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Fueco

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noob in 89

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Wondering what you guys would do…

I bought an eBay item from Italy that may (or may not) be languishing in the world’s worst postal service.

The seller was slow to mail. Beyond that wait, tracking shows it’s been with Poste Italiane for three weeks with no movement. The item pops up infrequently on eBay, so if I see another, I’d prefer to grab that.

I don’t want to steal from anyone, but my chances of receiving this seem slim. (I won’t get it in any reasonable time frame, and I worry he just sent a blank sheet of paper or something to get a tracking number). Wondering if I can/should try for a refund, then pay the seller if the item ever arrives.

He has one or two positive feedbacks in English over the last year. However, those must have been sent using a different service. After purchasing, he said what he got for shipping was too low. I (stupidly) recommended his local postal service, as that fit the cost!
 
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Fueco

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ahh, then it's an eBay alike thing where FB is an intermediary.
Then contact FB first, then the bank.

Yep. They’ll supposedly get back to me within two days. It’s frustrating dealing with college-educated people who can’t answer a question honestly.
 

zenosparadox

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Wondering what you guys would do…

I bought an eBay item from Italy that may (or may not) be languishing in the world’s worst postal service.

The seller was slow to mail. Beyond that wait, tracking shows it’s been with Poste Italiane for three weeks with no movement. The item pops up infrequently on eBay, so if I see another, I’d prefer to grab that.

I don’t want to steal from anyone, but my chances of receiving this seem slim. (I won’t get it in any reasonable time frame, and I worry he just sent a blank sheet of paper or something to get a tracking number). Wondering if I can/should try for a refund, then pay the seller if the item ever arrives.

He has one or two positive feedbacks in English over the last year. However, those must have been sent using a different service. After purchasing, he said what he got for shipping was too low. I (stupidly) recommended his local postal service, as that fit the cost!
In fairness to the seller, and especially as you were the one who recommended the shipping service that he decided to use, I'd likely give it 2 or 3 more weeks to see if I notice further movement. I've had a package coming to me from Sweden that has been stuck in France now for 2 weeks--not even including the time it took to get to France in the first place--and that's through FedEx, so should have gotten all the way to me within one week. Things are just slow right now, so it's not a good idea to order something from overseas that you expect to see within 6 weeks, unless you spring for a form of guaranteed shipping. And even then it can take a couple weeks, as my current experience demonstrates.

(Unless you have reason to think he's more likely than any other seller to have sent you a blank piece of paper, which is to say that that's relatively unlikely, and the simple fact of a shipping delay outside of their control doesn’t make it more or less likely.)

Totally up to you, however, and I'm sorry you're experiencing this delay!
 
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1ofTheCoolKids

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Not sure if this has something to do with the slow shipping times?

A friend of mine has had all of her Christmas gifts for friends and family in Europe stuck in limbo for the past 3 weeks or returned back to her in San Diego, CALIFORNIA.

Someone she sent a package to in Ireland sent her an article she stumbled upon.

 

HansderHund

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I can attest to the hell that the EU rules have caused. It used to be that non-EU packages would arrive in Vienna and then be in my hands inside 24 hours. Maybe 5% of the time customs would hold them up.

Now, every single package is held and documentation is inspected. I also have to pay not only VAT and their bogus handling fee, but also “storage fees” at a daily rate. Twice in the last month I’ve received notice that (real quote) “the declared value of the package is implausible to the contents.” They accuse me of smuggling gifts basically. These were real gifts for my kids, so I had to embarrassingly ask the sender for receipts. They declared it for something like €300 and it was actually €325, not an outrageous amount to be off.

/rant

In short, yes, there are some logistical issues that I hope will become more reasonable.
 

haloitsme

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I can attest to the hell that the EU rules have caused. It used to be that non-EU packages would arrive in Vienna and then be in my hands inside 24 hours. Maybe 5% of the time customs would hold them up.

Now, every single package is held and documentation is inspected. I also have to pay not only VAT and their bogus handling fee, but also “storage fees” at a daily rate. Twice in the last month I’ve received notice that (real quote) “the declared value of the package is implausible to the contents.” They accuse me of smuggling gifts basically. These were real gifts for my kids, so I had to embarrassingly ask the sender for receipts. They declared it for something like €300 and it was actually €325, not an outrageous amount to be off.

/rant

In short, yes, there are some logistical issues that I hope will become more reasonable.
Austrian Post are the biggest suckers and most incompetent people I deal with daily. That's why we switched to FedEx and DHL Express entirely for EU-Export and EU-Import. Austrian Post charged us VAT and fees for a return, despite all documents attached; So I need to complain at the Austrian Customs office about their incompetence at least 3x a month.

Regarding the UK; the best thing is to get a UK VAT & EORI number, and deliver DDP. Saves soooooo many trouble.
 

kbadgley84

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View attachment 1715255
View attachment 1715256

Wondering what you guys would do…

I bought an eBay item from Italy that may (or may not) be languishing in the world’s worst postal service.

The seller was slow to mail. Beyond that wait, tracking shows it’s been with Poste Italiane for three weeks with no movement. The item pops up infrequently on eBay, so if I see another, I’d prefer to grab that.

I don’t want to steal from anyone, but my chances of receiving this seem slim. (I won’t get it in any reasonable time frame, and I worry he just sent a blank sheet of paper or something to get a tracking number). Wondering if I can/should try for a refund, then pay the seller if the item ever arrives.

He has one or two positive feedbacks in English over the last year. However, those must have been sent using a different service. After purchasing, he said what he got for shipping was too low. I (stupidly) recommended his local postal service, as that fit the cost!
Wait, did you and the buyer get a letter from a HAZMAT section of USPS In California?
 

noob in 89

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Wait, did you and the buyer get a letter from a HAZMAT section of USPS In California?

Ha, no, that’s just a random bad review. There’s like a thousand of them!

Appreciate the responses, guys. I guess I’ll tough it out a few more weeks.
 

Fueco

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If anyone is interested in a pre-owned Canon EOS 80D, let me know. My new camera shipped today.
 

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