Ebay Global Shipping disaster

[abd-trade]

I purchased an item on Ebay in late April. It still wasn't shipped at all for over 5 days, so I sent an inquiry and then a cancellation request to the seller. The seller confirmed the order cancellation, but it turned out that the item was actually getting shipped from a 3rd party "supplier" (different from the location provided with the listing, which is an obvious breach of eBay's policies) and they sent it out regardless a few days later. After going through the hassle of sending this back to the seller (I had already had bought another one from Amazon, which I ordered a week later and received two weeks earlier than Ebay's shipment), I got some first hand experience of the disaster that is Ebay global shipping. I had to send messages to Ebay for almost two months in an attempt to get my shipping refunded. Ebay told me that they will refund the fee, but they aren't able to because of Paypal, which Paypal confirmed was absolute bs. Finally I received a last message from Ebay which just brushed off my concerns with a generic response declining my refund (obviously that person never read the previous communication) and telling me to talk to the scumbag seller and see if they are willing to do anything (obviously not).  I messaged Ebay back right away to appeal this, but never received a reply after that. Fast forward a couple of months, I had some time to request follow-up support. I got dicked around for over an hour by their chat support and finally got brushed off again by a "supervisor" in an email message two days later.

I have learned my lesson at the cost of $50 and quite a bit of my time. Ebay is garbage now and couldn't care less about fixing problems for buyers. Ebay global shipping is an abomination. Buy elsewhere.

[reallynicestamps]

It still wasn't shipped at all for over 5 days, so I sent an inquiry and then a cancellation request to the seller. The seller confirmed the order cancellation, but

The seller should have refunded you immediately.

I have no idea why he would not have stopped the shipment immediately except that he kept your money by not doing so.

But when there is a dropshipped item, you know the seller is lazy and has no idea of what he is selling.

However. eBay was not useful (did you ever ask for a GSP specialist? Too late now.)

You have 180 days from payment to open a Dispute through Paypal.

For the entire amount you paid, including import fees and shipping.

The PP Resolution Centre is at the top of your PP page under Tools.

Do NOT talk to any human being, it will screw things up. You really really want the robots.

If the seller cannot prove delivery (not shipping, delivery) you will be refunded.

If the item was delivered, you will have to pay return shipping. That's the trade off for the six month Dispute period.

Mark the package Returned Merchandise. Use tracking. Send it to the seller, not the dropshipping supplier.

When the tracking shows delivered, PP will refund you in full your original payment. You will not get your return shipping cost back.

Since you have already returned the item, enter the tracking number and delivery date in the Dispute and escalate to a Claim.

I'm actually a bit surprised that a dropshipper was using GSP at all, since it is a freight forwarder.

Surprised enough to think the seller was lying in his teeth, since dropshippers are almost always shipping from overseas, although there are some shipping from US warehouses.

[marnotom!]

I don’t get the sense from the buyer’s story that the Global Shipping Program was deployed in this sale, @reallynicestamps. Perhaps it was applied to the listing without the seller realizing it, however.

New or infrequent eBay users sometimes apply the descriptor “Global Shipping” to a purchase from a non-Canadian seller either because they believe the GSP applies to all purchases from sellers outside of Canada or because they think it’s just how international shipments are described.