eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎06-15-2020

So I purchased some coins from a seller in Lithuania in April. I've bought from him before with no problems. He shipped these coins by registered mail, so at very least I know something was dispatched to Canada at the end of April.

Later in May, my partner bought a few coins from him as well. There was no tracking as it was a small dollar value, and they have all arrived this past week.

I followed up on the missing package (just to find out what's going on with mail in Lithuania). The seller told me that a lot of packages are very slow to reach North America and many buyers are filing claims. I assured him I wasn't going to file a claim, just wanted to follow up. He thanked me for being understanding and told me he wished there were more buyers like that.

It must be very hard to be selling and making money that you can keep if your packages are shipped by boat and taking months to reach the buyer, and thus you're getting a bunch of INRs in the process.

Right now I've got one INR going to Spain. I made an exception to ship to this buyer because he contacted me and I wanted to make the sale. He hasn't filed a claim yet, but he has notified me that after 7 weeks he still doesn't have his coin. Hopefully the tracking will show some arrival in Spain scan before he decides to file an INR. (I hope he doesn't, the coin is $84).

C.

coffeebean832 · ‎06-15-2020

It's been very difficult. Some international packages I've shipped got there in a week and others are still pending after 2+ months. It's not just international though.

Domestic locations have been showing delays as well- First Class and Priority packages sitting in Detroit and Chicago for weeks with no movement. Packages to Puerto Rico taking 3-4 weeks. Packages consistently taking the scenic route as they're sent across the country then all the way back again to where they're supposed to go- the next state over.

I'd be surprised to hear there are many sellers out there that haven't been dealing with a lot of INRs because of the global shipping backlogs.

sin-n-dex · ‎06-15-2020

@coffeebean832 wrote:
It's been very difficult. Some international packages I've shipped got there in a week and others are still pending after 2+ months. It's not just international though.

Domestic locations have been showing delays as well- First Class and Priority packages sitting in Detroit and Chicago for weeks with no movement. Packages to Puerto Rico taking 3-4 weeks. Packages consistently taking the scenic route as they're sent across the country then all the way back again to where they're supposed to go- the next state over.

I'd be surprised to hear there are many sellers out there that haven't been dealing with a lot of INRs because of the global shipping backlogs.

Fortunately my USA shipments are doing OK (it's domestic for me, I'm shipping from Niagara New York, even though I live in Canada). I have one that's stuck in Detroit but it's only been stuck for a few days and it's not a very valuable item (and something I can actually replace... many of my items are unique). I didn't know there were problems in Chicago as well.

I'm not sure how my Canadian shipments are doing (shipped with Canada Post). I sent one express for my partner, it was just documents and going to a PO Box, and nothing for the past two weeks for tracking. So I don't know if it got lost, or if it was delivered without a delivery scan. The only way to know if they got it is to wait months for a response. I think I'm inclined to try and send it again, maybe by fax.

Unless a customer leaves me feedback, I don't know if my Canadian shipments are arriving. The ones that have tracking are mailed from Chit Chats Express. They do have tracking, but I have to go and get that, so I won't bother unless a customer inquires on the status of their item. The other stuff (stamps and tokens) have no tracking, but I think people are receiving their items quickly because they are coming back to bid on the auctions when I run them again, and increasing how much they spend and how many items they take each time.

A customer in Toronto told me things are very terrible for shipping there and he said he fully expects to wait weeks for his coins. (Hopefully it won't be that bad).

Right now I have 50 items outstanding of inbound shipments (from Asia, USA and Europe). The USA and Canadian ones are coming pretty quickly, but some of the Europe ones got cancelled (Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan) because there are no outbound flights to transport mail out of there. I'm letting sellers hold my items until this blows over if they're comfortable doing that. These items are very inexpensive and I won't worry about a $2-3 item. I know it's very hard on them to try and earn money in the current climate, so I'm not asking for refunds.

I've stopped ordering items. My partner is now earning feedback by selling tokens for me, and he's earned a lot of feedback from online shopping (to get started and not be a zero feedback seller). All his customers are my customers too, so it's working out very well for us with the auctions.

C.

reallyhardtofind · ‎06-16-2020

Yep we've had items stuck in the system for nearly 10 weeks now. Japan post failed its customers big time.

sin-n-dex · ‎06-16-2020

@reallyhardtofind wrote:
Yep we've had items stuck in the system for nearly 10 weeks now. Japan post failed its customers big time.

Are you getting lots of messages from customers and INRs as a result?

I'm getting messages from Chinese sellers (my partner bought a bunch of hair accessories for me in early May), contacting me to see if the item arrived and ask if there's a problem. I told them all not to worry, mail is slow, I'm waiting for many packages, and I'll leave positive feedback when it arrives to let them know I have it.

C.