HowardH
Member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2007
- Messages
- 1,572
I have used Ebay on and off for 7 years without much of an issue... until now. I had an iphone I wanted to sell back in early Feb. It sold right away but it was to a guy in the Ukraine. He was a highly rated buyer and I checked with Ebay to make sure there wasn't going to be any issue getting paid. They assured me as long as I followed their guidelines, it would be no problem. I used their billing and shipping system and that's where the problem arose. Never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never (did I say it enough to get your attention?) use the USPS to ship ANYTHING out of the U.S. They sat on my phone after it was shipped for over a month at a facility in Chicago and it's two months later and the buyer still doesn't have it. So he says. Originally, I had to wait 21 days for my payment to be released. I called Ebay and Paypal and they assured me that after 21 days, the money would be released without any chance of it being withheld. Wrong. They lied. Since the buyer didn't get it, they held it again... and I'll never see a penny. Seems the USPS doesn't track beyond the borders and since there is no way to track it, I will have no way of verifying whether it ever got delivered meaning the funds will never be released since Ebay/Paypal can't prove it was delivered. Is something wrong here? Does something stink? The buyer filed a clam with Paypal and guess who they are siding with.... yep.... the buyer! I did everything by the book. everything. to no avail. Ebay/Paypal gives no protection to a seller who uses USPS. Had I known this, I would have never used them. I could have gone with UPS or Fedex and none of this would have mattered. They track all the way through the delivery process to recipient. I called USPS today and first, they kept me on hold for 2 hours before they answered my call. 2 hours!!! Then the guy basically told me too bad, they don't track international packages even with a tracking number once it leaves the good ole US of A. I asked him why it sat for over a month. His answer was so outrageous I almost dropped the phone. You ready for this??? Wait for it... wait for it... It's because they didn't feel any urgency to get it to it's destination. He said they didn't ship it because they didn't see any reason to do so. It sat in a pile with other postage paying customers packages growing mold. It sat because it could. It's no wonder they are losing 2 billion a year. I called Ebay and they told me they understand my feelings of getting raked over the coals but it's not their responsibility. BS. They have a fiduciary responsibility to let their sellers know that the USPS doesn't track internationally. They knew it but didn't bother to tell anyone. The end result? The buyer will get his money back, he may even get the phone someday soon but I will have no way of ever knowing. I am being held hostage to the integrity of the buyer half a world away. He says he will release the money when he gets the phone. Yeah, right. I will never get the phone back and I am out $350. Nice. My advice? Be very, very, very careful when shipping overseas and always use either UPS or Fedex and NEVER use the USPS. Oh yeah... one other thing. Ebay does NOT stand behind their guarantee of protecting their sellers. I'm living proof. It will be a cold day in He** before I use Ebay again. You know, I didn't even get a kiss...