Ebay Global Shipping

[davicol46]

I bought a case of of diecast of which most were spoken for (friends & other buyers). I kept eyes on the tracking, highly anticipating delivery. May 30th my wife took receipt of a package which upon opening was not the correct item. I contacted the seller who asks me to take pics, peel back labels, send more etc. After all is said & done, it appears the Global Shipping Centre mixed items up & mislabelled my item. The seller says he is not responsible & it's up to me to take it up with ebay. So now I have to open a claim. I go through the bs & print a return label. This return, as per ebay has to ship via DHL. The nearest drop centre is one & half hours away. Okay, I have to contact DHL & jump through more hoops. Finally I get the info through & schedule  a courier to pick up. Loomis does eventually pick up. A couple hours later I receive an email from ebay that the package in enroute. The email also indicates that I should receive my refund by July. (what a joke) Also, in the refund is no indication of the money my wife paid upon delivery. (GSP handling, customs whatever) So the seller got his money & completely washes his hands of the transaction. He gets his item & back & I'm left with nothing but a HUGE PAIN you know where! My item was $170 + 24.86 to the ebay scam. I will now contact ebay by phone - I'm sure this will be interesting because I'm deaf. I'll have to get my wife involved to coach. I never ever buy from US sellers who use the GSP but this one must of slipped through due to my excitement of finding an item I really wanted. One more thing buyers. Be aware of Pitney Bowes. Any shipping they get involved with is just a total disaster waiting to happen. I have items that have been sitting in Toronto (2 hours away) since May 7th. I have tracking numbers but there is never any update. These are adult collectibles from Mattel Red Line Club & I get the same reaction from the originator - could take up to 6 weeks. B S

[marnotom!]

Where did you have to return the item to?  Did you file a "item not as described" case through eBay's Money Back Guarantee?

Usually, GSP shipments that are "not as described" due to carrier issues do not have to be returned.  Could this item have gone through GSP's replacement service which is simply called "eBay International Shipping"?

[davicol46]

I was instructed by ebay to return item to their GSP centre. They sent me a prepaid label which I printed. Ebay only uses DHL for returns so I had to go through the DHL website & make arrangements for a pickup. Loomis, who is a carrier for DHL picked up the package same day. I have never gone through this before so I'm not familiar with GSP's replacement service. That's an interesting point you bring up. The seller whose wrong item I received seemed to care less about his item & didn't contact the person the package should have gone to. This is the problem with the GSP. The seller gets his money & is done, any problems, it's completely put in the buyers court. Another point after looking at the shipping label, there was a handling & tax charge of 23.86 for a 80 dollar item. So international buyers have to be aware that when you receive an item from a seller who uses GSP, you will have to pay a handling charge & tax before the item is released to you. This GSP is another huge ebay corporate scam to put more money into the pockets of ebay.

[marnotom!]

Yeah, the involvement of DHL in the return plus taxes and processing fees being paid at delivery tells me that this wasn't a shipment sent through the Global Shipping Program, but one sent through eBay International Shipping (eIS).  It may seem that I'm nitpicking, but there are distinctions between the two forwarding services, especially for sellers. The big distinctions for buyers are the ones you've being dealing with: returns and how taxes and duties are dealt with.  GSP handles taxes at checkout, while eIS presently handles them on delivery.

The handling charge you paid goes to DHL, and the taxes, of course, go to feds and provinces, just as they would for any item handled by courier with a declared value of over C$40.  (Items sent through the mail have only a C$20 limit, but CBSA is pretty relaxed about enforcing that.)  Those charges don't go into eBay's pockets.  What eBay is hoping for with forwarding services such as the soon to be phased out GSP and the replacement eIS service is that it will increase sales numbers.  There are a lot of perks for sellers who choose to use eIS, and the perk of being responsible only for getting the package to the forwarding hub in Illinois is a huge one.  Not having to deal with returns is another.  If you were in the seller's shoes, would you want to pay international shipping rates to have your item returned to you?

Was there any signs of the item having been repackaged, or was it just mislabelled?  And was that package sent out by the seller you were dealing with or a different one?

[marnotom!]

Sorry, just realized that you didn't specify what "last mile" carrier was used to get the item to you.  For some reason, I assumed it was DHL as well, but it may not have been.  In that case, the handling charge would have gone to whatever carrier was responsible for processing customs on the item, unless it was handled by Canada Post, in which case CBSA would have done the processing and Canada Post's charge would be strictly for collecting for and remitting to CBSA the taxes/duty owed on the item.

[femmefan1946]

The seller whose wrong item I received seemed to care less about his item & didn't contact the person the package should have gone to.

The whole point of these international shipping programs is to encourage US sellers to sell internationally.

The seller is not interested in your problem because his responsibility ended at the doorstep of the freight forwarder.

The only good part in a situation like yours was that you will be reimbursed.

With the GSP, the buyer was also allowed to keep the disputed shipment, because it was too expensive for the GSP to deal with the disposal of returns.

I have never gone through this before so I'm not familiar with GSP's replacement service.

No replacement.

You get your money back.

Cash is easier to deal with.

[davicol46]

No, it wasn't repackaged. I peeled all the labels & voila, there is written the address it should have went to. So I guess that buyer got screwed as well. Item was returned to seller & he gets to sell it again. Isn't this double dipping . Over the years I have never had a real issue with USPS or Canada Post & these are the ony carriers I will use.

[davicol46]

Oh, & I just checked the sellers site & it says he doesn't accept returns Yet I had to go through all the bs as instructed by ebay.

[marnotom!]

---

@davicol46 wrote:

No, it wasn't repackaged. I peeled all the labels & voila, there is written the address it should have went to. So I guess that buyer got screwed as well. Item was returned to seller & he gets to sell it again. Isn't this double dipping 

---

Was the return address the seller's address or that of a different seller?  I'm just curious as to how badly things got screwed up here.  Anyway, the shipment is not going to go back to the seller.  eIS will see if they can salvage and liquidate the contents.  If they can't, they'll dispose of it.

---

@davicol46 wrote:

Over the years I have never had a real issue with USPS or Canada Post & these are the ony carriers I will use.

---

My wife buys quite a lot from the US from a number of different sources, and I don't think any of them ship directly to Canada using the postal system.  Usually other carriers are involved in some way.  Like it or not, I think we're looking at the future of international shipping from the US.

---

@davicol46 wrote:

Oh, & I just checked the sellers site & it says he doesn't accept returns Yet I had to go through all the bs as instructed by ebay.

---

The returns being referred to there are "remorse" returns, the "I don't like it / I don't want it anymore" variety, not returns for damage or defects.