Global Shipping
Summary: shilohrepercussion expressed frustration with eBay's shipping system, sharing an experience of delayed and poorly tracked shipping for an international purchase. marnotom! provided context on eBay's Global Shipping Program (GSP) and eBay International Shipping (eIS), noting that while these systems can pose high costs and tracking issues, they offer some advantages for certain items and scenarios. They explained that shipping complexities often arise from multiple shipping legs and inconsistencies in seller-provided information. reallynicestamps shared a strategy of using untracked letter rate shipping to reduce costs, while benefiting from tracked services at a processing hub.
This scheme is horrible, always has been and always will. I keep saying, l`ll never buy on ebay again, but sometimes it seems to be the only place to find what youre after.
Recently I made a purchase(June 29th) and its been a half a month so far. 3 days to get from CA to IL, 10 days running circles in IL and 4 days ago reached Canada. 4 different tracking numbers, with little or no info, total shit show. As someone else here had mentioned outrageous costs. No doubt its just another way to make money, even if a little bit, but millions of shipments a day equals millions a day more for the rick pricks that runs this organization.
What the hell happened?
shilohrepercussion
OP3 weeks agoYa I get all that, but good reliable tracking seems to be a thing of the past.
My package arrived today, only because I happened to stop in at my Post Office this morning and it was there. The last tracking was 5 days earlier, Mississauga, stating electronic info was submitted, That`s it, nothing stating it had arrived.
I buy a lot of stuff from the USA and its shipped usually UPS or USPS, no issues at all totally track-able and timely. Even Amazon`s got eBay beat when it comes to logistics. Different beast all together I know.....
As I stated originally, eBay is always my last resort, only because I don`t like being fleeced on shipping and the time frames for delivery is horrendous.
Appreciate the comments,
Cheers
marnotom!
·3 weeks ago · EditedeBay.com used to have an international trading discussion board. In a nutshell, there were lots of posts on it about how difficult it was for many US sellers to figure out how to ship stuff internationally, and almost as many posts about how sellers got ripped off by international buyers when they did ship internationally. I remember one seller who was so vitriolic that they created a thread called "How to Avoid Shipping Internationally" which I found in the eBay archives before the discussion boards were renovated a few weeks ago, but I can't find it now.
The original Global Shipping Program (GSP) and the present eBay International Shipping (eIS) systems were created for sellers who wanted an easier and less risky means to ship their wares internationally. These systems weren't really designed with buyers in mind, although some buyers in countries with problematic postal systems or customs bureaus find them a bit of a blessing. For us Canadian buyers, who have generally enjoyed a good trading relationship with our neighbours to the south until recently, these systems aren't a particularly good fit for smaller, lower-ticket items.
I've bought a few things that were shipped through both systems. I found the GSP worked quite well for cell phones because the shipping costs were comparable to USPS First Class Package International and the phones I bought tended to arrive faster than the cases I ordered separately that were not shipped through the GSP. I've purchased a couple of clothing items that were handled through eIS and while the shipping price was a bit more than I liked, they did arrive within the timeframe stated on the listing page.
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Once I figured out that the GSP and eIS were basically glorified forwarding systems, a lot of their quirks and pricing issues started making more sense to me. There's a number of reasons why you're seeing such high shipping prices for eIS-forwarded items. The first is that shipping within and from the US has become a lot more expensive in the past few years. You're paying for two legs of shipping: one to get the item to Illinois (the seller's domestic shipping charge), and one to get the item from Illinois to you (eIS's own shipping charges). There have been times when I've looked at the breakdown of the shipping charges and found that eIS's share of the shipping charge is actually less than the seller's domestic shipping charge.
The other reason why you may see shipping charges that seem out to lunch on eIS-forwarded items is that the eIS calculator needs information on the item's shipping dimensions and weight. Some sellers who are using flat-rate shipping within the US don't bother providing that information, unaware that it's necessary for the occasional international sale they may get. If the eIS calculator doesn't have this information, it creates a guesstimate based on the item's category, and because the system doesn't like to lose money, will make this guesstimate as high as possible.
As far as speed and tracking go, eIS isn't lightning fast, but it usually does get items to their destinations within the timeframe stated in the listing. What path it takes to get to the buyer is usually irrelevant, and after years of being a tracking geek, I've come to the conclusion that buyers have been oversold on the value of tracking. Tracking gives buyers the illusion that they have more control of the shipment than they do, and then buyers get frustrated when they realize they don’t have that control after all. Either the item gets to the item or it doesn't and what happens in between the seller or hub and the buyer doesn't make any sort of difference. That back-and-forth you're seeing in the tracking is likely some sort of glitch. Don’t give in to the hype about tracking. Stop watching the tracking of your items until a few days before they're due to arrive. Watching the tracking won't make your items arrive in better condition or show up any faster. Your blood pressure will thank you.
Thank you for attending my TED talk. 🤪
reallynicestamps
·3 weeks agoWith very few high value exceptions, I have been using untracked letter rate shipping to get my eIS shipments to Mississauga. So far, no problems.
Once at the eIS plant,tracked service is used, so I believe I am getting the best of both worlds, cheap domestic shipping which I pay fees on, and tracked shipping to my US customer who pays for the tracked leg.