eBay international shipping--package lost?

[northamericanaturals]

Hello, Fellow Community Members,

This is my first time placing an order internationally. I have read all the posts regarding the many steps taken before an item gets to Canada from the US. However, my case seems to have taken a turn.

Initially, the seller shipped my order to the eBay hub, at which point, it came to a halt for a week before being provided an asendia tracking #, which showed the destination as Canada. Unfortunately, that didn't happen despite clearing US customs; the package was ultimately delivered to an address in Illinois (this is the second tracking number), and now eBay says my package was successfully delivered to its DESTINATION. The order is no longer active due to the latest delivery, and there is nothing else to go on, which is certainly odd.

I would appreciate it if anyone here could help me with this. Kindly review the attachments for the tracking information. You will see that it says the entire delivery was completed and that the package was delivered to me. It would not let me add more than one attachment, so I added the last step, which was from the hub to me via asendia.

[marnotom!]

From the little I can see of the more detailed tracking info in the bottom half of the image you attached, it appears that there’s contradictory information on your item’s shipping progress. The “thermometer” reading states that the item has reached you, but the last event in the more detailed tracking info is for the item being taken in by a worker at the eBay International Shipping hub, although a location for that scan isn't given.  It's the usual next step after the item is processed at the Carol Stream post office.  However, your statement about the item clearing customs (Canadian, by the way, not US) doesn’t seem to make sense in this context.

I suggest you use that EEUS-prefixed tracking number to look up the item’s tracking on the Parcelsapp website. That site generally does a pretty good job of pulling together the tracking information when multiple carriers are responsible for transporting an item. If you want to post any screenshots for that in your next post, @northamericanaturals, I suggest you use the “photos” option as the screenshots will be treated as inline links rather than attachments and you should be able to post more than one, if memory serves.

[reallynicestamps]

First - Don't watch tracking.

Second- the Illinois address is the eIS plant where it passed customs and is redirected to Canada.

From the point of view of the Seller, and eIS is a Seller Protection program, their responsibility for delivery is now ended.

Third- the parcel will continue moving as the responsibility of eIS.

Fourth- if the parcel doesn't arrive by the last estimated date eBay gave you, you will be refunded.

Fifth- if the parcel arrives after you are refunded, you get to keep both the purchase and the refunded payment.

Sixth- Don't watch tracking.

[northamericanaturals]

Hello there, 

Thanks for taking the time to respond to me.

No, I am referring to "US Customs", which you will see in the picture attached to my response here. I didn't even know it had to go through such a step, as I expected it to reach customs once in Canada.

Further, I have tracked the package entirely, and it shows as delivered. The order is now marked as complete and there's nothing else I can do. I've reached out to eBay support, but they've yet to reach back out to me despite the case I opened and the email I sent.

Feel free to review the tracking information yourself via the attachments provided. You'll see how this can not only inconvinience buyers but also confuse them significantly.  (Thank you for the tip on how to upload more attachments).

[northamericanaturals]

Thanks for taking the time to chime in and offer your feedback.

I understand all that you have said clearly, but the lack of information provided is incredibly inconvenient and confusing. Why mark the item as delivered and the order complete if it hasn't even entered Canada? No further tracking information is provided or will be, and there's no way for me to determine if this package will reach me or not.

I have attached some attachments to my response to @marnotom! for clarification. It was quite a strange experience and one that genuinely screamed concern, especially with an item that cost me almost USD 700.

Regardless, I have contacted eBay support via email and a case I opened for not receiving the item. I have yet to hear back, but I'm hoping they respond to me shortly to discuss this matter further.

[marnotom!]

Thanks for the additional screenshots, @northamericanaturals.  I'm hoping you can follow these up with some of the event scan information from Parcelsapp, as it may have some scan information that's not showing up for eBay.  What it's looking like to me right now is that the item had to be returned after going through a Canadian customs pre-clearance process.  I'm guessing that something was missed when the item was originally processed at the eIS hub.  Perhaps there was a documentation issue.  Did you pay for the taxes owing on the item at Checkout?

What's the last estimated date of delivery for the item?  Seeing as the item only reached it's "destination" on Friday, I would have thought that it's a little too soon to file a claim of non-receipt, especially before finding out what's going on with it.  There may have been plans to send it out again which may have "reset the thermometer".

Anyway, check out Parcelsapp and do keep us, uh, posted.

[pjcdn2005]

If I am reading it right, it looks as if it was redelivered back to the hub.  Does it say n the parcels app tracking the location/city of the last 'left with individual'?  

How did you contact eBay via email as I didn't think that they had any sort of customer service channel through email?  There is a good chance that the automatic system will see the delivered info in your item not received claim and rule against you as they don't tend to look at delivery location. I would contact eBays customer service on one of the social media platforms on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter/X by sending a private message with the link to the parcelsapp tracking info.  You coukd also contact them by clicking on help/contact at the top of the page and then by scrolling down to the contact us link. If you choose the chat option there I believe that you can get a live agent by typing Agent into the chat box.

[reallynicestamps]

What is the last estimated delivery date for the parcel?

If that has not passed just mark it on your calendar.

Don't watch tracking.

What is the last estimated delivery date for the parcel?

It's been in transit for 13 days.

Normally it takes up to 21 days for parcels to arrive from the USA, sometimes faster sometimes slower.

Watching tracking does not speed things up.

What is the last estimated delivery date for the parcel?

[marnotom!]

@reallynicestamps, the progress meter screenshot in the first post shows the item shipping out on 11 April, so I'd say that the last estimated delivery date is upon us or is very close to it if the typical three-week maximum has been applied here.  I'd say that @northamericanaturals has some justification to be checking the tracking at this point, at least.

[northamericanaturals]

Hello again @marnotom! - Thank you very much for your time and help throughout this awful experience!

Unfortunately, the order never arrived. Once the delivery date passed, I was issued a full refund after attempting to contact eBay customer service numerous times. Apparently, the package was returned to eBay's hub in Illinois, for some unknown reason.

Overall, my experience was nothing short of inadequate, which has been an eye opener. I will most definitely not be doing business with eBay sellers using eBay International Shipping again. 

[northamericanaturals]

Hello @pjcdn2005 , 

As I explained in my response to @marnotom! , the order was returned to eBay's hub, and I was issued a refund several days after the deliver date passed. Unfortunately, acquring a refund was not easy, as I had to contact eBay numerous times to receive it.

As for reaching eBay's customer service, you can certainly do so via email using the following address: customerhelp@ebay.com

Thank you for chiming in to help anyway!

[marnotom!]

Thanks for the update, @northamericanaturals.  I'm still wondering if the tracking information on Parcelsapp would have given you more of an idea of what may have caused the item to be returned to the hub, but you got your refund and that's what really matters.

I can understand your frustration with how this all went down.  I suspect that whoever coded the tracking page for eBay didn't anticipate that items could get returned to the hub as the hub is supposed to catch anything that could be problematic, so the item doing a U-turn and scanning as "delivered" to the hub was interpreted by the eBay page as a final delivery.  I do think, though, that you'd have had better luck dealing with customer service through online chat or through eBay's Facebook or X/Twitter accounts.  eBay really isn't set up to do customer service for buyers by email, and the fact that you had to keep trying to get through seems like evidence of this.

Something to consider for future purchases is that you can still purchase from sellers using eBay International Shipping without actually using the service if you're willing to take the risk of using the forwarding service of your choice, or just having the item sent to a trusted friend or relative in the United States for them to forward or hang on for you.  Keep in mind that your buyer protections may be limited depending on how you go about this, however.

Hope your future purchases go more smoothly than this one.