eBay

cheezf · ‎02-15-2022

Hello. Hopefully someone can help me with this. I have sold and shipped a few things internationally with no problem, however, a package I mailed to Taiwan near the end of December has still not arrived and was last updated with the following:

-Dec 28, 2021
-11:00pm
-ORIGIN AIRLINE CARRIER DEPARTED/UPLIFT
-Miami, US

No updates since then. The package was mailed to Taiwan, and was very similar to a package I mailed to Beijing the week prior to that one, which arrived fine. The USPS says it looks like it is in Customs based on the last update, and that they can't help me track it and that I need to deal with Customs, but apparently, it is impossible to track something in Customs.

I spoke with a USPS rep today and they now tell me that First Class International is the only kind of International shipping option that IS NOT trackable, nor is it insurable! Ebay did not tell me this when I shipped it. Now apparently it has dropped off the face of the earth and no way I can find it, or claim a loss. Please help with any info you can share as to how I might track it. As you can imagine, the buyer is getting impatient at this point, as the purchase amount was $650. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

martin2001 · ‎02-16-2022

Frankly, there is not much anybody can do at this point, just to wait and hope. You can ask your buyer to visit the local post office and ask them to track the number. Post offices often have more internal scans and info and do not provide all the info on the internet. Because of high value, the parcel may be stuck at their customs. I had a package to greece that took 80 days to deliver, Italy, 49 days. But these are exceptions rather than the rules.

You will have to refund the buyer, when they lose patience and hope, that they let you know, when the parcel arrives. I mail a lot abroad, not using USPS (but pirateship.com). In about a year, I mailed around 180 parcels abroad and none got lost, so there is hope.

alwa2919 · ‎02-16-2022

I'm from Taiwan. Ask your buyer if they have entered their phone number correctly when placing the order. If it's correct, then ask them if they have signed up & verified Ezway. It's mandatory, and for some people, they have to click a button on the app to confirm they acknowledge the inbound shipments and it's theirs before customs will release the packages.

Or you can try track it here, https://postserv.post.gov.tw/pstmail/main_mail.html?targetTxn=EB500200

As far as I know, the tracking updates from the destination post office wouldn't update on the original post office tracking site, in this case, USPS's.

a_c_green · ‎02-16-2022

@cheezf wrote:
I spoke with a USPS rep today and they now tell me that First Class International is the only kind of International shipping option that IS NOT trackable, nor is it insurable!

That's not entirely true, but the facts aren't going to help much here as FCI packages do not offer tracking through to delivery in Taiwan. There is a specific list of e-DELCON countries that return electronic delivery confirmation data to the US. Here's a recent update as shown on PirateShip:

https://support.pirateship.com/en/articles/2094182-list-of-countries-with-usps-e-delcon-internationa...

That's why the tracking of your package stopped when it left the US. While Customs can be a big delay in some countries, it's not possible to say for sure at this moment where your package is in Taiwan. (In some cases, you can pick up the tracking again by going to the destination country's own post office, but I have no knowledge of Taiwan to say if that would be an option here.)