Very Nasty Experience, Please take care

[Restriction]

Hi guys and beloved forum members, i just wanted to warn you about an experience that ive seen might become a trend. It involves shipping goods to another country and the buyer refusing to pick it up or sign it due to they changing their minds because of charges at e.g. the port. You might not think of it if you are selling low value £1 goods but, i sold the item for £3000 and ive been burnt ..literally

Now this buyer had over 700 positives and no negs as a buyer.The buyer asked me how much was it to ship to the port in Australia to pick up since door to door was coming up at three times the amount. The shipping was like £600, but i warned him that additional charges might apply on his end. so he added that to checkout. The goods arrived australia and over there they gave him an additional charge of duty e.t.c. of like over £500.

Now you would of thought that with a sort after good that much, he would be waiting. Well he just opened up a case and said he hadnt received goods. Paypal and Ebay checked the tracking and despite the protest said it hadnt been signed for or released, so they awarded the case in the buyers favour.

So above all im thinking im gonna pay £1200 for a wasted journey of sending goods and getting it back again and more than £1000 in useless charges.... So basically im paying out £2200 to get my own goods.

So my advice to most is, always think twice about payment methods. If you an honest seller and you aint a fraud, get them to send the money to your account

[rsot]

Sorry to hear that Restriction - hence, a lot of ppl hate shipping internationally.

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by rsot

Sorry to hear that Restriction - hence, a lot of ppl hate shipping internationally.

Yep. I only ship items under 250$ and make sure they has SOME history.

In other words...if they have 30 feedback and 3 negatives left to sellers I probably won't accept their request.

[wtfebay]

I never ship internationally. Not even to Canada.

[slokor]

Ouch. What a painful experience.
Thanks for the heads up.

[BigCJ]

Wow... Thats a big bite...

I do extremely limited shipping outside of the USA. No more than $25.

Be sure to BLOCK this person and set your preferences to avoid buyers like him.

[pokerpro]

I do it........it's always under $300 now-a-days.........that story is a good reminder to be very, very mindful about doing a big buck deal overseas.

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by wtfebay

I never ship internationally. Not even to Canada.

You lose sales with that mindset. But hey....its your business.

[solefoodbk]

Keep in mind to there are scammers everywhere.

If your doing a big buck sale over seas just don't do auctions.

Keep it your country as shipping and then put in the listing "international buyers please inquire for a quote".

Now you have control over who you ship to overseas if it makes you feel uncomfortable. I mean if you have a buyer than has over 100+ purchases and leaves ALL positive, or has been on ebay for longer than 2-3 years with the same story... why not?

Its a risk every time we ship something out technically.

[MM78]

If I were the OP, I would not ever do Overseas sales with big ticket items. It seems like the Buyer knew exactly how to pull off the scam. Seems like more and more people are having issues with overseas sales.

[Restriction]

the most disgusting problem of all is that ive got no choice but to bring it back

[GreenBean]

I hope by now you have changed your listings and no longer sell overseas?

Digusting that you got caught. But a possible plus, you can get the item back to maybe resell within the UK.

I wish you luck for future sales, Restriction. Such an incident sure leaves a bad taste in your mouth ( and an empty wallet).

[Restriction]

Massive Grey area...It seems that a lot of Buyers/Sellers with massive feedback still abuse the system

[solefoodbk]

Originally Posted by Restriction

Massive Grey area...It seems that a lot of Buyers/Sellers with massive feedback still abuse the system

Yes.

Try not to let this ONE buyer change your persepective on selling internationally.

Just my recommendation.

It sucks it happened, I'm not trying to say otherwise.

Goodluck

[Bunneh]

You shouldn't get charged customs or duties for an undelivered item?
As it will just get returned to sender.
(I know i certainly haven't been..)

So hopefully your loss will be slightly smaller than that.

[yankee]

I love international sales. It is a huge part of my high ends goods business.

[yotano211]

I only ship to Canada. I have shipped to Aussie land many times and also have had problems.
The last person tried to get me for overprices shipping rates to Australia. It cost me 15 something to ship, I put 17 and the person made a huge grip about those 2 extra bucks. Least me a negative for overpriced shipping and my listing ranks went down. This was on a pretty new account with 5fb. I had to pump the account, pay ebay fees and close the pp account. That was the last nerve with me and aussie land.

[pokerpro]

When it comes to overseas selling, I have to admit, I'm a total "profiler"...After too many consistent problems to one country, I just won't ship there anymore.......period.

And there are countries where I've never had a problem, that I continue to ship to.

I realize that there are good and bad people everywhere, but hey...I have to base my decision on something??

[Restriction]

Originally Posted by Bunneh

You shouldn't get charged customs or duties for an undelivered item?
As it will just get returned to sender.
(I know i certainly haven't been..)

So hopefully your loss will be slightly smaller than that.

oh Bunneh...This is the world, somebody gotta pay some duty or else how do ports make money? if that was the case people will be dumping goods left right and centre without storage fees being charged

[wtfebay]

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

You lose sales with that mindset. But hey....its your business.

Not really. I have done fine without having to sell internationally. The benefits dont outweigh the risks for me.

[rsot]

A lot really depends on the type of good sold and the clientele being attracted too...sadly...