amazon is ok for new things.

What about going out and socializing? Meeting people when out and about shopping? getting exercise? I guess that is all done online too. More isolation and increase in mental illness in people. Its not healthy. Maybe all this online stuff is for the new generation. I much prefer to get out and about shopping etc rather than sitting on a coach clicking things and sure its nice to do that too but there is no balance between the two. Now days its all over priced undesirable stuff in stores with all the more desirable cheaper stuff online. I'm from a different generation I guess.

 

[Retro6]

You cant go anywhere without seeing 50 odd pret a manger shops in the same area there is literally one every 10 meters in central London. Lots of pound shops and tonnes of over priced food places. I wish I could have a portal into the United States just to go shopping. When I was over there the last time I couldn't get enough.

 

[Retro6]

And why don't you have a printer? It's not like a laser printer that would last you a decade is going to cost much.

I got burnt out on buying printers they always break in some way made from cheap flimsy plastic so not really worth it for the sake of a few print outs here and there.

 

[Retro6]

I'm currently going through a problem with DPD.

They claimed they tried to delivery the parcel at 8:43am on the 10th. They didn't as I had no notification for delivery, and looking at my CCTV camera nobody came to the door or stopped outside on the road.

They then claimed it would be delivered the next day, the 11th. That came and went, and now they have moved it to the 14th claiming there is a problem in my area, which is another lie as I've had another DPD delivery from the same depot with no problems.

If they don't delivery something on the 14th, which is there next promised day, I'm going to complain.

This normally happens when they can't find your address, attempting to deliver but to the wrong address. You may need to add some extra details of your location on there website delivery info. I don't know if you can do that with DPD. I had to do that with Hermes when they was attempting to deliver a parcel but to the wrong address.

 

[Retro6]

I bought a T-Shirt online and paid 20 pounds including postage. I know 20 quid may seem like a lot for a T-Shirt I wanted it so I bought it and I thought for that price I was going to get some kinda service... It was dispatched on the 7th and estimated delivery said 22nd I thought that is a bit of a long wait so I went to check the tracking which is a Dpost tracking number and I get "invalid tracking number" or Parcel not found" The company are UK sellers so it should have arrived by now but I will never know where it is because the tracking number doesn't work. I contacted the seller about it and all I get is automatic message to say they will contact me within 48 hours. 48 hours passes and still no reply so I message again and get the same automatic reply.

I decided to find out more about this seller/business and they have a bad reputation for delivering zero customer service and not sending out orders. They don't have a single positive review.

 

[Retro6]

Do you see where you went wrong?

Yep buying from that seller.

I don't know what you mean by "where I went wrong" I bought a T-shirt in good faith, never received it and was given invalid tracking info with no response from the seller?

 

[Retro6]

If I go to the DPD tracking website and type the tracking ID code in and then click the option to change delivery my correct address comes up.

It's a bit of a weird situation. I guess I'm going to have to deal with the situation if the item isn't delivered on the 14th. But one part of me thinks why am I doing the chasing up, I'm not the one who engaged them, the seller did.

why am I doing the chasing up, I'm not the one who engaged them

Exactly... somehow its the buyers fault when its the sellers responsibly to ensure the buyer gets there item. The problem today is people are lazy and don;t want to take responsibility but they are happy to take your money.

 

[Retro6]

This is what you do before parting with your money:

But how would anybody know before hand?

You see something you like on ebay and buy it with the expectation of receiving it. Anyway I will be covered either by ebay or paypal. It just means I have to wait a while before getting my money back.

They are a company trading on ebay. The company have bad google reviews and bad trust pilot reviews.