Postage delays form Russia

[caerwall]

Shipping from Russia has always been slow - I have only bought from there about four times since last December.  December purchases made same day took six week before they finally arrived in Australia at my door (one day apart).  The vendors had become distressed in the proces. These parcels had a very similar delay and probably travelled together.

The problem is that if a "not delivered" is not lodged within eBay guidlines then eBay refuses to honour its money back guarantee.  If the purchaser insists on their money back and gets it then the parcel does arrive then the vendor relies on the purchaser's honesty for repayment of the refunded money.

Some Russian vendors are now refusing to post to Australia and New Zealand unless they are paid for DHL freight which makes the cost of shipping relatively inexpensive articles prohibitive. This also is evidence that this delay problem is widespread.

I bought an article from St Petersburg on 9 June last and it was exported from Vnukovo on 22 June.  It still has not arrived on 26 August (now over two months).

Shipments from Ukraine have been taking just 13 days recently until I made a purchase from Kyiv (Kiev) on 1 August.  It was exported form Kiev on 2 August and also has not arrived now 24 days later.

Shipments from Kiev some years ago always seemed to be routed through Moscow and were very slow but recently have been much quicker and presumably not coming that way - until perhaps this one.

I have a theory that shipment ex-Russia come directly by an airfreight-only carrier and that this only comes on an irregular basis only when enough parcels have accumulated to make a full load.

I would like to hear comments if there are others with similar experiences and also on my air-freighter supposition.

In any case the eBay "not received" refund guarantee process breaks down in the course of extended shipping delays where the parcel cannot be confirmed whether either lost or simply very slow.  This is not a happy situation for either purchaser or vendor and must end up costing ebay revenue as these sales become imnpossible. 

Furthermore it is also impossible to put a case for an eBay investigation of inter-country freight issues to them as their contact system simply will not allow matters of this type to be raised.