Kalvin referred a situation of mine, on up the ladder. Apparently that woke up the other than lucid.
I got burned on a couple of South American parcels. All I really lost is the postage, so what. My argument was, why is Paypal shipping saying I have to ship to that address for seller protection and then turning around and refusing to afford me with any sort of protection?
I know the answer. The answer is "tough patooties".
The answer I received was, get this, to use GSP. This is after I had specified: Paypal shipping, Canada Post, shipping from Canada.
The mea culpa answer was to pass along to the customer the increased costs. I have asked the question "You as the customer, instead of paying $21 would know be paying $88, for postage. You would pay $88 postage on a $20 widget?".
Yeah the uptick from airmail to tracking number ranges in the $70 to $100 range.
It was also suggested that I go to Canada Post and use their resources for a tracking number. After eleven years, 65 countries, and 8700 parcels, I had never thought of that.
The argument, however, is engaging. Anyone have some nuances they want me to throw in?
@mr.elmwood wrote:Anyone have some nuances they want me to throw in?
Hahhhh! LOL! 
Yes -- here's a nuance for you: so eBay suggested that you pass on the increased shipping cost to your customer, did they? Funny how that goes completely against the tidal flow of eBay's push to get sellers to offer lower (or, OMG, free!) shipping.
It seems to me that they've been putting a great deal of effort over the past few months in terms of policies, rules, restrictions, promotions and advertising relating to free shipping. Now their best solution is for you to increase the international buyer's shipping cost? Yes, well, that may protect you if you ever get a sale. A "tough patooties" answer would at least have been more honest.
Actually, the solution would be for eBay to get off its duff and do something, either alone or in concert with Paypal, to help indemnify sellers who ship to overseas locations and are found to have done everything required of them other than pay for premium shipping. EBay owns Paypal, I can see no reason why they can't make some concessions in this area. They could practically run their own international parcel shipping service, come to think of it.
Your experience is the reason I think more and more sellers seem to be restricting their "sell to" list to those countries with stable economies and reliable postal services, which doesn't help eBay expand, does it?
Seller protection on eBay is excellent. That is it's excellent if you understand that it's only function is to protect you from fraud.
Protection from poor service by a postal carrier is called "insurance" you can use it or not as you wish (I don't wish) but eBay are not in the insurance business, if I was interested in insurance I'd be going to someone who specializes in that field.
By the way I did catch that part about them suggesting GSP to a Canadian seller which is obviously a stupid suggestion.
I guess I'm just not at all surprised that when speaking with customer service reps that you usually get irrelevant answers. Whay else are they supposed to dish out while attempting to remain polite and not hang up on you.
Pretty much Nan, pretty much.
I forgot the free shipping aspect! That will be my next argument.
But here's where I have a problem -- surely eBay, through Paypal, could offer discounted insurance for its sellers where needed, such as on international shipments to destinations that would otherwise be prohibitive to ship to. I'd imagine that would encourage more sellers to ship worldwide, which should add up to a win-win for eBay.
They could and they do (in the US) but wouldn't it be better to go directly to ShipInsurance and buy direct (for less) instead of buying from ShipInsurance via eBay (under the ShipSaver brand) and letting eBay take a cut of the action?
Featured Posts
