I won an ebay auction 8 weeks ago and because they didn’t charge me enough for shipping they shipped it on a ship!! [:(]$48 US airmail $28 on a ship and they charged me $18. I asked them at the auction end how much for shipping and they said that the price indicated was correct.
So I’ve been waiting, it seems forever, how long do I wait before I contact ebay and tell the item not recieved?[V]
Ken.
Unfortunately, unless e-Bay has changed their policies they will not attempt to intervene in any dispute over non-receipt of an item. You will probably have to deal directly with the seller to resolve your problem and hope they become more cooperative.
Hi Ken, Keep those trains rolling!!! I’ve sold stuff on eBay to people all over the world and sometimes it can take up to 12 full weeks. Australia is one of the longest ones. To Europe, it doesn’t take that long. In fact I shipped things there and were received in about 7-10 days. Just hang in there and wait. I too have made mistakes on shipping and had to eat it. Go to the site map on eBay and find the forum on shipping or even feedback and follow their directions. In the meantime, enjoy!
The longest wait I’ve ever had was on a loco from a college kid that waited until the end of the auction to tell me that he would ship it when he got time… It took six weeks, and when I finally got it, it was poorly packed and had been damaged in shipping. He got negative feedback and I got a loco I had to do a lot of cosmetic work on. The second longest wait I had was a BN caboose from a guy in Australia. Never again… Live and learn.
Trackalyer
Something’s wrong here…I ship to Australia and New Zealand pretty regularly, using the US Postal Service. In fact, I just shipped some slot car motors to NZ today, for a whopping $5.30, expected delivery of 4-7 days! The most I ever spent to ship to NZ or Aus. was around $12.00. I usually use “Air Letter Post” for overseas, and my customers always seem to have it in a week or less!
Rotor
Air Letter Post if the fastest, but most expensive. But some people insist on ground and it goes by boat and takes forever.
my rule of the thumb;
never by anything from over seas,or from china direct!!!
JIM
The USPS had a couple different options available, and Air Letter Post was NOT the fastest, nor most expensive! Global Priority was 3-5 days, at $12.00+, while the boat wasn’t much cheaper than the air letter post.
From usps.com:
Package weight 1lb 1oz.
International Services
Complete Rate Chart and Restrictions for New Zealand
Mailing Services (Show Dimensions) Estimated
Delivery Time* Price
Global Express Guaranteed® Document Service (more info)
See Service Guide Before Mailing 2 - 3 Days $52.00
Global Express Guaranteed® Non-Document Service (more info)
See Service Guide Before Mailing 2 - 3 Days Calculate
Global Express Mail™ (EMS) (more info) 3 - 5 Days $24.00
Global Priority Mail - Flat-rate Envelope (Large) (more info) 4 - 6 Days $9.00
Global Priority Mail - Flat-rate Envelope (Small) (more info) 4 - 6 Days $5.00
Global Priority Mail - Variable Weight (Single) (more info) 4 - 6 Days $13.00
Airmail Letter Post (more info) 4 - 7 Days $11.00
Airmail Parcel Post (more info) 4 - 10 Days $16.00
Economy (Surface) Letter Post (more info) 4 - 6 Weeks $4.70
Economy (Surface) Parcel Post (more info)
(Rate for pieces 5 pounds or less) 4 - 6 Weeks $21.50
*Designed to be delivered in the number of business days specified for each service depending on origin and destination.
Rotor
The difference between Air Letter and Air Parcel is the package weight, size, and whether or not it is insured… The only time I’ve ever sent anything overseas via surface (boat) was to Isreal and it took close to two months before he got it… That’s Not to say it wasn’t in Isreal before then, but it may have been sitting in the customs office. I’ve mailed items all over the world, including Australia and even China, and none took more than a couple weeks to arrive.
Very small items can be sent small packet at either $5 or $9, depending on the packet size, worldwide, and the time is usually 5-7 days.
Contact your seller and get the customs info… ALL customs forms have a number. Then contact your customs office and see if your parcel is there. You Can open a dispute via ebay but as long as your seller has proof of mailing, there isn’t much that’s going to happen.
I HATE sellers that do crap like this, they give the whole process a sour name. Chance are pretty fair that if he had written and fessed up to his pricing error, you would have covered it … Correct?? What did you buy??
Jeff
[sigh]
I’ve had a loco shipped “ground mail” a while ago,from Texas to Quebec City,and it took close to a month so I can imagine that shipping to New Zealand could take up to three months easy.Hang on,you’ll get it…some day.
I bought a Bachmann Acela, two loco’s and a six car set. I guess it’s abig box at $48 USPS airmail!
I’ve had a lot of stuff from the states and it’s always been airmail so it’s frustrating having to wait, especially when I asked about the freight charges at the end of auction.
I have emailed them and asked about tracking numbers etc but they didn’t get any.
When I found out they sent it surface, I emailed and said I would have been happy to pay more for shipping. to late then!!
I have emailed since and not had a responce.
So last Wednesday (my time-6 weeks) I did go thru the ebay item not recieved procedure ( I wanted to know what you guys thought before I told you ) they have 10 days to reply. I paided $169 US including shipping $250 NZ so not a huge loss but still very frustrating.
Ken.
Then you know what it costs to generally send items from the USA to NZ. I don’t know if you are aware of this but ALL international packages are trackable, whether tracking was purchased or not… At the very least, when they reach the destination country. The Customs tag number is printed on the reciept and a package that large, he was given a copy of the customs slip. There are 2 that are used, one for under 4 pounds and one for 4 pounds or more. The latter one is also used on large packages as well as anything that’s insured. Trust me, over the last several years, I’ve become an expert on this… This seller seems to have made a mistake and a simple email with the customs number Could help you find your parcel. It’s been a long time since I’ve sent anything that large overseas, it’s usually a camera of some type that I send, so I couldn’t tell you what the current rate would be… I know, for reference however, I sent 4 boxes of Walthers Circus train cars to Australia and the postage then (something like 5 years ago) was around $30. A few months ago I sold a small came
That’s the very thing I need, them to stand up and say heres the tracking number! but so far I’ve had diddly from them
Ken
Ken in the last couple of weeks I have had a couple of loco’s and a box with 4 bi-level coaches from walthewrs on back order. It cost me us13.50 and us2150 for loco’s insure was us2.50 extra delivery time was 6 to 10 days USPS Air letter post . Walthers sent their package USPS ground took 10 weeks to Australia. Regards Les
Thanks Les, I’m just an impatient Kiwi!!
Ken.
I regularly ship stuff down under to Sydney, and use USPS Global Priority. Costs me about $8/lb,and if I mail it on Friday here, they’ll get it the next Friday (their time)…not bad, considering you lose a day when it goes over the date line.
A sad comentary on the pitfalls of dealing with E-Bay amateures. My sympathy for the delay and distress. E-Bay should be held responsible for delivery of the items processed through their system, and providing education of its sellers and arbitration for these types of problems. While you await your merchandise, I am sure that the seller and E-Bay are not waiting for “their” money!
Hang in there Kiwi, and best of luck with a prompt arrival!
Will
I can believe it, I had to wait 6 weeks for a locomotive from the U.S. to Canada for about six weeks. It was a late December auction (Ebay), holiday shipping season, Canada Customs on full “Black Hole” mode- parcels, letters, communication, and even light have been known to vanish! So it might be external forces at play here, besides a possibly slow seller/shipper.
What concerns me about that is that they haven’t bothered to get back to you. The only time I had a seller not get back to me after he said he shipped it was when I never did get the item. I reviewed the guy’s feedback after a few weeks and he screwed everyone at that time. What was really irritating is that he had good feedback (like 250-300+ rating) and then he had about 30 items listed and hosed every single person. Almost like it was planned. I figure he got about $1000US out of those he screwed and ebay said they couldn’t do anything about it except ban him. Wow, that showed him. I hope that doesn’t happen to you.
While I can’t add anything about the seller I can remind you that surface means just that, a ship.
Years ago there were ships going between ports fairly regularly but now with all the stuff going by air ships are less frequent. So anything going surface waits until there’s a load going that way before it even starts.
Then there’s the customs issue. That can be a significant delay.
Surface transport is always going to be slow and most of the other modes cited in the discussion go by air and air usually means a flight or more each day.
Dale