I'm in Canada and recently won an eBay auction for a vintage walkman. The seller, also in Canada, shipped it by Chit Chats. Chit Chats handed it off to Intelcom, which operates in the west as its subsidiary. Dragonfly Shipping. The item did not arrive, despite tracking notices indicating delivery had happened. Chit Chats said my only recourse was to contact the seller. Chit Chats would not follow up with the partner they chose for delivery. Intelcom provided me with a screen capture of a delivery photo taken by the driver. The photo was not my place and was stripped of metadata such as gps location. Intelcom said they would follow up with the driver to retrieve the item. Having heard nothing, I contacted Intelcom a couple of days later. They now claimed they had no record of the shipment number, and on that basis refused to escalate to a supervisor, provide me with an intact photo or even a usable email address. (Which is on their website anyway.) The interval for reporting to eBay the non-delivery timed out, and eBay quickly refunded me without demanding repayment from the seller. The seller and I have been in continuous communication. Intelcom has 33 pages of similar complaints with Better Business Bureau in Canada. I added my complaints against both Chit Chats and Itelcom. If companies suffer no consequences for their incompetence and indolence, more people will suffer and internet commerce will degrade. I suggest ensuring shipments are not handled by either company.
I would use a national known company like FedEx. I've had no issues shipping from the USA to Canada with them. Might cost more but they're pretty much guaranteed in my opinion
Intelcom still handle some USA to Canada orders from e-bay, but recently my e-bay orders have been by UniUni instead. Intelcom in 2021, 2022 and 2023 were notorious for leaving items in the lobbies of apartments where the items were promptly stolen by other residents etc,. The Intelcom drivers were often shady and driving beat up old personal cars with the packages just sliding around the floor. I know because I was receiving a lot of e-bay packs from USA during this period. About half the time the drivers would phone and I would go down and collect the packages from them. My D-555 came this way in October 2021, around 8pm one dark and rainy night, they called the phone number on the box, I ran down before they left it somewhere, two guys in a beat up white minivan handed me the box outside in the rain like a drug drop Funny stuff, but luckily, I never lost a thing!
Particularly offensive in my case is that Intelcom continues to claim they have no record of my shipping number, which has been verified by Chit Chats and by which Intelcom earlier provided me with a photo of the botched delivery. This goes beyond incompetence into unethical action. But if the seller and/or agency like eBay have to cover the loss, the shipper has zero incentive to clean up their act. This is the first thing a shipper has lost for me. I'd never heard of Chit Chats or Intelcom before.
It was better back when most e-bay items were simply shipped by Canada Post or USPS. I assume the plethora of 3rd party shipper intermediaries e-bay suddenly used was to add "Amazon like service" and direct to your door delivery. And to try and reduce false claims of items that never came by un-tracked postal service?
I'm still trying to find the walkman. I visited the local Chit Chats depot, where the staff were friendly and helpful. They verified that Intelcom does not generate their own tracking number. Intelcom uses the Chit Chats number. They showed me on Intelcom's own website, the Intelcom record using the Chit Chats shipping number. This proves Intelcom is not telling the truth when they repeatedly insist they have no record of this number. (Without the number Intelcom claims they can do nothing.) Additional follow-up is being attempted. Chit Chats also told me they have terminated their contract with Intelcom because incidents like this with Intelcom are too common and make Chit Chats look bad. This is positive news. The geographically dispersed nature of our hobby of these vintage devices is heavily dependent on the integrity of the delivery system.
It was an Aiwa HS-J9. Or J600 or J09. I have a donor machine with the parts this one needed and I had already ordered a belt for it.
