Long shipping and deadlines

[ay656]

I bought something from China, and shipping arrival estimate is March 17 (wow!). I don't mind waiting, but what if they don't send anything? March 17 is way past eBay's 60-day frame for opening a dispute. And since it's past 60 days I won't even be able to leave a negative feedback. Wanted to send an email to eBay with these questions, but didn't find a way.

[i.am.vivian · Accepted solution]

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@ay656 wrote:

I bought something from China, and shipping arrival estimate is March 17 (wow!). I don't mind waiting, but what if they don't send anything? March 17 is way past eBay's 60-day frame for opening a dispute. And since it's past 60 days I won't even be able to leave a negative feedback. Wanted to send an email to eBay with these questions, but didn't find a way.

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It's just as well.  You will get better answers from the other members here than from eBay anyway.  

On eBay you have 30 days after that LAST estimated delivery date to file a claim.  If it is March 17, then your last date to file a claim would be April 15.  

If you paid from a PayPal account, you have 180 days from when you PAID to file a claim with them.  180 days doesn't sound like much but it is almost 6 months.  

The long delivery estimate will be because first of all items from China can take up to 3 months to arrive.  They come on a boat, they are delayed getting on, they are stockpiled when they arrive, the reasons and stories are endless.  One thing that remains the same is that people who buy from there regularly all say that items WILL arrive but can easily take 2 months or more.  

Your item may arrive way before then, they often do, but the seller is probably fed up with all those "Where's my item" claims after only 3 or 4 weeks.  To deal with that, the seller sets an extremely long "handling time" on their end and that comes out as a long delivery time on your end.  Either way, you have until mid-April on eBay to file a claim if it does not arrive.  

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/item-not-received.html#notreceived

Don't worry about not leaving feedback.  You still have only 60 days from when the listing ended to do that but it no longer counts on a sellers record (good or bad) and what matters most is if you have your item or not.  If you look at the seller's feedback now there are probably lots of comments saying just about everything already.  Most people don't read it anyway.  

[femmefan1946]

Mark the date you consider a reasonable wait on your calendar.

If it doesn't arrive by then, but eBay won't let you open a dispute, you can open one on Paypal for 180 days after payment. (Instead of eBay's 30 days after delivery or last expected delivery date.)

The delivery window should have shown up before you clicked Pay Now, but it is easy to overlook in the excitement of finding The Thing.

[ay656]

Thanks. If the 30 days start counting after the last delivery estimate then it's not the problem.

5-7 years ago it was 3 weeks to a month, Now it's often over two months for some reason.

[synaptic2112]

I agree shipping times from China in particular are ridiculous of late. I don't care what the excuses are or where the

fault lies but we seem to be heading back to the dark ages with 1 to 3 month shipping times. This now 2017 right?

If you live in Canada the fault lies within our own "highly inefficient and way too expensive" gov't run customs and postal service. Canada customs is the most archaic gov't organization there is.

[femmefan1946]

Nope.

The fault lies with Chinese sellers who ship the cheapest possible way (if they ship at all, another story) which is surface and sloooooow.

And it lies with China Post, which has been using Universal Postal Union policies which allow signatories to deliver each other's mail but not paying enough to cover the actual costs.

North Americal postal services have reacted by storing China Post parcels until they have enough to make it economic to ship them all to their destinations, (the container system) instead of handling them quickly and individually, losing more money in the process.

[khemical7]

this is no excuse. the ship across only takes about 9 days, where's the other 2.5+ months come from? laziness.

[femmefan1946]

First the parcel has to get onto the ship.

Then the ship has to get filled.

Then the ship sails.

Then the ship gets to the first port.

Then the ship gets to the next port.

Then the ship gets captured by pirates in the South China Sea.

Then the pirates take the ship to the next port.

Then the Australian Coast Guard captures the pirates and frees the orginal crew.

Then the crew is sent to Nauru along with the pirates while everything is sorted out.

Then the ship with a new crew gets to the next port.

Finally it arrives in Vancouver and Canada Post warehouses everything while they conduct a search for fentanyl.

Then it gets delivered.

And sometimes there are delays.

[i.am.vivian]

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@khemical7 wrote:

this is no excuse. the ship across only takes about 9 days, where's the other 2.5+ months come from? laziness.

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9 Days?  Where ever did you hear that?  

https://www.reference.com/business-finance/long-cargo-ship-china-united-states-b7c6214e137c2e0a

"...between China and the United States ..., these journeys take between two weeks and a month to complete.

In addition ..., handling, customs and other procedures can add significantly to the amount of time necessary to ship goods across the Pacific. It can take as many as 33 days to prep a shipment for transit, and ... six more days before the cargo is released.

...These packages sometimes take over a month to arrive."

And that is when there are no delays at the border due to the importing of deadly drugs into the country.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/carfentanil-exports-china-ap-investigation-1.3795415

"carfentanil is so deadly that an amount smaller than a poppy seed can kill a person."

And this stuff is being legally produced in China and exported into Canada.  Imagine if someone who doesn't like you is able to get hold of some of this.  

How soundly would you sleep then?

It isn't even some new way to get high.  It's just a murderous weapon, lethal in minuscule amounts. 

http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1180229&tp=1

Incoming items from China must be checked for this stuff and that means delays, but keeping garbage like this off the streets is more important than eBuyers getting their cheap gadgets in a hurry. 

If you want items that will come more quickly, use the Item Location on the left of the page to click on NORTH AMERICA.  

                   

[gcggahagill]

Ok, that, is hilarious 😂

[ypdc_dennis]

ZOMBIE thread from 2016

[kh-leslie]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.