eBay's official stance on 3rd party freight forwarding?

[bro.us.5iedd7mtn]

I was trying to google this but couldn't find much results. What is eBay's official stance on buyers who use third party freight forwarding services? 

I do not want to ship to these services because it makes the delivery of the item essentially a black box. The second it reaches the US location, it is out of my hands. If it gets damaged or disappears in international transit I have no idea who to contact to get it resolved. And if it does get damaged, and I have to file for insurance, why should it be USPS's financial responsibility to cover the damage if it likely occurred during unsupported international transit?

I recently cancelled an order when I saw that the buyer ordered using one of these forwarding services (he also had an outrageous list of demands of how I should pack the item), and I am getting a lot of pushback from him for doing so. I am guessing I will get a defect on my account for this.

Am I wrong here? I think as a seller it should be my choice whether or not I take on this additional risk, and eBay should not require sellers to indulge customers who use unofficial shipping services. 

[mr_lincoln]

@bro.us.5iedd7mtn 

I did the Missing mail piece too and it never showed that it was delivered.  Some other members here said to use the USPS Trace feature but I didn't bother because if the local carrier never scanned it at the Forwarder then there is nothing to update.  

After my experience I am VERY concerned when I make a sale to a Buyer and the package has to go through a Miami, FL based Forwarding company.  

[janet9988]

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@bro.us.5iedd7mtn wrote:

I recently cancelled an order when I saw that the buyer ordered using one of these forwarding services (he also had an outrageous list of demands of how I should pack the item), and I am getting a lot of pushback from him for doing so. I am guessing I will get a defect on my account for this.

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I am glad you got the neg removed.

Buyers can be reported for making demands that are not part of the listing. Probably why CS removed the neg.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/resolving-buyer-issues/report-issue-buyer?id=4084&st=3&pos=3&query...

[d-eberly]

Wouldn't it also help to take packages with questionable destinations directly to the Post Office and get an acceptance scan?  This way any insurance you have on the item should be honored by the Post Office if the package does not receive a final delivery scan.  

[a_c_green]

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@d-eberly wrote:

Wouldn't it also help to take packages with questionable destinations directly to the Post Office and get an acceptance scan?  This way any insurance you have on the item should be honored by the Post Office if the package does not receive a final delivery scan.  

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Missing Mail claims are the easiest to get paid off for any covered Shipping method (generally, Ground Advantage or higher) as long as it received at least one in-network scan along the way to show that the USPS had it in their possession and then somehow lost it.

The problem in the case of the Miami/Doral reshippers is that the local PO down there apparently (at least sometimes) hands over shipments in bulk to the reshippers without scanning any individual packages as Delivered, then refuses to honor claims for non-delivery to that location.

I have occasionally shipped to that location myself and had no problems (and I did get a Delivered scan each time), but there have been enough reports here over the past few years to say that there does seem to be a problem at that location, and the USPS does not seem all that interested in addressing it.