Buyer from Spain didn't ask for shipping cost before winning auction - what to do?

jap200

I have just sold a pair of mugs for an end price of £3.50. The problem is, I had only listed UK postage rates, but I did have the following sentence in my listing:

"Please contact me for International postage rates, but please note that I will only use a signed-for service for International deliveries which carries an additional cost."

I now discover that the buyer is from Spain - they did not contact me before bidding. I have checked the price for Airsure small packets for the 750g parcel and it is £12.15 (the price has gone up today as VAT is now added from 31st Jan). I normall add 50p for packing materials etc. making it £12.65.

I have no doubt that the buyer won't be expecting that amount, so what should I do? Should I just send the invoice with only that shipping option? Should I add another option for regular airmail (around £5.80) - should I contact the buyer first before sending the invoice? What would other do in this situation?

I believe that Airsure is the only way to get full delivery confirmation and therefore protection for me agains non-arrival.

soolin

A you accept overseas bids you must have had some idea it was that expensive?

I think airsure is OTT for a £3.50 item personally and would use standard airmail but accept that I probably had no claim possible for breakages though. Send buyer an invoice and then if no payment has been received at end of day 4 open an NPB.

In future it is much easier to have the overseas postage options listed on your auctions as then buyer can see before they bid and they can also checkout without having to ask you for an invoice.

EDIT Just to add there is no requirement for a buyer to contact you before bidding if you have overseas buyers enabled.

jap200

soolin wrote: »

A you accept overseas bids you must have had some idea it was that expensive?

I think airsure is OTT for a £3.50 item personally and would use standard airmail but accept that I probably had no claim possible for breakages though. Send buyer an invoice and then if no payment has been received at end of day 4 open an NPB.

In future it is much easier to have the overseas postage options listed on your auctions as then buyer can see before they bid and they can also checkout without having to ask you for an invoice.

EDIT Just to add there is no requirement for a buyer to contact you before bidding if you have overseas buyers enabled.

I think you have misunderstood me - I was very aware myself that it would be expensive, but I doubt that the buyer was because they didn't ask me first. I usually don't have time to add the International shipping rates to each listing (the fact that airsure prices have gone up today was also something I wasn't expecting) which is why I add the sentence asking buyers to contact me first and I believe this is fairly standard as I have seen it on many other listings. It might not be a requirement for them to contact me, but then does it mean that they have to accept whatever I charge them?

soolin

jap200 wrote: »

I think you have misunderstood me - I was very aware myself that it would be expensive, but I doubt that the buyer was because they didn't ask me first. I usually don't have time to add the International shipping rates to each listing (the fact that airsure prices have gone up today was also something I wasn't expecting) which is why I add the sentence asking buyers to contact me first and I believe this is fairly standard as I have seen it on many other listings. It might not be a requirement for them to contact me, but then does it mean that they have to accept whatever I charge them?

They do sort of have to accept what you charge them, but all you can do if they refuse is to open an nPB on them to reclaim your FVFs (and give them as strike). In return they can neg you and hammer your stars and possibly also put in a complaint about excessive post and packing charges.

As for the time element, there are only two International rates with Royal Mail , Europe and the Rest of the World. So it is a matter of a couple of seconds to have that listed on your auctions in the drop down boxes. Much easier than delaing with every enquiry on a one by one basis. I have all my overseas options listed and in some weeks can sell as much as 80% of my stuff overseas as my postage is very reasonable and people can see beforehand what they will have to pay.

alx2010

I also sell mugs, and charge £6 for 2 mugs to Europe small packets.
I use polystyrene mug cubes which cost me 24p each and fingers crossed have not had any breakages yet...

soolin

alx2010 wrote: »

I also sell mugs, and charge £6 for 2 mugs to Europe small packets.
I use polystyrene mug cubes which cost me 24p each and fingers crossed have not had any breakages yet...

Sorry to hijack this, are you able to share where you get your mug cubes from please as the last ones I bought were much dearer than that and I have a couple of items here to sell and it would be easier in a pre formed cube.

ERICS_MUM

I'd contact them with the postage costs (taking on board the earlier comments about them) and let them decide. For £3.50 it's not the end of the world if they decide not to pay for them.

macfly

£3.50? This is all for £3.50? You have advertised worldwide and ended up with this amount? But you are too busy to do it properly?
Do something else.

jap200

macfly wrote: »

£3.50? This is all for £3.50? You have advertised worldwide and ended up with this amount? But you are too busy to do it properly?
Do something else.

Why so rude to someone asking for advice?

I do actually do something else as I have a job (35 hours per week) and three young children, which is why I am very short of time. I sell a few things on Ebay to make a little extra income towards our holiday - I don't run an Ebay business.

I agree that £3.50 is not much, but as far as I'm concerned, it all adds up and they would otherwise have been thrown out or given to a charity shop.

I am happy for overseas buyers to bid and thought that I had followed Ebay and Paypal's guidelines (and the advice of others on here in the past) by offering to post overseas by a tracked service. To be honest, I did not for one minute think that this pair of mugs would be bought by an overseas buyer - in retrospect perhaps I should have blocked overseas buyers on this one - my mistake.

Thank you to the other (more polite and helpful) posts. I have sent an invoice with two postage options £5.80 for standard Airmail and £12.65 for Airsure, so will see what happens.

soolin

jap200 wrote: »

Thank you to the other (more polite and helpful) posts. I have sent an invoice with two postage options £5.80 for standard Airmail and £12.65 for Airsure, so will see what happens.

Again just for future reference, there is very little point in offering a tracked service to a buyer if you also offer a cheaper non tracked. There are virtually no buyers who will pay the extra as they have full coverage anyway regardless of what service they pay for.

Crowqueen

It takes 5 minutes to look up overseas postage costs on the RM site.

You can claim for up to £41 from RM with a proof of posting. If an item goes missing in the post, you refund the buyer and then claim from Royal Mail. You don't need International Signed For (even more of a white elephant than RM, since it costs £4.50 and only gets a signature if the host country can process them and display them on their website) or Airsure (which is designed to insure expensive items over £41, just like Special Delivery is).

The prices you have quoted him will put him off - in my situation I would just laugh at that; meanwhile you will still have fees to pay on the 3.50 sale (because I'm not sure he will agree to cancel the transaction), and have to wait while you relist the item, and potentially have the same problem again, since you want to sell overseas but can't be bothered to do it the way that will actually get you a good price or a happy buyer.

If you want to sell items - if it really does all add up - rather than just engage in this silly intransigent merry-go-round that you're on, Soolin's advice was both polite and helpful. Now you're just doing yourself damage.

I have due respect for people who don't want to sell abroad, even though I personally do and always set sensible prices with a sensible assessment of the risk involved, but this is just a waste of your time, your buyer's time, and - if you don't want to take our advice - our time. Because you allegedly have so little of it, then perhaps that might help sort out whether you really have time to do eBay in the first place.

Sorry my reply wasn't polite, but it's frustrating when people come on here for advice, and then don't bother taking it.