Beyondthebreach wrote:I don't know . . . Global Priority almost always arrives within 6 business days (and usually much less).  I have gotten nothing but rave feedback from international customers over the years for the quick delivery . . .

I only ship GPM . . . I also ship everything within two days Max . . . I guess that is the hard part for really busy sellers.

 To bump up your international delivery times, I would strongly suggest a same day or next day ship policy.  It blows the customer away every time!    (Okay, I realize that is not always practical for some)  . . . maybe make sure that international orders get shipped right away and delay domestic shipping if the package load is too great?

Yeh, but it still doesn't explain the two packages to Italy I sent before Christmas that are still in customs...or the one I sent to Australia around new years that hasn't arrived...or the other package I sent about three weeks ago to Italy that hasn't arrived...all sent Global Priority, the only overseas method I use unless it's one paperback and then I use First class international.  Which, speaking of, I have a paperback that just arrived to Poland of all place, taking a whopping 8 weeks by that method!  So I don't know if it's because of different positioning in the US (although I'm right next to DFW airport of all places), but GPM does NOT always arrive within a week or even two weeks sometimes.  Particularly Italy, and lately Australia, I'm getting an In Transit notice when checking the tracking, which typically means it has arrived in the country, and then not getting any indication from the buyer that it's arrived for another week to two weeks later.  

Oddly enough I've had problems ever since I started mailing internationally, around 1993 or so, for items getting here to the coast, then out of the country.  Sometimes it takes a week or more just to reach one of the coasts!  Again, odd because DFW airport post office is where I mail my packages a lot of the time. You are shipping from NY, BTB, which I would bet makes the international stuff go a helluva lot faster....I wonder does anything shipped in the midwest have to go to an east or west coast city first?  It sure doesn't seem like it heads straight there.

I think the time has gotten a little better since I started printing out postage, but I've always had very uncertain timing on GPM to anywhere except Canada and the UK, where a week or so it the usual delivery time.

The aforementioned two packages mailed to Italy before Christimas each contain a single module, and the buyer called the customs office, which said they are backed up to the tune of several thousand packages. So that seems to be the problem there.  Even so, it's hard for a buyer not to blame the seller when it takes so long to reach him.  If I had to dump a country in the future, it would definitely be Italy.



Mike B.

Beyondthebreach wrote:
Well, I never thought of that . . . unfortunately, GPM Flat rates don't track, but I checked about a dozen recent "larger" Global Priority shipments (which include tracking) and they all ship out of New Jersey.  Furthermore, they all leave NJ on an international flight within two days of me mailing it out.

That might explain it, BTB. Mine generally take a week or more to leave the country, when I have tracking and check their progress.  So I guess instead of leaving the country straightaway, my GPM goes to New Jersey first? Would explain a lot.

Mike B.

To be honest, I don't ever even leave any responses for sellers with the "star" system.  I have a hard enough time getting around to leaving feedback - the "stars" interfere with my "cut and paste" efforts to knock feedback out of the way once a month.

I usually don't even remember who sent me what, if it was well packed, what shipping cost, etc.  As long as it gets here with no major problems I am content.  

If you hit return/enter after typing the text of feedback, the whole form will be instantly & permanently submitted, without giving you a chance to do the stars portion.

Xaxaxe wrote: I was leaving 4s because I thought that score still represented good service, not to penalize a seller or be difficult or anything.

That's what limits the validity of these numerical scales, everybody has a different idea of how they should work. Even if you explain each increment with a rubric ["fast shipping," "slow shipping"], different people will have different ideas of what the explanations mean so it's back to square one.

The whole premise depends upon the essentially numerological superstition that ideas expressed as numbers gain a magical quality of accuracy. RPGs/wargames use such an effect to create a suspension-of-disbelief; subsequently it's usually the stupidest gamers who prefer the most complex systems, as they are most gullible towards the phenomenon.

In any event, your practice of giving 4s to middling-decent buys probably won't hurt anyone. Most people give automatic 5s to everything unless there's a problem,  so your 4s won't weight things too heavily.

If enough people give 1s to a seller, the averages erode into 4s, indicating that about 20% of a seller's customers had a problem. If you're standing in a checkout line, & you see that every fifth customer in line before you has some conflict with the clerk, it might be a good idea to leave the store with out making a purchase.

well of course you oz guys know that if you need anything kinda shipping via me to yourselves, just mention it and i will always try and help if i can.

Al

Assume this is a Worldwide thing, but heard an eBay guy on UK radio 5 today saying that due to nasty sellers threatening to neg buyers, they are about to remove the ability for sellers to leave feedback on buyers....  poor Cougie I thought...