Pitney Bowes Problem wrongfully taking / stealing packages with Exception: Undeliverable excuse ??

[lucyinthesky925]

Hello, I am experiencing a MADDENING issue between UK Royal Mail and Pitney Bowes - with a very expensive ring shipped from the UK to the US. The ring that I purchased went from Royal Mail to Pitney Bowes, where the tracking mysteriously states "Exception: Undeliverable" 

EDIT - I've been a seller and buyer on Ebay since 2000 and this is by far the one thing that will make me leave the platform if they cannot figure this out. 

This is maddening because both myself and the seller were refunded by Ebay (we did NOT want this, we wanted to locate the ring).  And yet, no matter who we talk to, we cannot get answers. 

I've escalated with Ebay leadership 4 times this week, and just got off the phone with Pitney Bowes who cannot even give me a phone number to contact their international hub in the UK to try and locate the ring - that's right - NO ONE at Pitney Bowes claims responsibility despite the item having a clear tracking history ON the Pitney Bowes site! 

I am thinking there is a massive scam going on in which Pitney Bowes (or someone) is stealing expensive packages? Is this actually happening to many people and how are people getting around this??

[wastingtime101]

Hi @lucyinthesky925 .

Have you tried tracking the package on parcelsapp.com to see if it shows more details? (Edit to add: this will only be relevant if the hub assigned an international tracking number and forwarded the package.)

My guess is this was a Global Shipping Programme purchase and eBay determined you were not at fault for whatever reason the package was undeliverable. This is why eBay covered the refund.

If packages were being stolen at the hub, the GSP wouldn't survive. Chances are there was a reason eBay felt they could not forward the package internationally due to import restrictions or otherwise.

[lucyinthesky925]

Yes, I am in the US - I will give that a shot! I ordered the package from the UK, and I've been reading about a lot of other US customers seeing similar issues when ordering from UK sellers.

[lucyinthesky925]

Thanks so much, I will give this a try. It is frustrating because it is a ring - a piece of jewelry that was made by a modern company and should have no restrictions whatsoever. 

[wastingtime101]

It could be any number of factors really from import regs to tariffs to value to anything. Typically, if it makes it to the GSP hub, but never leaves the GSP hub, there is some kind of issue with exporting the item and/or GSP program terms which results in eBay liquidating the item and refunding the buyer.

Since you're refunded, eBay considers the matter closed. They do not provide details. You'll drive yourself crazy spending time and energy calling any/everybody trying to get specific answers when in the end you probably won't get a specific answer and it's not going to change the outcome.

Sorry you were disappointed here. I'm sure you were looking forward to receiving that ring.

[marnotom!]

I'm in Canada where we're wrestling with the rollout of our version of the US eBay International Shipping system.  What we're finding is that there are instances where eIS will not handle shipments to the United States but will to the other countries that the program serves, and AI, bots, crawlers, whatever you want to call them, are combing listings where eIS is used and blocking the United States as a shipping destination for some listings.  I think the same thing may be happening in the UK with some listings where the Global Shipping Program is used.

The introduction of tariffs combined with the elimination of the US$800 duty-free limit on personal imports handled by mail and similar carriers has really put a spanner/monkey wrench into purchasing items destined for the United States from abroad.  The "Exception: Undeliverable" scan means that there was something about the ring that made it difficult if not impossible to export, or at least create satisfactory customs documentation.  An item such as a ring might be made in one place (that's where the tariffs calculation comes in), but the materials used in the ring could be from any number of places, and for the purposes of calculating duties (not tariffs), the point of origin for those materials needs to be declared as well.

For whatever reason, the listing for the ring did not have a block on US purchases/shipping so the item had to dead-end at the Pitney Bowes hub instead.

At least, that's the hypothesis we're working with in Canada based on the somewhat cryptic information we've been receiving from the eIS team.  Categories such as textiles and antiques seem to be hit particularly hard by this restriction, and when you consider the nature of producing clothing and how much certified information there is on the make-up of many antiques, this makes sense, as frustrating as it is.

I really don't think anything underhanded happened with your ring, @lucyinthesky925.  It just fell afoul of the new reality when it comes to exporting items to the United States, unfortunately.

[12345jamesstamps]

Buyer and seller were refunded....as a seller I would be happy.

As a buyer I would not be happy but sometimes things go wrong.

As a seller would I spend time on this...me personally...no.

[lucyinthesky925]

marnotom, this is probably the best explanation I've received yet, thank you.  This ring was made partially of Welsh gold, by the well known Clogau company. I am wondering if this has something to do with it. 

The very sad part is that the ring won't even be returned to the buyer, which makes me very suspicious as to what actually happens with these items (if they cannot be exported, what the heck happens to them I wonder?). 

Thank you for this detailed and thoughtful reply. If I were to guess, this is exactly what is happening here : ( 

[wastingtime101]

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@lucyinthesky925 wrote:

The very sad part is that the ring won't even be returned to the buyer, which makes me very suspicious as to what actually happens with these items (if they cannot be exported, what the heck happens to them I wonder?). 

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As I mentioned, they liquidate these items - they sell these items in bulk to a company that will resell with domestic shipping only. That's what happens with the US eIS service. I expect something very similar happens with the UK GSP service. eBay does not offer the option of the seller getting the item back and refunding the buyer from the seller's funds.

Edit to add: To be clear, every time this happens it's a financial loss for eBay so there is no incentive for shady dealings. eBay would prefer all items are forwarded to the buyer, but due to regulations that's not always possible, and due to the complexities and how frequently the laws change it's not always possible to block the purchase before it happens. So stuff like this slips through sometimes. eBay takes the loss and refunds the buyer, then they recoup a part of the cost by liquidating to a third party.