Liquidated Ethics - eBay, GSP and Pitney Bowes

DynoMore

First of all, I did get my money back and so did the buyer, but I am writing this to highlight how, from my experience, it is a good idea to think about how you ship internationally.

If you care about what you are sending. If you have a rare or precious item….think before using ebay's GSP service.

My story, I thought, must be a one off. Surely they wouldn’t usually do this!
Well, looking around, it appears it is not uncommon.

I decided, after many years of having a wonderful old Canon camcorder to sell it via eBay. I had sold many items on eBay prior to this and mostly things had gone well.
I had even sold successfully via the GSP (Global Shipping Programme) service that eBay runs, although I had chosen to use it only in certain cases, as I saw how much they charged my buyers for this service, and my good quality packing had been swapped for the type that would get buyers to complain.

For those of you that don’t know what the GSP service is, it is basically a way for eBay sellers to reach the international market, or at least chosen sections of that market.
The scenario used to be (and will now be what I will go back to) you would organise individual quotes for postage to different countries if a seller from another country asked you “How much would you charge to ship to…”
GSP came along and offered a seamless way to avoid that. GSP does all that for you and organises the shipment.
If selling via eBay’s GSP, you…just sell. eBay deals with the complicated bits. You just send to their address in Litchfield and the rest is logistics.

Now, when I listed my, rather rare (in that all the original parts and box were there), camcorder on eBay I did not know I had the GSP option ticked. It wasn’t my intention to use it, as the original camcorder box was quite big and I knew it might be more hassle that it was worth. But, as it was already receiving bids and interest, I just left it.

When the item sold, I realised the buyer was from Italy. Rome, in fact! 
It just so happened that I was going to Rome that following weekend. What I didn’t realise at the time was it would have been just as cheap to take it as luggage on the plane, AND the buyer would have actually received the item! Well, you wouldn’t usually expect a company like eBay to allow items to be “liquidated” but that was yet to become the reality.

Anyway, I contacted the buyer to tell him I was actually travelling to Rome, and so he decided to use this opportunity to purchase another lens to go with the said camcorder (I was advertising that separately) and so I agreed to drop that off when in Rome, along with some of the items that had actually proven too difficult to ship originally.

So, I am there in Rome enjoying the beautiful…everything – weather, architecture, food (lots) and rest. The buyer and I had arranged for me to drop off the lens, bag and bits in the next days.
It was not long after adjusting to this relaxed Roman situation that eBay wrote to tell me the item (original box and packed very well) could not be shipped to Italy due to restrictions and that it was not going to be sent, but not to worry as both the buyer and myself had been refunded the costs (the buyer had originally got quite a bargain)
I was very shocked and wrote to eBay, which is a very difficult thing to do! You try finding a real contact option on ebay!
It was only after asking that they informed me their GSP programme, using Pitney Bowes as the logistics, had “liquidated” the item, as it had broken some rules. These rules were batteries, regardless of whether packed in the original packing areas, were prohibited.
But, everyone was happy because both buyer and seller had been given their pay off.

I was not happy. My relaxation ended and was replaced with anger.
I contacted eBay again and demanded (politely) that the item should be returned to me and I would forfeit the costs. This was apparently a big no and there to be no return. It was now the property of Pitney Bowes and I had been paid off.
Once the buyer found out we had TWO very angry people in Rome.

Now, after more emails to eBay and similar references to terms and conditions repeated to me, I realised I could only complain to the official complaints body of eBay.
It was the day before I was about to do this (over a month after) that someone contacted me to inform me they were happy to be receiving the camcorder and loved this particular series.
This was done via my YouTube channel, where I had taken video of the camera and a video with the camera, to fully demonstrate the distinctive marks and imperfections with this old cam.

It appears that my camera was alive again. A company was selling the same camera and even using my original description (although choosing to take some parts out) word for word. They even decided to use my videos to sell the camera. Now that is VERY cheeky!
This seller on eBay (no small-scale seller) had actually listed that same camera. The marking were so distinctive it was obvious a mile off.
Hats off to the new seller of my “liquidated” camera, as they had managed to get double what I got for it, and had done this using my exact working and my video channel on YouTube.

Reading all the fine small print of the agreement for the GSP service, it does state they can pretty much decide what is shipped and what they do with it.
Apparently, according to eBay, I should be happy as I got my money and so did the buyer.
My take is: I hate such a lack of ethics.
The idea that any item, especially rarer items, can be deemed as “liquidated” and there is nothing you can do to get it back…now that stinks.
I contacted eBay many times and requested/demanded that my item be send back to me…..to no avail.

The fact that the eBay seller that sold my old camcorder just happened to be 45 minutes away from the GSP drop off centre might just be a coincidence. I can only wonder what kind of an operation is going on.
Another interesting thing to note is this seller has shipped the very same cam and batteries to the US (to the gentleman that thanked me for the sale)
It seems this seller is aware of the GSP and chooses to send via normal freight.

I would just advise anyone considering using the GSP operation that eBay runs to take this into consideration. If it is rare (or you care about an item) then maybe you should use your own methods of shipment!

martindow

It's quite right that it wasn't sent by air because of the batteries.  If you had tried carrying it as hand luggage to Rome, after scanning it would probably have been taken from you with no compensation.

You do seem to be making heavy weather of this as, if I understand your post, you got to keep the money paid and the seller was refunded by ebay.

It is normal for an insurance company to have ownership after compensation has been paid, so no doubt pallets of miscellaneous lost or refused items are sold on quite legitimately to be resold.

DynoMore

I do agree with you, everything was covered. But, there was no option to have it returned to me for me to deal with this myself.
It was a case of 'case closed'. I would have liked some options, even if I were to pay the needed costs.
It turns out the very same camera kit was then sold just a week back and shipped from the outlet seller, to the US, with all the batteries shipped with it. Obviously the seller that gets their goods from GSP (Pitney Bowes) knows not to use GSP for international transport!
I found it cheeky for this seller to use my original listing and videos to list this item again.
They somehow managed to sell it for twice as much, with a chunk of the original kit missing. Hats off for that part!

ballisticbrian

It does remind me of the ethics of Hermes on "missing" items. I sent someone a couple of printed Hermes labels so I could cover the postage on 2 max size boxes (the maximum allowed with Hermes) each with 1000 plastic boxes in. The first arrived and I could see it wasn't very well wrapped, and about to burst open. The second box grew later and later and I got the usual replies from Hermes "we'll do a sweep of the warehouse once a week."
Well you guessed it, it never arrived. And I remembered a couple of stories about lost Hermes items turning up on eBay.
My story did not conclude like that however. If something with 1000 boxes splits open, rather than have a roll of pallet wrap or even as Royal Mail do, a polythene bag with "we're sorry" written on it, the item mysteriously disappears!

You don't exactly have to pack something well at that point to get it to the destination. The packaging has already failed. Cling film is all that's required. But, no, instead of that possibly a shout goes out at the supervisors office, whose turn is it today for todays "loot." Do they have a bidding style arrangement like on Storage Hunters on channel Dave, and bang the gabble comes down on your precious cargo.