eBay alerted sellers about changes to the US Postal Service’s international delivery confirmation that took effect last week (July 1), and it touted its own Global Shipping Program as an alternative to using USPS.
eBay’s July 6th post said the Postal Service reduced the number of countries providing electronic delivery confirmation services for First Class International Packages and listed the countries still offering tracking.
The change does not apply to USPS Priority Mail International shipments.
eBay said packages sent using eBay international standard delivery or the Global Shipping Program were not impacted and “are alternatives for international shipments with electronic tracking information.”
eBay warned sellers of the risk of claims arising from packages not offering end-to-end tracking. “There is some risk of receiving an ‘item not received’ request due to the buyer’s inability to track their order’s progress if you’ve shipped items through USPS’ first class international service to countries where delivery confirmation is not available,” it wrote.
You can find the full announcement on the eBay.com website.
I can’t think of a better reason not to ship international than a having to rely on either the USPS or Ebay for tracking. Any hiccup in the system and your screwed.
The INTL. shipping from the US ship sailed away about 5 years ago. Has nothing to do with ebay. It’s other countries Govt’s doing the right thing by their citizens and actually CHARGING import duties (protecting their domestic business’), unlike our govt. And also those same countries pushing and / or lobbying the UPU for lower out going rates, and higher incoming rates. Something the US govt failed to do miserably. Thats why us US sellers cannot sell anything out of country….But the china to US pipeline is wide open and flowing!!!! STILL!
If your referring to the selling of the USPS “Fleet” – that happened long ago! Shortly after I began selling, which would have been around 2006-2007. Before that happened it was really easy and cheap to ship overseas, there was no tracking at all though, and it usually took several months to arrive.
Still, you would think a smart business person would take advantage of our complete lack of inexpensive options. I’d return to online selling in a snap if we had an option that worked!
USPS can’t even get Domestic shipping right.
My client’s package, ONE WEEK LATER is still going to Connecticut by way of LOS ANGELES ! ! !
It’s a complete breakdown of the system.
Postal workers refer to it as a “Soft Strike”.
FIRE THEM NOW !
WOW! I’m really out of the loop, had no idea it was that bad out there! So sorry to all of you that have to endure so much stress just to stay in business!