2 Items ordered from the US, POOF Gone Disappeared Into Thin Air
Summary: luv4orphans described issues with two items ordered from the US. The first, an old brass coach tag, was lost at a hub after being stuck there, leading to a refund from eBay, though they preferred to receive the item. The second item, a boat part needed in Canada, experienced significant shipping delays and communication issues with the seller. marnotom! responded, explaining complexities involved in eBay International Standard Delivery (eISD) and suggesting that shipment delays were due to consolidations and not directly under the seller's control. luv4orphans expressed concerns about potential loss of refund rights and appreciated the tracking clarification. Further discussions noted issues with eISD and eIS, with participants sharing the challenges and frustrations with eBay's shipping processes for international buyers. The boat part eventually arrived, but not without considerable distribution and communication challenges.
The first order on May 12, an old brass metal coach tag sat in Glendale Heights for 5 days and eventually made its way to the hub on May 23rd and never left that building. Gone, disappeared. Never to be seen again. Ebay issued a refund but I would much prefer to have received the tag I ordered. Hard item to come by. Missing from the hub??
June 2 - Second order was placed for a boats part that my son needed. Not an easy part to find in Canada. After 5 days, seller hadn't shipped so I asked and he said he would post the next day. Reason he was late is he couldn't use a drop box, he had to go into the post office to drop this off. One and only time he responded to an email. Then no tracking ever uploaded except that label was purchased.
June 16 - Parcel was returned to seller because it was put in a Vodka liquor box. Strong enough box I guess as this item is heavy enough but post office doesn't accept this kind of packaging. You would think the initial post office where he dropped it off would have told him that parcels can't be packaged like that. No contact from him regarding any of this. Took contacting ebay to get a response advising us this is what happened.
June 18 - Tracking finally uploading and item is on its way we think.
June 22 - Item is now in California from Massachusett, then to Arizona, then to California. We live in Ontario. What the hell is it doing on the other side of the country when it could pretty well have come straight up. Tracking # brings you to Asendia who has no record of it. Then it gives another tracking number which is USPS. Item has been arriving and departing California since June 22. Has a prefix of 94 which is destined for US only, not out of country parcels which is what we were told after calling today, June 26.
No response from seller. Of course I realize he has no control once shipped. According to the form provided below destination is Canada. Not sure what's up.
June 24 - I put a claim through ebay on June 24 as item is not budging and tracking number is not working.
I am to contact them June 28 if item still has not arrived. Ebay Money Back Guarantee once again. Close to $500 CDN with everything combined. Rather get the part than money back. Needed to get the boat out on the lake this summer, not next year. .
Any idea anyone on what's going on here? I have attached a screenshot of the tracking number. Does anyone have any explanation for this.
marnotom!
·2 years agoRe: Coach Tag
Items forwarded through eBay International Shipping must be in packages that are at least 7.25 inches wide and 10.25 inches long. I’m betting that whatever your seller used to ship the tag didn’t make those minimum dimensions and the item dead-ended at the hub as a result.
Re: Boat Part
The item appears to be being handled through eBay International Standard Delivery which is a truly abominable mail consolidation service that should have officially died about a year ago, but didn’t.
The item “departing and arriving in California” repeatedly is actually the container your item was in en route to Cali. The boat part has probably left California in a new container but the information on the "94" domestic container didn’t get cleared out properly so you’re still seeing event scans as the container gets reused for other shipments. This is also why it looks as though the item isn’t moving on the page you posted.
It will likely reach you just fine, which is why you were advised to wait until the 28th to follow-up. Given that a long weekend is upon us, you might want to wait a little longer than that unless this jeopardizes your chance for a refund. Your call.
luv4orphans
OP2 years agoOk. Thanks for the info on the tag.
It does sound ridiculous. Why send it all the way across the country only to have it come back all the way to Ontario.
It will likely reach you just fine, which is why you were advised to wait until the 28th to follow-up. Given that a long weekend is upon us, you might want to wait a little longer than that unless this jeopardizes your chance for a refund. Your call.
I don't understand the part about jeopardizing my chance for a refund. The item hasn't even arrived yet. Is it a 30 day thing in which we have to claim or if not received by the due date? If you can clarify. I could always get them to issue the refund and if item arrives contact the seller to pay them again. Would that be my best option?
marnotom!
·2 years agoNow you have a sense of how some western Canadian buyers feel when they buy from someone in the western US using eBay International Shipping. 😁
I'm can't confirm, but I'm pretty sure I read that eBay International Standard Delivery has two consolidation centres and one of them shares space or is in the same general area as the eBay International Shipping hub in suburban Chicago. It may be that things are getting so backed up there that items being handled by eISD are being sent to the California consolidation centre exclusively.
You said the boat part was purchased on June 2. I don't know the estimated delivery time for the item, but items handled by eIS usually have delivery estimates topping out at three weeks, which would make June 23 the last estimated date of delivery for the boat part. You have up to 30 days after the last estimated delivery date to file a claim for non-delivery, which you did on June 24. If I were in your shoes, I'd have posted about my problem with this purchase before filing the claim as I may have received some useful advice. I probably would also have waited a little longer for the item's arrival before filing a claim given that a holiday is coming up.
I guess my concern is that given how inexperienced this seller seems to be with shipping stuff out of the US, all the delays, tracking SNAFUs. and now a claim on top of everything else is going to put them off wanting to attempt it in the future, even if they do have the option of throwing their lot in with eIS instead of eISD (if their items even qualify for eIS) and even if you do pay them back if the item arrives after the refund is issued. Dead geese and golden eggs and all that.
Fun fact: Items handled by eISD have $100 insurance tops, so if this item is indeed lost, the seller's going to be out a chunk of change.
A last-ditch suggestion would be to check the ESUS-prefixed tracking code on the Parcelsapp website, in case the event scans the item (I hope) is getting are able to show up independently of the initial kilometre-long tracking code you were initially provided for the item.
luv4orphans
OP2 years agoNow you have a sense of how some western Canadian buyers feel when they buy from someone in the western US using eBay International Shipping.
I have a sense of how that program works whether you live in the west or the east. It takes forever to get to final destination. Purchased an item that came thru USPS. Arrived in 6 days. Purchased an item from a seller using EIS. It took close to a month to get here. The next item which was the tag got lost or missing at the hub. Had it come through USPS it would be here. Not sure what kind of envelope it was shipped in but dimensions are not a problem when using USPS. They could be but not for an envelope. I get why sellers are using it but very frustrating if you are on the receiving end.
He was shipping the item through USPS the first time I thought as listing was not marked as shipping through EIS. The date of arrival was estimated no later than June 19. It got somewhere and they returned to him because packed in a Vodka box. Not allowed. Initial post office should have advised him of this.
I really don't understand now as you threw an ESUS #. I know what EIS is but this is a new one to me. I will check it with the link you sent and hopefully something shows up.
I realize he's quite a new seller and that mistakes happen. I make them from time to time myself. I just don't get the no responding to emails and not advising that the item has reship etc. Poor communication on his part.
We were going to give it a few more days before finalizing this claim so to speak. If reshipped on the 15, tracking appears on 17. Its not that long. It was the box rolling around the California warehouse that concerned me so I contacted ebay. They are going according to initial arrival date as that's all they have.
I checked on the link you provided. Thanks. Says estimated arrival date July 4. Item doesn't seem to have budge but most likely in transit and sometimes that doesn't show up. Depart would be nice.
Do I need to contact ebay today or can it wait until the end of next week to see if item arrives first and then close the case. Ebay went according to the original arrival date, not by this new one.
marnotom!
·2 years agoYour boat part was sent through eBay International Standard Delivery, or eISD for short. It's different from eBay International Shipping (eIS) in that it's a mail consolidation service, not a package forwarding service the way eIS is. eISD items go through the mail system but as part of a bulk shipment which cuts down on shipping costs for the individual items that are part of the bulk shipment, but it can be an incredibly slow way of getting items from point A to point B while the container is waiting to be filled up and waiting to be emptied and the items dispersed to new containers that get items closer to their final destination.
My understanding is that sellers who ship internationally using USPS are offered the eISD option when they purchase the postage for the item through eBay. When it was first unleashed, the option could show up on the listing page for sellers determined to use it, but I'm not sure if this is still the case. Since the item is still travelling through the mailstream this way, it's still considered "USPS shipping". It's less expensive than USPS counter rates and the seller may or may not pass along the savings to the buyer.
Sorry for what's probably a delayed response on your end. I'm on the west coast and I've had a busy day of vehicle maintenance and kid-wrangling. I would get in touch with eBay and make sure you're still able to wait for the item without it affecting your claim. If you have to pull the trigger and pursue your refund now, so be it, but I think that if the customer service rep knows that you've got an estimated delivery date from the carrier, they may be willing to stretch this out a bit more.
luv4orphans
OP2 years agoThanks for all the information you provided. Item is still not here but the link you provided at least shows the tracking number and that its been in that California distribution center for some time. That would explain the delay if they are waiting to fill a container. Item was 6.5 hours away from us and travel all across the US to California and now needs to come back. Ridiculous way of shipping things.
Has been processed through the USPS Regional Facility on July 4th. A holiday? Now no movement it seems but maybe once it reaches Customs or reaches us.
I read ebay gives us 20 days from opening a case to close. Unless there's no movement then it could get closed before that. So I emailed the seller last week to let him know we had located the tracking and provided some info. No response as usual. Communicating at least keeps the case open. Then I can close it myself. I realize he's quite new and might not know all the ropes but his lack of communication to his buyers that's on him.
marnotom!
·2 years agoIt may seem like a “ridiculous way of shipping things,” but the idea behind mail consolidation is to make shipping less expensive. Speed and efficiency take a back seat, and in your case this problem was compounded by the seller’s inexperience. Even so, mail consolidators operating without eBay’s involvement tend to be a bit faster. I just ordered a CD from a US seller who is likely using a mail consolidator. I’ll try to remember to let you know how that goes.