Buyer in USA

patchwork_cat

This is more of a rant, but if anyone else has had similar experience would love to know.
I had an item that weighed 2kg - too heavy to send overseas. I put on listing that it was available to UK only, but sure enough someone from US won it!

I emailed to ask if they had uK address and explained about weight limit to post abroard. Reply - no UK address.

I put in final value fee credit, told them no sale and offered next one second chance offer. Only to wake up and find that they had put a notional postal price on and paid via paypal. OHHH :mad: .

I have refunded them and sent them ANOTHER email spelling it out again. I have a feeling this is not the end of this saga. I am so mad because I wouldn't care about sending to US, but post office won't do it.

soolin

There is no weight limit on sending items to the US, you just have to choose your service well to cover yourself against chargebacks.

However, if you stated UK only then this man has not bid in accordance with your auction and is in the wrong. Refund his paypal payment immediately (make sure you do it as a refund though so he doesn't get charged) and do the NPB process on the basis that buyer does not meet your auction criteria.

Finally, it is worth noting that you can set your ebay preference to stop bids coming in from countries that you do not ship to, check your settings and make sure you have that option activated.

Soo

Hermia

I have now changed my buyer preferences too because this has happened to me so many times. I've lost count of the number of the number of emails I've had saying, "I know you don't ship outside the UK, but I really wanted the item" - grrrr. One American guy sent me a ranting email accusing me of racism because I wouldn't ship to the USA!

mah_jong

Once the weight of a parcel goes over 2kg it has to go by international parcels (through the post office that is ....no ideas about couriers etc) however it is dearer.
I always say prices given are for UK anywhere else to contact me.I dont mind sending things anywhere....as long as postage is covered. I have sold to US, but it was only a couple of small packets.


Patchwork ...why do you say the post office wont do it?

patchwork_cat

I went on the Royal Mail website it says there max. weight is 2 kg was it parcelforce that takes over this limit? Can I send that from the Post Office?

mah_jong

Hi patchwork cat.
yes you can send thatweight from a Post Office. In fact if you know the wieght of it just ask how much it will be without taking it !!!

There will be three options

Datapost ...far too expensive, but fast etc etc

International Standard (air parcels insured for £150 within the price, could pay for more though if its an expensive item). This takes about 7-10 working days

International Economy ( surface parcels and uninsured and takes about 20 working days)


Cheers
ma

bleugh

next time, DONT refund them

take the money and subtract your listing fees and 'hassle' fees from them (a few dollars will cover it) then send them the difference

stavros_2

bleugh wrote:

next time, DONT refund them

take the money and subtract your listing fees and 'hassle' fees from them (a few dollars will cover it) then send them the difference

surely you'd then be screwed if they did a chargeback due to non-arrival of goods!

katiepops_2

It'd be really expensive to send a very heavy parcel abroad ... I had a customer in France once who ordered something from me (from my business website, not off Ebay) that weighed just over 2 kg. At the time we had a flat rate postage charge of £6 for overseas orders of under £25 - it cost me £22 to send it international economy. To be fair, the customer did offer to meet some of the cost, but I decided that she would be more likely to order again if I didn't take her up on the offer (and she still buys from us). Suffice it to say we changed our policies straight after that and charge postage at actual cost.

If I were you, I'd find out how much it would cost to send to the US and then see how quick the buyer backtracks!

Kate

misspriscilla

Hi Soolin,
I had a repayment on E-bay and had to upgrade my account to premium account to receive the refunded money and pay the paypal charge. Otherwise I do not get the refund.

soolin

misspriscilla wrote:

Hi Soolin,
I had a repayment on E-bay and had to upgrade my account to premium account to receive the refunded money and pay the paypal charge. Otherwise I do not get the refund.

I've always had the upgraded account so I wasn't aware you had to upgrade to get the refund. However, I think in this case the seller might have made a mistake. If he hit the refund button the person receiving the payment is *never* charged a fee to receive the repayment, the only way you would have to pay a fee is if the seller actually sent you a new payment rather than refunding your actual payment. Sorry, is that as clear as mud? I seem to be having lots of blonde moments this afternoon!

It is a shame if you don't use paypal much as it will mean that you will pay a fee on all received payments in future.

Soo