Warning: be careful when buying items containing batteries via eBay

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tih

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I recently found a Pentax Ni-Cd Battery Pack LX advertised on eBay, from a seller in England, and bought it, as I have the LX motor drive, but no power source for it. (Of course, the NiCd cells in these are long dead by now, but there are NiMH cells to be had that are of a compatible form factor, and I'm reasonably good with a soldering iron.)

The seller was willing to ship abroad using eBay's Global Shipping Program, which I'm used to appreciating, as eBay's international shipping partner, Pitney Bowes, is efficient, has reasonable prices, has excellent tracking, and handles the customs clearance process quickly and faultlessly.

However: this time, the shipment was stopped at Pitney Bowes's facility in the UK, where they claimed that NiCd batteries were transport restricted, so the item could not be shipped internationally. This is just plain wrong; there are restrictions on batteries containing lithium, but not on NiCd or NiMH.

The seller contacted eBay, and asked them to clear up the misunderstanding, but was told that there was absolutely no way to get any communication from the seller to Pitney Bowes, and absolutely nothing eBay could do to affect their process. Mistake or no mistake, Pitney Bowes had said the item was restricted, and that was that. After a couple of rounds back and forth, the seller was rather rudely told to stop complaining, and the case was closed.

Worst of all: the way Pitney Bowes handles a case like this is by destroying the restricted item. Not only did I not get it, but the seller didn't get it back, so we couldn't redo the transaction, using regular post for the transport.

eBay absorbed the cost, though - I got a refund, and the seller got his payment. Kudos to eBay for doing that, but it still really hurts that an old, out of production, piece of equipment was destroyed.

Me, I now have a set of NiMH cells ready for when I manage to find another battery pack LX. I'll just be very careful about not letting Pitney Bowes handle the shipping!

-tih
 

Rick A

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You can't ship anything international with batteries installed, many of us have found that out the hard way. It isn't just a Pitney-Bowes deal. I used to belong to "Lets all shoot one camera" and sent a P&S around the world, batteries had to be removed prior to shipping or lose the camera.
 

AgX

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You can't ship anything international with batteries installed.

I just checked with German Mail about their international parcels:

-) there is NO restriction on NiCd cells/batteries

-) even Lithium cells in a wide range are allowed:
(cells/batteries for handheld appliances: for Li-Metal limitations on Lithium content per cell or per battery; for Li-Ion limitations on capacity per cell or per battery.
batteries for vehicles are even totally unrestricted if installed)
 

Nitroplait

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I buy that stuff off different suppliers throughout Europe without problems. Most times it will have an info label stating it contains a battery of a given type.
 

GRHazelton

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A sad tale. Does Pitney Bowes handle any shipping within the continental U. S.? If so they probably be avoided.
Somewhere there is a thread dealing with members' experiences with various shippers. I've put FedEx at the bottom of my list; they ignored signs on our garage door, exposed to rain and afternoon sun and with a sign asking for deliveries on the front porch, which is perhaps 35 feet from the drive way, and sheltered. FedEx left a shipment of film from FreeStyle against the garage door, then I put up the sign.
My understanding is that FedEx drivers are independent contractors, while UPS drivers I think are shareholders, and the USPS drivers are quasi federal employees. My experiences with UPS and USPS have been good. Of course YMMV, as is so often the case.
 

xkaes

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You are lucky EBAY refunded you. I sold a lens using the EBAY INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING service. It arrived at the EBAY INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING center, but the buyer never got it. He OPENED A CASE -- of course. EBAY refunded him his payment 100%, but they would not refund me a penny -- even when I proved that the EBAY INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING center had received the item. Their attitude is "once it's out of our hands it's out of our hands.

Shipper beware!
 

flavio81

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You are lucky EBAY refunded you. I sold a lens using the EBAY INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING service. It arrived at the EBAY INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING center, but the buyer never got it. He OPENED A CASE -- of course. EBAY refunded him his payment 100%, but they would not refund me a penny -- even when I proved that the EBAY INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING center had received the item. Their attitude is "once it's out of our hands it's out of our hands.

Shipper beware!

Is this the same as "global shipping program"?

I understand, at least for my country, that "eBay International Standard Delivery" uses Pitney Bowes.
 

flavio81

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A sad tale. Does Pitney Bowes handle any shipping within the continental U. S.? If so they probably be avoided.
Somewhere there is a thread dealing with members' experiences with various shippers. I've put FedEx at the bottom of my list; they ignored signs on our garage door, exposed to rain and afternoon sun and with a sign asking for deliveries on the front porch, which is perhaps 35 feet from the drive way, and sheltered. FedEx left a shipment of film from FreeStyle against the garage door, then I put up the sign.
My understanding is that FedEx drivers are independent contractors, while UPS drivers I think are shareholders, and the USPS drivers are quasi federal employees. My experiences with UPS and USPS have been good. Of course YMMV, as is so often the case.

Sad to see this. However, the system, if i recall correctly, allows you to choose to drop the package at the nearest FedEx office instead of to your door.

In my country FedEx works very well, and they would never leave a package in the door (because it would be immediately stolen here...)
 

Moose22

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What happens when travelers are flying with those type batteries?

There are restrictions sometimes.

For instance, you cannot CHECK lithium batteries. If you have them, they must be in carry on. This is because of a couple of fires with lithium power packs.


This is the same reason Lithium batteries often have ground only shipping restrictions when not international. If they're in a plane and pop, they don't want them hidden in a cargo hold somewhere inaccessible.
 

pentaxuser

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My sympathies as well, OP. Clearly someone has got it wrong. Either shipping NiCd between the U.K. and Norway is allowed or it isn't and while it is nice that we are all in sympathy with the OP and telling him of our tales of bad experiences it doesn't clarify what the law says

AgX has reported that had the OP lived in Germany no such problem exists with receipt of the package in his country. So clearly it is not a universal ban on batteries.

What is done is done and cannot in this case be undone but it is a real shame for other buyers who may experience similar treatment in the future.

pentaxuser
 

AgX

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But the weird thing is that as far as I can see German Mail only has one info sheet for all foreign destinations (with exception of drugs related compounds).

Does that mean that in the worst case nonetheless a parcel is blocked, or apply different parcel services different restrictions? But this would mean that they would have own transport lines all over the world.
 

xkaes

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Is this the same as "global shipping program"?

I understand, at least for my country, that "eBay International Standard Delivery" uses Pitney Bowes.

The EBAY Global Shipping service is the same as International Shipping service. The seller ships it to the EBAY shipping center and they send it to the destination in another country -- but that actual shipping company probably varies from country to country. EBAY gets a shipping cost discount and passes it on to the seller -- that's to good part. But if the shipping company (you never know who that is) screws up -- you're screwed.

As far as I know, Pitney-Bowes just handles the postage/shipping costs. They are not a shipping company.

I no longer ship to Russia -- for obvious reasons -- nor to Germany. Germany has this impossible to fill-out form -- upon form, upon form. It deals with having to use as little packaging material as possible -- to avoid as much trash as possible. Great idea, and it's worthwhile if you are a big shipper to German -- but not worth it to me.
 
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gone

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You certainly had a perfect storm of screw ups. What a stupid policy, they destroy the restricted item! Doesn't sound legal to me. If eBay refunded you, maybe you should buy a lottery ticket, that's not the norm.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing is why I won't buy or ship outside the US. I've never trusted eBay's global shipping program. The costs looked excessive, and once a package leaves the US I lose the tracking on it.
 

xkaes

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Most of the time it works fine, but when it doesn't, EBAY has got the BUYER's "back", not the seller's.
 

flavio81

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The EBAY Global Shipping service is the same as International Shipping service.

Sorry but they are different services. "ebay Standard International Shipping" is not the same as ebay's "Global Shipping Program", which has its own(different) terms which includes letting you paying upfront for any customs taxes, instead of delegating all customs matters to the shipping operator.
 
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tih

tih

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It seems you have to pay the IATA to get the complete regulation documents, but every source of information I've found on the net seems to agree that Ni-* are not subject to any restrictions. Battery University, for instance: https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-704-how-to-transport-batteries

Note how it's described here (and on the IATA web page) how even lithium based batteries can be shipped, if they're under a certain capacity.
 
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Injustice is something we have to endure. It is what makes life bittersweet. Playing the victim and complaining that the world isn’t perfect is . . . Well, a statement of the obvious. Crimes against humanity whether they be mass genocide, or stolen goods worth a few hundred bucks reflects the non positional trend of attitude of holier than thou, and I demand satisfaction!! When in reality life can not allow or give us the promise or note tended to alleviate the hemorrhage of fallibility . I say live with lemon, hold the lemon till it rots, but don’t make lemonade,whatever you do. Just know that you could have made lemonade And you didn’t because that would give you hope in humanity!!!
 

AgX

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I have not expected this thread going philosophical.
 

Sirius Glass

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As eBay has grown it has evolved to make it safer for the buyer and seller, but it has not eliminated all the remaining problems, perhaps making some new problem worse.
 
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