Is anyone else experiencing unexpected returns from eBay when using its international shipping service? Today we received an email from a seller who unexpectedly got two orders destined for overseas sent back to them without explanation.
“I have had two separate purchases from different sellers that have gone to the Kentucky shipping center and then suddenly the same notice has appeared on both of them,” the seller explained.
Item number one:
Today, the tracking shows the following messages dated one day after arrival in Kentucky:
- “Your shipment contains prohibited goods. You may request a return or it will be liquidated.”
- “Your shipment is being returned due to issues encountered.”
Item number two:
Today, the tracking shows the following messages dated two weeks after the package arrived in the processing center in Erlanger, Kentucky:
- “Your shipment contains prohibited goods. You may request a return or it will be liquidated.”
- “Your shipment is being returned due to issues encountered.”
We checked the eBay seller discussion boards and found a thread where a seller describes a similar problem that happened today:
“An item I shipped two weeks ago just arrived back at my house. It was processed by the shipping center, an international shipping label was attached to the package, and it used my address as the delivery address. There was nothing indicating there was a problem with the buyer’s address. I can’t figure out how this is even possible.”
It appears to be a chronic problem – we wrote about similar issues 2 months ago in this AuctionBytes Blog post.
We advise sellers to check orders sent using “eBay International Standard Delivery” (not to be confused with eBay Global Shipping). Let us know if it’s happened to you.
