Crazy Movement Of Package From USA And Eventually To Australia.

It appears the most likely scenario based on the tracking is as follows:

Seller uses ebay Global Shipping and mails the package to their facility in Erlanger, KY (Milford-Stamford-Jersey City-Cincinnati-Erlanger).

ebay Global Shipping uses DHL as their shipping partner. DHL has suspended their flights from Cincinnati airport (which is actually between Erlanger and Hebron, Kentucky) to Sydney. So they have to place it on passenger flights and they send it to Chicago as O'Hare has more Asia-Pacific flights. Due to reduced flights and increased freight demands, the package probably sits in Chicago for awhile. The usage of passenger flights would explain the lack of tracking data between Chicago and Sydney.

For those bashing the USPS, I think 3 days from Connecticut to Kentucky is not unreasonable. Once the item is delivered to Ebay/DHL it is out of their hands. It appears they did a much better job than Australia Post.

Does the usage of the Global Shipping program protect the seller in this case? It's pretty clear that Ebay/DHL received the item so one would hope the seller won't be out any money. The item would have gone through AusPost whether or not the seller used Global Shipping so I fail to see how that applies other than possibly a longer delivery time.

One other thing, outgoing international mail AFAIK does not go through U.S. customs so delays there would not apply either. The amount of misinformation and political commentary in this thread is crazy. We get it; we know which political party you support; the horse is dead, please stop beating it.

What misinformation?

This is incorrect. US Customs can exercise control over outgoing domestic mail as per "U.S. Code § 1583 - Examination of outbound mail". Section (a)(1) states



Don

The word for today is 'disgusting".

I heard from Australia Post several times today.

First, they simply washed their hands of the situation and 'resolved' the case by telling me to "contact the sender as they have a business account with Australia Post".

So I put up another comment on the case indicating that I don't consider the case resolved as I haven't received the item, they lost it, and that a US based seller with 74 items in total sold on ebay most likely doesn't have a business account with them.

I also asked which other party in the transit chain I should contact as those parties have all fulfilled their obligations and got the item to Australia.

This resulted in a another phone call and they closed the case again. Next step is to again update the case on the 7th and again indicate that I haven't got the item which will result in a "Item Lost in transit" email to use to send to the seller.

Typical 'pass the buck' action found so often here in Australia. Nobody is ever to blame for anything except the person making the complaint!!

We also had a water leak in our house and it is now two weeks and still no resolution..........The insurance company was supposed to contact us after 5 business days from when we sent in the claim.

I waited as we are in lock down and after 8 business days and not hearing anything I contacted them.

Nobody has looked at anything and the report that was supposed to come from the restoration company a week ago still hasn't shown up. Of course, as the insurance company didn't do anything with the case they didn't know that the report hadn't been sent.

So now we have to wait for the report to be sent to the insurance company, then they'll look at it in their own sweet time, and then if approved, wait for the people to come out to the house to get measured for new carpet and all that and then wait some more to get the new carpet put in............(These workers are considered 'essential workers' so that won't be a problem if we are still in lock down.)

Now don't even get me started on the bs lock down we are in that was pumped up and being scare mongered by the politicians and various medical 'experts' here as being caused by 'a beast' of a virus with stranger to stranger transmission by means of fleeting encounters.

Today the news had stories that these were in fact FALSE POSITIVES, but hey we're going to stay locked down anyway.

Twice now the stamp club annual auction has been cancelled as a result of these lock downs. A huge amount of work getting ready for these auctions has gone up in smoke along with the lost opportunities.

Our little piece of paradise here in the Melbourne suburbs has had a total of 66 resident cases of the virus during the entire period with one during the current lock down. The cases reflect where the person is a resident and NOT where they caught the virus. Of those 66 cases we didn't have one death and with the limited amount of information put out by the state government, 12 of those cases were in one aged care facility in the suburb.

Our population in the suburb?

About 60,000 or maybe a little more. So you can do the math:

66/60,000 or about 1 tenth of one percent of the population affected.

I have more to say, but I'll leave it at that.

Well it is now the 13th of June and the updates:

1. Item still not received after the expected ebay arrival date so I waited one more day and opened an "Item not received" case. It took the seller a couple of days to respond.......

2. Response was "I'll have ebay look into it". Waited another couple of days and requested an "Item lost email" from Australia Post. That email was received and I communicated that to the seller.

3. No response from the seller by the ebay posted deadline and I requested that ebay step in. The automated response from ebay is that the case is 'being investigated'.

4. So in summary: no item, no refund, two requests to ebay for resolution and the disgust continues.

Be sure to leave positive feedback.

Well this mess is finally over.

Two emails from ebay: one telling me that I would get a refund and then the one telling that the refund had been sent. The refund was received.

The refund sent email was sort of ridiculous as it stated that the decision to refund was a 'courtesy refund'.

Gee thanks for the 'courtesy' - the item took almost a month to get to Australia and was then promptly lost.

Being such a 'polite' person, I'll return the 'courtesy' by never using the ebay Global Shipping Program again and limiting my purchases on ebay.

No more selling on ebay either as a result of their new payments program that requires you to give them access to you bank account.

And no, it isn't worth the effort to open a new bank account just for the limited selling I would have done and the huge reporting requirements and paperwork required. (FACTA and all that).

All I lost on the transaction was the difference between the US amount and the A$ conversion and the stinking 3% paid to the credit card company for the foreign transaction..............oh and the time an effort for the entire mess.

I am (hopefully) going to the bank tomorrow,
to enquire on opening a 3rd account just for the bay.
I'll post my observations.

I'll also enquire how I may not donate to SCF via my account.

Waiting hours on the phone to Commonwealth remain at 1 hour or longer,
I am thinking it is same tape running all the time.

They contact me via non returnable emails, for their investments etc, yet I may not email them.
Kick the banks out of early schooling advertising.
Bring a money management curriculum to schooling.

https://goscf.com/t/71827&whichpage=3#699756 br /

rogdcam:

Well you know we people that live in the magic world of Oz get to experience the wonderful world of Oz banks where service stinks, prices are high, and banks make a fortune.

Ever wonder why their share pries exploded upwards ever since the GFC and then recovered so quickly after all the crap that was disclosed after the Royal Commission into their activities?

They make a fortune off their variable rate mortgage customers. Since the GFC they have increase their margin on those loans by over 3%.

They sometimes increased rates by more when the Reserve Bank increased rates, they had out of cycle rate increases, and when the Reserve Bank reduced rates they often didn't pass on the full cuts or none at all.

For example, when the Reserve Bank last cuts its rates from 0.25% to 0.10% not one of the big banks passed on that cut to their variable rate customers.

I can't think of one time where they actually offered those customers a 'better' deal on interest rates. It has been 100% on the side of the banks since the GFC.

Of course they need someone to pay for all their mistakes and bad loans to companies and recoup all that lost income they refunded and the huge fines that they are continually paying for one reason or another.

Their variable rate mortgage customers fit the bill.

The banks also charge high fees for other services as well including that 3% fee on all overseas transactions using a credit card.

Instead of feeling like a corporate victim, become an investor by buying stock in the banks and ebay. That way, when a person feels like the company is making too much money, they instead will have warm and fuzzy feelings in knowing that they are adding to their personal wealth. I owned ebay for a number of years and it performed great; I certainly made more money from the stock than I did selling stuff (with a LOT less work).
Don

The days of me being able to shares in any company are long gone.

51studebaker:

Ever been to Oz?

We here in Oz suffer from a disease - the disease of paying through the nose for many, many things.

We pay higher prices for most everything here than other countries in the world.

A few of the things that are cheaper here are:

1. University degrees. IIRC the cost of going to university now for a degree in a government 'preferred' area of study is around the A$3000 (US2500 +/-) a year. Cheap by US standards, but if you are are not currently paying for it, it means nothing.

2. Rates (or as he Yanks call them 'real estate taxes'). Again based on the value of the house these are really cheap compared to what people pay in the USA. This is primarily because we don't pay for local education (primary and secondary) through rates.

That being said they have increased by over 100% for us in less than 10 years. On the other hand, if you buy a property you pay stamp duty which for any decent house now in Melbourne will run about 6.5% of the purchase price. This is paid in cash, upfront to the State government. And if you own more than one real estate property here the state governments charge extra 'land tax' on that property as well.

3. Medical costs. Our system here is generally low cost and most cases free for many people when they visit a general type doctor. Most scans and tests are free as well. Public hospitals and emergency rooms are free as well. Specialists and private hospitals are expensive though as are dentists who are not covered by the public system.

Prescription medicine is also cheap compared to the USA. For example, one of the medicines I take costs something like US$400 a month at pharmacies in the USA. Here the cost is about A$50. Once you reach the yearly personal pay limit for prescriptions the cost falls to about A$6...............

Non-prescription medicines are another matter and then you find them to be quite expensive compared to the USA, for example ibuprofen.

4. Solar panels. Yes, solar panels. As a result of competition and government subsidies, you can install a 6.6kW system with inverter and all costs for around A$5000 to A$6000 (US$4000 - $5000). Even cheaper if you can qualify for state government subsidies. (Here in Victoria they had a A$2500 subsidy in addition to the federal government ones!!) And they DON'T increase your real estate taxes when you put a system on your house.

Lots of people put these up because of the high cost of electricity here and the subsidies. The cheapest electricity where I live is now about 25 cent per kilowatt hour (US 20 cents). It used to much higher. But where they really get you here is the daily supply charge which is A$1.10 a day or US$0.85 a day. Ten years ago we used to pay about 1/3rd of that.

Natural gas here is priced at ridiculous levels. A$.02 per megajoule which works out to about US$15 per 1000 cubic feet of natural gas. We pay more than even people in Japan!!

And I could give you a list of hundreds and hundreds of items which cost more here. In fact, living here in Oz costs more than living even in Japan.

And don't even get me started on hotel and meal costs!!

Meanwhile back in the US, I have been fighting Stage 4 cancer and have also been on dialysis for the last 7 years. The total medical costs over this period is now north of $3.8 million (US). The immunotherapy drug I was on for nearly two years was $33,400 (US) per dose. Dialysis is just under $4,000 per week. Going through chemo and dialysis at the same time is not something that I recommend, having 48 operations in 7 years is not something that I would recommend. And think about how many medical offices/insurance agencies/billing stupidity things that all of this history has come my way. But I put on my big boy pants and dealt with it all (while helping here and building a good website for the hobby.)

And top this off with the medical folks here telling me for years that I would be dead in 6 months (they told me that I had a 5% chance of living). I have been in remission long enough now (2 years+) so I can begin to seek a kidney donation. This week I met with a leading oncologist who has been my doctor throughout this ordeal. His opinion matters because he will be sending a report back to the transplant committee who decides if I can get listed or not. Here is what he reported back to them on Friday.




The ball is now in my court with the medical folks unable to give me any meaningful information; do I want to live on dialysis the rest of my life or do I want to risk a transplant and the cancer coming back?

So while I can understand frustration with banks, ebay and other typical daily frustrations I would be happy if that was the only issues and decisions I had. And there are many other people who are facing a LOT more difficult stuff than I am. Any day I am vertical and dressed is a great day, the rest is just noise.
Don

studebaker51:

I wish you good luck.

When people are sick they need it.

Nowhere near as sick as you, but I've have had numerous problems over the past 18 months and it seems that every time I get 'better' something else happens...........