eBay

walnutcreekhome · ‎03-09-2020

With more and more countries shutting down incoming and outgoing flights because of the Coronavirus, is eBay offering any seller protections for international delivery delays or returns? I can't find anything about this anywhere, other than USPS no longer providing guaranteed delivery to Hong Kong and China. What about packages coming FROM China?

orangehound · ‎03-09-2020

@walnutcreekhome wrote:
is eBay offering any seller protections for international delivery delays or returns?

As of this moment, they haven't announced anything. If you handle international shipments yourself (and not through the GSP), then you might want to restrict which countries can purchase from you so as to protect yourself.

doug1711 · ‎04-23-2020

I have a problem with a package sent to Russia. Russia closed shipments from the USA on March 27 and my package is sitting in customs in the USA until Russia re-opens. The buyer has filed a case for not receiving the item. If eBay steps in and refunds, I will be out the money and the buyer will get the item eventually when Russia opens up. Tried calling eBay and there is no phone support.

walnutcreekhome · ‎04-24-2020

Russia did close its borders to travel, but I couldn't find any announcement that Putin closed borders to incoming packages.

Be that as it may, you need to contact your carrier to see if you can get the package turned around. It might cost a few dollars, but it's worth it in the long run.

If that doesn't work, contact customs to see how they're handling such cases and ask if you can pay to have the item shipped back to you. What have you got to lose? By the way, how long has it been sitting in customs? The best you can hope for now is to cancel the transaction, refund and get the package back. No buyer is going to spend money and then wait forever to receive what he paid for, especially if it's time sensitive. This situation is no more his fault than yours.

In the meantime, make sure you're in constant contact with your customer. You're more likely to come out of this clean if he knows you're working hard to resolve the situation, and eBay will look more kindly on you, as well. Sellers often blow it by ignoring the customer during the claims process. After all, why should he have to pay for something he can't get? We'll all do much better by working together with our customers rather than viewing them as adversaries as many sellers do.

This is another good reason not to ship directly, especially now and especially to countries like Russia that can be fraught with fraud when life is normal. Using the Global Shipping Program eliminates issues like this because eBay assumes all responsibility once the package leaves the U.S. hub in Kentucky. As a matter of fact, if you use GSP, shoppers from countries with closed borders can't even buy from you, avoiding all such issues. Any direct international shipping carries with it risks like this.

When did you ship the package? Any seller shipping directly has a responsibility to be aware of which countries are open and which are closed.

You can't blame eBay for this one since you assumed all liability when you chose to ship directly. eBay has safe options open to sellers, and those who want to work outside of the available programs & protections are taking a risk every time they ship overseas, especially now.

martin2001 · ‎04-24-2020

@doug1711 wrote:
I have a problem with a package sent to Russia. Russia closed shipments from the USA on March 27 and my package is sitting in customs in the USA until Russia re-opens. The buyer has filed a case for not receiving the item. If eBay steps in and refunds, I will be out the money and the buyer will get the item eventually when Russia opens up. Tried calling eBay and there is no phone support.

There is no information about Russia closing shipments from USA. First there is this announcement:

USPS Shifting Mail From Air Cargo to Sea Transport

Due to limited air cargo capacity, the U.S. Postal Service is shifting select mail from air transport to sea transport in an effort to move mail from the U.S. to international destinations.

Typical Priority Mail shipments that usually take about 7 to 10 days will now take about 4 to 6 weeks if the service is available to the destination country.

And this is the latest about Russia:

Russian Federation – 3/27/2020

Russia Post advises that effective March 28 it will not obtain a signature from the recipient at the door for postal items requiring a signature on delivery, to reduce human interaction.

In case of an unsuccessful at-the-door delivery attempt, the recipient will receive a notification requesting the person to collect the item at a designated post office.

Additionally, due to measures aimed at minimizing the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the Russian Post is unable to guarantee compliance with delivery standards and is invoking a situation of force majeure with regard to the quality of service and remuneration for all categories of mail items until further notice.

Your package is most likely on its way, but it will take much longer.

das9haus · ‎05-28-2020

I won't deny your logic even though you sound like an ebay lawyer. HOWEVER ebay should have either forced GSP upon us or provided much much better logistical data. If GSP has the ability to stop int'l buyers from even purchasing, etc., then GSP has an unfair and prolly illegal advantage. This is a Force Majeure issue. I shipped a package to Thailand 50 days ago which was just before things got really ugly and it still isn't there. I have communicated regularly with the buyer and he just opened a ticket requesting that I do something. And he doesn't speak English at all well. I know I will be out $200 and I am certain he will end up with my product for free. Why? Because USPS provides zero support once it leaves the country even on international priority mail. Your recommendation to contact customs is ridiculous. The number of cases is overwhelming. The entire logistics business on our planet is suffering tremendously so my little package is of such minute concern as to be nil. And since 75% of my business is int'l my 23 years of business selling on ebay is prolly going to end up closing its doors. And this after investing in 10,000+ pieces of inventory. My suggestion is that if it's not the UK or old western Europe, the now EU bloc then you prolly shouldn't ship it.