Hi all,
I know this issue may have been discussed before, but I thought I would offer two personal misfortunes I have recently experienced courtesy of EBay's "Global Shipping Program."
As some of you know, I live in Canada. In the span of one week, I have had two sets of cuffs I bought, vintage cuffs and obviously obsolete, seized as "restricted items" by the Nazis working at the Global Shipping Programs sorting centre.
One of these was a rare cuff coming from the UK and one was a cuff coming from Kentucky, USA.
According to the shipping centre Nazis, both of these cuffs are "restricted items" and will not be delivered to me.
In both cases my money was refunded but as a collector that is not what I really wanted at all.
The thing that is moronic about all of this is that handcuffs are not even prohibited items to ship to Canada from either the UK or the USA.
In the future I will avoid bidding in auctions that use the Global Shipping Program and I would advise others to do the same.
Steve Santini
Hey Steve,
Sorry to hear of your situation, My understanding of what EBAY'S "Global Shipping Program" is from a very reliable source of mine and is as following: Ebay claims the program makes it easy for packages to traverse international borders. While partially true, that is where the line is blurred and ends.
When a package is shipped out of the country via the system a generated shipping label's barcode diverts the package to a central location (I'll use the USA as an example, but this is applicable to most other countries as well). The main diversion point is in the Midwest with two smaller diversion points in the South and one out West. The item arrives and is scanned sometimes by X-ray, sometimes by "proprietary devices". (scales, infra-red lasers, air blower and more) This is done to determine size/weight/density of the item versus the size/weight/density of the carton it's in. If it's not within the computers' programmed threshold of perfection (most aren't) it is sent by conveyor belt to a ginormous area where machines, people, or a combination of the two will open the package "to ensure it complies with respective Customs' requirements" and that it's "adaquatly padded & such". "Illegal items; drugs, weapons, baby food, human skulls, Nazi patches, flux capacitors, Steve's pink furry cuffs , as well as ANYTHING they cannot identify or readily catorigize are sent to the "reject" pile as Steve learned the hard way. Items that are deemed fit for a Disney movie are then repackaged into the smallest possible envelope or box they could scrounge up with the least or no padding material they could get away with. A NEW shipping label is affixed and the (now smaller & lighter) package is six side laser measured with the computer figuring-out EXACTLY how and where to be placed within a large cargo crate (think of the game Tetris) The shipping crate is, after being stuffed to capacity with one country of origin or a mixture of several countries' worth of goods is weighed again. The crate is then auctioned electronicly to a multitude of bidders to see which shipping company can bring the crate to another international midpoint at the cheapest rate. By vouching to Customs that the items are all in compliance, EBAY is also off the hook for most or in some cases ALL of Customs' or import/export duties, fees, tarrifs and taxes. Also as a side note, many of the employees at these facilities are Special Need or Retarded or whatever PC term I'm supposed to use. They are LEGALLY allowed to pay them LESS THAN MINIMUM WAGE because they are not "WORKING" but rather "LEARNING A JOB TRADE" as they repackage your stuff. They also use free or VERY low cost USED (recycled) materials as available. These tactics go so low as to remove wadded tissue paper from boots & shoes. Once the crate is at the final destination, the process is reversed for the most part with the item often times being auctioned again to a local "last mile" type of courrier or even a couple different courriers to make the final delivery.
The summary is EBAY BUTTFUCKS as many people and as many customers and companies as it could to make as much money on shipping as it possibly could. (Sorry for the foul language Joe, feel free to edit if it actually offends anyone)
The folks who dreamed-up this money grabbing scheme ought to be ashamed of themselves. But I'm sure those *
SOCKTUCKERS * would sell their own mothers for two bits if given the opportunity.
--Vince
