Shipping abroad, am I wrong ?

Gothicfairy

It was all meant to be so simple but like everything else at the moment it manages to become a real hassle.

I sold some old bird books on ebay (2 lots of 3 books) and listed them as post to UK or overseas at buyers cost.
Well the 2 lots go to the same person who pays through paypal within the hour of winning them.
I go to get them ready for the courier to find that they are in Canada. I email them and say that the postage amount they paid would not cover them as it was the UK only amount and that they would need to pay more but that I would get the quote from the Royal Mail today (this was over the Easter weekend)
Anyway they come back and say they don't understand the problem and that the £7 they paid would clearly cover it but that they had another address in another country that they could be sent to if needed.
I said that I would only ship to the paypal address as the books are old and went for over £40 and that I could refund them and do a second chance / relist or they would just have to pay.
They really don't seem to understand what I am saying about shipping to the paypal address and keep saying that I don't have to tell paypal where I send them etc etc.
I have copied and pasted them the details from paypals own help pages and explained in as few words as possible ( I don't think their first language is English ) but they are still demanding I send them the books or get bad feedback.

I have now been to the Royail Mail and they are quoting £68.50 for the parcel so no way I can send it without the buyer coughing up more ( would have done it for a quid or so more just to get it gone but that is just far to much)


I have emailed them the figure and said that they either pay it or I refund and we move on as I really really don't know what else to do.

Any advice ? Am I wrong ?

I can see this getting messy

soolin

You haven't done it wrong exactly, just done it a difficult way.

In future If you add your postage costs into the drop down postage boxes when you list the invoice automatically picks up the correct postage for the country of the buyer. That way they can't play silly and pay the UK amount and are less likely to argue about the costs.

For £40 you are covered standard airmail against loss, and that is always an option. If you want a guaranteed signature then Royal mail is no good at all and you will need to find a courier. How much does the parcel pay and what are the dimensions?

Gothicfairy

The £68.50 quoted was for signed for to Canada according to the post office and that was the cheapest option they had anyway.
I would rather do signed for as I am not sure this buyer would be honest enough about it arriving anyway.

I didn't know the postage of the items until today so really couldn't have added it to the box could I ? Or does it guess ? ( I am not trying to be difficult, I really don't know the answer as they bought more then one lot and was from a country I honestly didn't think anyone would by books and ship them that far)
The parcel is 7kg and is 30cm x 23cm x 17cm

I am just struggling to see how I can get this to them for £7.00 and they are not going to pay more as they want me to send it to their brother in Belguim instead but that address is not listed on paypal at all.

theonlywayisup

Gothicfairy wrote: »

The £68.50 quoted was for signed for to Canada according to the post office and that was the cheapest option they had anyway.
I would rather do signed for as I am not sure this buyer would be honest enough about it arriving anyway.

I didn't know the postage of the items until today so really couldn't have added it to the box could I ? Or does it guess ? ( I am not trying to be difficult, I really don't know the answer as they bought more then one lot and was from a country I honestly didn't think anyone would by books and ship them that far)
The parcel is 7kg and is 30cm x 23cm x 17cm

I am just struggling to see how I can get this to them for £7.00 and they are not going to pay more as they want me to send it to their brother in Belguim instead but that address is not listed on paypal at all.

Transglobalexpress will do it for £36ish for those measurements and will give full tracking.

www.transglobalexpress.co.uk

When you list an item, much like for the UK< there are boxes to tick for the countries you will send to, including the amounts it will cost.

soolin

Gothicfairy wrote: »

The £68.50 quoted was for signed for to Canada according to the post office and that was the cheapest option they had anyway.
I would rather do signed for as I am not sure this buyer would be honest enough about it arriving anyway.

I didn't know the postage of the items until today so really couldn't have added it to the box could I ? Or does it guess ? ( I am not trying to be difficult, I really don't know the answer as they bought more then one lot and was from a country I honestly didn't think anyone would by books and ship them that far)
The parcel is 7kg and is 30cm x 23cm x 17cm

I am just struggling to see how I can get this to them for £7.00 and they are not going to pay more as they want me to send it to their brother in Belguim instead but that address is not listed on paypal at all.

I am assuming you added UK postage, therefore you must know how much the package weighs.

Once you have that weight just go here and it shows you the options, there are only two worldwide prices with Royal mail, Europe or Rest of the World, so it is easy to add prices.

http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder;jsessionid=RTQOHQJCGXXHAFB2IGLENZQ;jsessionid=RTQOHQJCGXXHAFB2IGLENZQ?catId=23500532&gear=pricingcalc

RM, regardless of what the Post office told you, do not offer any guaranteed service outside the UK, so you will need a courier if you want signed for.

soolin

Incidentally, the £7 you quoted for UK postage would not even cover the parcel cost, let alone any tracking.
A standard parcel with no tracking would be £12.67, and tracked with a guaranteed signature (special delivery) £22.70, so the courier quoted by theonlywayisup, doesn't seem so bad after all.

It might be worth investing in some basic scales, don't cheat yourself out of money.

It is always worth remembering that sellers pay paypal fees on the postage element charged as well, so on occasions it is worth limiting sales to a UK audience if the item weight is heavy enough to incur a lot of postage.

Gothicfairy

The £7 was from myhermes ( I know some have had problems but I have found them good so far) for the UK but I could not add anything to the postage section on ebay and had to add the amount to the listing itself.
That part of ebay has not worked for me for over a month ( no idea why, think it is my computer)

Ta for the advice as I will see if I can list it with postage using the libary computer and will try the courier company recommended as well.


Am I right in thinking that if my buyer does not want to pay extra I can refund and move on rather then go through the whole "other country" issue ?

Ta again

soolin

Gothicfairy wrote: »

The £7 was from myhermes ( I know some have had problems but I have found them good so far) for the UK but I could not add anything to the postage section on ebay and had to add the amount to the listing itself.
That part of ebay has not worked for me for over a month ( no idea why, think it is my computer)

Ta for the advice as I will see if I can list it with postage using the libary computer and will try the courier company recommended as well.


Am I right in thinking that if my buyer does not want to pay extra I can refund and move on rather then go through the whole "other country" issue ?

Ta again

Unless you go through a dispute or do a mutual you will still need to pay the FVFs, and buyer can still leave feedback.

As for postage, if you have the 'flat rate' box ticked you need to expand the postal options under the international bit to get the drop down boxes for overseas buyers. ON Turbo lister again all you do is expand the postage options.

Gothicfairy

when I go to list I don't have the "done" button on anything...There are certain parts of the listing that does not show up for me, if I go to the postage bit and click to add nothing happens, there is no options or boxes.
It didn't always look like that but my computer is very old now and slowly giving up the ghost. Certain programs like Adobe etc just do not work as they should anymore but as we are moving it does not seem worth the hassle.

Can I do a dispute based on them not paying enough postage and wanting me to post to another country (them being in Canada and them wanting it to go to Belguim)? They might agree to a mutual rather then pay but I doubt it.

soolin

Gothicfairy wrote: »

when I go to list I don't have the "done" button on anything...There are certain parts of the listing that does not show up for me, if I go to the postage bit and click to add nothing happens, there is no options or boxes.
It didn't always look like that but my computer is very old now and slowly giving up the ghost. Certain programs like Adobe etc just do not work as they should anymore but as we are moving it does not seem worth the hassle.

Can I do a dispute based on them not paying enough postage and wanting me to post to another country (them being in Canada and them wanting it to go to Belguim)? They might agree to a mutual rather then pay but I doubt it.

As buyer has already paid I think your only hope to recover your FVFs is to risk a mutual.

Gothicfairy

I am going to refund and ask them to add their brothers address as a gift one and if they refuse I will then just have to take the hit cos I can not send the books without them paying for it.

Ta for the help and advice.