eBay Global Shipping Program. Watch Out!

[smmudd83_1999]

Regarding the eBay Global Shipping Program (GSP). If an international seller is offering shipment via the eBay Global Shipping Program, my advice is to either stay clear, or ask if they would send it DHL/USPS privately direct to you without eBay involvement for the extra $s.
Before I start my whinge – what is the Global Shipping Program?
All international sellers on eBay were automatically enrolled onto it, unless they actively opted out. Essentially, eBay have engaged a freight consolidator (Pitney Bowes) to offer a universal shipping agreement. First of all, the PROs:
1) Buyers can see upfront how much shipping to NZ costs without having to ask the seller to work it out.
2) Customs duties & taxes are calculated and paid upfront, no surprises
3) The seller doesn’t get hassled with tyre kickers from Timbuktu asking about freight enquiries, making their life easier and
4) All they have to do is forward the item to a national depot whereby the freight consolidation service takes it off their hands and deals with the international freighting.
All good then? It sounds like a super idea. The reality. And my experience (the CON).
If there are any difficulties with delivery, bye bye package.
The eBay GSP tracking tool is accurate upto the point of the item leaving the USA/UK/Europe, wherever. The problem is tracking thereafter. They generate a UPAAB0000****** number. This is a reference to Pitney Bowes freighting service. The problem is they are a freight CONSILIDATION service and hence they use second, third (and in my case fourth and fifth) party couriers to deliver the item, all which use different numbers and the above number means absolutely nothing to any of them.

Case in point:
My seller in Ohio, USA uses USPS to Kentucky (Pitney Bowes depot). PB use a third party for the Airfreight (Landmark) and once in NZ it goes to NZ Post who use Courier Post to deliver the item. Now that’s complex enough to follow – but the tracking tool doesn’t tell you this. eBay customer service simply refers you to the tool and can’t give you further info. PB themselves do not have a public tracking tool nor a public customer service. Eek. They not only can’t give you consignment numbers, they can’t even tell you who the freight companies involved are.
1) My item was undelivered, despite being “out for delivery” for 4 days (as I said, eBay tracking tool useless). I logged this with eBay who came back with a standard wait-for-15-days policy. A lot of freight companies in NZ will only hold onto freight for 14 days here i.e. beyond that you can’t even lodge a claim for the item as lost. So the 15 day wait policy was counterproductive. Further enquiries with eBay bounced back. The issue was essentially frozen. eBay just don’t care.
2) So I’ll try next in the chain, Pitney Bowes. As I said, they have a customer service centre for their customers (i.e. eBay) for solving tracking tool software issues and the like, but not for end users (i.e. you and me) wanting to track stuff. So this is difficult. You have to get hold of the right person. The response was excellent. Much better than eBay. Polite, written by a human (not an automated email) and knowledgable. They gave me a link to LandMark’s tracking tool, which had embedded in it a further link to NZ Post and their tracking tool with reference number. I’m beginning to think I’m winning. But...
3) Things start to fall apart here in NZ. Basically, NZ Post decided to use Courier Post to deliver the item. It went down to the Wellington depot near me. So so close. And then...Courier Post noticed the address was a business address and the package didn’t have a business name. So without even putting it on the van for delivery they automatically marked it for return to sender. What?! This was compounded as at this point I didn’t know it was Courier Post who are delivering the item and I am still using NZ Post tracking tool, which isn’t as detailed as CourierPost (2nd hand data). So this little fact isn’t relayed to me.
4) Luckily, I notice the delay in delivery and call NZ Post who say it is returned to sender and I should sort it out with Courier Post. I call Courier Post, who says sort it out with NZ Post International (WTF?! Aren’t these the same guys as NZ Post?). The item is being held at the Auckland airport depot. I ask them to add the business name. The lady assures me this shall be done and they’ll redeliver the item back to me. Awesome. I begin to feel like I’m winning again.
5) Oh no. This isn’t the end. I call after a few days delay. As the item was being returned to sender, they had changed the address to Landmark (their customer, the airfreight folk). So they simply added my business name to the Landmark address and they had not kept my final delivery address!

As of right now, this is where I am at. Hoping that someone has gone out with a marker pen and changed the address in time before it gets dumped in the “undeliverable” warehouse.
The whole experience has taken a lot of effort on my part to try and steer this package back to me and has required a lot of micro managing to get to this stage. Saying that I’m still not 100% confident I’ll get my package. Time will tell. I’m sure most folk wouldn’t have bothered and the item simply lost!
Don’t believe me? Google “eBay global shipping”. Read anything not written by eBay themselves and it’s not very positive. Most folk normally get stuck at the end of point 1) and try point 2) but don’t get anywhere.
Any chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link. eBay customer services is a non-entity. NZ Post were very black and white and spiky to speak to. Courier Post were apologetic about the return to sender action and did their best for me. NZ Post International were a joy to speak to, did what they could despite the faux pas about changing the wrong address. And Pitney Bowes were excellent (once you can find the right contact). I never has cause to try LandMark.
I wonder what a freight company office environment looks like? I picture a scene from Fawlty Towers.

[Devil]

Odd regarding the issues at this end. CourierPost is owned by NZPost -which is why they're used. They all use the same systems.

[Night Falcon]

bought a few things from Ebay and had faultless delivery. I would think the shear volume of transactions will mean there has to be a certain percentage of failures and you sound like one of them....we all hate it when that happens.

Where options are given I always choose UPS for delivery but have noticed the freight charges can vary astronomically so I always shop around. At the end of the day Ebay has too much on the line to work with a delivery partner that continually lets its customers down...but thanks for the heads up

[marmel]

I normally use Youshop which is also NZ Post but I haven't had any issues at all, you get a tracking number which tells you when the item arrives in NZ, when it clears customs etc. They have now started consolidating parcels at the US end as well so if you purchase 4-5 different things they will just send it all as one parcel.

A lot of stuff purchased in the US gets free shipping within the 48 so you only end up paying Youshop.

[Gremlin]

The joys of international shipping. When it works, it's fantastic. When it doesn't... well, there is a big fucken black hole somewhere swallowing a lot of parcels...

Just wait until Customs decides to do their own (bad) math on your parcel...

[Erelyes]

TLDR version - Seems like your item made it to NZ just fine, but Courierpost in their infinite wisdom decided to return to sender rather than even bothering to try and deliver. You can hardly fault Ebay for that?

Quite often I'll see 'worldwide shipping, except italy/brazil, due to packages going missing in customs' on auctions. We have it relatively good I think. I've bought a couple dozen things from Ebay, from the cheap to the moderately priced, and all have shown up. Not sure how many use this 'global shipping partner' though.

[pritch]

Had a recent conversation with a guy who uses Youshop frequently for car parts. It's great for all those ads you see that stipulate delivery USA only 'cause many businesses in the USA don't undestand export documentation and don't want to know about it because their home market is big enough. You register with Youshop online and they give you an address in the USA (or the UK if buying from there) and you provide that address to the supplier. Youshop contact you when they receive the goods and advise the cost of freight to NZ, they will also repack the goods if they think the packing isn't good enough.

Many ads I see say "free delivery Conus" (Continental USA? Excludes Alaska and Hawaii?). Youshop wil give you the necessary US address, it sounds like a good scheme.

[awayatc]

Great post.
informative and well written, hope your item still shows up soon...

my own experience with e bay (50 plus trades) is great.
3 items didn't arrive , but got immediately refunded by ebay....
1 item got genuinly lost in Italian delivery system
1 was an American scammer ( should have spotted it myself...)
1 was Chinese large multiseller who insisted he did send cheap item, then when I didnt receive it said he would resend...in the end i let the timeframe for me to get a refund from e bay lapse.......live and learn

all up I have more confidence in ebay Then I have in trade me,
e bay does refund you if goods dont arrive, whereas TM don't give a fuck....and I did have the misfortune of running into quite a few dodgy traders there...

[smmudd83_1999]

Wow. A few of you have mentioned this "YouShop" outfit. I'm glad I posted this thread, I've learnt something. Another plus of that outfit is it really opens up the market for foreign domestic sales too.

Who knew you can actually get info from a KB forum?

Update:
My fears were not unfounded. The item still slipped through NZ Post/ Courier Post fingers and is now in LandMark Global's international freight depot. A request has been sent to return to NZ Post rather than Return To Sender (USA) via international freight. Time will tell if it has actually boarded a plane or thrown into the Pit Of No Return.

[R650R]

Watch out, youshop isn't perfect either, you are at the whim of volumetric pricing regimes and the repack to save space doesn't seem to happen anymore....

Sounds like you tried to have your parcel delivered to your workplace re business address and perhaps it needed to be signed for??? If your at a large workplace and don't tell the office girl or if its a dash and drop by the courier I could see your problem arising.
NZ Post International, NZ Post, Courier Post and DHL are separate companies but do work closely together. The first time I lost a parcel into the clutches of customs I rang NZ Post International helpline gave my details and parcel info etc and even though it wasn't their freight (FedEx I think) the lovely lady was able to advise it was trapped in customs and even gave me a new tracking number. A bit of friendly communication goes a long way.

[Erelyes]

Watch out, youshop isn't perfect either, you are at the whim of volumetric pricing regimes and the repack to save space doesn't seem to happen anymore....

I had one where they claimed to have repacked it. They had chucked in some bogus measurements and weights (look like they had used a volumetric 'before' weight rather than actually weighing the fucker, but they did actually weigh it the second time).

Item was from Revzilla and it was the original box, all original US postage marks/labels, with uncut Revzilla tape on every seam of the box. Repacked my ass. I kicked up a stink about that one.

[f2dz]

Like someone mentioned, sounds like someone dropped the bal at NZ Post/Couriers not eBay.

I haven't had a problem with ordering stuff from eBay yet. Always arrives pretty promptly and without incident.

The things I buy online cost an arm and a leg to get shipped via YouShop so I don't bother.

[Swoop]

Youshop sent out a recent email regarding re-packaging multiple parcels.

YouShop is now offering a consolidation service at our warehouses in the UK and USA, so you can send up to 10 separate parcels in the same box*.

The clever bit
Simply shop online and send all parcels to your YouShop address at our UK or USA warehouses, as per usual. Once they arrive, you'll receive our standard notification email.

Now for the clever bit. Say you've bought a pair of running shoes, a make-up brush, a wallet and a winter coat. What's different is that now you have the option to consolidate them at the same warehouse into one parcel and save on the overall shipping costs. Not bad for a single click.

The additional costs of YS have put me off using them for a while, but this might restore confidence.


Just remember that what you "consolidate" into one parcel will be upping the total value that customs sees. This might push the amount over the value that attracts gst.

[cheshirecat]

I use Amazon and Ebay, camera stuff usually. No problem with either and some stuff has been seriously quick - 5/6 days from India and China. Thought Youshop was great in the early days but recent experience I've found them slow, a week plus in "storage" then relying on NZ Custom's to send a letter re duty - a letter for heaven's sake - oh hang on that's another number for NZ Post.

[Big Dog]

I have had both positive and negative experiences with you shop.
1 negative was they charged me to repack my item, some bar ends. Repack cost $6, fair enough, surely they will save me some money right? Wrong. Same volumetric calculation.
1 Negaive they repacked a kiddie seat to clip an extra on a pushchair... volumetric went up... dafuq? either pay the extra $30 or they destroy the goods or for $25 they will return to sender.
All the other 5 transactions went without a hitch and getting several smaller items repacked into one box has saved a lot of money.

I normally only use vendors with free shipping or a fixed shipping cost because I normaly only buy stuff I can't buy here.
Most will resend if you don't recieve in the expected time frame. Has happened twice. Both times the first package turned up after the second arrived.
Once ebay contacted me to refund my money before I could even email the seller seriously less than 1 minute. They were watching him and refunding everyone who paid via paypal (all his trades were paypal only) as they built up a history.