Lost package going to Canada
I made a mistake - I sent one item in two packages (it was going to be REALLY heavy in one box). It is my first time selling on eBay and I did not know it had to be in one box.
Anywho, one box arrived and the other did not. How in the heck does one find the tracking info after the hub drop in Illinois? The transaction was for $800 and now I am going to lose all that money. Any help out there?
TIA
8 comments
marnotom!
·2 years agoThe Parcelsapp site is often pretty good about pulling together tracking information when multiple carriers have been used, @laow_41, and it sometimes displays event scans that don’t show up on eBay or the carrier’s site. Try entering your tracking information there.
rfmtm
·2 years agoSince it appears you used EIS, how did you print the first and more importantly the second label to ship to the hub? Did print your own labels, print through ebay and try and use the same label twice, or were you allowed to "print another" label through ebay?
wastingtime101
·2 years agoThey would have been allowed to print another label @rfmtm . eBay won't block that because the first label could have an error. Also if the package is lost, the seller might ship a replacement. Several reasons to not block multiple labels even though eIS supports only a single package.
By liquidated @laow_41 it means the item will be resold in most cases, though I'm sure there are things they do throw away.
rfmtm
·2 years ago@wastingtime101 That makes sense, but also makes sense that second package would go through as well since is has the proper information on it to forward it to the buyer, or at least be returned to the seller.
wastingtime101
·2 years agoForwarding to buyer would cost more on a second international shipping label that the buyer was not charged for, and would require more work to figure out customs paperwork. Plus the buyer sometimes has to pay brokerage fees or duty fees upon delivery and a second package could double those fees, especially since it would likely have the same declared value.
Return to seller would be nice @rfmtm , but I am making an assumption they don't do that because that would also cost more. In a situation like this one, the item was split in 2 packages. If they returned the second package to the seller, then they would also pull the refund from the seller. Since the first box was already forwarded on, I imagine the seller would be a lot more upset with that scenario than the current one where they're not out financially (though they may have a mark on their eIS record when buyer files SNAD).
With all the volume I expect they want to move stuff through as quickly as possible and not take out a lot of time on individual items to see why they got a second package with the same reference number, then deal with getting it to the right person as opposed to putting it all aside in one big liquidate bin.
eBay publishes the rules about no more than one package per transaction and expect sellers to read the fine print. On the order details page it shows it's going through eIS and has a learn more link. One would have to read through the eIS pages to figure it out. The info is there, but it's not in-your-face. I expect the majority of sellers do not read it.
A handful of sellers have come here with the same problem as the OP, and others with the problem that they combined items from different transactions into a single package that weren't supposed to be combined. When that happens eIS pulls out the excess items and liquidates while forwarding only the item tied to that transaction's reference number to the buyer. They do not take the time to figure out the seller combined items from 2 orders into the same box or what reference number was tied to the second order.
It's definitely not great these things happen, though it's not as easy as send 2 packages to buyer or return to sender. An enormous amount of seller protection comes with this program, so I get eBay saying sellers need to read and follow the rules in order to get those protections. Though perhaps they could do more to make the rules more obvious.
rfmtm
·2 years agoWell I'm afraid OP may just be out of luck then.
OP please follow up here and lets us know if anythings else happens.
wastingtime101
·2 years agoHi @laow_41 . When you ship direct to the buyer you can split up into multiple packages. When you ship through eBay International Shipping (eIS) you have to ship in a single box.
Unfortunately whatever was in that second box was probably liquidated after it got to the eIS hub.
Generally speaking, eIS covers return requests and non-receipt claims after items are safely delivered to the hub, however in this situation you did not follow the terms of service. eBay could pull the refund from you. Or they could deal with the return/refund but find you've (unintentionally) abused the system. Hard to say. The program is still new-ish so we haven't seen sellers reporting repercussions from abuse yet.
Question: did you get signature confirmation on both of those packages? eBay requires signature confirmation on any transaction/package valued $750+ (incl. ship / tax) for seller protections on non-receipt claims. Although this would most likely be filed as a "not as described / missing pieces" claim by the buyer.
laow_41
OP2 years agoThank you for this detailed response. I did get signature confirmation on the receipt of both packages.
When you say “liquidatedâ€, what do you mean? It was thrown away, it was resold? Just hoping there could be a glimmer of hope for the buyer to still see the package.