Do Global Shipping Centre open your parcels? They charge high P&P rates also!

ailey

I sold an item to someone in Spain a few hours ago and tried to send an invoice with the international postage included but it wouldn't allow me to do that as it said it was going through the Global Shipping Programme. I have ticked that for most of my items recently but had forgotten. I wasn't too sure what the next step was as nothing was happening and I had expected to receive a message from EBay. Eventually, after a few hours, I received the label and it had the person's name with the code for the sale and the UK Shipping Centre address so that should be fine hopefully.

In the interim period, I was checking Google to see what the next step was for me while I was waiting for this label with the shipping number when I listened to someone on YouTube talking about items in the US being opened at the US Shipping Centre, checked then packed the way they decided and sent on their way but he had 2 separate computer keyboards damaged because of poor packaging. He contacted the sellers and they explained how they had packaged the items which was nothing like what he received.

Just to let others know this and see if anyone has had any bad experience with their items being repackaged and whether they had any complaints from buyers. It just made me wonder as the buyer in Spain has been quite explicit about wrapping and adding 'Fragile - with care'. I'm just wondering if she has received any purchases which have come through the shipping centre and badly repackaged. It just surprised me that they opened people's parcels. I'm thinking that I won't actually use the service in future. What are other people's though or experiences with the UK Shipping Centre?

EDIT: See my comment in number 4 about the exceptionally high postage charge the UK Shipping Centre has charged!

theonlywayisup

It is in the T&C. Pitney Bowes can repack your items to facilitate their shipping methods.

Yes, items may be damaged.

The answer is only to use it for items which aren't particularly susceptible to damage.

F&L

I've had quite a few sales using the GSP programme and only one buyer has complained about damage to the item's box. The photos they sent me were my own packaging even though I initially thought the item had been repackaged. In my case ebay covered the loss and refunded the buyer in full. All of the cases I read up on at the time about repackaging were US ones. If your item arrives fine at the GSP centre and is forwarded on, then their own terms state that they take responsibility which in my case they did.

ailey

Well I really am so shocked at this! I posted the package to the buyer in Spain today through the Global Shipping Centre and it looked as if the buyer was just going to be charged the UK price of £2.90 for P&P but, as I was marking it as Despatched, it showed the final price of £14.32. I sold the item for £2.99 so the postage has actually cost the buyer £11.33! If I had sent it by Royal Mail International Standard it would only have cost her £3.95 for postage. I can hardly believe this!

I think I'll go through all my items and remove the Global Shipping. It still shows as P&P at £2.90 on my Sold page and only shows as the more expensive price when ticking for Despatched. Just letting others know about this as this could put many buyers off when thinking about buying from overseas.

theonlywayisup

ailey wrote: »

Well I really am so shocked at this! I posted the package to the buyer in Spain today through the Global Shipping Centre and it looked as if the buyer was just going to be charged the UK price of £2.90 for P&P but, as I was marking it as Despatched, it showed the final price of £14.32. I sold the item for £2.99 so the postage has actually cost the buyer £11.33! If I had sent it by Royal Mail International Standard it would only have cost her £3.95 for postage. I can hardly believe this!

I think I'll go through all my items and remove the Global Shipping. It still shows as P&P at £2.90 on my Sold page and only shows as the more expensive price when ticking for Despatched. Just letting others know about this as this could put many buyers off when thinking about buying from overseas.

It shows £2.90 on your page as that is the postage you charge. That is the postage for the purchase being sent from you to PB.

The other charge is visible to the buyer before they pay, they can see what it is.

But yes, it's horrendously expensive for some things, usually those which are small and lightweight.

campdave

ailey wrote: »

If I had sent it by Royal Mail International Standard it would only have cost her £3.95 for postage. I can hardly believe this!

Where can you get RM tracking for £3.95?

The buyer has chosen to pay the shipping, I shouldn't shed a tear.

paddyrg

campdave wrote: »

Where can you get RM tracking for £3.95?

Maybe one of these services

http://www.royalmail.com/personal/uk-delivery/signed-for-1st-class

OK, 'signed for' isn't quite the same as tracking, but could be what the poster was thinking of

ballisticbrian

OK, 'signed for' isn't quite the same as tracking, but could be what the poster was thinking of

I don't think so because the minimum cost of either signed or tracked in Europe (Zone 1) at least a fiver or so on top of the original postage cost.

campdave

paddyrg wrote: »

Maybe one of these services

http://www.royalmail.com/personal/uk-delivery/signed-for-1st-class

OK, 'signed for' isn't quite the same as tracking, but could be what the poster was thinking of

To Spain?

soolin

paddyrg wrote: »

Maybe one of these services

http://www.royalmail.com/personal/uk-delivery/signed-for-1st-class

OK, 'signed for' isn't quite the same as tracking, but could be what the poster was thinking of

As has been said that is UK rates, the package in question is going to Spain . just as an example a 500g package to Spain normal airmail would be £5.50.

http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/Royal-Mail-UK-and-international-parcel-and-letter-prices-30-March-2015.pdf

ailey

I wasn't going to send it tracked to Spain as I've sent various items overseas and they have all arrived as far as I can remember over the years. £3.95 was the cost for 211g untracked.

http://www.royalmail.com/price-finder

I'm glad though that the buyer knew the postage cost before buying as that was what I was a bit worried about in case she got hit with that charge unexpectedly. I naively thought that buyers overseas were only charged the UK internal postage price to encourage them to purchase from here and that lots of parcels would go into larger mailing bags for the particular country. She was very particular about her parcel being wrapped well for protection (which I always do anyway) and that I should mark it in English and Spanish for Fragile - with care. I'm just concerned that the UK Shipping Centre opens parcels and then it's up to the person there to decide how well to rewrap. Hopefully they keep it all wrapped as well as I have.

I had watched a YouTube video from an American person working in Japan and he had a couple of separate parcels with keyboards arrive in a damaged condition because the US shipping centre had opened and rewrapped them in a poor way. I just didn't think they would open anyone's parcels.