eBay

coffeehound · ‎03-04-2017

Heya!

I'm curious if anybody else has noticed a HUGE increase in items ordered from China not being delivered.

I tried to ask this question of eBay customer support but they've made it all but impossible to contact them with a general question now.

Anyway, I used to have -no- problem whatsoever with deliveries from China but lately (last 6-12 months) things have become really bad and I am averaging about 50% on delivery. Yep, that bad.

Possible problems include sellers in China not even bothering to ship, items being lost in China, or items being lost by Canada Post. I would -not- be at all surprised if the problem lay with Canada Post, so I'm curious if people elsewhere are experiencing the same.

Of course, the easiest solution is to confine my purchases to other (e.g. North American) sellers but let's face it: If I can get a part from China for $3.00 with free shipping and the identical part is $30.00 plus $10-$15 shipping from Canada or USA, I'd be an idiot to subject myself to what amounts to a 1500% markup. That is, in a word, robbery. Ooops: I'm ranting.

Anyway, yeah, only about 50% of the stuff I'm ordering from China is making it here. I've never had problems getting a refund (thanks eBay!) but this involves waiting up to 3-4 months for it to not show up, then getting a refund, then ordering another from a different (usually local) source. That's 3-4 months that I'm not fixing something or playing with a new toy.

Thanks,

Cheers!

Gary

109_2 · ‎03-21-2017

Maybe that is the reason.

CANADA POST SITTING ON MILLIONS OF PACKAGES FROM CHINA

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/User-to-User-Help/CANADA-POST-SITTING-ON-MILLIONS-OF-PACKAGES-FROM-CHINA...

coffeehound · ‎03-21-2017

Wow.

All too easy to belive, unfortunately.

CP has gone waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy downhill in the last 18 months or so and is probably irrecoverable.

The story, if true, would definitely explain the ~50% delivery (or non-delivery) rate I have been experiencing,

Sellers are going to refuse to ship to Canada (a LOT already do) and Canada Post will implode: All they have left is parcel service.

And I'll do a happy dance when it happens.

G

ypdc_dennis · ‎03-22-2017

@coffeehound wrote:

Sellers are going to refuse to ship to Canada (a LOT already do) and Canada Post will implode: All they have left is parcel service.

Canada Post makes no money delivering the cheap untracked packages from China. Canada Post would be quite happy to get rid of this money losing package delivery method.

The other reason for slow delivery is increased customs checking (for the last year) for toxic drug shipments. Earlier this month China finally banned the manufacture of some of those toxic drugs (before that they were completely legal to produce).

-..-

coffeehound · ‎03-22-2017

I've no doubt that they don't care about the cheap packages from China, but their problem is also affecting shipments from the USA and UK - sellers are grumbling about Canada Post and seriously considering refusing to ship to Canada. The latest I've heard from is a vendor in Washington state who has been inundated with refund requests lately and who's going to pull the plug on Canada: losing money on every shipment north of the border is bad business 😉

I don't know what we're going to accomplish here, though: I doubt CP reads these forums - or would care about it if they did.

It must be nice to be in a unionized organization on the government dole in a political climate of "free money for as long as we're in power." And you better believe that the CEO is going to be giving himself a big fat performance bonus (again) this year....

(spit)

ypdc_dennis · ‎03-22-2017

@coffeehound wrote:
... And you better believe that the CEO is going to be giving himself a big fat performance bonus (again) this year....

Blame Harper for that choice of CEO. He renewed the CEO's contract early during the last election.

...

Quarterly CPC financial reports:

https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/pages/aboutus/details.page?article=quarterly_report

Annual financial reports:

https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/pages/aboutus/details.page?article=annual_report

c_ka_kuen · ‎03-22-2017

I am on the same boat. I was suspicious that the Canadian post workers might steal my items until I read this post. This is getting ridiculous, about half of my purchases don't show up well past their expected delivery date. I talked to the mail delivery guy, he told me there is a problem with stricter screening process on packages. Canada post sucks, **bleep** Canada post!

marnotom! · ‎03-22-2017

@c_ka_kuen wrote:

I talked to the mail delivery guy, he told me there is a problem with stricter screening process on packages. Canada post sucks, **bleep** Canada post!

It's not Canada Post that's screening the packages. It's Canada Border Services.

poobunsdudley · ‎03-29-2017

I've recently started receiving items I ordered on Aliexpress in September, so don't be surprised if your items aren't lost, just taking 6+ months to be processed by CP. What I don't understand is how roughly 1 in every 10 things I buy arrives within 4 weeks but the other 9 are taking months and months. I'm also concerned about the number of things I have won here and paid for that have apparently been delivered according to my purchase history, yet I have not received them. I currently have 24 item not received cases open for items that say they have been delivered according to the Chinese tracking. I've had other items that I ordered at the same time arrive without a problem, so it's not my address that's wrong.

Is anyone else having this issue?

femmefan1946 · ‎03-29-2017

a vendor in Washington state who has been inundated with refund requests lately and who's going to pull the plug on Canada:

Is he using LetterPost or USPS First Class International Parcel?

The former is not trackable to Canada , but the latter is.

Some sellers who sell inexpensive , lightweight items that can move by their nation's equivalent of LetterPost/Light Packet, which can't be tracked, instead self-insure using what is called Cookie Jar Insurance.

Basically they add a few pennies to every asking price and use the pennies accumulating in a virtual Cookie Jar to pay the occasional dispute, without involving eBay.

Just as every B&M store budgets shoptheft and breakage into their selling prices.

It's a cost of doing business, and it is paid by the buyer.

If your friend in Washington is getting more than one refund request (Item Not Received) for every one hundred sales, he should be looking at Cookie Jar Insurance. A one percent loss rate is very high.

coffeehound · ‎03-29-2017

"Is he using LetterPost or USPS First Class International Parcel? he former is not trackable to Canada , but the latter is."

The Washington vendor is not a friend (especially seeing as how he's had to refund two purchases for me so far), but this particular vendor uses the UPS mail system (can't remember the name). Both times, the packages disappeared at the border and their tracking information stops dead. Neither item should have raised concerns at Customs, as both were small electrical components (a socket and a potentiometer) with which to repair an old USA-made amplifier.

I've received a similar complaint from a business in Las Vegas (non eBay) that is about to pull the plug on Canadian sales until this gets sorted out. He uses trackable USPS parcel service and is constantly having to open investigations with USPS when the parcels go missing as soon as they cross the border. When I try to follow up with Canada post, they refuse to talk to me and say it's his problem and he has to investigate/trace from his end. He's had enough.

I don't know how the Chinese vendors are going to stay in business when they're selling items at absolute rock-bottom prices and then having to refund so many shipments to Canada; there's obviously no room in their profit margin to cover these losses when they're selling something for a buck or two.

Meh. I'm returning to brick and mortar shopping until CP either fixes itself or privatizes.

femmefan1946 · ‎03-29-2017

until CP either fixes itself or privatizes.

but

but this particular vendor uses the UPS mail system (can't remember the name).

which presumably is a private system.

coffeehound · ‎03-29-2017

"until CP either fixes itself or privatizes.

,strong.but,/strong.

but this particular vendor uses the UPS mail system (can't remember the name).

which presumably is a private system."

I looked up the carrier: It is UPS Mail Innovations and the backbone is the postal service. The carrier in Canada is Canada Post, not a private system or courier.

marnotom! · ‎03-30-2017

@coffeehound wrote:

I looked up the carrier: It is UPS Mail Innovations and the backbone is the postal service. The carrier in Canada is Canada Post, not a private system or courier.

Just out of curiosity, what site are you using to track your package?