Originally Posted by
squern
Last year, on the Dark Side, I developed quite a following in the US & Canada, Australia and the Far East, and often shipped by Surface Mail. Surface Mail costs about half of Airmail, but takes up to 56 days for delivery.
However, it was not long before someone spotted a loophole - it was possible for someone to specify Surface Mail, after being told on the listing and reminded at the time of sale of the delivery time, and then claim non-delivery after a couple of weeks.
This happened to me twice, and despite contacting EB and explaining, I was forced to refund the full payment.
Needless to say, neither people contacted me later to tell me the thing had arrived, and denied that it had when I contacted them. So 100% record of loss for Royal Mail - I think not.
My remedy was to stop using Surface Mail, with a couple of exceptions for people who bought from me regularly.
Now, to get to the point:
An item which weighs 1250 gms to Australia now costs £17.86 by Airmail (including the eBay tax) on eBay.
Royal Mail charge £9.65 by Surface Mail.
Since there is no possibility of a similar scam on eBid, it is now safe to offer Surface Mail again.
So we can offer real price advantages over the opposition. The difference on very heavy items is even more marked:
2 kgs Airmail via eBay £27.32, by Surface Mail via eBid £14.45.
That's something worth promoting and shouting about. Isn't it?
Incidentally, experience tells me that it only takes 56 days in far-flung places: Australia, and US West Coast.
Taiwan takes about 3 weeks, Thailand and the East Coast of US, about 4 weeks