International shipping is FUBARed

[Arrowhead]

Is anyone else having serious problems with international shipping? We currently have packages with 1-2 month delays to England, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, and Japan. We have six open cases on items that haven’t been received and several more customers who have yet to file cases. Some packages are USPS and a couple are Ebay Int’l Standard Shipping (DHL). The one thing they all have in common is that the tracking goes through a regional shipping facility and then completely stops. I’m seeing some information online about a giant decrease in flights that carry packages, and some indication that some countries are denying shipments of packages until their capacity increases, but nothing really specific.

I feel like Ebay should be, at a minimum, trying to help us sort this out or give some explanation for what is going on. If you call them about an int’l standard package they just tell you to contact DHL. DHL, however, considers Ebay to the be customer and they will not disclose any shipping information to the seller who sent the package. USPS isn’t much better. I checked on a long delayed package and they said to consider the package as lost.

If we have a second wave of sickness in the fall, which I consider to be highly likely, this situation will happen again. I rarely use Shipcover but I think that will need to be the standard for any international package from now on.

[debitendcredits]

Interesting, I use global shipping program and have had absolutely no problems at all. Shipping time has taken a bit longer, but other than that things are getting to the UK, Italy and Australia without incident.

[Arrowhead]

I’m glad to hear that. We don’t use GSP but sometimes we use the Ebay Standard Int’l Shipping (ESIS). I was told by a rep on the phone that if something happens with GSP then ebay will refund the customer but if the package ships through ESIS they do nothing to help out and it’s the seller’s responsibility to reimburse the customer.

[workhorse]

I use GSP, but have seen long delays of up to 2 months even just to Canada. Stuff is getting to the destination just taking a long time.

[almasty]

I moved all of my Ebay listings to Global Shipping Program for international shipping in January of this year. So glad I made that decision! Well, I’ll still ship directly to Mexico and Canada, but that’s no big deal. From what I can tell the Global shipping orders have been fine – I haven’t been contacted by any customers that purchased items through that program.

However, I’m still shipping directly worldwide with my other selling venues. There are definitely major problems happening – some countries are currently not allowing shipments at all from the US, but you won’t know it until you get an order in and try to buy shipping to that country. It’s really annoying that these sites are still allowing customers to order.

Some shipments are not being updated once they leave the US at all. They are still expecting items to arrive within a month or less. I’ve had media mail shipments take 2+ months to arrive to the customer during this pandemic. I can only imagine international delivery times will be comparable, if not longer. Unfortunately, no one has patience anymore and they assume you never shipped the item and are scamming them even with tracking showing that it left the US.

[Arrowhead]

That’s what I’ve been trying to tell customers- that the packages are not lost, there’s just some kind of mysterious delay in the system that affects some packages but not others. They’ll make it to them eventually but it’ll be a very long wait. The fact that no one out there, from ebay to the shipping companies is acknowledging it or offering explanations is quite frustrating.

[Arrowhead]

I don’t like using Global Shipping because of the upfront customs charge and longer delivery time. I guess the delivery time doesn’t matter anymore but we’ve had a lot of customers tell us that they aren’t always charged a customs fee through regular shipping. We’ll have to consider trying it if things get worse in the fall. How do you ship direct to Mexico and Canada? I was under the impression that Global Shipping was an all-or-nothing deal.

All of the packages that we’ve had problems with have nothing in the tracking to indicate that they have left the country. I check 17track along with ebay tracking and they all seem to hit a dead end in the US. But I know that some packages won’t update tracking until they clear customs in their destination country.

[almasty]

To be honest, I have no idea. I was able to set up an “exclusion” zone which included every country outside of Canada, Mexico and apparently a few other countries as places I ship to:

Item location: United States, United States
Shipping to: Worldwide
Excludes: Africa, Asia, Central America and Caribbean, Europe, Middle East, Oceania, Southeast Asia, South America, Cayman Islands, Djibouti, French Polynesia, Honduras, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Peru, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Philippines, Ecuador, El Salvador, Suriname, Guyana, Montenegro, Panama, Mauritania, Turkey, Mauritius, Somalia, Brunei Darussalam, Chad, Madagascar, New Caledonia, South Africa, Western Samoa, India, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Zimbabwe, Bahamas, Bermuda, Iran, Jamaica, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Western Sahara, Wallis and Futuna, Nepal, Bolivia, Saudi Arabia, Mali, Fiji, Angola, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Gambia, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malawi, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Congo, Republic of the, Senegal, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tonga, Uganda, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Botswana, Rwanda, Burma, Montserrat, Antigua and Barbuda, Luxembourg, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Cuba, Republic of, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Kiribati, Lesotho, United Arab Emirates, Zambia, Reunion, Cape Verde Islands, Oman, Swaziland, Yemen, Dominican Republic, Israel, Algeria, Argentina, Aruba, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Chile, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Haiti, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Sierra Leone, Namibia, British Virgin Islands, Bhutan, Central African Republic, Comoros, Gabon Republic, Martinique, Niger, Togo, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Dominica, Eritrea, Czech Republic

I indicated that I ship to Canada and Mexico back in January by:

Sign in to your eBay account and click on My eBay.
Click the Account tab, and then click Site Preferences.
In the Selling Preferences section, Postage and packaging preferences and then click the Show link.
Click the Edit link next to Exclude shipping locations from your listings.

THEN, when I list items I always leave the “Ship in the Global Shipping Program” checkbox checked. I also went back in and bulk edited all of my items to be in the program.

[debitendcredits]

I think that the using GSP and paying the custom fees up front is probably what speeds up the process.

GSP is probably a known shipper to the customs offices, and therefore their manifests are probably not subject to as many audits.

Just a theory.

And while I don’t know the nuances of the each countries import fees. “We don’t usually have to pay” means “we get away with not paying.”

[Arrowhead]

That’s an interesting theory. I wonder if anyone else is seeing any delays in their GSP packages. You’re totally right about the fees. Some customers are more likely to pull the trigger on making a purchase if they think there’s a chance that they won’t have to pay an additional 20% or more in taxes.

We frequently have European customers complaining about the taxes or asking for a better price because their taxes are so high. Sorry buddy, I don’t get to live in a country with free health care so I don’t feel too bad for you.

[PDX_Cyndy]

I just got a sale to Japan through GSP. It is a book that I was planning to send by media mail to Kentucky, but now not sure after reading almasty’s comment about a media mail shipment taking over two months. It’s very heavy but will fit in the MFRB.

I personally have been waiting on an item I ordered from a Japanese seller on eBay on April 2nd. It was sent by Japanese post with no tracking, so I have no idea where it is.

I have had two sales to Europe via Etsy’s international shipping program. The first one, to London, was ordered on May 8. According to the tracking, it arrived in the UK on May 23, but has yet to be delivered. So it’s been sitting in some facility there for over two weeks now.

[almasty]

It was mainly packages going out in late March-mid-April. It seems to be getting better now – still delays, but not 2+ month delays. Had media mail packages from 4 hours away take 1-1.5 weeks to get to me. From Texas, 3+ weeks past the expected delivery date.

[Antique Frog]

A friend (UK eBay seller) sold a book to a UK customer back in May. The book hadn’t arrived after 3 weeks, so the customer opened a case. Friend claims online for the book (£20 plus postage) and receives a cheque from Royal Mail for the amount, in the post, the next day with a very apologetic letter. Of course, the day after the book arrives at the customer’s address, so the cheque has been sent back to RM.

[Arrowhead]

It seems that most packages with this problem shipped around the time that things started going downhill. So are there just shipping containers out there somewhere that are full of packages and no one wants to deal with them because they just don’t have extra capacity? This is all so weird.

[jeanmarie01]

THIS!!
I have 3 cases right now. When I contacted Ebay it was a total mess–different answer each time–all 3 were Ebay International.
Not only when I asked them to step in, they refunded the customer with MY money and told me I had to fill out some form which is impossible to find and at best they will only refund the cost of the item–Not the shipping, and with Ebay international you pay the international shipping price.
And the customer overseas can’t track the Ebay international number.
Grr…Argh

[Arrowhead]

I’m wondering if there is any reason to use Ebay International Standard Shipping again. My experience has been pretty bad, but I’m not sure what’s even causing these packages to just stop and never move again. No one has any answers.

We’ve just had another case opened on a $125 package that shipped in early April to Italy. Luckily, somehow, after a month of no updates the package showed up in Milan today. I’ve been telling customers that these packages will eventually break through the logjam but of course they’re nervous. Ebay did something really weird on our package to Japan with four items. There are 4 separate cases and because there was recent movement in the tracking they added 10 days to 2 of the cases. And also closed the other two cases in the buyer’s favor. I’m not sure if they will allow me to appeal that but what a mess.

[Margana]

I have 4 International First Class packages shipped to Europe 3/27-4/9 that still haven’t arrived. 3 were last seen in Chicago in April, and 1 has been sitting in German customs since 5/2. One that I shipped 4/8 did just recently make it through to Latvia.

For now I’ve switched to only offering GSP, except for Canada which seems to be OK.

[Arrowhead]

Now that all my delayed packages have been delivered, here are the lessons I’ve learned about international shipping from all this COVID nonsense:

1) Use other sites to check tracking other than ebay. Ebay found in my customer’s favor because they hadn’t received their package. I kept checking ebay tracking, hoping it would be delivered within the window to appeal. There were no updates but I checked 17track.net and sure enough! He’d gotten the package, but ebay tracking never showed the updated information.

2) Consider using shipcover to  insure international packages while the pandemic is going on. I very rarely have lost packages so I don’t normally use this.

3) Remember to keep checking tracking after you lose a case so that you can appeal the decision. You have 30 days after the decision to appeal. I’m trying to appeal a case over email and the rep says that those decisions can’t be reversed, so I may have to try calling instead, because I know that isn’t true.

[Simon]

Since this thread is being revived it might be a good time to remind people about using this website for tracking those Ebay Standard International Delivery packages all the way through to delivery: http://parcelsapp.com/en/tracking

Apart from providing additional detail, it also provides an additional estimated delivery date.  I’ve been sending my buyers a link to this site which seems to be effective.

Recently, I’ve only been getting complaints from Canada.  It still seems to be taking weeks extra to reach addresses in Canada due to long processing times by Canadian customs.

 

[Arrowhead]

Cool, I haven’t heard of that one. I’ll check it out. Learning about 17track.net was one of the most useful tips I’ve learned from Scavenger Life. Why is it that sites like these sometimes have much more detailed info than Ebay or the shipping company??

[Temudgin]

Good tips, Arrowhead and Simon. Another trick for finding international tracking for packages having left the US when USPS tracking drops off (sometimes no results on 17track or ParcelsApp; Aftership is another I’ve used and I’ve seen others) is to Google the destination country’s name with the words “post tracking” as in “Finland Post Tracking”, for example, to pull up the country’s official postal system online tracking.

Shipsaver is another insurer that I like for higher dollar items. (For those thinking of using them, Shipsaver and other insurers will typically have some specific countries and types of items excluded so be sure and read the terms and conditions.)

USPS publishes a list of countries with service suspensions and also service disruption updates by country at https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/welcome.htm

Earlier this year there was an air to sea diversion of a significant amount of mail to Europe that delayed a couple of my packages about 2 months but they’ve arrived and I think that was a one-time deal. Recently I talked a buyer in Poland out of opening a case near the end of that two months by sending him a screenshot of Poland Post tracking showing the item out for delivery.

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