shipping details in ebay listings

[bobha111]

Ebay should consider requiring sellers to state in their listing whether their shipping cost includes tracking.

This would be particularly heelpful when a buyer considers an international purchase. In recent years several shipments from Europe to North America simply did not arrive, despite being sold by sellers with excellent feedback. Each of these shipemnts was sent without tracking. In contrast,no shipments from Europe with tracking have ever disapeared.

If Ebay could prequire sellers to provide this information in listings, a potential buyer could choose to deal with sellers who do in fact provide tracking and the added security that tracking provides.

[ms.rodriguez*]

One problem is that tracking numbers can't be viewed in all countries. Often a package has a tracking # in the USA but once it gets to the foreign country, that tracking # will not work in that country's system.  There is a post that I read here today and the buyer is waiting for a package from Poland. That tracking # stopped working while in the USA.  He/she doesn't know when they will get their package.

A possible solution to this would be for all countries to have the same system for tracking #s. or the ability to track items no matter from which country but I suppose that would create another set of problems if 2 items have the same tracking # from 2 different countries.

If  I use ebay's international shipping, I will get the tracking # from my home to the Illinois international shipping hub immediately and so would the buyer.   I would not know what the next tracking # would be.  I am not sure if the hub would send that new tracking # to the buyer  and the seller.

[bobha111]

There is an ongoing problem, which is not ebay;s fault, but which eba could help resolve.

In so doing, it would even increase the number of ovberseas sellers who would be willing tto ship, for example, from Europe to the USA.

Having livd in Europe, I find ebay is a wonderful forum for obtaining items from there.Cultural goods such as books or films can often be bought from overseas selers,often at prices lower than the in-store prices there.

In the past few years, four items which I purchased from well-rated ebay sellers in Europe simply did not arrive. Of course, the ebay customer protection refunds my money. However, the items are often ones which are hard to replace.

The sellers all maintained that they had promptly shipped. Postal services in France and Germany are fast and reliable- postal shipments simply do not get lost en route to the airport.

What seems to be happening appears to take place only on shipmeents from Europe, notr Asia. In addition, shipments with tracking are never involved, only ones from Europe.

On researching, I found that shipments ffrom Europe go through a processing center

located in an outer borough of Nerw york City. Although I cannot prove it, I wonder if the items go "missing" from that processing center. Again, shipments with tracking   nebver  seem to disappear.

My suggestion: ebay should require its sellers to state, in their listing, whether tracking will be offered. A buyer would then be able to decide whether to risk purchasing from a seller without tracking.

[janet9988]

Even if ebay could require it....it does not mean the seller would use it and ebay could not enforce that.

The ebay money back guarantee ensures the buyer will be made whole.

[yuzuha]

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@bobha111 wrote:

On researching, I found that shipments ffrom Europe go through a processing center

located in an outer borough of Nerw york City. Although I cannot prove it, I wonder if the items go "missing" from that processing center. Again, shipments with tracking   nebver  seem to disappear.

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I have an average of several shipments a month that go through ISC New York. Never once has a single one of them disappeared.

Most likely, your sellers were lying about shipping the items.

[mudshark61369]

@bobha111,

There is no easy answer as to why some tracking is complete or not.

In general if you click on the Shipping and Payment tab on a listing page, you should at least see if they use a standard or priority shipping method.  Some sellers offer a choice of services, and they are spelled out.  Often the price of the standard shipping is displayed, depending on which service is the seller's first choice.  I do not count on Intl. standard services providing Door to Door tracking.   The higher volume sellers probably get commercial rates for their shipments so they can offer D to D tracking and still keep the price down, where as the lower volume ones can't.  Just as a foreign seller cannot purchase a return shipping label from a U.S. agency neither can they do that for shipping purchases, so they have to be reliant on the services available in their country and the rates they charge, which can be costly. You should not have much problem with members of the European Union countries providing tracking from D to D.  However, a seller may use a service that doesn't provide that tracking to keep over all item cost down.

Some of the problem may have to do with a U.N. administered treaty called the Universal Postal Union.  The shipping costs between countries is regulated by them, and some countries national postal services do not partner with the ones in other countries, allowing for door to door tracking unless they use a more expensive service.

   The treaty tells a receiving country what the domestic delivery cost can be when received from a specific country.  So some countries postal services do not not track packages inside their borders unless a priority service is paid for because the treaty limits what the National service can charge for the standard domestic delivery service. 

The UPU rates countries/zones into 6 levels of development with 1 being the highest and 6 the lowest. Level 6 countries/zones benefit by having the lowest domestic delivery rate for packages being sent from them. 

The prime example of how the UPU affects us is China.

    In 1997 when Hong Kong became a part of the People's Republic of China they had a 6 rating, which carried over to the PRC since Hong Kong was a special Intl. commerce zone, of the PRC, allowing trade to countries that had formerly not traded with the PRC.  Even though China's manufacturing output has climbed exponentially, they still retain a 6 rating along with Botswana and a few others. Which is why Trump wanted to pull out of the UPU in 2018 after a special meeting of the UPU, during which they voted on adding some new countries to their membership, as well as voting not to change China's economic standing, costing the USPS millions each year.  

You also have some country's governments (China's is one)  subsidizing international shipping, but only the lowest cost service, which may provide tracking to the international transporter, then it stops.  Sellers from those countries can use  private service's that have a separate "partner" contract with the USPS, UPS, to track the domestic portion of shipping.  Some of those services only provide their own tracking numbers which can be difficult to get access to and their tracking doesn't work with the USPS' system.