Ebay's International Shipping Program is a disaster!

Summary: rustynswrail expresses frustration with eBay's International Shipping Program, citing it as more expensive and slower compared to USPS and other services such as Amazon, which deliver faster. They criticize the lack of choice for sellers due to eBay's protection policies and state they will reduce purchasing from eBay in the US. e_purchasing suggests buying from Australian sellers as a solution.

Lets face it, Ebay's ISP is more expensive and frankly takes longer than United States Postal Service, which is saying something. An item takes 5 days to arrive at their 'Hub' where it sits for a further 3 days. After which it is handed to a variety of carriers who wait a few more days before dispatching the item. Overall a buyer is looking at close to 3 weeks for an item to arrive via the Ebay ISP from the US. USPS seem to manage the same trip in around 2 weeks. Sellers are more or less forced to use the ISP, otherwise they are not covered by Ebay's protections. So much for choice.

Lets not mention Amazon who seem to be able to sort, dispatch and have a purchase from the US arrive in a week.

So, the only outcome is, I will be buying less to nothing anymore from Ebay US. The only advantage I can see for the ISP, is Ebay makes more profit at the expense of expedited delivery.