Pitney Bowes is wrongly stealing purchased goods.

[brandososac-0]

I have had 3 shipments of tobacco pipes wrongly confiscated by this Pitney Bowes company and ebay refuses to do anything about the issue. The pipes were antique tobacco pipes which are 1000% allowed to be sold on ebay and shipped to the USA per USC statutes. This is absolutely egregious and absurd that ebay will do nothing about this other than issue a refund. Then they actually let Pitney Bowes resell my confiscated items.

[marnotom!]

I don't get why the impoundment and subsequent liquidation of the item is coming as a surprise to some users when this is how the GSP operated when it operated eBay.com's international forwarding service ten years ago and this is how the present-day eIS handles items it's unable or unwilling to forward to an international destination.

[gator08041971]

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@dryophelia wrote:

@theclockandwatchstore 

There is no fraud. 
eBay refunds the buyer and the seller keeps their funds. 
When eBay refunds, they own the item. 

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Maybe not directly to the seller or buyer, but there IS fraud going on here.  Why else would an item that lets say you sold, get confiscated (or lost) you get to keep your funds, the buyer gets reimbursed, and its later listed again to be sold again?

SOMEONE is committing fraud here someplace.  Plain and simple.  It might not affect the first seller and while the buyer is made whole financially, they didn't get to get their item, and now someone else is selling it again, at a higher price for more profit.

Unless the place/person relisting the item is the same person that is reimbursing the original parties, I don't see how it cannot be a fraudulent issue at some point in this chain.

Eventually this is going to get caught on by eBay, but know knows when that will occur.  I'm assuming its them that's on the hook for every single one of these incidents.  Who knows how much money that has cost them?

Anyway.

[1786davycrockett]

@theclockandwatchstore 

"I was referring to eBay filing an insurance claim to recover the losses paid out to sellers who get to keep the funds from the sale. A little fishy when PB works for them and items are turning up missing, then reappear on your platform 3 months later "

I repeat -- Pitney-Bowes does NOT "work" for eBay!

Pitney-Bowes is a long-established business machine company dating back to 1902 (nearly 100 years before the advent of eBay), and is simply the contract facilitator between eBay and USPS.

Pitney-Bowes was also the contract facilitator between several of my employers back in the 1960s -- but Pitney-Bowes had NOTHING to do with the manner in which EITHER of those companies was operating, and did NOT profit in any way by assisting in the mailing contracts with USPS.

I have no idea why the OP seems to believe that Pitney-Bowes is involved with the "loss" of the OP's items -- but Pitney-Bowes had absolutely NO dog in this fight!

[yuzuha]

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@brandososac-0 wrote:

I have had 3 shipments of tobacco pipes wrongly confiscated by this Pitney Bowes company and ebay refuses to do anything about the issue. The pipes were antique tobacco pipes which are 1000% allowed to be sold on ebay and shipped to the USA per USC statutes.

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What were they made out of, though? There could be a restriction on the specific type of material they were made from.

[pjcdn2005]

The people relisting the item have been designated by eBay to sell the items within the US.  These items were not confiscated or lost, eBay  had allowed them to be sold through EIS or GPS and once at the hub they realized that they shouldn’t be sent to the country they were going to. Rather than take a total loss, eBay has the item resold.  I don’t see any fraud but I do think that when this happens the customer is disappointed and does have a bad buying experience. Ideally the system should be improved so that this rarely happens.

[marnotom!]

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@1786davycrockett wrote:

I have no idea why the OP seems to believe that Pitney-Bowes is involved with the "loss" of the OP's items -- but Pitney-Bowes had absolutely NO dog in this fight!

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@1786davycrockett, if Pitney Bowes is mentioned seventy times in the seller terms and conditions of the UK Global Shipping Program, I think it’s safe to say that it has some involvement with the forwarding process of the OP’S purchase:

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/shipping/globalshipping/seller-tnc.html

That said, eBay UK’s ten-year-or-so relationship with the logistics and e-commerce side of Pitney Bowes is likely winding down:

https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/pitney-bowes-e-commerce-logistics-unit-shutter-bankruptcy/72381...

[1786davycrockett]

@marnotom! 

This directly from the download which you sent to me:

1. Relationship between eBay and Pitney Bowes

   eBay and Pitney Bowes have entered into an agreement to make the Services available to you and/or the Buyers. eBay is not providing or responsible for any of the Services, and Pitney Bowes is neither owned by, nor affiliated with, eBay.

That seems awfully clear to me.

[1786davycrockett]

@marnotom! 

AH!!!  But yet, in the same download, this little item DOES appear:

1. You agree that in respect of any items found to be ineligible, Pitney Bowes may (at its discretion) dispose of or liquidate GSP Items in any manner that they prefer, including without limitation, (a) returning the item to you at your costs, (b) handing over the item to the authorities or (c) destroying the item without notice.

So -- my apologies to @brandososac-0 and @marnotom!  -- I was definitely wrong!

[fmid78]

I am having the exact same issue with an antique wooden tea caddy bought from the UK. I live in the Netherlands and successfully bought a very similar item (same price range, same origin, same shipping method [GSP] and same product category in the ad) and it arrived successfully without any problems; the only difference is that the one I arrived needs restoration and it's very plain, while the one that "vanished" is clearly more attractive. In some places the tracking said that the item as "broken and returned to the seller", then after insisting with eBay via countless hours on Customer Service, they say that it was "undelivered" due to customs restrictions, however they cannot explain which restrictions are this, and why it did not apply to another item of the exact same characteristics. The fact that GSP refunds both seller and buyer is apparently being used as an excuse from eBay to blatantly ignore the issue.