USPS rates to go up July 12th (Sunday). Tis best to stock up on forever stamps by Friday or Saturday. They go from 78 cents each to 84 cents starting next week!

On July 8th I had a message from Royal Mail telling me that they would be delivering a Royal Mail tracked 24 service package and that it would be delivered between 11:10am-3:10pm. It is now 17:20pm on July 10th and I am still waiting for delivery (distance 300 miles). Cleary the heatwave we are experiencing here in the UK has fried their little brain cells as they obviously don't know what the 24 service means. I am not surprised by the lack of delivery as I am used to the poor service provided by my local delivery office. What has surprised me is that in the past whenever the delivery time zone has passed they always change it to the following day so they are covered if I make a complaint but they have done nothing this time. I know that the cards that are in the package were issued 1986 so the time delay in delivery is not of vital importance but surely complying with the time limit their own scheme imposes would matter. Interestingly an unrelated purchase made on Tuesday afternoon with a company in Cheshire (250 miles away) was delivered yesterday morning at 8:10 am but of course the delivery company was not the Royal Mail.

I am now only interested in finding out what excuse they will come up with.

Seems to be no rhyme or reason with regard to mail delivery.

Around June 15, I had four different UK dealers send me their Unstoppable promo cards. All seem to have been sent in the same manner.

1 of the UK envelopes came within 5 days of being sent. Another came within a week.

One came on July 9. The fourth one still has not come, almost a month later. Ironically, the missing one was the first of the four orders.

I bought a card in January from a Canadian seller but it never arrived. He refunded me when it hadn't arrived by March. It's made me nervous about buying or even trading with the unpredictable extra charge from the tariffs on top of it.

I mailed a package to the UK 153.00 in postage for the 10 day priority shipping on June 1st. It arrived on July 8th. During that time the USPS claimed no responsibility for it. The package arrived damaged but luckily all of the contents were in the box unharmed. Today, I got a notice from the USPS that they cannot find the box but will do their best to locate it. I could respond to it but I am just going to let them look (just kidding like they even looked in the first place).

quote:

Originally posted by Triple-Frog:

This may be a cashier not familiar with a new system or a badly written software programme but the EU/Royal Mail charges are unavoidable and will add around £3.50 to the cost of postage .

Surely not a dodgy programme being used at the post office.

International postal shipping has gotten so bad i'm seriously considering ditching it altogether, when international has been the backbone of my business up until recently since 2006. It's hardly worth the trouble/loss anymore. Few things are worth $18.00-$22.00 in shipping, only cards over $200. I used to do a ton of business to Germany and the UK in 2005-2009 and then Australia for a decade.

Still waiting for my 1 promo card mailed from the UK around June 15.

All of the others sent from the UK around the same date came in 1-2 weeks.

I haven't bought much from the US for months and months for costs and other reasons, but a card I wanted at a really good price came up and I went for it.
The tracking was interesting. It was sent by ebay international shipping(GSP), and only took 2 weeks, but eleven days of that was in the US shuffling from one depot to another very slowly, then it got passed to a courier here called Evri. That usually gives me chills as they're such a shhh...rubbish courier, but it arrived safe and sound within 2 days of touching UK soil. I know the post here isn't always great, but the US end of the post seems worse than I remember it. It seems everywhere that postage costs more and more but the service is much worse.

Just had an e-mail today regarding Ebay International Shipping ( EIS ) . This has apparently already replaced the Global Shipping Programme in the USA with according to Ebay " an overwhelming response " ( it did not say whether this response was positive or negative ! ) and is going to be implemented in the UK in stages starting in August .

All sellers will be automatically enrolled in it and from what I am reading in Ebays user agreement if you want to sell outside the UK you have to use it . You can opt out but can then only sell within the UK .

It is possible I am reading it wrong and you can still sell internationally sending items yourself , won't know for sure until they send me the e-mail telling me I have been enrolled in it .

I've hired an airliner to fly from the uk to the usa to deliver a $1 promo to my buyer. I reckon it will be cheaper than bothering with all this postal rubbish.

I think I have said this before .
E Bay GSP shipping is S--T and a rip off .
Snail mail for the dearest shipping .
But as it is the only option ( unless someone knows another one ) we are stuck with it.
It has basically stopped my card purchasing unless I really want the card. And I see that my favourite seller has gone to it also .
So also no more from them.
I actually purchased a $5 US card a couple of weeks ago and total ended up as $54 NZ with no customs etc only %15 Goods and Servises Tax on everything , Card and Shipping .
In NZ the GST is included in the final price not added at sale so final payment includes everything .
I do not know how E Bay goes about it but it works.
But Wolfie you are right actually with E Mail and everything associated eventually shipping is going to get more costlier.
But you might get a good holiday out of it.

You can just deliver it yourself and try to consider it a vacation in the U.S. There must be a Card Talker with an extra room or doghouse you could sleep in.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
I've hired an airliner to fly from the uk to the usa to deliver a $1 promo to my buyer. I reckon it will be cheaper than bothering with all this postal rubbish.

I've not used anything other than GSP to sell overseas on ebay for a couple of years. It takes out the hassle and if someone overseas wants it badly enough then they'll pay, same as I would. I can't take a lot of stress these days, so for me it's been such an easy addition and with world postage getting more unreliable it's even more attractive. I assume the new Ebay International Shipping thing is just a rebrand, so nothing much will change for me.

General postage is so expensive, regardless of ebay. A few months ago I sent back to Topps 2 cards from a premium box that were damaged in manufacture. A Large Letter under 100g with tracking was around £12. If the cards had been low value I wouldn't have bothered. It's like sending in wrappers to Rittenhouse for their rewards scheme, I wait till I have enough to be worth the postage as even standard without tracking is a rip off now. It's just how world postage has gone.

Just had a $100 order lost but it was marked as delivered so at least i'm not on the hook for it this time. Package was either dropped in a vacant box and is still sitting there or delivery moron scanned it as delivered and threw it away rather than deliver it, or it went to someone who got some free Dr. Who cards.

quote:

Originally posted by Studio-Hades:
Just had a $100 order lost but it was marked as delivered so at least i'm not on the hook for it this time. Package was either dropped in a vacant box and is still sitting there or delivery moron scanned it as delivered and threw it away rather than deliver it, or it went to someone who got some free Dr. Who cards.

That has happened to me a few times and I always hold my breath until the package turns up. I wonder who exactly gets charged and who has to file the paperwork, the sender or the recipient? Does eBay just write it off with buyer protection, or does the claim have to be processed through the PO?

They're not morons, it's done on purpose. They are running late or just don't want to work that day. So, they scan the packages as though they were delivered and now you have to hope they put them in the bin for the next day's delivery because it says you got it. One time the guy hid them somewhere and I was missing 3 packages of cards for 4 days.

I don't know how eBay resolves it when they don't show up. The seller is off the hook, but the buyer can't prove they didn't get a tracked package when the system says they did. The PO takes no accountability for it either. They won't even tell you who claims to have delivered it. My mail carriers are always switching with temps and fill ins. Nobody knows a thing when it goes wrong.

When they mark that delivery, the buyer has a problem proving otherwise.

Yeah, just a couple of days ago, I got an email that a package was delivered. Uhh, my mailbox is empty and my welcome mat is alone. It came the next day as it has always done the number of times that has happened. One day, I might not get it at all.

This is typical where we live.

USPS person scans something which says that it was delivered. I get the email notice. Nothing was actually left. It shows up on the porch 1-2 days later.

On an unrelated note, that one envelope sent from the UK around June 15 still has not come.

From what I'm aware here for GSP: say I sent a parcel to Mexico and the buyer didn't get it, if they try to message me about delivery, eBay deal with it and I may not even receive the message about it. So that's the seller off the hook... hence why it's so attractive for the seller to use.
As to the buyer, I have heard of buyers with that very scenario of it being marked as delivered when it isn't. I've heard some get the case in their favour and a refund(which comes from ebay not the seller) and I've heard of some basically being high and dry with no parcel and no money. If you paid by VISA or paypal a claim can be tried through them, but as we've seen, the difficulty is how to prove that it wasn't delivered. I think where there is no photo of the delivery(or at least the post box, front door) and/or no signature, then the buyer may get the ruling as delivery can't be proved by the delivery company either, just an electronic mark. I have heard of a buyer where the delivery photo was not their front door at all and they proved it wasn't and they got a refund for incorrect delivery. It's a murky area.

I just found out that the new eBay International Shipping for UK sellers will have the perk of being charged no selling fees. Although selling within the UK has been free for a time(but don't get be started on Buyer Protection Fee for private sellers added onto their prices!), selling overseas had a % fee charged. Well, if you use the new eIS there will be no fee to the seller. And they claim the postage rates will be up to 30% cheaper than GSP offers. I'll believe the last bit when I see it.

I don't know if an international package has a more stringent delivery requirement, but a normal domestic eBay package delivered by the regular USPS mailman does not get a photo documented at the door. By me, the only time that happens is with Amazon deliveries. They always take a photo.

The mailman just has to hand scan the package label and its marked as delivered. There is no way for the buyer to prove it didn't come unless they might have a Ring doorbell or a surveillance system to review. Moreover any items left on steps or porches can be stolen by someone else, so unless you have some tape to prove otherwise, it can always be said that a third party could have taken it. I think the buyer is out of luck if they can't prove something didn't happen.

That tracked postal packages are marked as delivered when they have yet to get to the final destination shouldn't happen. Yet everyone knows it does and the PO knows it too, but they don't fire anyone for doing it. It's only when the package disappears completely that a claim may be filed, if its value is enough to bother with the trouble. At that point the buyer is still the most likely person to eat the loss because they need someone to rule in their favor despite the tracking sign off.