Ever Vigilant, The Global Shipping Centre Averts Catastrophe Spanning Globe!!
I'm not pleased.
I'm in Australia. I bought, from the US, a perfectly innocuous, used model aircraft engine. It was exactly what I had been looking for, and was to have powered my latest project, almost complete.
The first indication that things were not going well was when I tracked the item. The Global Shipping Centre in Kentucky flagged an alert: “Delay at Global Shipping Centre - Item Restricted” Restricted?
Restricted? Surely a mistake, it's a model engine for Heavens sake. I might just be able to do some harm with it if I threw it at someone. I'd have to throw it with quite some determination to draw blood though. This is stupid, they'll realise their mistake... But no.
Next the GPS flagged the following: “Undeliverable - Item restricted at Global Shipping Centre” My heart sank, “undeliverable”, such a final pronouncement.
I emailed the seller to see what he made of it. I heard nothing of course since the GPS promises, as part of their service, to insulate him from me.
The final insult was the email from paypal advising that ebay had ruled in my favour in my dispute case and would refund my money.
My DISPUTE case??? No dispute. I bought an engine and expected it to appear in my letter box. After all, I'd paid exorbitant shipping costs.
This is all pure conjecture, but it is what I think is happening: Pitney Bowes who run this scam, has bought some sophisticated scanning equipment. All items are opened and re-packaged in their bunker. (A whole other problem that I don't want to go into here, but needs addressing.)
The equipment can detect things like, let's say, residual fuel vapour. (The poor Canadian guy in this forum trying to import carburettor parts from the US, I believe fell foul of this too.) The machine went BING! And that was that. No go.
The answer of course is to train the operators. Or have them refer a dubious item to their superior if they don't feel able to make a judgement.
A used model plane engine or a carburettor part is going to have residual fuel by its very nature. In dangerous quantities? Best to let a human determine that.
But this is the 21st century. Human beings, with brains wired to make those sort of judgements, are no doubt pounding the pavements competing for the few jobs available in Erlanger, Kentucky.
I'll only, in the future, buy from people who don't use this ridiculous system. The USPS would have united me with my engine without a qualm, they're just much, much better at it. They have, after all, been doing it successfully for a long time.
Ebay, as usual, don't make it obvious how to opt out of this scam, but do please opt out. A lot of sellers won't care, of course, they've got their money; who cares whether the buyer has got their item? The wheels of commerce turn...
