eBay Global Shipping/Pitney Bowes: problems..?

[atari8warez]

 

Are you kidding? You've never seen Canada Post lie about "Attempted Delivery"?? At least 80% of my packages are not delivered and I can guarantee they made no attempt. My average is 2 to 3 weeks from the US. Your fast deliveries must mean you're living in an urban area, near a sorting hub. (..or some fantasy land unknown to me, that I wish I could find. )

 

Yes i live in Toronto, and you may be right on rural areas taking longer, but isn't that expected?. So how do you guarantee they did not make an attempt to deliver, where you home 24/7?

[_The Doctor__]

fees aside... re packing and damage is just plain wrong.... period. Socking the buyer with the fees is just BS... everyone loses in the pitney ebay scheme.. if a seller ever sends me something via that GSP ... I will never buy from them again nor will anyone I inform about them...that about means about 78 less nearby Atari bidders to your auction from my area and more if you count those I know across the USA that I still keep in touch with... bottom line. The service sucks, you almost always get destroyed merchandise... I have two printers one laser and one thermal... broken beyond repair by this assinine 'service'. Very expensive, and yes no one wants to do a d*mn thing about it. ebay says it's pitneys problem... pitney says its ebays problem... the seller on one item made a partial refund.... but can't be held responsible for the tradgedy this fiasco of a shipping service. They didn't want the damaged goods back due to shipping and I don't blame them because the shipping is so damn high on an Atari laser printer... I am tired of the sh*t storm you have to go through with ebay and pitney bowes to get more circular logic answers that just lead to one place... Anyone who ships this method because it's cheaper is fulling themselves... It's always more expensive... especially when damage occurs... enough said... it blows...

[AtariLeaf]

fees aside... re packing and damage is just plain wrong.... period. Socking the buyer with the fees is just BS... everyone loses in the pitney ebay scheme.. if a seller ever sends me something via that GSP ... I will never buy from them again nor will anyone I inform about them...that about means about 78 less nearby Atari bidders to your auction from my area and more if you count those I know across the USA that I still keep in touch with... bottom line. The service sucks, you almost always get destroyed merchandise... I have two printers one laser and one thermal... broken beyond repair by this assinine 'service'. Very expensive, and yes no one wants to do a d*mn thing about it. ebay says it's pitneys problem... pitney says its ebays problem... the seller on one item made a partial refund.... but can't be held responsible for the tradgedy this fiasco of a shipping service. They didn't want the damaged goods back due to shipping and I don't blame them because the shipping is so damn high on an Atari laser printer... I am tired of the sh*t storm you have to go through with ebay and pitney bowes to get more circular logic answers that just lead to one place... Anyone who ships this method because it's cheaper is fulling themselves... It's always more expensive... especially when damage occurs... enough said... it blows...

 

[+slx]

Interesting information indeed. IMHO the main problem is US sellers being afraid of shipping outside the U.S. who will only do it if EBay cares for customs, etc. Global shipping has made more stuff available to us living outside the holy land of the 8-bits and has worked for me so far. I do agree, however, that it results in import charges where none would be due (or at least levied) using USPS (which I found to be the best service, often delivering to Austria in a week and usually duty free for stuff <100$).

 

I have used remailers as well and that worked fine, too. (have not tried package consolidation, though.)

[Atari-Collector]

I thought I share a pic of latest victim eBay's Global Shipping Program..

 

Yes, I've already contacted the seller about.. I haven't hooked it up yet, but plan on doing that shortly.

I'm pretty ticked off about this, since these unit rarely come up for sale, I've only seen 2 or 3 year in the last year for sale..

 

PLEASE US SELLERS. STOP USING THE GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM!

[Albert]

Ugh, that sucks. What does the packaging look like? Is it obvious that it was repacked?

 

..Al

[Atari-Collector]

Not sure if it was repacked. I"ve emailed pics to the seller via eBay in case there needs to be a shipping claim..

There was lots of bubble wrap but still there was damage.

Under that door is where the power supply goes, a brink sort like what an atari 800 uses.. May guess is it wasn't secured well, it got loose and rough handling turned it in to a wrecking ball from the inside..

 

and yes, I do take pics of expensive stuff before and during unpacking just in case..

Edited January 12, 2015 by Atari-Collector

[AtariLeaf]

Keep us informed. I'm very interested if the seller tells you that wasn't the box he sent.

[Atari-Collector]

Just heard back from the seller:

"Yes, that was the box it was shipped in. I am assuming it wasn't crushed but dropped from a good height or heaved."

 

But still had to go though extra handling going via GSP t hat wouldn't have happened going by mail.

[AtariLeaf]

I got to thinking that something that size and weight might have been harder for them to repack. Might be hard to find a smaller box for something like that. Looks like the seller has some culpability after all. You gotta pack these things as if they will be treated like a soccer ball, which I don't think is hyperbole when it comes to some postal workers.

[Atari-Collector]

He should have removed the power brick and bubble wrapped it separately, He has offer to send me another cover to replace the broken one. sounds like he does a fair bit of buying and selling stuff. Now I have to wait til the HxC floppy emulator gets here to really put it to use, The HxC is the TRS80 and PC counterpart to a SIO2SD made by the same person.

[atari8warez]

One day I've observed luggage handlers from inside the cabin of an airplane when they were unloading cargo, if postal workers also handle their packages that way, it's amazing that we are getting most our stuff in one piece

[+SoulBuster]

I actually have better luck with USPS. Nearly 1,000 packages shipped in 2014 and not one Item damaged. I think the USPS has had something change, I never would have used them 10 years ago. With UPS, everything comes with a problem. FedEx seems OK. And what is the company Amazon uses to ship? Ontrack, They seem OK.

[Albert]

I actually have better luck with USPS. Nearly 1,000 packages shipped in 2014 and not one Item damaged. I think the USPS has had something change, I never would have used them 10 years ago. With UPS, everything comes with a problem. FedEx seems OK. And what is the company Amazon uses to ship? Ontrack, They seem OK.

Amusingly, I've had more packages damaged with USPS in the past year than I have in quite some time. In fact, someone wrote me just a few days about a package (and included photos) that was quite damaged by USPS. So, I have not been impressed with their quality as of late. However, Priority Mail has improved in that most packages I'm sending seem to arrive in two days, even when being sent 2,000 miles away.

 

As for commercial shippers, I've had the best luck with UPS. They are pretty consistent, and I've had very few packages damaged. However, I don't like FedEx at all. Especially FedEx Ground. I've had more packages damaged or mis-delivered through FedEx than everyone else, by far. So I always avoid them now when I can, except for overnight stuff.

 

..Al

[+SoulBuster]

I have to agree with USPS priority, they have been arriving in 2 days. Sometimes overnight, not often, but sometimes in state.

[Atari-Collector]

I actually have better luck with USPS. Nearly 1,000 packages shipped in 2014 and not one Item damaged. I think the USPS has had something change, I never would have used them 10 years ago. With UPS, everything comes with a problem. FedEx seems OK. And what is the company Amazon uses to ship? Ontrack, They seem OK.

Yes, I prefer using Canada Post and US Mail over anything else. My biggest complaint with Canada Post is the mailman often doesn't bother trying to deliver a package and just cards it and I have to go pick it up at a postal outlet in a grungy convenience store.. On the good side, a used game store just opened up in the same plaza.. So I can now turn a annoying pickup run in to a game shopping trip. Picked up two 2600 games and a Genesis (clone) controller today:)

 

I've shipped ham radio gear all over Canada and the USA, including tube type radios, while no problem.

[Nebulon]

I've had horrible issues with both the Global Shipping Program and with UPS when ordering items from the U.S. and having them sent to Canada. UPS seems to add huge extra handling charges to items crossing the border from the U.S. to Canada.

 

USPS has been great though. FedEx has also been good.

 

 

I recently found out that the Global Shipping Program hasn't been telling its U.S. sellers the actual shipping price that Canadian (and I'm sure other countries' buyers) are paying. It turns out that they quote one amount to the seller and then another amount (with extra shipping added on top of the first shipping charge) to the international buyer. This really is a disservice to the seller (as well as the buyer) since I'm sure there are lots of sellers out there wondering why prospective international buyers are sending them emails saying stuff like, "Geez, cool item, but I don't think I can afford to pay quite that much for shipping". The seller looks at it thinking, "I dunno. The shipping cost seems reasonable" -- not realizing that the shipping has been jacked up again by G.S.P.

 

Then there's the find print for the Global Shipping Program. Nasty stuff.

 

So now I just won't purchase anything that says "Global Shipping Program" on it.

 

Of course, there's now the reverse issue with sending items to the U.S. from Canada. Canada Post have introduced new pricing system with essentially rakes everyone over the coals. What a rip off.

Edited January 13, 2015 by Nebulon

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

Pitney Bowes also manufactures franking machines. If we haven't seen one of their service guys in more then two weeks, we call to check if they haven't forgotten us.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[AtariLeaf]

 

 

Pitney Bowes also manufactures franking machines.

 

 

 

It's ok, you don't have to censor yourself here, you can use the real "F" word if you want to

[Mathy]

Hello AtariLeaf

 

No, I really mean "franking" machine. Machines that stamp letters, when licking postage stamps is no longer an option.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[Atari-Collector]

Another update on the Global Shipping nightmare imposed on us by eBay...

 

Even thought I clearly said in the ebay case about the damage to the Expansion Interface that I just wanted the damaged cover replaced and that seller had them for sale.. Well eBay closed the case today by giving me a FULL REFUND of the price and shipping. Which is not what I expected or wanted. Needless to say the seller is upset about this and I have emailed him to let him know I will get the money back to him either by Paypal or a money order if need be. I'm waiting to hear back from him to see what he says, but I imagine he probably trying to cool down right now.

 

 

The eBay GSP's so called insurance is simply to take the money back from the seller. And if the item was dead, it won't bother me. All it would have taken to make things right for both of us was to pay for the part and shipping it to me so I'd have a good cover (see the pics a posted a while back on this) So I probably won't get the good cover now.. I'll patch up the damaged one as best I can.

 

So I'm just wanting to get the money back to the seller now and be done with this minor disaster eBay's Global Shipping Program caused..

[AtariLeaf]

Good karma on you for volunteering to send the money back to the seller on your own. Many would smile at this bit of fortune and run. I hope you can somehow work out a deal for the cover you need and if the seller sees you refunding your refund, hopefully he'll work with you. Good luck

[Nebulon]

Another update on the Global Shipping nightmare imposed on us by eBay...

 

 

The eBay GSP's so called insurance is simply to take the money back from the seller.

 

So I'm just wanting to get the money back to the seller now and be done with this minor disaster eBay's Global Shipping Program caused..

 

Oh I know. Brutal, ay?

 

I discovered this first-hand as a seller last year. I sold a piece of hardware that looked like it was in mint shape (but I couldn't test it). The buyer said it didn't work. So I just followed the process and -- voila! -- I had to pay back both the item cost and the shipping. I was fine with that. Still though -- ouch! I can't afford to do that very many times. It makes me wary of selling hardware unless I'm totally sure that it works (and to remember to put in a note saying that it is untested in cases in which I have no way of testing it).

 

You'd think with the insane shipping charges and fees they charge that eBay/Pitney Bowes would at least subsidize cases that they deemed warranted it.