I Need to contact Ebay Internation Shipping Team, weird situation and tired of bots

[whomanfoursays]

hi

I have experienced a very strange situation 2 weeks ago and I'm now stuck with a 19.07 $ loss that is NOT in the seller's pocket but somewhere in Ebay’s pocket.
I want to be clear that I have NO ISSUE with the seller.

Facts :
I wanted to purchase 2 items from one seller, me being in Europe and the seller being in the US.

For some technical reasons, I was unable to use the button "request total to pay" in order to combine the shipping. The shipping fees for item A. were sufficient to ship the two items together. (as confirmed by the seller)
Considering the seller was unable to send me a total to pay, we both agreed I would pay the two items separately with their respective shipping fees, and that he would refund me the shipping fees for item B.

I paid exactly 23.81 $ shipping fees for item B. and the seller immediately refunded me what he honestly believed I had paid, actually 3.92 $ !
I naturally contacted him explaining that it was not what we had agreed.

After a few emails, we came to the conclusion (or the comprehension!) that what he received is NOT what I paid. We exchanged our screenshots and it's obviously the case.

We first believed that Ebay messed up. But when I contacted the Support here in Europe by email, they answered this is perfectly normal : the seller is using the EBAY SHIPPING PROGRAM, which means he receives just a portion of my payment, enough to ship the parcel to the Ebay facility, and Ebay will do the rest. Therefore, Ebay receives the rest of the amount in order to ship the parcel to Europe.

Obviously, the seller never issued any shipping label for this order considering he combined Item B. with the parcel of item A.,

There is thus a difference amounting 19.07 $ that went to Ebay (or a carrier, I honestly don't know where the money's gone and that's what I’m trying to find out!).

The chat “agents” (bots I guess) absolutely DO NOT help me, they stupidly suggest the seller should refund me the shipping fees “as agreed in our conversation” …. but how could someone refund me an amount of money he never received!? 

Eventually, I was informed this is a case for the Ebay International Team that would contact me.

Needless to say, nobody contacted me.

It’s beyond me that the customer support team is not in a position to refund me and then fix this issue internally….

 Any advice or suggestion is welcome.

Thanks for reading

[soh.maryl]

Had to struggle a lot to understand and maybe I still don't get it.

But, if a freight forwarder was used, to the best of my knowledge, unless it's changed recently, shipments using a FF cannot be combined.

But someone else will probably come along and give you more definitive information I hope.

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

The problem @whomanfoursays is eBay International Shipping (eIS) does not yet allow for combined shipping. Has the seller shipped yet? If they haven't, they're required to ship in 2 separate packages (1 for each order) and if they don't, you may experience further issues when the items are sent to the eIS hub for processing.

If the seller has not shipped yet, ask them to either ship separate as they're required to, or cancel the transactions and list both items together on a single listing which would allow for them to be combined.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options/ebay-international-shippin...

>>Keep in mind that you currently can't use combined shipping for items shipped through this program.

[janet9988]

EIS shipments from ebay can not be combined.

The seller would need to cancel the purchase as buyer requested and then you will see the full refund for that item.

If the seller has not shipped and can void the shipping label  then the seller could cancel BOTH items and relist them together in one listing.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/shipping-delivery/changing-delivery-address-method/international-pu...

[whomanfoursays]

thank you

this is a clear explanation. I was not aware of this and obviously the seller neither.

Yes, the seller shipped the two items (in 1 parcel, combined thus).

Is there a way I can recover my 19.07 $ ?

Considering no shipping label was issued, these fees were allocated to a shipping that never occured.

There must be a way for me to recover them, or not ?

thank you

[monica-sells]

If the seller shipped BOTH items in one package, there will most likely be a delay at customs, because they are expecting to see two different orders, with the corresponding items in each order. (Since the HUB initiates the customs forms based on the order details for that ONE order and NOT the seller)

@wastingtime101 can probably explain it better, but I know ebay will not refund a legitimate charge....as to whether the seller will because they screwed up is up to them....

[wastingtime101]

You will have to wait and see what happens here. Because the items were shipped together, you may find the package is opened and inspected at the hub with the extra item removed. The hub fills out customs paperwork based on the item in the order, so adding something else after the fact will cause problems.

I'm not going to get into all the what ifs at this point until you come back later and let us know if the package makes it to you and what's inside when it does arrive. Until that happens the $19.07 shouldn't even be a consideration.

The short answer is no, you cannot recover the $19.07 without getting it from the seller, and the seller was never paid that money - it went to eBay for the international leg of shipping.

Beyond that, if you only get 1 item in the package and have to file a non-receipt on the 2nd item, the seller loses out even though they shipped it because the seller cannot prove delivery to the hub. They will not have been able to add the same tracking number to both orders. If you go to your purchase history you should see only 1 item has tracking and the other does not.

[whomanfoursays]

ok, thank you

Ebay should consider removing the button "request total to pay" because it's the exact same button used for the Combined shipping, and we bypassed this because of a lack of information regarding EIS.

I've been an Ebay user since 2000, I have over 1500 purchases from all over the world and this is the 1st time something like this is happening to me.

I mean I am not exacelty a newbee...

[whomanfoursays]

thank you

this is crystal clear

I will keep you informed regarding the delivery, if the second item is included or not

(it's a LP vinyl + a 7'' vinyl <- this one being the added item)

[sdneped]

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@whomanfoursays wrote:

Yes, the seller shipped the two items (in 1 parcel, combined thus).

Is there a way I can recover my 19.07 $ ?

the seller is using the EBAY SHIPPING PROGRAM, which means he receives just a portion of my payment, enough to ship the parcel to the Ebay facility, and Ebay will do the rest.

Considering no shipping label was issued, these fees were allocated to a shipping that never occured.

There must be a way for me to recover them, or not ? 

---

Come back and let us know what happened @whomanfoursays in the end?

When there are two shipping labels and the seller uses only one label to ship all the items, our ESP will

-- ship only the item that's indicated by the eBay barcode on the shipping label, and

-- discard any additional items which came together with that item.

So you will likely only get that item, then file an Item Not Received case to get your refund on the other item.

We've seen this before when a seller sold a statue and twin statues but shipped it all with just one label, and the overseas buyer received only one statue because the pre-printed customs paperwork said one statue.

[whomanfoursays]

do you know if the seller will have his item back?

[marnotom!]

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@whomanfoursays wrote:

I've been an Ebay user since 2000, I have over 1500 purchases from all over the world and this is the 1st time something like this is happening to me.

I mean I am not exacelty a newbee...

---

And eBay isn't exactly keeping users in the dark about the eBay International Shipping program.  Did you read up on eIS before purchasing?  There's links to the terms and conditions on the listing page and less technical pages on the website that describe its workings.

[wastingtime101]

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@whomanfoursays wrote:

do you know if the seller will have his item back?

---

If eBay removes the extra item from the package and does not send it to you then it will be liquidated. The seller will not get it back and the seller will be forced to refund if you file a non-receipt claim since they won't be able to provide a separate tracking number for the second item.

If the package slips through and you receive both records then consider yourself lucky and chalk up the 19 bucks as a learning experience.

eBay is working on offering combined shipping for eIS early 2024 - supposedly it will be rolling out to very small numbers of sellers in December. You'll see when you add items to your shopping cart if it's combining the shipping rate or not.

[raretraders101]

I am a retailer based in Australia. I tried to purchase 50 items of a seller in the US, as their ebay site said they combined shipping. However, they use Ebay International shipping so they couldn't combine it for me. I had to cancel an order for US$4500 order with them. On the one occasion I did buy an item through Ebay International Shipping, it took a week for the item to get to some hub, then 6 weeks to arrive in Australia. It makes absolutely no sense - I can only buy off international sellers that don't use Ebay International Shipping.