Confusing delivery time information for shipping with DHL
Summary: stubenkram reported a confusing experience with a DHL delivery from a commercial seller on eBay. The delivery of the package was delayed, and tracking on eBay was contradictory. lidor3073 and other participants explained the possible reasons, including the use of a drop-off location and discrepancies between the eBay and DHL information. The problem is the incorrect indication of delivery times on eBay, which puts many sellers in a difficult position. In the end, the package arrived, and stubenkram realized it had been created with an eBay shipping label.
Hello everyone!
On Tuesday I bought and paid for an antique toy from a commercial seller, but I still haven’t received it today, Saturday. That’s why I’m creating this topic here, in the commercial sellers section. It’s a DHL parcel, and the shipping costs are 6.19 euros.
The tracking and the changing information about when I can expect delivery are very confusing to me. I don’t mind if a parcel arrives a bit later, but I’d like to read correct information about it in “My eBay”. I’m basing myself on the stated, but incorrect, dates and then waiting in vain.
Is there any possibility that something can be done about this and improved?
It was a purchase with a best offer, which the seller accepted on Tuesday, August 25, 2026 at 6:12 p.m. I paid via PayPal, only a few hours later, sometime late in the evening. The seller was still up and uploaded the tracking number after midnight at 0:45 a.m., so on Wednesday.
During the day on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, I was shown a “delivery today” notice. Since nothing had arrived by Thursday either, I looked at the tracking for the first time. Under “Purchase details” it said on Thursday that the delivery was delayed, but not by how long. I then looked at the listing again and saw that the seller had specified a delivery time of 2 to 3 days.
Also on Thursday, for the first time, I saw that the seller had entered an absence notice. It didn’t look like this yet, but instead the note was inside the green bar.
This display is also confusing, because I’ve already bought the item, which exists only once, and it had also been on my watchlist for quite a while already.
Since Friday, August 28, 2026, “My eBay” has shown that the delivery will take place on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. The screenshots of the tracking are from Friday. But today it still looks exactly the same. If it takes about a week from payment to delivery, then I’d like to get that information a little earlier.
The DHL tracking and eBay tracking don’t quite match. And eBay’s is ridiculously long because everything is listed twice. I think that should be improved.
grohbacher
·2 weeks agoHello, Ms. @stubenkram
the alleged delivery time for Friday can only exist in EBAY’s imagination. The tracking clearly says that the package (€6.19 = parcel up to 2 kg; can only be booked online) was only processed at the outbound freight center on Friday at 20:14. So the package could not have arrived at the delivery freight center any earlier than sometime during Saturday.
On the missing buyer protection for delivery to a drop-off location:
You have buyer protection for non-receipt up until the point when DHL documents delivery at the drop-off location. With EBAY (and DHL), after that you can’t argue that the package could not be found at the drop-off location. A commercial seller has also fulfilled their delivery obligation. Likewise, any transport damage would be difficult to prove.
Independently of that, however, buyer protection for "deviation from the item description" would still remain in place. So if the item you assumed was faulty or otherwise had significant defects, or if the wrong item was delivered.
All clear?
Regards
Manfred
stubenkram
OP2 weeks ago · EditedThank you all very much!
I’m not worried about the missing buyer protection regarding the drop-off location. I’m almost always home when the post arrives, and my packages are handed to me in person.
I’m also going to keep the drop-off location, because I want to avoid having to pick up a larger package at the DHL station at some point. The things I collect are often heavy and/or bulky. Even without such a load, the walk from the DHL shop to my home is a longer and fairly tiring one. Depending on the weather, the trip with an awkward package would then be almost impossible to manage.
The absence was pretty much certainly only entered on Thursday, so two days after my purchase. Otherwise I would have noticed the notice earlier. I still found the text there irritating and nonsensical.
I really wonder what that’s supposed to mean? Is this some especially great marketing strategy? The sellers are put in serious trouble by such incorrect information and the regularly appearing, supposedly "delayed" deliveries, u.U. And I feel like I’m being led around by the nose as a buyer when I’m not properly informed by eBay.
This policy is the icing on the cake. Unbelievable....
bixtron
·2 weeks ago · EditedeBay doesn’t understand that, and there’s no interest in it either. The buyer says they’re happy with the fast shipping, but eBay hassles the seller because the fantasy delivery time of, for example, less than 24h isn’t being met. There’s a complete lack of any connection to reality here, and it doesn’t match buyer feedback.
Likewise the note "delivered" for letter shipments. This keeps confusing customers again and again. It has become a standard question at eBay: "Hello, on eBay it says the item has been delivered, but I haven’t received it yet."
And then tell your customer to check the tracking, where it says the shipment doesn’t go into delivery until 2 days later.
It would be much better for both sides to either put this in the sellers’ hands or finally adjust it.
stubenkram
OP1 week agoThe package arrived today, on Tuesday, at my place. The display in "My Ebay" had remained unchanged since Friday, "Delivery on Tuesday". On the tracking, something only changed again early this morning when the package was loaded into the delivery vehicle. It then said "Delivery expected on Tuesday".
On the 2kg package there is a section of an A4 sheet stuck on it, probably a self-created printout. In addition to the addresses and the tracking number, there is a QR code and two "bar codes" on the slip, a routing code and an identification code. Right at the top it says DHL Online Franking and DHL in cooperation with Ebay.
So is this an online franking created via DHL, or a shipping label bought on Ebay?
bixtron
·1 week agoThe transfer is, in general, extremely delayed, sometimes by whole days.
This is a label that was bought through eBay, correct.
stubenkram
OP1 week agoThanks, @bixtron Good to know.
Recently I’ve received quite a few packages, and the boxes are still sitting around empty here. I just compared the labels with each other.
This package here is the only one whose label was bought on eBay. Counting from Wednesday afternoon, when my seller took it to the parcel locker, it was in transit the longest of all the packages. All the other packages actually reached me after just two, at most three business days, even though the distance was sometimes greater.
Maybe it’s because of the “detour” via the parcel locker, or maybe shipments that originate from Berlin always take a bit longer. I don’t know. In the future I’ll pay more attention to how quickly a package bought with an eBay label arrives here.
stubenkram
OP2 weeks ago · EditedHello @lidor3073
That a drop-off location registered with DHL overrides eBay buyer protection is news to me. Where does it say that? (Edit: Because of the post moderation, I’m only seeing your screenshot now. Nothing gets stolen in our house. And I’m almost always there when the post comes.)
I have a friend in northern Germany and live in a small town in southern Germany. There are 795 km between where we live (driving time by car: 8 hours, 22 minutes). Even so, parcels and packages we send each other with DHL aren’t on the road for long. One reason for that could be that we both drop the parcels off at the local DHL shop and pay the postage there, so we don’t frank them online.
I don’t know whether this commercial seller gets his shipping labels from eBay or online from DHL. The price of 6.19 euros for a DHL parcel is probably the same? The seller is in Berlin, which is a distance of 365 km (driving time by car: 4 hours). Even though that’s only half the distance, it will take much longer for his parcel to get to me.
For a DHL parcel, I assume a shipping time of about three working days. Most eBay sellers, especially commercial ones, ship very quickly. I usually only check tracking once those three days have passed.
Sellers are prompted by eBay to specify the shortest possible processing time. But as a buyer, it does absolutely nothing for me when eBay absurdly tells me that my parcel will arrive on the same day my seller uploaded the tracking number (Wednesday), tells me on Thursday that the delivery is delayed, and then on Friday that my parcel is supposed to arrive on Tuesday.
What on earth is this nonsense? My seller and I both know that a parcel like that will be on the way for about three days (or, under certain circumstances, significantly longer) — but eBay doesn’t know that?
A buyer who is less patient and understanding might already have complained by now or might later leave a bad review because the stated shipping time was exceeded. And the seller can’t do anything about it, absolutely nothing.
I think this unrealistic first estimate of when a parcel will arrive is terrible. As a buyer, it’s annoying when eBay only tells me three days after the purchase that it will take another four days. Because this kind of information about the actual shipping time is good neither for the seller nor for the buyer, eBay should change it.
bixtron
·2 weeks ago · EditedHello,
I haven’t read it through meticulously, but yes, liability is completely transferred to the recipient if they specify a drop-off location. Then they also shouldn’t have buyer protection; it would be wrong to offer any if the recipient wasn’t even at home themselves.
When I look at lidor3073’s screenshot, I just facepalm again... "If your item didn’t arrive within the specified delivery period, you’re covered by buyer protection and will get your money back."
Just to clarify: the delivery times (which are even incorrectly counted as "days") are not set by the seller, but by eBay. And trust me, many of us sellers suffer massively under these fantasy figures...
Absence is irrelevant for now; maybe that was only activated after your purchase - but the seller did hand it in on time (or even earlier, depending on their handling time).
Problems with the transmission of incorrect, duplicate, non-existent details, etc. are unfortunately errors that have been our faithful companion for years.
eBay also simply refuses to accept that a drop-off at 8 p.m. no longer leads to processing on the same business day...
Good to see buyers speaking up too!
lidor3073
·2 weeks ago@stubenkram
https://pages.ebay.de/einkaufen/ebay-kaeuferschutz.html
lidor3073
·2 weeks agoHello @stubenkram
Whether commercial or not, since I often use DHL online:
I’m going to refer first to DHL’s tracking display.
The tracking number is shown in the eBay history, but not at DHL -> data has not yet been transmitted.
Then the shipment was announced electronically and the system recognizes that you have a permanent drop-off location active (by the way, that means you have no buyer protection! ☝️).
Drop-off at the Packstation by the sender (all on Wednesday, quickly). Picked up by DHL the next day at midday. That’s all within the normal timeframe. Then the intermediate step at DHL took from Thursday (pickup) until the first scan at DHL’s logistics center (preparation for onward transport). In the meantime, DHL was planning and your delivery address ended up on September 1st. The seller can’t do anything about that. This is visible internally in DHL’s system and also only in eBay - it doesn’t show up in the app/tracking page. Not much happens at DHL on Saturday and Sunday. It may be that, if you keep an eye on the tracking number, DHL will reschedule on Monday and you’ll be shown a new delivery date of 31/08/2026 - I’ve had that happen too.
For the delay (which is absolutely moderate!) the seller can’t do anything in this case, and the delivery date listed in eBay is more or less just a rough estimate anyway.
But I do agree with you, the display in eBay with the green bar and the text underneath should be improved.
If anything is unclear, feel free to get in touch. ☺️