eBay

c200sc · ‎08-18-2017

Hi,

I am looking for the ebay.com customer services address. Wish to notify them of Canada Postal Delays.

Ebay should update, notify customers that foreign inbound mail is now backlogged at Canadian Customs.

No updates displayed on ebay.com regarding ongoing delays due to Canadian Customs and/or Canadian Post Office delays /backlog.

Im a professional seller based in Greece and starting from mid June and none of my items is shown as delivered!

And im talking for more than ten registered parcels with a tracking number (sign on delivery).

I have also contacted the Greek Post Office about this issue, regarding the on going Canadian Customs and/or Post Office delays.

They have informed me that they are aware of this problem, and although they have contacted Canadian Post Office, they never received an official reply.

Just for the records, i also contacted the Canadian embassy In Greece, the Greek embassy in Ottawa & Toronto, i mailed Canadian Post Office, i tried to reach them through Facebook...nothing!

Both embassies have no idea about the delays and as for Canadian Post Office, i never got a reply. They just ignored me.

Im shipping all around the world for more than 20 years and never had any similar delays, even with countries who may be considered as " third world".

Has anybody else have the same problem?

Yours sincerely,

c200sc

momcqueen · ‎08-18-2017

I would suggest that if you want to reach Canadian ebay shoppers, the best way would be though ebay Canada at ebay.ca.

Why don't you come to our Weekly Chat with ebay Canada on Wednesdays? The thread is usually opened Tuesday evening to allow more people to participate by posting questions or noting issues for resolution the following day.

In the meantime, if you have tracking on your parcels, open service tickets for Item Lost or Misplaced with the Greek post office. Eventually those are resolved in some capacity.

dutchman48 · ‎08-18-2017

@c200sc wrote:
Hi,

I am looking for the ebay.com customer services address. Wish to notify them of Canada Postal Delays.

Ebay should update, notify customers that foreign inbound mail is now backlogged at Canadian Customs.

No updates displayed on ebay.com regarding ongoing delays due to Canadian Customs and/or Canadian Post Office delays /backlog.

Im a professional seller based in Greece and starting from mid June and none of my items is shown as delivered!
And im talking for more than ten registered parcels with a tracking number (sign on delivery).

I have also contacted the Greek Post Office about this issue, regarding the on going Canadian Customs and/or Post Office delays.
They have informed me that they are aware of this problem, and although they have contacted Canadian Post Office, they never received an official reply.

Just for the records, i also contacted the Canadian embassy In Greece, the Greek embassy in Ottawa & Toronto, i mailed Canadian Post Office, i tried to reach them through Facebook...nothing!
Both embassies have no idea about the delays and as for Canadian Post Office, i never got a reply. They just ignored me.

Im shipping all around the world for more than 20 years and never had any similar delays, even with countries who may be considered as " third world".

Has anybody else have the same problem?

Yours sincerely,
c200sc

Try this

It seems it is about time to complain to their boss, the "Minister of Public Services and Procurement " the honourable Judy M. Foote :

See the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Mandate Letter

Canada Post is not a private business: they are accountable to the Government through their Minister.

Here her contact info:

11 Laurier Street
Place du Portage, Phase III,
Floor 18A1
Gatineau, Quebec
K1A 0S5
minister@pwgsc.gc.ca

femmefan1946 · ‎08-18-2017

Are you using 'Registered' mail or another newer, swifter, tracked and delivery confirmed service?

Because neither eBay nor Paypal accept Registered Mail as being electronically trackable for the purposes of Dispute Resolution.

And it is my understanding that the Universal Postal Union no longer insists that Registered Mail be tracked and delivery confirmation given to the sender when an international border is crossed.

This started a few years ago with the USPS.

Newer services are accepted as trackable but not every country has the technology (or manpower) to offer those upgraded services.

Also I think that Registered international mail is now only applicable to letters and documents.

http://www.upu.int/uploads/tx_sbdownloader/S10TechnicalStandard.pdf

It's page 9 of the pdf.

On a more practical note, have you been notified that your parcels have left Greece?

That they have arrived in Canada?

Did you use an Air Mail service?

Are your customers complaining?

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-18-2017

If none of your parcels are showing as delivered is it possible that the service you are using does not have delivery confirmation for international locations? Canada Post is usually fairly good at delivering items that do have delivery confirmation although they can be slow for international non trackable items...but more so when the packages are from Asia. I didn't think that European packages had the same problem.

As another poster mentioned, what we call registered mail which is just for letter sized and over sized lettermail does not have delivery confirmation when it is from another country. But I realize that when you use the term registered, you may be referring to a different service than what we may be referring to.

You can certainly mention the problem to ebay Canada but I don't know what they could do.

cumos55 · ‎08-18-2017

Some of the problem could be due to customs delays.

Canada Customs has highlighted items coming from certain countries, where a very careful examination of content of a parcel is made.

Many countries might be treated the same as Greece

People are always trying to import what is viewed as illegal... through certain countries..... Right now that country could be Greece as well as other countries, while at some time in the future it could be other countries...

The key word here is .....through.... certain countries...... The parcel might have started in a country known for the export of illegal items... By mailing the items through a country such as Greece, the illegal nature of the content of the parcel may not be discovered.

Canadian Customs is constantly vigilant.... perhaps because it may be easier to get something through Canada and then overland to the US, as opposed to directly to the US as a parcel using a postal service...

cumos55 · ‎08-18-2017

The fact that this seller in Greece ships worldwide might put this seller into the following situation.

Someone might be using this sellers address in Greece and might be shipping items... most likely illegal items .... to many countries.

These fake parcels may look like this seller's parcels....

The fact that suddenly there may be a major flood of parcels could have put this seller's ...real.... parcels into question when they went through Canada Customs.

Canada Customs has no way of knowing which parcels are those shipped by the seller..... and which are ... fake...

People wanting to get illegal items into Canada, and more specifically the US can be quite inventive in their way of doing this.

Changing one's shipping address and the look of the parcels might be a way to change things.

femmefan1946 · ‎08-18-2017

True enough, although since this seller lists mostly vinyl records, I don't think that is his specific problem.

We do see a lot of Chinese sellers using UK, German and especially Australian listings but not specifying that they are mailing from China.

cumos55 · ‎08-19-2017

It will not take much to ship illegal drugs worth millions of dollars...

All one has to do is go to the ... Border Security... program on TV and see what is being done to ship something illegal into a country

It never ceases to amaze me to see what is being done.... It is not how much gets stopped by Customs.... it is what gets through that counts

and then.... Whose name is on the Parcel?

cumos55 · ‎08-19-2017

Some Chinese sellers are shipping from countries other than China.

Chinese sellers are given an option to have their inventory at a US location, and they ship from that location.

They are trying to make their product look better if they ship from a US location.

hlmacdon · ‎08-20-2017

@femmefan1946 wrote:
And it is my understanding that the Universal Postal Union no longer insists that Registered Mail be tracked and delivery confirmation given to the sender when an international border is crossed.

This started a few years ago with the USPS.

Registered mail no longer tracks to Canada/USA but still works for some countries, certainly those where they are still using the system. Many countries haven't made the transition to post expres/e-packet services yet but that should accelerate once 2018 hits and the UPU starts implementing the no goods sent by lettermail changes. It's a bit of a weird time at the moment, sellers in China are using all manner of forwarding services to get around this issue. The latest I discovered was Chinese sellers forwarding through Tonga Post for e-packet.

The compounding problem here is that registered mail items are given the lowest priority by Canada Post. There is no service level specified that allows for a guaranteed delivery time so these and other general lettermail packages containing goods get dumped in separate warehouses and are only delivered when there is nothing else to deliver. There was a bit of media coverage on this several months back. I don't imagine the backlog challenges have improved at all. My sense is that Canada Post is making delivery as difficult as possible to send a message to originating countries. I only get the periodic registered mail shipment, but the last several have taken 5-6 weeks to arrive to Canada.

femmefan1946 · ‎08-20-2017

Chinese sellers are given an option to have their inventory at a US location, and they ship from that location.

Which is pretty much what Canadian sellers do when they either drive across the border themselves or use a forwarding service like chitchatexpress.

As long as the item is arriving in a reasonable time and is not being held up for fentanyl and UPU reasons, this is a sensible business decision.

The nationality or location of the seller is unimportant. The location of the goods makes a difference in arrival time.

zee-chan · ‎08-21-2017

@cumos55 wrote:
Some Chinese sellers are shipping from countries other than China.

Chinese sellers are given an option to have their inventory at a US location, and they ship from that location.

They are trying to make their product look better if they ship from a US location.

I have had a couple items bought from Chinese sellers shipped from Turkey instead. None from US so far.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-21-2017

It's super cheap for a seller to ship from China to the US...cheaper than it is to ship within the US. So if they sent their items to a US warehouse, shipping costs would go up and would cost the US buyer more than had the seller sent it directly to them. It might benefit the seller if they wanted to use tracked shipping within the US, otherwise, I don't know why they would ship first to a US warehouse.

amcdc79 · ‎08-21-2017

To c200sc, you are not alone, there are reports that say there are over 100 trailer loads of incoming mail, sitting in Winnipeg waiting to go through customs. I have friends who are just now getting items purchased in March and April from China, Spain, Greece etc.

The hold-up, I believe, is in the Customs. as they are taking longer to look at each parcel, due to the large amount of drugs entering the country. Right now, they are overwhelmed with the amount in the backlog.

As a seller, I really feel for you, and if I were in your shoes, I would take Canada off of your shipping list temporarily. As a Canadian, I am embarrassed by this whole episode, knowing in my heart that this is not how we normally do business with the world.

Please come to the weekly chat on Tuesday or early Wednesday, and state your case. I'm sure there are many fellow sellers who also buy, that are having the same issues in not receiving their orders in the usual time frame.

Ebay needs to know what is going on, as it is NOT the sellers fault. They need to go to the Press to let the buyers know regarding this fubar situation.

hlmacdon · ‎08-21-2017

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
It's super cheap for a seller to ship from China to the US...cheaper than it is to ship within the US. So if they sent their items to a US warehouse, shipping costs would go up and would cost the US buyer more than had the seller sent it directly to them. It might benefit the seller if they wanted to use tracked shipping within the US, otherwise, I don't know why they would ship first to a US warehouse.

They use various US warehouse services as a 3PL provider. Ship a bunch of inventory in bulk on the cheap to your 3PL partner then have them handle fulfillment and have your product shipped domestically for cheap. The primary advantage however is to say they are a US seller and having the shipping times to match, thus avoiding the shipping related stigmas associated with being an overseas seller. As for domestic based sellers not using US warehousing, it is not uncommon for larger sellers to use forwarding services which offer lower shipping rates based on volume.

momcqueen · ‎08-21-2017

Interesting: what reports? I'd like to read your source material as I am in Winnipeg as well.

I agree the Weekly Chat is a good venue for anyone who needs to reach eBay Canada staff.

hlmacdon · ‎08-21-2017

@mjwl2006 wrote:
Interesting: what reports? I'd like to read your source material as I am in Winnipeg as well.

I agree the Weekly Chat is a good venue for anyone who needs to reach eBay Canada staff.

I believe the being shipped off to Winnipeg was a comment from someone on the boards here that works for one of the postal outlets. As for the general news reports that had coverage a few months back, mention of over 100 trailers here and other related articles on the reasons here and here. Most of the problem shipments are your typical small bubble mailers and irregular envelopes that can't be automatically sorted.

I would think ebay would be well aware of the general issue but it is definitely something overseas sellers would want to bring up with their regional ebay reps so that there is leeway in seller defects much like we see when there are other uncontrollable events like seasonal weather. The issue ties back to the disparity in terminal dues that have been a source of contention for various countries as it is a money losing proposition, especially with the level of manual sorting required. Canada Post can't refuse to deliver the inbound mail but they can make it as low a priority as possible and increase the pain points on the foreign postal services.

momcqueen · ‎08-21-2017

Thank you. I did dearly hope *that* one unsubstantiated post from months ago about trailers of mail in Winnipeg isn't considered by anyone to be based in fact since there was no evidence whatsoever to corroborate it and the poster refused to answer subsequent questions.

cumos55 · ‎08-21-2017

There used to be several customs locations all in relation to major postal outlets across Canada.

There used to be a Canada Customs in Winnipeg... That got moved to Emerson... I know this because I knew someone who worked at the customs locations in Winnipeg, then Emerson... and then they were gone...

It is my understanding that all mail moving from Canada to the US must go through Toronto (Mississauga) in the east or Vancouver (Richmond ?) in the west.

This was done several years ago. By focusing the customs locations they have better control of mail movement from Canada to the US.

If you visit the Winnipeg postal facility it is obvious that the mail goes in one end and out the other end, and with no definitive hold on anything...The facility in Winnipeg is a new facility, and appears to be a most functional facility, with no visible hold-back based on what is viewed from outside the facility.... and based on the movement of my tracked mail from Winnipeg, whether to Toronto or Vancouver.. through Toronto to the Eastern US ... through Vancouver to California

Tracked mail from Manitoba to North Dakota goes east or west first,. through customs, and then to North Dakota.

Mail going to Europe goes to Montreal and then to Longueuil, before the mail leaves Canada. ... Based on the passage of tracked mail

Canada Post wants to build facilities similar to the one in Winnipeg at other locations in Canada.