Refusal to send mother of pearl knives

[jamebel_20]

Every time i try to bid on a pocket knife with mother of pearl handles im told it cant be sent to Australia because of customs restrictions. Absolutely ridiculous ive bought at least 6 knives with m.o.p. handles in the past before this g.s.p. **bleep** came in. When i got in touch with ebay 'help' (contradiction of terms) the best they came with is that the knives were 'gravity knives' and illegal here. Absolute load of cods wallop, all they are is small pocket knives that ive never had problems with before. There must be an angle here but i csnt work it out.

[maranock · Accepted solution]

Even if they are perfectly legal here, no-one who uses GSP/Pitney Bowes will be able to post it here as they will not handle it, and will actually confiscate it.

This is not the fault of the seller and only if you ask the seller, and they agree, not to yuse the service may you get it posted. Most overseas sellers will not stop using the service as it gives them extra seller protections.

All you can do is look for a seller that does not use Pitney Bowes.

[letscleanupmycupboards]

Nothing illegal or restricted about mother of pearl. Ivory would be but not mother of pearl

[lyndal1838]

The mother of pearl handle is not the problem....the problem is that the seller is using the GSP to send the item to Australia.

Because a limited number of knives are not allowed through Customs Pitney Bowes will not send any knives to Australia....even a harmless butter knife.

There is no point trying to argue the point with PB....they will not budge on their "rules".

Just be glad they tell you they will not ship your knife....in the early days they just confiscated the items and said nothing.  If you were lucky you got a refund but only after a lot of fighting when the item just did not turn up.

[*tippy*toes*]

Don't worry, it's not just knives they refuse to send. They also refuse to send musical instruments and straw hats (the latter being sarcasm). There have been numerous reports here of buyers buying a musical instrument, like a drum or guitar and it not arriving. It later turns up on Pitney Bowes own eBay selling page. 

There is a whole list of items they refuse to ship, most being normal every day items and not restricted in any way. As someone else said, look for another seller that doesn't use GSP. You can easily tell in the search results and also inside the listing if they are using GSP.

[letscleanupmycupboards]

Tippy it should be part of the eBay search criteria

You should be able to select shipping mode and pick "no gsp" or similar as a filter. You can do local/international or new/used so why not f'd up/not f'd up postage.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@letscleanupmycupboards wrote:
Tippy it should be part of the eBay search criteria

You should be able to select shipping mode and pick "no gsp" or similar as a filter. You can do local/international or new/used so why not f'd up/not f'd up postage.

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but that would stop a buyer from finding rare or hard to get items and asking the GSP seller to opt-out of the GSP for that item.

[kopenhagen5]

PB via GSP just don't ship any sort of knives.

You will need to ask the seller to list without the GSP for you if they are willing.

Or find another seller.

Reminds me of the poor NZ chap having purchased a very rare therapeutic bed for his dying father then consficated by the GSP.

Even the seller requesting it to be returned to him was denied, only refund given.

But it wasn't the money, this item was rare and for a very compassionate cause.

So it was just BL to the NZ man and his father. BS to GSP BL.

[gutterpunkz05]

Could also be related to Australias age restrictions and verification requirements.  I looked at selling knives a couple of years ago, as I had an opportunity to purchase bulk quantity.  In the end I  decided it was not worth the hassles.  So I can understand why someone from overseas would have reservations about selling to Australia.

[lyndal1838]

It is nothing to do with the sellers....it has everything to do with Pitney Bowes who run the GSP shipping service.  They simply refuse to send knives of any sort to Australia.

Age has nothing to do with it as ebay members are supposed to be 18 anyway.