OK, I normally don't get on a soapbox and present a rant, but this will be my first time! :angry: Not sure if I would classify this as humor or not but.... Tonight I had a bunch of auctions end, 5 items were sold to a buyer from London. Great! Since I've been listing things under the Global Shipping Program with pretty good luck, this should be just as easy right? Wrong! Before all the auctions were over I got an email from this seller asking if I could combine the shipping? "OK, let's see.....Oh Crap! How can I do this since you can't send an invoice to a Global customer"? For those of you who haven't used Global Shipping, Ebay blocks you from sending an invoice because they have to do all the cost calculations. Then they send an invoice to the buyer who then pays you and you get a notice from eBay that they have paid and then you can print a label that has the customers name and the address to eBay's Kentucky address. This is their location where they re-box the item, fill out all the forms and send it to on the customer. So the first thing I do is to contact the customer and tell him I can't send a combined invoice for the reason stated above. I then get on the phone and jump through the hoops until I reach a customer service rep [10 minutes go by], who then transfers me to another rep in the Global Shipping dept [who puts me on ignore for 25 minutes]. I explained the situation and he tells me this: "The Global Shipping is so new that we haven't had a chance to work out all the bugs with the system and unfortunately you will not be able combine shipping for your global customer, but there is a way that you will be able to remove the items from Global shipping and be able to ship it outside of the Global shipping option so you can ship directly from you. Please bare in mind that means you will be responsible for all the paperwork AAAAAAND if anything goes wrong with the transaction, you will be responsible. I will send you an email that will walk you and your customer through this simple process step by step. I want to apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause." He goes on to tell me that he has been inundated with this exact question many of times since they implemented the global shipping option. GREAT! Wonderful! Thanks eBay for leaving me to take care of things on my own and giving me the chance to be crucified or burned at the stake. So now I have to send a copy of the email to my customer and explain what HE has to do to get around this F'up mess. I also asked the rep to make it clear for me; "Its showing that to ship one N scale Tank car to London it shows a cost of $20.51 for International Priority shipping, is this correct"? He said yes, that was right. WOW! That means folks, to send five of these tank cars to London from the USA will cost him $102.55 using Global Shipping [international priority mail], even if I put all five cars into one box!!!!! He still has to pay for each item. ¤¤¤???? Don't you just love it when a company rushes to get a product out to the market place without first trying to work through all the scenarios to see if there will be any problems or bugs? Hmm, sounds kind of like something that a certain bunch of people did with the health care recently? And then finishes with "Were truly sorry for any problems this may, but we appreciate your business and value you as an eBay customer" BS!!! When I was given the opportunity to enroll in the Global Shipping program, my thoughts were "This is too good to be true"? So the first thing I did was to call them on the phone and ask a bunch of questions about. But it never crossed my mind about combined shipping. Wish it had. :headspin: The more I think about it, the more I think I will just cancel the auctions and say "Too Bad, So sad, sorry I don't want to put you through all this BS over a few N scale cars" or take my chances and try to find a way to contact him privately and deal with him outside of eBay. OK, I'm done, thanks for listening. Now back to more humor.
I had a similar problem with global when they first offered it. They did not divulge the prices up front and my foreign customers were p*****. Then when I tried to opt out, the link and instructions to do so were not working. I had to call Ebay and finally got rid of global.
I see "Global Shipping" in a seller's listing, I move on. I see no point in being a party to this ludicrous move on Ebay's part.
I have sold on the Bay since 1997 and it is no longer what I started in. They seek to totally control the selling as well as taking away ALL seller protection. Why do we use it ?? Mike
I started in '97 as well. And it was about 2001 when they began tampering with it. (2002? when they got control of PP?) Their constant meddling has become more than just idiotic. People who have joined since then think it's good now, simply because they don't know any better. Compared to those early years, no way. Of those who believe it is good now I can easily question their business acumen. Six years now since I left and set up my own web site. I do just as well via my site and places such as TrainBoard Swap Meet. Without fools interfering, and I get to keep much more money.
I don't understand why sellers don't offer international shipping. For low value items, use First Class Mail. For High Value items, ship Priority Mail. All shipping documents can be printed when you print the shipping label. No standing in line at the post office or filling out customs forms. The Global Shipping Program is just another way for E Bay to make money. It sounds so easy for the seller. Ship to Kentucky, we take care of the rest. What the seller doesn't see is the horrendous mark up the buyer is forced to pay. Many inter nation buyers will NOT bid on items if they are sold through the Global Shipping Program. How does that help the sellers if there are less potential bidders? I sell a lot to Canada. I mostly ship N Scale cars. I use First Class Mail. Never had a problem. If I sell something valuable, I ship Priority Mail. The buyer can see the charges. It is a lot less than the Global Shipping Program. I can combine shipping. I have control, not E Bay. The only downside is there is no seller protection using First Class Mail or Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box International. No delivery confirmation. Using regular Priority Mail, there is seller protection.
Cancel the auction. Opt out of the Global Shipping Program. Put all the cars on a new auction with a Buy it Now. Let the buyer know what time you will list. He can then do the BIN, save on shipping, and off you go. Everybody is happy.
I have had some good customers in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. I turned off the Global Shipping Option. To send three hoppers to Australia this morning only cost me $16.75. I have a Canadian N Scaler I do business with a decent amount, and we got snagged the first week eBay introduced that atrocious option. We figured out how to get around it, but what a pain!
I get bothered by those who don't give a reason why they won't ship internationally. Being a UK modeller in the US, I find that the British eBay can be a great source of deals on GWR models and prototype relics. When shipping section says "will ship to the United States" but the actual seller replies to my message with "UK only" and not even a "sorry" it is quite troublesome. I guess they don't want my money. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I thought I would give it a chance to see what it was like and how well it worked. For the most part it works OK. I recently sold an item to a buyer in Australia and things went smooth as silk albeit the high shipping, but he was obviously happy. It works well for single items, but not for combined shipping. I doubt I will use it again and will look back in to other options. If it's as easy as you say about filling out the forms on line, then that would be easier, but I've been curious about how well that works. I'll check into it more, thanks for the info. Pete you said that if you ship an item using Regular Priority Mail [not flat rate] that the protection is still in place? That's interesting, what makes the difference do you know? I got into ebay about 2000 at a friends asking and prodding. He told me how good it was, but that was before they started messing with it. Also plan to start listing more on the boards as well.
I ship at least 40% of my auctions Internationally, I offer First Class Int'l package as well as Priority Mail. If you use Stamps.Com, They insure First Class Int'l for a reasonable cost. The Post Office doesn't offer Insurance at all for that class. I've had one item pilfered in a Foreign Customs office, And I received my money back from that Insurance service with no hassle. I didn't want anymore dealings with Ebay than necessary..Control your own shipping. Direct communication with your customers without third party interference is far better.
Boy, there's clueless and then there's clueless. I took the time to politely let this guy know that his model is HO scale and not N scale. His response? "What's the difference?" Oy! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=131141745423&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123 Cheers, -Mark
Being a US modeller in the UK I have found that by the time you include the postage and the import charges to ship from the USA that the price is roughly comparable to the UK Internet store pricing. I generally wait until I am visiting the US and arrive with a list hoping the LHS will have what I'm looking for. I also sell on eBay UK and can confirm it is a pain to ship internationally and get delivery confirmation for a price that the buyer is willing to pay.
