Reselling of items that eBay GSP has failed to deliver

[james_cumbria]

I've often wondered what happens to items that eBay's Global Shipping Programme fails to deliver, and now I know! It seems that the GSP flogs them off to a business seller who then relists them on their private seller account!

Last year I sold a rare and quite expensive (£2,500) antique magic lantern to a buyer in the USA. After spending weeks in transit the item was deemed to have been lost and the buyer was refunded. It's now back up on eBay (item number 276322692825). I've dropped a line to the seller, who informs me that their business model is based on buying up items from the GSP and then reselling them on eBay. They do this on their private eBay account, thereby benefitting from the many offers extended to private sellers including free listings and reduced final value fees. They currently have around 300 items for sale, including many high value items. They don't accept returns and they don't display their business information. The issue of business sellers hiding behind private selling accounts often crops up on these discussion boards, and it is well known that eBay turns a blind eye to this kind of thing - but I am astonished that eBay is apparently complicit in this practice by supplying such sellers with stock!

This aside, if anyone does know how to purchase items that the Global Shipping Programme has not been able to deliver (e.g. for customs difficulties), I would love to know.   Most of the items I sell are rare and hard - if not impossible - to replace.  On the rare occasion that something does goes missing, I'd love the chance to get it back.  

[vintagewatchpart]

Yes the item had return details on clearly, they all do. I will continue to use GSP as it opens up avenues I cannot attain myself in terms of cost to certain countries. GSP refunded the buyer and not myself, so effectively they do now find themselves responsible for the goods and although it is extremely annoying, I cannot do anything about what they decide to do with the goods.

The issue I have hear is the personal data contained on invoices and labels that are being passed on to other people that is a breach of GDPR and the lack of a respone regarding this by anyone from Ebay.

This is a prolific practice, I got penalised for going to far on this by the mods a few weeks ago but needless to say I see thousands of GSP items for sale by a single seller all of the pictures and titles are copied from the original item that was undelivered by GSP. Sorry but thats impossible to find such an eclectic mix of items and their details without being provided with the invoices within the package to locate them.

Unless I am wrong and it is done another way but no one is responding to this.

[the-nutwood-collection]

A quick search of the internet lists many auction houses selling undelivered parcels and a retailer selling 10 parcels for £69.99.  The retailer shows an image of a heap of parcels, some RM T48, and says 'Packages come in their original form with names marked out with GPRD reasons'  I think they mean GDPR.  On the image, the address labels do have a sticker obscuring the recipient's name and address but, as they are unopened, any personal data within the parcel remains.

However, RM say that all undelivered items without an external return address are sent to Belfast and the packages are opened to ascertain whether there are return details inside.  If not, low value items are destroyed and high value items are auctioned to defray the cost of running the Belfast facility.

I agree with @vintagewatchpart that personal data should be removed, but I expect that the cost of unpacking and repacking the parcels is the reason why it isn't.  Everything comes down to cost nowadays.

[btr.style]

Absolutely, there's quite a few auction houses doing it. I bought one box a while back and whilst they had pulled off/obscured some labels, a lot were still there (this lot was mostly online store returns that never got to their destination with a few of them likely being eBay sales with packling and p2g labels on them). Inside there were some invoices and personal details. 

Partly stuff isn't removed as indeed it's the time to do it, but also part of the appeal is for completely sealed, never opened packages so buyers know it's a gamble but it could pay off instead of them already being opened to remove invoices (which buyers would then assume that if there was anything decent in them, the auction house would have removed it to sell elsewhere for more money). 

[vintagewatchpart]

Another point is that not all packages will have personal data in, but if you are VAT registered you have to provide a VAT invoice by law which will have the buyers name and address and the details of the seller too.

[papso22]

You only legally have to provide VAT invoices to other VAT registered businesses.

[vintagewatchpart]

You are right, and I knew that for some reason I had forgotten as I didn't used to send invoices out at all but perhaps 1 in 200 of my customers asked for them so just included them to prevent admin work!

[the-nutwood-collection]

You're right - I hadn't thought of the 'surprise-surprise' element of the transaction.  Will it be a Faberge egg, a Rolex, a new iPhone - or a pair of socks?  

Or maybe it will be a doubtful item, and you can use the recipient's data to blackmail them.  

[rigged_out]

It's common knowledge about what happens with items in GSP. I really don't know the answer to the invoice in the box though. However, here's a post from 2020 with the same thing. There's many examples. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6193830/liquidated-ethics-ebay-gsp-and-pitney-bowes

[ackers-fine-antiques-jewellery]

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@papso22 wrote:

You only legally have to provide VAT invoices to other VAT registered businesses.

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I know I am late coming it to this thread but, If ANY customer ,including a private consumer, asks for a VAT invoice then a VAT invoice must be supplied.

The differece is, a private consumer does not have to have an invoice where the VAT element is seperated out where as the VAT invoices to VAT Businesses does have to have the Net price and the VAT seperated out. (Certain exceptions apply, as in for example:  Second Hand Goods sold under the (VAT) Global Accounting system and the Retail Flat Rate Schemes)

[baagain_reckon]

Hi,

Can you please provide the name of the eBay store being used to sell liquidated or undeliverable GSP items? I live in Australia and have just had an antique item from the UK falsely seized by Pitney Bowes GSP after I purchased it, and after countless attempts so far to get it back by speaking (or attempting to speak) to eBay agents, the International Shipping Team and Pitney Bowes, I have been endlessly referred, ignored, deflected or denied access, and I am quickly losing hope of ever seeing it, and am starting to look for it being relisted on eBay, based on the anecdotes of others. 

It has been confiscated by Pitney Bowes Lichfield Hub. Do you know the name of the eBay store(s) in the UK being used to resell their (practically stolen) items?

[papso22]

No-one on these boards knows that information. 

As you have presumably been refunded for your item it is now eBay's property to do with as they wish, including selling it.

They have not 'practically' stolen it.

[baagain_reckon]

I only ask because I have seen one of Pitney Bowes's eBay stores named before, where a buyer was able to rebuy their liquidated item after identifying the store, but was based in the USA. 

And they have if the item has been unjustifiably and unlawfully declared a 'restricted' item, hence my fight to retrieve it.

But in any case, I'll continue my search

[vintagewatchpart]

I know of three accounts that have resold some of my items but it is against the rules to name and shame.

I would set up a search alert to see if the item is relisted at any point.

These items are sold at auctions somewhere and bought in bulk by others to resell.

[baagain_reckon]

Okay no worries, I'll try that. Thanks

[myriad*seller]

The items are bought at auctions

The seller doesnt need any connection to eBay

They just need to attend auctions for "lost items", similar to Police auctions

You can buy lost luggage from airports too at auction

[myriad*seller]

No personal data is removed. Items are not opened to check for return addresses. 

The items are sold "as is" with all customer details displayed in the original packaging 

https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/06/lost-royal-mail-and-hermes-parcels-are-being-auctioned-off-on-ebay-14... 

[myriad*seller]

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@m25jet wrote:

Before you posted the item to the buyer did you make sure to write an "If undelivered please return to..." message on the back of the parcel, stating your name and full postal address quite clearly?  If you did and the GSP failed to return the item to you having deemed that the item could not be delivered then it could be argued that they have, in effect, stolen the item and sold it on for their own financial gain.  Whether you had already refunded the buyer at that point is another matter - if the buyer had not yet been refunded then the item was the property of the buyer, whereas if the buyer had been refunded in full then it once again became your own property again.

In view of the above, should the GSP ever do this again and you see the item you sold being relisted for sale on eBay by somebody other than the person who bought the item from you then report the listing in question to eBay, stating that the item has been stolen.  When eBay enquire further about the matter explain that the GSP failed to deliver the item, yet instead of returning it to you they retained the item and sold it on.  Although eBay are very much a law unto themselves it may be worth a shot, if only to see whether you can get the item back again.

With regards to what to do in the future, I would suggest that you opt out of the GSP and send any further sold items directly to your buyers, rather than via the GSP hub, whether you are selling to a nationally or internationally based buyer.  If you are not actively using the GSP then you won't be putting yourself in a position whereby you could potentially end up being screwed over by its dodgy practices of selling on undelivered items for their own financial gain rather than returning them to the seller as they ought to do.

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Only the police can report stolen items to eBay, they won't take reports from sellers, and the police are too busy to do anything than tell you to report to Action Fraud where no action will be taken. They do not contact eBay, it simply takes too much time, and they do not have the manpower. 

Total waste of time 

[myriad*seller]

Australia does have some very strict rules on which items are prohibited for import 

https://www.abf.gov.au/importing-exporting-and-manufacturing/prohibited-goods/categories/intellectua...

In addition anything with ivory, tortoiseshell, seeds, plant matter including woods, or other plant/animal products isnt allowed

Anything with woodworm in it isnt allowed

Without knowing what the item is, it is impossible to say why Aussie customs said your item isnt a permitted import

It wasn't a barometer was it? Those are definitely banned as they contain mercury and cannot even be posted anywhere! 

Fur items also cannot be imported 

Even antique books can contain insects, which cannot be imported 

[baagain_reckon]

Nah it's not a barometer, it's an antique brass and wooden book rest. I have checked the Australian customs websites and wooden items are not all strictly prohibited. I have personally imported wooden antiques before without issue, and I have imported antique books from around the world without issue too. And the particular wood that Pitney Bowes is claiming is restricted in this case is something that we import regularly in Australia. There is a store not far from me that solely deals in importing such furniture to Australia to sell here. The GSP has said that the wood is 'CITES regulated'. Not prohibited, regulated. And gives mlno mention of Australian customs. And again, even with any CITES regulations, it's a wood we typically import sonis obviously permitted within these regulations. So I'd love to get an explanation, but they make it impossible to contact them. 

Additionally, the seller actually personally contacted eBay prior to shipping it, making clear their intentions to ship to Australia and what specifically they had declared, and even cited the Australian customs regulations and how their item is permitted, and eBay noted this and assured the seller that the sale would go through successfully and would be sent to me without issue. But instead it was seized at Pitney Bowes Lichfield. 

I genuinely think that if it had been posted using a regular carrier instead of GSP, it would have cleared customs and reached me just fine, but instead it hasn't made it past Pitney Bowes, which from what I've read of other people's experiences seems to be a fairly common occurrence and for questionable reasons. 

I'll just keep trying to get through to them and keep an eye out for new listings.