Buying on ebay and the time it takes to receive your item?

[unicireo]

I am a longstanding ebay member so I am familiar with the current buyers tracking and waiting times. For example since I live in Canada if I buy something originating in the USA, - on recent buys it took 30 days to receive my purchase.

       I frequently use Amazon and in Canada I can have my purchase within a week, - for example I recently bought an ink cartridge and I had it in less than a week. Ebay has tightened up the lag time for north and south of the border but maybe members on this community board can explain why when tracking a purchase say from Seattle the tracking details shows it has over 15 different stops on the way to Canada and that is only to get the mail out of the USA, then the Canadian bureaucracy takes over and that can easily be another two weeks

       What is the need for literally going from Seattle right across the country to Chicago? Seattle is very close to Vancouver but my tiny little package seems to be for ever going to depots, and sorting facilities. and yes it seems endlessly.

    Now I know when you buy on Ebay they always use the longest possible time for delivery because it has to make all the endless stops on the way. Are these all necessary? I I buy on Amazon it does not seem to be a problem. I bought an Acer laptop recently and I got it from the USA in about a week.

     Any thoughts?

[marnotom!]

It's not clear from your post what Amazon site you're using for your purchases.  Are you making your purchases on .com and getting your items from the US, or are you making your purchases on .ca and getting your items from Canada?  Comparing shipping time from a Canadian hub versus an American one isn't really a fair comparison.

Anyway, the big differences between Amazon and eBay from a shipping perspective are ones you're probably aware of already.  One, Amazon has warehouses across the continent that they use and many of its sellers use to expedite the shipping process and to stay competitive.  Two, Amazon has its own in-house delivery network.  In a nutshell, Amazon has a lot more control over the shipping process than eBay does.  

eBay has no warehouses to store sellers' items and ship out of, and many eBay sellers don't have the clout to negotiate low cost three-day international shipping deals with carriers.  They're "just folks," and their choice of shipping methods tend to reflect that.

Some of the quirks with the contracted out "eBay International Shipping" and its predecessor, the Global Shipping Program, made more sense to me when I realized that all they are are glorified forwarding services.  Unlike with the GSP, though, there may be plans for more shipping eIS hubs as eBay winds down the GSP and another international delivery scheme (eBay International Standard Delivery).  I don't know if this will affect shipments to Canada, though.  Remember that eIS serves a lot of countries (unlike Amazon.com) and it may be simpler to keep American eBay sellers shipping Canadian-bound items to Illinois rather than figure out the intricacies of Canadian postal codes.

Also keep in mind that while we are the United States' largest trading partner, that doesn't seem to be translating so well on eBay.  While sales to Canada make up the largest proportion of international sales for most US sellers on eBay, that proportion in no way dwarfs what they're seeing from other countries or regions.  If we spent more on eBay, we might get international forwarding service that works better for us.  In the meantime, we're regarded no differently than, say, Mexico or Liechtenstein.

[unicireo]

Thanks for your reply marnotom! I agree about Amazon and their warehouses and it applies to me in rural Canada. 

    The " folksie" aspect to ebay is likely what keeps it going. I have bought lots of stuff on ebay and I have never had anything "not arrive", and it is the expectation which tends to drive the purchase depending sometimes  on terrible pictures, not always,- where you have to assess what is this piece of jewellery really like! On the other hand the most expensive piece I ever bought and it was a white gold,-diamonds on a black dial Rolex President and it arrived in a day and a half from Texas and I picked it up at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) straight off the Fedex jet!! No complaints.

   And I am still at it! Here's to Ebay!.

[dannyw1975]

Here is a video game code for Resident Evil 4. As usual, Canadian buyers are being charged shipping costs, even though the code is sent through EBAY messages.

Shipping:

US $10.89 (approx C $14.39) eBay International Shipping

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/145169009946?hash=item21ccbf4d1a:g:Po0AAOSwAvhkoh89

EBAY loves to scam Canadian buyers.

[dannyw1975]

Just ignore anything marnotom! says as well. He is part of a group of 5 or 6 people on here who are all being compensated in exchange for defending EBAY's illegal shipping activities

[marnotom!]

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@dannyw1975 wrote:

Just ignore anything marnotom! says as well. He is part of a group of 5 or 6 people on here who are all being compensated in exchange for defending EBAY's illegal shipping activities

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Yup, I got another payment from eBay sent to my Tangerine savings account yesterday.  It feels good to know my efforts are appreciated.  I hope the digital marketplace that sent you this way to trash-talk eBay is compensating you well, too.

The charge on "shipping" that video game code to Canada is there because the seller listed it in the "video games" category, so a shipping charge for a video game was applied.  eBay's tech isn't sophisticated enough to recognize the item from the seller's description or the listing title.  Garbage in, garbage out.   It's the seller that's out to lunch here, not eBay. 

What law is eBay violating, anyway?  My contact, Guido, won't tell me.

[mrdutch1001]

Just ignore everything  dannyw1975 says,  as he is paid handsomly to trash eBay ...but perhaps needs to eliminate eBay from his  life so that it need not be an irritant for him.

The rest of us work with this platform the best we can because we can...and because we choose to do so...

[kh-leslie]

Hi everyone,

This discussion has gotten a bit heated. Please remember that, while it is fine to disagree with others, discussion should always remain friendly and respectful as required by the Community Guidelines.

Thank you for your cooperation.