Shipping Over Charged

[jeff6372]

A seller from the UK put two items in one box and did not tell eBay that is was combined shipping, I was charged extra shipping of £21.00 (around 40 bucks Canadian).

 She said it would be OK, just choose to ignore the shipping charges on the item that wasn't actually shipped.

I should have known better, there are never any options to do this.

She claims that she never sees any of the money I pay her for the shipping, it all goes into eBay's pocket, I don't know about that ?

 I have spoken to eBay and they said wait until you get the parcel (there's only one with a tracking number)

I have the parcel; so now what happens ?

 She called eBay on her end and I was told by her/eBay to wait 30 to 40 days and it should sort itself out, but if I wait that long, I'm pretty sure the window will close for me to do anything about it.

I called eBay on my end, and customer service said to ask for a refund based upon the over-charge where it will eventually get escalated to receive the entire amout back of the items, including the shipping charges.

Basically forcing a very negative outcome _ this is not the way to do things as I have the items.

I can't really trust dysfunctional eBay to fix this other then to keep calling until I can find someone in customer service to fix this mess.

It's almost not worth the hassle over 40 bucks, but still.

Not sure what to do here ???

Jeff

[marnotom!]

What is the shipping method being used as stated on the listing page? Is it “International Priority Shipping,” better known as The Global Shipping Program?

[jeff6372]

"International Priority Shipping,” better known as The Global Shipping Program", on the Canadian eBay page, it even gave the amount.

[jeff6372]

On the UK eBay page it says, Will post to Canada. Read item description or contact seller for postage options. See detailsfor postage. I don't know if she sees this, but she claims that she didn't know it was going outside the UK to Canada.

[marnotom!]

I'm mystified as to why there's no shipping method to Canada showing up on the UK site's version of the listing, but I think that's the least of our concerns right now.

So now that we've confirmed that the seller used the Global Shipping Program (GSP) on your listing, we can at least sort a few things out.  The GSP is basically a glorified international freight forwarding service.  Sellers ship their items to a hub in the UK, not directly to the buyer, and the hub processes the items for customs and delivery to their final destination.  Sellers will receive from eBay their domestic shipping charge (for shipping the item to the hub) and eBay collects the balance of the shipping charges and any import charges (usually PST/GST, duties if applicable, and a smallish processing charge) that might be associated with the item.

One of the quirks with the GSP (and the related "eBay International Shipping" program used by some Canadian and US sellers) is that it doesn't support combined shipping very well because each individual item has to have its own entry on the customs documentation it uses.  About the only way you can get anything resembling combined shipping with items being forwarded by the GSP is if you use the "add to cart" feature if it's available on the listing.  Otherwise, it's best to ask the seller if they can set up a private listing for you for all the items you're interested in, provided that they're similar enough to go through with the same export codes and description.

To be blunt, I don't think your seller knew that the listing had the GSP applied to it and was pretty clueless when it came to getting your items shipped out.  Boxing them up together could have caused some serious processing issues at the hub and I think you were lucky to receive them at all.

As for the subject of your refund for the "extra" shipping charges, people seem to have better luck contacting those working the eBay social media customer service links.  You should be able to find links to them at the bottom of most eBay pages.  If you get nowhere fast with this, just post again and I or someone will give you actual URLs.  Good luck!