smmudd83_1999
20th April 2015, 10:30
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.
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.