foreign shipments

[dr.bo]

I could use some advise: I sell tapes on ebay as you know. I ship a lot of tapes overseas. I ship everything by US Post Office, Air Mail International. It is reasonable in price, but there are no tracking numbers. Lately, I have had several foreign buyers claim they never got the tapes. One is apparently a known scam artist. Paypal tells me that without a tracking number, they will side with the buyer. I have two recourses: Stop shipping overseas, or start mailing with Global Priority Express, or whatever it's called, for at least 36.00! Even for a small package. I would probably lose half my sales. Any advise anyone? dr. bo

[Scorpion8]

Even for a small package. I would probably lose half my sales. Any advise anyone?

I would give them that option and let it be known in your ad on eBay. Either they pay for tracking, or you no ship no overseas stuff. Tell them you'd be happy to ship overseas, but you gotta protect yourself as a business-person too.

[Marc Hugo]

Hi Dr Bo,

You sure have to protect yourself. It is possible that packages get opened in some parts of the world such as mine and the "officials" (please read thieves in uniform)keep what they find. These things are hard to grasp for most people from civilised countries unless they have had a course in third world ettiquette, such as going through customs at Kinshasa airport.

So, its not just scam artists. However, of course, you are referring to anywhere other than the continental USA, and those other three continents don't necessarily have our special challenges.

I think you should say that overseas shipping is exclusively at the recipients own risk. Or alternatively, they can choose the expensive option.

I notice the UK ebay'ers don't send anything outside the country almost as a rule but that may be just the hassle or the insularity. I don't know the reason, but it seems pervasive.

Good luck!! Marc

[braxus]

I would do as others say. Give them the option to pay for tracking, or say they buy at their own risk with cheaper shipping. Disclaimer stating "I am not responsible if the item is lost in the mail". Also keep in mind its getting to be busy season for mail and the items sent may just be taking longer to get there. I've had some stuff take 6 weeks to get from US to Canada, so international must be even longer.

[Mr. Lin]

I would give them that option and let it be known in your ad on eBay. Either they pay for tracking, or you no ship no overseas stuff. Tell them you'd be happy to ship overseas, but you gotta protect yourself as a business-person too.

Absolutely this is what you should do.

[close652]

I would do as others say. Give them the option to pay for tracking, or say they buy at their own risk with cheaper shipping.

I would choose this. Probably I would not pay extra $ for one tape, and accept the risk, but would be happy to pay a little extra for a valuable package. I always do this when ordering new LPs from the States.

[dr.bo]

According to Paypal, if I don't provide a tracking number, it doesn't matter if I post a disclaimer or not. I am liable. Furthermore, the scumbag buyer has now posted 4 neg. feedbacks on ebay for me. My first negs in 10 years of ebaying. Thanks to ebay not allowing sellers to leave neg. feedback, we are now at the mercy of these dirtbags. I guess from now on, I will only ship overseas if buyer is willing to pay Obscene postage. Dr. bo

[Naknut]

Sorry dr.bo its' almost a no win situation between the USPS and ebay now. The postal rates have made it too costly to sell to foreign customers anymore and ebay's no negative feedback rule for sellers frankly stinks to high heaven. My only recourse was to state in my auctions that shipping would be costly and it had to be registered mail to outside the US. Which would add an additional $15 to $22 to every sell??!! Sometimes more!
Most of my LP sells were to Europe and Asia but because of the above I've had to curtail most of my ebay business.
The USPS was the most logical source for shipping for me, maybe you could look into using another shipping option.

[dr.bo]

I have quite a few repeat buyers who I can trust. I will try to limit the High shipping cost to those I don't know. dr.bo

[stuartypoorty]

If you've established a good relationship with an overseas clientele, one that is based on trust and mutual respect continue selling to them with confidence.
You could discount the shipping rate to faithful regular buyers in order to make the deal advantageous whilst keeping a higher rate in place for new customers - remember, there's lots of ways to skin a cat.

I've sold to many foreign buyers before without any problems, but limited my exposure to certain markets. So, if you live in Nigeria or Indonesia, to name two obvious examples, tough luck.

I recently sold a rare lp to a US buyer and took the view that I'd send the item AirSure, with tracking number which was only slightly over my original mailing quotation. OK, so I lost a few pennies but hopefully will retain my 100% positive feedback.

I think Joel, given the amount of items that you've sold in a decade, a good 100% rating is difficult to maintain, so although the bad feedback is irksome, the majority of people you sell to will know that this is undeserved.

[Rat44]

I have never used Eb*y because of all the problems I have seen.
Is there another alternative?
It seems they are driving away customers with their policies.

[utahusker]

I wouldn't ship anything without tracking #'s. I bought a splice block and some reel to reel tapes from Matt that never arrived. Nothing we can do about it at all,*fit* but wonder where the Hell they are.

[Des-Lab]

'Husker. I take it you still haven't received them? I never heard back from you since our last discussion so I was under the impression that they must've finally showed up.

As I told you. I'll be more than glad to issue you either a refund or some alternate replacement product. Gotta keep you whole and happy!

[Mr. Lin]

According to Paypal, if I don't provide a tracking number, it doesn't matter if I post a disclaimer or not. I am liable. Furthermore, the scumbag buyer has now posted 4 neg. feedbacks on ebay for me. My first negs in 10 years of ebaying. Thanks to ebay not allowing sellers to leave neg. feedback, we are now at the mercy of these dirtbags. I guess from now on, I will only ship overseas if buyer is willing to pay Obscene postage. Dr. bo

Dr Bo I'm really sorry that idiot left you negative feedback that you obviously don't deserve. The bright side of this is that you have a zillion positives already, and anybody with half a brain will look at what's going on here and realize the buyer is a scam artist. By now pretty much everyone on ebay knows that his 100% positive feedback score as a buyer doesn't mean anything.

Furthermore, I owed you a lot of feedback from the past few weeks, which I just took care of a moment ago. So at least that will push his garbage down and a bit out of sight.

Dave

[utahusker]

'Husker. I take it you still haven't received them? I never heard back from you since our last discussion so I was under the impression that they must've finally showed up.

As I told you. I'll be more than glad to issue you either a refund or some alternate replacement product. Gotta keep you whole and happy!
No, they've never shown up. You shouldn't have to pay for the USPS's faults. Let's just consider it a site donation.*Hi5*

[dr.bo]

You guys are right. Nobody realizes that I do this out of a little room in my basement, as a hobby to make some "pin money". All of I sudden I have to get serious. SO tracking numbers it is, and I will send things Priority International at a minimum. So it goes. dr.bo

[gamve]

You guys are right. Nobody realizes that I do this out of a little room in my basement, as a hobby to make some "pin money". All of I sudden I have to get serious. SO tracking numbers it is, and I will send things Priority International at a minimum. So it goes. dr.bo

Hope you can still do cheap post for Intl TH members. I just brought 3 x 4040's off you
Cheers
G

[baguadao]

Does Tracking No. require extra charge?
And I notice some sellers requirement for insurance for amounts above certain amounts.

I buy CDs and Lps from Europe and mostly from USA.
I have bid for many LPs such as Jazz at the Pawnshop for amount above $100and up to US$230 in the past and mostly I request at my risk not to cover insurance to save cost as we have a 1st Rate postal service in Singapore which recently hosted the Formula One race in September.

I have never give a less than 5star rating for the sellers.

I have made immediate payment and prompt payment if I had won auction when I am asleep.

There are scums out there and they will always be there and it is necessary to be vigilant to countries you send to.

Not having a 100% rating is all right . We cannot satify every buyer on every ietm that you sell. It is a hazard that we need to learn to live with.

Take heart that the practical buyers will take a look at the positive comments left by other buyers.

My ebay ID is teckfive and fortunately I have maintained 100% for prompt payment and very positive feedback. Don't believe in destroying a seller because an item that cost a few dollars is not up to expectation or description. I always give the benefit of the doubt.

Cheers!