What to do when a shipping middle man ships to wrong country?

[beautifulbeauty2012]

Looks like Pirate Ship messed up my package and sent it to Switzerland instead of Hong Kong from Doral, FL Asendia sorting facility . Support is sleepy and has no clue what to do.

Have you experienced that, and if so, what should I do?

[janet9988]

Are you the seller?  If you shipped it to the address given with payment and it shows delivered you don't need to worry about what the buyer did with it after that. The buyer used a middle man. The buyer deals with the middle man.

[beautifulbeauty2012]

Do you understand what I am asking? I guess you are confused with freight forwarders?

[alcoforever]

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@beautifulbeauty2012 wrote:

Do you understand what I am asking? I guess you are confused with freight forwarders?

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@janet9988  is not confused; she knows about freight forwarders.

I repeat, once the item shows delivery to the address ebay gave you with payment, you are off the hook. 

You might respond to the buyer something like this:  "Sorry your item didn't arrive but once it shows delivery to the US address you provided, I no longer have control over the package.   Your best bet is to contact the forwarder at his US address to see if he can get the package back or at least compensate for it.   Again, sorry this has happened but it is far out of my control now."

[chapeau-noir]

@alcoforever   The buyer doesn't provide the Pirateship freight forwarding address - that's Pirateship's forwarding address for their export shipping - the buyer knows nothing about this.  Pirateship integrates with eBay and Etsy for reshipping. 

I've used this service a number of times and it has been very smooth.  I'm not sure what to do save to raise a big stink with Pirateship and wake up their support (which is usually quite good) - they're the ones who contract with Asendia.

[itscalledapostingid]

Was it delivered there or still in transit?

[beautifulbeauty2012]

Yes, it has been very smooth for me as well. Until this one. 

[beautifulbeauty2012]

When I saw it was heading to Switzerland (the last mile number ends with CH-Switzerland; HK ones usually end with HK or CN-for China), and it is already in Spain - a short flight from the wrong destination, I contacted the support. It can be delivered, but if the labels messed up, wrong stuff to wrong people will be delivered.

[chapeau-noir]

I guess something like this was bound to happen.  Every time I address a package to that service I have vague thoughts of what could go wrong.  I would think this would be on Pirateship - they need to make good on their own mistake either by trying to get the merchandise back or reimbursement.  That, of course, doesn't help the disappointed buyers, yours and the other one. 😒 

[farmalljr]

If Acendia sent it to the wrong place, then I would ask Pirate Ship to reimburse you. If it's routed that way because of Covid/labor issues, then it might be taking a tour because of shipping issues. 

Pirate Ship should be able to answer that within 48 hours. If thy can't, then I would be demanding reimbursement. 

[dbfolks166mt]

          There are some missing details in your posting. Was this for an item you sold through eBay? If it was I am assuming you elected to do the direct shipping yourself and used Pirate Ship's international logistical service which I am not familiar with. 

     Generally with freight forwarders, which is in essence the service Pirate ship is providing the shipping label to the Doral, FL shipping label would have had some type of code associated with it so the sorting facility would have known where to forward the item to in Hong Kong,

     If Pirate Ship messed up the forwarding link then they should be on the hook for either correcting the shipping issue and getting it to the buyer or refunding you for the item and the shipping cost at which point you should refund the buyer. I am not sure how long it has been in transit or how you loaded the tracking information into the eBay order and what the eBay projected delivery date shows but if it does not arrive by that date don't be surprised if the buyer does not open an INR case. 

[714ricki]

Could you please tell us if the item was delivered to someone's address in Switzerland or is it in transit to Hong Kong via Switzerland? Or at least take a snip of the tracking page & let us take a quick look to better understand the situation.

Hang in there.......I have a feeling that it's only in transit awaiting a cargo plane to Hong Kong from Switzerland.

[natoman777]

This is what you get from trusting Pirates 🚢

In all seriousness, I would stick with eBay global shipping program.  If a mistake is made once it makes it to the global shipping center you are covered after that

[beautifulbeauty2012]

When shipping via Pirate Ship (or, with ebay international standard, etc), you get two numbers - one for the shipper within the US, and once a package get processed at a sorting facility, you get another number for the destination country. The second number is for "last mile", and is the last tracking number used in a destination country. With Canada, most of the time, it is just one LZ number, but with other countries there are two.

The package in question has "last mile" number, which indicates that the destination is Switzerland, not Hong Kong. Unless there is some forces in logistics, and they have to ship via Switzerland. Just had another package going that way (to Singapore), and it was routed via West Coast directly to Singapore. HK is only four hour flight away. 

Something will get delivered with that tracking number, but if it is wrong person or wrong item, then there is a problem.

[glyph01]

When Pirateship first announced using Asendia service for their special export price describing the whole process, I was like, no way in hell….what if they slap the wrong last mile label on my shipment? I can do bad by myself, thank you. Don’t need anyone’s help. lol That was the nail on the coffin for me shipping overseas, amongst other reasons. Since USPS Click n Ship is doing First Class pkg int’l again, I’d rather go that route if I had to ship overseas. 

Hope it’s just going the sightseeing route.