If you are shipping anything of value or weight I HIGHLY HIGHLY suggest you DO NOT use the Global Shipping Program, it is 100% BS. I could go on all day about why not to, but to some it up from my experience and many others:
No matter how safely you package your item... Pitney Bowes (ebays shipping contract) WILL OPEN, INSPECT, REMOVE packaging materials, and repackage at their liking with the goal of significantly reducing the weight of your item with the minimal amount of packaging materials. In many cases they will completely repackage your item from scratch with minimal protection. Also in many cases if the item is much smaller that the original package size, they will move the item to one side and crush the box on the opposite side, reseal, and literally place a "Crushed" sticker on the box. Not to mention all items will be shipped all over the US before it even gets to customs. Once at customs the third party international shipper continues the shipment. In other words they charge you full cost for "shipping and customs fees etc" and then they turn around and try to ship the item at the least cost possible to them by reducing weight. When and if the item arrives damaged, Ebay will literally sit back and let the buyer and seller chew each other out until one of them gives up regardless of seller or buyer protection. I literally shipped out a unit to France and it arrived damaged, I asked the seller to send photos, the very first thing I noticed was that THE PACKAGE WAS IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BOX THAN WHAT I SENT IT IN. The buyer was obviously like WTF am I talking about, he said there was no protection in the box other than some bubble wrap. I was so confused and at first I thought it was the buyer scamming me, then I thought it was US Customs. Then I talked to one former Pitney Bowes employee here in KY and it all slowly became obvious what really was going on. Once both of us contacted Ebay, they essentially tried to turn each other against ourselves, which did not work. I had proof of how I shipped my package because I took photos. They then told us both that the package must have been damaged by the third party shipper. They repeatedly completely ignored each and every time it was brought up that the fact that is was in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BOX .. They tried to push me into believing the buyer was lying.. But even more telling the buyer did his own research to prove his side.. the third party shipper in my case was FedEx...THE FEDEX LABEL WAS ON TOP OF THREE OTHER PITNEY BOWES LABELS WHICH WERE ON TOP OF THE VERY FIRST PB LABEL THAT LITERALLY READ "CRUSHED"... which basically means the package was already crushed and repackaged long before Fedex even got a hold of it. Once the buyer contacted Fedex for information about the package, they stated the packaged was written off as a gift at NO VALUE.. ZERO VALUE by PITNEY BOWES.... WTF is going on. I forwarded all my info to the buyer and vice versa. We both were in disbelief as we were getting official messages from ebay stating the most ridiculous things and trying make it sound as if the other party was to blame. He kept saying his ebay rep is going have him a refund whether he returns the broken unit or not. But he was concerned about the principle as much as I was. How can they think this is perfectly fine and business as usual. My Rep said there was nothing they could do about the issue and the buyer will be refunded but they had to put a "mark" on my account for review.... however I get to keep my funds... What the hell do I need a review mark for, I didnt do anything but package my shipment properly and pay significantly for "professional and safe shipping" only to have my package replaced, broken down, and damaged with just the literal hope of Ebay's fallen angels that it gets to it's destination safely... and if it doesn't... it doesn't even matter, just blame the seller, if that doesn't work, maybe blame the buyer and force him to prove it, if that doesn't work blame the third party shipper, if that doesn't work mark up everyone's accounts.....
COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY AND I CONSIDER IT 100% FRAUD BY AN MULTI-MILLION dollar company. All of this to cut corners and save some money. Essentially Ebay will always side with whereever the most money is coming from. I mean don't get me wrong Ebay is great for many things, I couldn't sell half the stuff I do without it but they can be real crooked and if you get caught in one of their traps, especially on a large or valuable/rare purchase or sale and you don't have your end covered you're going to be screwed one way or another
Moral is if you want to send anything of value internationally... DON'T.. or for fucks sake DO NOT USE EBAY'S GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM.. make sure you do it yourself at whatever the cost by a reputable shipper and make sure you have insured and covered your end on all ends.
