eBay

davis5441 · ‎04-20-2023

I have been a member for over 16 years. I purchase cat non clumping litter from the US to Toronto Canada. In the past 18 months I have tried to purchase 30-50 lb bags of litter several times. In more than 7 instances, the sellers seem to lose the package. It ends up at the Erlanger Kentucky hub and never moves from there. How does a 50 lb bag of litter get lost? Now ebay want to charge from $150 to over $500 CAD for delivery charges. I called ebay but they cannot provide a reason. Ebay is beginning to feel like a scam. How would an ebay employee feel if they were asked to pay $500 for delivery

? Moreover, I just ordered a small product and the it shows attempted delivery, but now it is been sitting somewhere for the past several days, but the seller or ebay is taking no responsibility. Worst customer service ever!

marnotom! · ‎04-20-2023

Having had to purchase prescription cat food from eBay when I lived in a remote location, I sympathize with you and your moggie. There's a fair bit to unpack with your post, so forgive me if I deal with it randomly and post information that you already know.

It sounds as though you've been dealing mostly with a forwarding service operated by Pitney Bowes on eBay's behalf called the Global Shipping Program (GSP). One of the big weaknesses of the program is that a human being associated with the GSP doesn't get to see the item at the time it's listed, and a "bot" relies on complete and accurate information on the items shipping size/weight and category to come up with a shipping charge from Erlanger to its destination. If a seller doesn't supply this or messes it up, it messes up the bot who has to make a guess based on a category average.

I'm wondering if your "lost" litter purchases were found to have a too low shipping charge calculated for them and they just dead-ended on that basis. However, what I think is more likely is that the bags were damaged in transit to Erlanger and couldn't be forwarded from there.

Having said that, the GSP is being phased out in the United States and replaced with the bizarrely-named "eBay International Shipping" program, service, scheme, whatever you want to call it. Unfortunately, eIS has the same big weakness as the GSP, but it seems to throw the bot off even further; it's probably calculating a "worst case scenario" for shipping charges.

I checked a few listings for non-clumping cat litter, and ones where the shipping charge to Canada was astronomical had one thing in common: they all offered "free" shipping within the US. I suspect these sellers didn't bother entering in information on the bag's shipping size/weight when they created the listing and the eIS shipping charge got messed up. I found one listing where the seller had a shipping charge within the US, and lo and behold, the eIS portion of the shipping charge was less than US$40.

As for your small purchase, I wouldn't worry about what it's doing or not doing while in transit unless you're now in the estimated time delivery window. What happens to your item between where it was sent and it's final destination is rarely useful information for me, I find. It's receiving the item in the condition stated in the listing in the stated timeframe that's important.

Just out of curiosity, how many successful cat litter purchases have you had versus those seven that didn't work out? And what sort of shipping charges were you looking at through the GSP?

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-20-2023

@marnotom!

Interesting point about possibly dead ending the item if the shipping amount charged was too low. I'm thinking these bags were over the limit...end of story. Does sound like US sellers need to be better educated before using this program full bore!!! Really shouldn't be a buyers nightmare to fall into because of it!!

It would be very interesting to know how often (if ever) with GSP and going forward this new program if the shipping specified is too high an amount is refunded to the buyer? Ahhh things to make one say hmmmm!!! It's also very interesting that US buyers can grumble and groan about shipping from Canada but Canadian buyers are stuck with these nightmarish programs if they want/have to buy from US sellers.

-Lotz

marnotom! · ‎04-20-2023

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Interesting point about possibly dead ending the item if the shipping amount charged was too low. I'm thinking these bags were over the limit...end of story.

eIS's weight limit to Canada is 30 kg/66 lbs. I believe, so I don't think it was a weight limit that did these shipments in. The idea of the buyer paying too little in shipping came to me pretty suddenly, so it may be half-baked, but given how the GSP seemed to be increasingly cheaping out on last-mile carriers, I wouldn't be surprised if another cost-control measure was to "dead end" shipments that PB would have taken a loss on otherwise.

I do think it's more likely that the sellers of these dead-ended items simply put a shipping label on the bags which then got damaged in transit to Erlanger, however.

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

It would be very interesting to know how often (if ever) with GSP and going forward this new program if the shipping specified is too high an amount is refunded to the buyer?

I can't find a reference in the buyer terms and conditions for the GSP or eIS where it states under what circumstances it will give the buyer a partial refund in the event of a shipping overcharge.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-20-2023

@marnotom! wrote:
@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Interesting point about possibly dead ending the item if the shipping amount charged was too low. I'm thinking these bags were over the limit...end of story.
eIS's weight limit to Canada is 30 kg/66 lbs. I believe, so I don't think it was a weight limit that did these shipments in. The idea of the buyer paying too little in shipping came to me pretty suddenly, so it may be half-baked, but given how the GSP seemed to be increasingly cheaping out on last-mile carriers, I wouldn't be surprised if another cost-control measure was to "dead end" shipments that PB would have taken a loss on otherwise.

I do think it's more likely that the sellers of these dead-ended items simply put a shipping label on the bags which then got damaged in transit to Erlanger, however.

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

It would be very interesting to know how often (if ever) with GSP and going forward this new program if the shipping specified is too high an amount is refunded to the buyer?
I can't find a reference in the buyer terms and conditions for the GSP or eIS where it states under what circumstances it will give the buyer a partial refund in the event of a shipping overcharge.