eBay

norbkaus · ‎09-26-2016

I purchased an item on EBay and global shipping declared that it was delivered to my door. I was at home and never saw them deliver anything!

No one came to my door, I did not sign for anything and I waited for a few days more, revisited my purchase, which had claimed it would arrive within 7 to 11 days of my purchase! That time frame had come and gone, so I sent in a resolution request to find out what happened to my package.

EBay simply sent me back a decision that I would not be refunded (which I did not ask for) and I was SOL!! To them it's, "too bad, so sad"! They claim that the delivery system had delivered, which they had NOT and too bad for me!!

I had purchased many items from EBay and never had a problem. This Global Shipping Program is relatively new to me, though I have received several purchases through it. This is the first time I have had this problem! The price was substantial and EBay tells me I'm out the money!

Has anyone else experienced such a fraud by EBay's shipping system? This is very aggravating and has completely destroyed my faith in EBay. All it takes is one incident involving a lot of money!

marnotom! · ‎09-29-2016

@billybishop72 wrote:

I'm amazed at how knowledgeable you are of the intricate fine technicalities of the whole setup.....You need to stop working pro buono [sic] for Pitney Bowes....

Or maybe more people need to do their homework before making a purchase through the Global Shipping Program.

I've only purchased two items that were shipped that way, but they worked out well and I didn't get soaked or stiffed. Maybe if more people read over the terms and conditions and visited this discussion board before making a purchase, we wouldn't see as many people who have had issues with it.

afantiques · ‎09-30-2016

I don't think it's right that my package gets opened, repackaged, resealed and shipped for much less than what I was forced to pay for....and the GSP pocketing the difference.

As they go, ypur model kit was rather small and light. Other kits in that category can be much larger and heavier.

If the seller does not supply weight and size an avarage cost for the category is applied as the transport cost. This means that above average size parcels travel cheaper than might be expected. It's not really the GSP picking on your item and 'keeping the money', they are cross subsidising the whole category and using the surplus on light items to cover the undercharge on heavy ones.

All they are concerned with is that if they ship a ton of model aircraft kits they get paid for their costs plus a modest profit. You can take advantage of this by buying larger, heavier objects which will ship at lower prices than other shipping methods.

i.am.vivian · ‎09-30-2016

I'll probably regret saying all this by I really think people should not have to thoroughly research a shipper on eBay first. No one buying should be expected to do extensive homework on a delivery method offered by any online seller but especially here on eBay. If the shipper is so awful that people can be told it serves them right for using it when they had the chance to do a detailed study of the pros and cons beforehand, I think the responsiblity to make something more acceptable is on eBay and the shipper and not on the occasional buyer.

billybishop72 · ‎09-30-2016

afantiques wrote...

If the seller does not supply weight and size an avarage cost for the category is applied as the transport cost. This means that above average size parcels travel cheaper than might be expected. It's not really the GSP picking on your item and 'keeping the money', they are cross subsidising the whole category and using the surplus on light items to cover the undercharge on heavy ones.

All they are concerned with is that if they ship a ton of model aircraft kits they get paid for their costs plus a modest profit. You can take advantage of this by buying larger, heavier objects which will ship at lower prices than other shipping methods.

Now that's an interesting explanation...makes sense, too....I'll refrain from accusing Pitney-Bowes of trying t force to buy higher priced items... 😉

marnotom! · ‎09-30-2016

@i.am.vivian wrote:

I'll probably regret saying all this by I really think people should not have to thoroughly research a shipper on eBay first. No one buying should be expected to do extensive homework on a delivery method offered by any online seller but especially here on eBay. If the shipper is so awful that people can be told it serves them right for using it when they had the chance to do a detailed study of the pros and cons beforehand, I think the responsiblity to make something more acceptable is on eBay and the shipper and not on the occasional buyer.

I appreciate your points, but I think what has to be considered here is that the Global "Shipping" Program is actually more accurately framed as a forwarding service. (I'm sure I've mentioned several times on the discussion boards that this program would probably be better named as such in order to manage buyer and seller expectations more appropriately.)

When a buyer purchases an item shipped directly by a seller, the buyer does not have to agree to a set of terms and conditions set by the shipping method chosen by the seller. The seller is responsible for his or her choice of shipping method and the safe delivery of the item to the buyer. The seller is the one on record as having paid for the services of the outfit offering this shipping method, even if the buyer has paid the seller to ship the item.

For an item forwarded through the Global "Shipping" Program, the buyer and Pitney Bowes are bound by an agreement. The seller is not a party to this agreement. The buyer pays Pitney Bowes for its (largely contracted out) services and is on record for having done so and is also responsible for ensuring that Pitney Bowes does its job properly.

The Global "Shipping" Program requires more involvement from the buyer than a sale where the seller is completely responsible for the transport of the item to the buyer. You'd better believe that if I'm dealing with a "shipping" method where I have to deal with a set of terms and conditions, I'm going to get a pretty good idea of those terms and conditions and try to research it for real world experiences.

00nevermind00 · ‎09-30-2016

@marnotom! wrote:

I appreciate your points, but I think what has to be considered here is that the Global "Shipping" Program is actually more accurately framed as a forwarding service. (I'm sure I've mentioned several times on the discussion boards that this program would probably be better named as such in order to manage buyer and seller expectations more appropriately.)

When a buyer purchases an item shipped directly by a seller, the buyer does not have to agree to a set of terms and conditions set by the shipping method chosen by the seller. The seller is responsible for his or her choice of shipping method and the safe delivery of the item to the buyer. The seller is the one on record as having paid for the services of the outfit offering this shipping method, even if the buyer has paid the seller to ship the item.

For an item forwarded through the Global "Shipping" Program, the buyer and Pitney Bowes are bound by an agreement. The seller is not a party to this agreement. The buyer pays Pitney Bowes for its (largely contracted out) services and is on record for having done so and is also responsible for ensuring that Pitney Bowes does its job properly.

The Global "Shipping" Program requires more involvement from the buyer than a sale where the seller is completely responsible for the transport of the item to the buyer. You'd better believe that if I'm dealing with a "shipping" method where I have to deal with a set of terms and conditions, I'm going to get a pretty good idea of those terms and conditions and try to research it for real world experiences.

This is all fine and dandy, but I agree with Vivian here. As can be seen from reading the .com boards, there are buyers who don't even know what the GSP is. They come to eBay to buy items, find what they're looking for at a price that seems reasonable to them and buy them.

Many buyers don't even read listing descriptions yet they are expected to sit through the looooooooooooooong GSP Terms & Conditions? That just ain't gonna happen.

I wonder how many buyers land on the GSP Terms & Conditions gobbledigook page with its minuscule font and long unbroken blocks of text full of whereases and notwithstandings, and simply run for cover. Any B&M store that would post something like this at the door as required reading before shopping would have no customers left.

marnotom! · ‎10-01-2016

@00nevermind00 wrote:

This is all fine and dandy, but I agree with Vivian here. As can be seen from reading the .com boards, there are buyers who don't even know what the GSP is. They come to eBay to buy items, find what they're looking for at a price that seems reasonable to them and buy them.

But why do we conclude that it's the fault of eBay or Pitney Bowes that these buyers don't know about the GSP? For all we know, many of these buyers "come to eBay to buy items," don't do any sort of homework whatsoever, and make life miserable for sellers who don't use the GSP as well.

@00nevermind00 wrote:

Many buyers don't even read listing descriptions yet they are expected to sit through the looooooooooooooong GSP Terms & Conditions? That just ain't gonna happen.

These are probably the sort of buyers that eBay and most sellers would sooner not see on the site, then.

@00nevermind00 wrote:

I wonder how many buyers land on the GSP Terms & Conditions gobbledigook page with its minuscule font and long unbroken blocks of text full of whereases and notwithstandings, and simply run for cover. Any B&M store that would post something like this at the door as required reading before shopping would have no customers left.

No question the GSP terms and conditions page is lengthy, but it's also remarkably free of legal jargon, IMO. There's no "whereases" or "wherefores" and only one "notwithstanding". Having said that, the wording is pretty sneaky, and one has to be fairly familiar with the workings of eBay and be able to read between the lines if they want to consult the T&C to get an idea of how to resolve a problem they've encountered using the program.

Your B&M store comparison is pretty irrelevant in this case. The experience of buying in a B&M environment is quite different than buying online anyway, and no matter how simple we try to make internet purchasing there are parties who are going to want to have their assets covered. When goods still have to be transported from business to consumer, there is always going to be need for terms and conditions of some sort.

And lest we forget eBay has its own user agreement that people have to "sign off" on before using the site.

As I've suggested early, if only Pitney Bowes and/or eBay had had the gumption to call this a forwarding program, I think buyer expectations would have been managed a lot better and we'd have more people taking it upon themselves to learn about the program before making a purchase rather than afterwards.

i.am.vivian · ‎10-03-2016

@marnotom! wrote:
@00nevermind00 wrote:

Many buyers don't even read listing descriptions yet they are expected to sit through the looooooooooooooong GSP Terms & Conditions?
These are probably the sort of buyers that eBay and most sellers would sooner not see on the site, then.

Seriously?

marnotom! · ‎10-03-2016

@i.am.vivian wrote:

Seriously?

Call me a weirdo, but I think that given eBay's renewed focus on attracting sellers to the site, I don't think it's going to be cutting as much slack to buyers who don't have a basic understanding of how the site works, including the user agreement. These users not only drive sellers away from the site, but they're also very labour intensive when there is a fire to be put out.

i.am.vivian · ‎10-04-2016

@marnotom! wrote:
I think that given eBay's renewed focus on attracting sellers to the site, I don't think it's going to be cutting as much slack to buyers who don't have a basic understanding of how the site works, including the user agreement. These users not only drive sellers away from the site, but they're also very labour intensive when there is a fire to be put out.

Well now, isn't that something. 🙂

00nevermind00 · ‎10-04-2016

@marnotom! wrote:

I think that given eBay's renewed focus on attracting sellers to the site, I don't think it's going to be cutting as much slack to buyers who don't have a basic understanding of how the site works, including the user agreement. These users not only drive sellers away from the site, but they're also very labour intensive when there is a fire to be put out.

You think too much.

You should visit the Seller Central & Shipping/Packaging boards on .com. You'd realize just how off-base this statement is.

In any event, the GSP is all about sellers. The buyer doesn't matter, only his/her wallet does.