About GSP and Pitney Bowes

[lewis_ren]

I just had the worse shipping experience in my life. 

I ordered and Surface on eBay from the States (I'm from Canada) and the seller used the GSP to ship it to me. A week later the package arrived in my city (could see through the tracking system) and stayed there for a few days. I then recieved and email from Pitney Bowes saying the package was "undelivrable" because of an issue with my address. I've ordered many things on eBay with the same address and get many deliveries from Canada Post every months (CP is the courrier Pitney Bowes is using) and never had an issue.

So I get the email from Pitney Bowes saying I need to update my address for reshipment. The issue is that the **bleep** page is broken and I can't click "submit for reshipment" button. So I got in contact with Canada Post right away but they said the tag for reshipment to the seller was already set and they couldn't do anything about it. I then Emailed Pitney Bowes and they asked me for my address so they could manually change it (it's the same address I used before) and they said I'll get my package in 4-6 freaking weeks. 

I don't think I'll ever order anything on eBay again with this kind of service. When I have an issue with Amazon they will fix it in a matter of fews days or even hours. 1/10 eBay. 

[marnotom!]

Comparing what you got with Amazon is apples and oranges.

What you're paying for with an item shipped through the Global Shipping Program is a forwarding service.  The seller ships their item to a processing centre in Kentucky and it goes out to Canada (or wherever) from there.   With Amazon, your item is either being sent out directly by the seller or directly from a fulfillment warehouse.

eBay is not directly involved in your sale.  Amazon may or may not be directly involved depending on the type of sale.  Amazon can be more involved with a sale in the event of a problem if they indeed sold you the item, but as eBay isn't involved in sales transactions, expecting the same type of service from eBay the event of a problem is unrealistic.

Your gripe is with Pitney Bowes and its forwarding program.  From what I've gathered from a small handful of other posts along the lines of what you describe, Pitney Bowes' shipping software sometimes either truncates addresses or leaves out certain address information.  What address information that there was on the label may have been simply incomplete, not incorrect.

This could happen with any shipper that uses naff shipping software, even ones used by vendors shipping directly from warehouses.

[aimnabby]

Is there actually a phone number to call other than the general PB number. I have encountered the same issue, and no one to call or speak with.

[marnotom!]

@aimnabby, my understanding is that you need to call eBay customer service and ask to be put through to a Global Shipping Specialist once you're on the line with an eBay CSR. Good luck! 🤞🏼

[kh-leslie]

Hello Everyone,

Due to the age of the 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.

Thanks for understanding!​​​​​​​

[momcqueen]

I can understand your reluctance to use the Global Shipping Program after an experience such as this but there are literally MILLIONS of other sellers with BILLIONS of items available that DON'T USE GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM. Start with Canada Only as your filter and work outward to North America from there but if you see 'import fees' on the listing, move along.