Parcel stuck in customs counted as a defect rate

[japanesetaste]

eBay is not removing two defect rates for two products that were stuck in customs for weeks and then, according to Italian customs, buried. Tracking number shows "item in customs" and we also got a document from shipping company confirming that Customs retained and threw away the mentioned products.

According to eBay policies these cases should be automatically removed from seller's performance record but they have not. I contacted many times customer support but they do not remove the defect rate nor give any clear explanation about why they do not do it. Not sure what I can do next.

http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-protection/defect-removal.html

"Under the defect removal policy, certain transaction defects received for reasons outside a seller’s control will be automatically removed from the seller’s performance standards and feedback profile. For example:

• eBay can determine through valid tracking that the defect was the direct result of systemic delays in shipping or communication. Examples include wide-scale shipping carrier delays, items stuck in customs, or power outages due to extreme weather. Actual events will be listed on eBay’s announcement board."

[japanesetaste]

just wanted to share with you ebay's facebook CS reply:

"We can’t help with your claim appeals though. It looks like they were opened on the eBay Italy site where the items were purchased. I can let you know that unless you shipped with GSP http://ebay.to/1HdRo1B you’d be responsible for any problems with shipment/customs. It sounds like the items were stuck in customs and the buyer was unable to retrieve them. You’d be held responsible for getting the buyer refunded, but we could have possibly assisted with the defect removal considering the courier situation. Unfortunately, it appears you’re past the timeframe to qualify for defect appeals. This needs to happen within 120 days of receiving the defect, and that was April 23, 2017. I know this isn’t the response you wanted, but I hope it helps to explain why we’re unable to look into removal of the defects you received. I’d like to wish you future success and encourage you to look into shipping internationally with the GSP to help from running into situations like this. ~Velvet"

"you would be correct in saying that certain defects can be removed automatically when we have access and visibility to the tracking. However in your case, the courier you used, Japan post is not a courier we have integrated into our system. So the system would not have been able to check automatically if this was a wide-scale issue or a customs issue. This responsibility would have fallen on you to let us know during that time frame. However now that you know I'm sure nothing like this will happen again and we are only a few clicks away to helping out! Get back to us if you need anything else or have any more questions. Thanks ~ Stephen"