The eBay International Shipping (eIS) system and its predecessor, the Global Shipping Program (GSP) are/were basically glorified international forwarding services. eIS has a lot of perks for the sellers that use it to the point that shipping internationally through the system exposes the seller to less liability and responsibility than shipping directly to international buyers and even shipping within the US.
It is not mandatory that US sellers use eIS to ship outside of the country and anybody who insists that it is is either misinformed, clueless, or just making excuses. It's been around for a couple of years now and it's still a work in progress. Promised features to buyers such as combined shipping, the choice within the listing of eIS or an alternative shipping method provided by the seller, and the choice between paying taxes, duties, and brokerage at your door or at Checkout, are still slowly being rolled out.
I'd never heard about UniUni or Uni Express until a few months ago when users such as yourself, @zamuler. started posting about it in connection with eIS. They may be headquartered in Richmond just across the strait from me on Vancouver Island, but I get the sense that they don't actually have a presence in my neck of the woods. My two items that were forwarded through eIS were handled by Canada Post for the "last mile". My sense is that eIS, like the GSP before it, isn't wedded to one particular last mile carrier; the carrier used will probably depend on cost, availability, the nature of the item being handled, and, of course, the item's final destination.
As for your concerns about cost, as eIS is a forwarding service you're paying the seller's charge for shipping the item to a forwarding hub (likely in Illinois) plus eIS's shipping charge for getting the item from the hub to its final destination. I generally find that eIS's charges are a bit cheaper than the equivalent USPS service's counter rate, but sometimes adding the seller's charge for getting the item to Illinois can be a deal-breaker. By the way, that's why you see multiple tracking numbers for your item. I don't generally get too concerned about checking the tracking for my item until the estimated delivery dates as the information usually doesn't do me much good, but I've found that Parcelsapp is a pretty good universal tracking site that helps pull the various stages an eIS-forwarded item goes through in the delivery process.
How did you finally receive your item, anyway? Or did you?
