Misleading shipping policies the seller or Discogs’ fault?

Hello,
Last week I purchased seven 7” singles from a seller in the UK (I’m in Australia), and selected “standard non-urgent” shipping, which they listed as taking 3-5 business days (I’d assumed it’d take slightly longer considering I’m overseas but I didn’t mind) and paid £15 for this. However, they sent me the shipping label as proof of shipping and it says they used “international economy” via Royal mail, which I discovered today is the slowest shipping method they offer- it takes up to 12 weeks to arrive in Australia.
However, the seller’s policies state:

Standard - STANDARD (non urgent): 15 - 80 Business Days
1 to 1 Large Vinyl: £16.00
2 Large Vinyl and up: £2.00 per each additional 1 items
Standard - STANDARD (not urgent): 3 - 5 Business Days
1 to 1 Small Vinyl / CDs / Cassettes / DVDs/Blu-rays: £9.00
2 Small Vinyl / CDs / Cassettes / DVDs/Blu-rays and up: £1.00 per each additional 1 items

On Royal mail’s website, they also offer an “international standard” shipping service which is also cheap and doesn’t include tracking, but sends significantly faster than their “international economy” method. To me, the “international economy” method seems to align more with this seller’s shipping policy for “large vinyl” (the shipping times line up) whereas their policy for “small vinyl” seems to align more with the “international standard” method offered by Royal mail, as those shipping times line up more closely too.

I only purchased “small vinyl”, so I don’t understand why “international economy” was used rather than “international standard” especially when I paid £15. Also important to note, at the checkout, I was NOT displayed with the option for the “15-80 days” shipping option which is what the seller used for my order- I believe incorrectly so.

I’ve brought this up with the seller, who is saying that this is all Discogs’ fault as their algorithms are different to what the sellers submit for shipping times.

To me, I don’t see how this could be Discogs’ and its algorithms fault as each seller sets their own shipping policies.

Could someone please clarify this with me as I feel like I’m being mislead. I know there’s nothing I can really do about it now as the parcel is on its way but I’m just disappointed- if I’d known it could take up to 12 weeks for these records to arrive I definitely would’ve chosen an alternative shipping method. I also can’t imagine that international economy shipping for a parcel so small would cost £15 but also nothing surprises me these days!

Thank you in advance!

It's the seller who enters the delivery time when they create a shipping policy. You can view how policies are created here. https://.discogs.versitio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007540673-What-Are-Shipping-Policies-And-How-To-Use-Them

ronr
It's the seller who enters the delivery time when they create a shipping policy.

Discogs adds the 3 - 5 Business Days when you make a new policy, but the seller has to update this to the correct shipping times.
A problem might be that the seller updated it but discogs did not save that change as often happens with shipping policies

_temporary_secretary
I’ve brought this up with the seller, who is saying that this is all Discogs’ fault as their algorithms are different to what the sellers submit for shipping times.

”Algorithms”?

BaldGhost
_temporary_secretaryI’ve brought this up with the seller, who is saying that this is all Discogs’ fault as their algorithms are different to what the sellers submit for shipping times.”Algorithms”?

This is what the seller said:

I have no idea why discog give those shipping dates, all we do is place a price in a algorithm and the machine does the rest, I do know the 80 days thing started in the Covid period when the postal companies changed their rules. Any questions on this you will have to ask Discog help as they deal with post timelines and things like import tax. We have no control over that.

We literally just place the stock on their site, everything else is within the Discog system, there are a lot of comments on the community page where people are asking the same questions as you, but they modify extremely slowly.

watidatga
Discogs adds the 3 - 5 Business Days when you make a new policy, but the seller has to update this to the correct shipping times.
A problem might be that the seller updated it but discogs did not save that change as often happens with shipping policies

Which can be easily checked when you create a policy. A more likely scenario is the seller is having problems with the algorithms (instructions), and misleading their buyers. I know when I set up my policies I would check my store, and make sure they were correct. I know I didn't have any problems saving them. It did take a while to figure them out. I think there's a bigger problem with sellers not able to.

ronr
watidatgaDiscogs adds the 3 - 5 Business Days when you make a new policy, but the seller has to update this to the correct shipping times.
A problem might be that the seller updated it but discogs did not save that change as often happens with shipping policies

Which can be easily checked when you create a policy. A more likely scenario is the seller is having problems with the algorithms (instructions), and misleading their buyers. I know when I set up my policies I would check my store, and make sure they were correct. I know I didn't have any problems saving them. It did take a while to figure them out. I think there's a bigger problem with sellers not able to.

Right, thank you for your input, I really appreciate it. Felt like I was going insane

watidatga
ronrIt's the seller who enters the delivery time when they create a shipping policy.

Discogs adds the 3 - 5 Business Days when you make a new policy, but the seller has to update this to the correct shipping times.
A problem might be that the seller updated it but discogs did not save that change as often happens with shipping policies

Thank you for your input! Appreciate it

ronr
I know when I set up my policies I would check my store, and make sure they were correct.

But they are not correct. Some prices/quantities in your policies are different form the prices in your seller

CDs:
Media Mail, 2-9 days delivery time. First 1-3 $8.25. Additional 1-3: $5.35.

Standard - Media Mail: 2 - 9 Business Days
1 to 3 CDs: $8.25
4 CDs and up: $0.75 per each additional 4 items

This is just one of the differences between your seller and policies, there are more

Yeah there are no "algorithms" involved in how the shipping costs are calculated or what delivery times are displayed. It's all up to the seller to configure it properly. That said, delivery time is beyond the seller's control and often shipping services don't even give estimates (mine only does for domestic tracked shipping and priority mail, typically 1 business day - anything else is just a guess on my part).

EzraZebra
Yeah there are no "algorithms" involved in how the shipping costs are calculated or what delivery times are displayed. It's all up to the seller to configure it properly. That said, delivery time is beyond the seller's control and often shipping services don't even give estimates (mine only does for domestic tracked shipping and priority mail, typically 1 business day - anything else is just a guess on my part).

Yeah that’s what I would’ve thought

_temporary_secretary
EzraZebraYeah there are no "algorithms" involved in how the shipping costs are calculated or what delivery times are displayed. It's all up to the seller to configure it properly. That said, delivery time is beyond the seller's control and often shipping services don't even give estimates (mine only does for domestic tracked shipping and priority mail, typically 1 business day - anything else is just a guess on my part).

Yeah that’s what I would’ve thought. Wish they didn’t have to lie

But discogs is involved with the shipping times that is displayed.
They add the 3 - 5 Business Days automaticly, when you make a new policy.
And it is a known problem that changes do not save.

https://discogs.versitio.com/forum/search?query=policy+not+saving

watidatga
_temporary_secretaryEzraZebraYeah there are no "algorithms" involved in how the shipping costs are calculated or what delivery times are displayed. It's all up to the seller to configure it properly. That said, delivery time is beyond the seller's control and often shipping services don't even give estimates (mine only does for domestic tracked shipping and priority mail, typically 1 business day - anything else is just a guess on my part).

Yeah that’s what I would’ve thought. Wish they didn’t have to lie

But discogs is involved with the shipping times that is displayed.
They add the 3 - 5 Business Days automaticly, when you make a new policy.
And it is a known problem that changes do not save.

https://discogs.versitio.com/forum/search?query=policy+not+saving

Right… just seems odd to me because the seller sent me their shipping policies which display the 3-5 days and didn’t mention any possibilities of mistakes and seemed quite confident with it, so I assume they would be aware if there’s any problems in their policies but oh well

watidatga
But they are not correct. Some prices/quantities in your policies are different form the prices in your seller

Thanks for pointing that out. I was referring to setting up a shipping policy though. I found it helpful to check the dropdown in my store, to make sure it was what I wanted when creating a policy.

watidatga
This is just one of the differences between your seller and policies, there are more

Do tell. I found one other discrepancy, but if there are others I would be happy to to know about them.

ronr
Do tell. I found one other discrepancy, but if there are others I would be happy to to know about them.

Your mixed items policy has "3 items and up: $0.99 per each additional 3 items" and your Large vinyl has "3 Large Vinyl and up: $0.99 per each additional 2 items"

Expect those 2 needs to be both 2 or 3 additional items.
This is also the same with Priority

Now it is cheaper for someone buying 5 Large Vinyl to pick the mixed items policy instead of the Large vinyl

watidatga
ronrDo tell. I found one other discrepancy, but if there are others I would be happy to to know about them.

Your mixed items policy has "3 items and up: $0.99 per each additional 3 items" and your Large vinyl has "3 Large Vinyl and up: $0.99 per each additional 2 items"

Expect those 2 needs to be both 2 or 3 additional items.
This is also the same with Priority

Now it is cheaper for someone buying 5 Large Vinyl to pick the mixed items policy instead of the Large vinyl

Actually that was intentional. For mixed items, additional items would weigh less. I'm not sure someone can pick that policy for a straight large vinyl order. It should only come into play there are no other policies for a specific media. So far it's only been applied on mixed orders, or box sets. Given my inventory it's redundant though.

ronr
Actually that was intentional. For mixed items, additional items would weigh less. I'm not sure someone can pick that policy for a straight large vinyl order. It should only come into play there are no other policies for a specific media. So far it's only been applied on mixed orders, or box sets. Given my inventory it's redundant though.

Buyers have always the option to pick any policy that fits the items. So the all items policy is always a possible pick

In your seller you have "Mixing formats (LP, 7",CD) will result in all items being charged the 10-12" rate."
That's why I expected that is should be the same.

watidatga
Buyers have always the option to pick any policy that fits the items. So the all items policy is always a possible pick

In your seller you have "Mixing formats (LP, 7",CD) will result in all items being charged the 10-12" rate."
That's why I expected that is should be the same.

That may may be true, I don't actually know. I would think that having specific policies for each media would supersede that, as you're required to add the all my items policy. But since I label it Mixed, I haven't had anyone do that. I changed that the last time I increased prices, and didn't include it in the .