In early May I purchased a card from Japan on eBay. For the sake of context, the card I purchased has since had a significant price increase (about 3x what I paid). After almost five months of no parcel, I reached out to the seller to see what was going on.
After being ignored for a fortnight I started a claim through eBay, whereby the seller almost instantly provided me with a full refund along with this message -
“please understand that your item is at the Australian border for months now. we can’t do anything about it. we will refund you as promised. but when the item arrived please let us know”
Whilst I am happy to have received a full refund, I am still confused by the sellers apparent bouts of ignoring me coupled with reluctance to provide me with more information. Perhaps it is just a language barrier. If the card eventually does make its way to me, I will obviously contact the seller and provide them with the option for it to be returned, or for me to send the original purchase amount.
My rambling aside, I am wondering if any other Australians (or perhaps those from other countries) have experienced anything similar due to the COVID situation with postage from Japan? Does the sellers message seem strange? I don’t understand why my item would be ‘at the Australian border’?
Apologies for the confusing post, any insight or comments would be appreciated!
I doubt it’s coming - haven’t had this issue with cards but I’ve had two books and some clothing never make it to Melbourne from US, Canada and Japan during COVID
I know our circumstances aren’t representative of the entire volume of mail shipped between the countries, but to share my experience (I’m in the UK): I made 2 separate orders from a Japanese eBay seller, one at the end of April and one towards the end of May, neither have turned up. Having ordered from the same seller multiple times last year it normally took 7-14 days for things to show up. It doesn’t help that they posted them via economy international shipping with 0 tracking considering they weren’t cheap items (>£300 each order) as it doesn’t give any visibility on whether they’re stuck at customs (which I suspect they are).
I’ve no idea of the likelihood of these items ever showing up - anyone else have multiple experiences with very late items suddenly showing up out of the blue from customs?
I have a 2-3 orders made on May 12 that have yet to arrive from Japan. One said it can take months back in May, and the other’s offered similar responses. Not really too pressed with the speed of arrival since COVID disrupted everything. It was/is an unforeseen event and as such there will be delays in industries impacted, can’t complain too much. I haven’t bothered to contact eBay yet since all the sellers had responded to my messages beforehand though.