Zero feedback buyer in australia

ailey

Just to see what others think. I've got a potential buyer in Australia with zero feedback who only joined EBay within the last few days and has placed bids on 3 of my items. I don't feel happy about sending them to Australia when the person has zero feedback. I know people have to start somewhere and I have sold before to someone with zero feedback and it was fine. I just tend to think that someone just joining might be more likely to buy some items in their home country first of all and am just a bit wary in case this is someone who has not had good feedback and has set up a new account. I would appreciate some thoughts on this. Many thanks.

PenguinJim

I imported quite a few things from the UK when I was in Australia. The £ is comparatively weak. Certainly it may be cheaper to import from the UK than buy locally, depending on the item.

If you have Australia listed as one of your accepted countries for International postage, and you haven't requested sellers with 0 feedback contact you before bidding in your listings (ha! Do they ever listen? ), then you've already offered these contracts to them, and they can accept it.

If you offer combined shipping for international orders, then that may explain why they have bid on several of your listings.

soolin

I have noticed a very large increase in Australian buyers at the moment. After the last price increase my Australian sales plummeted, but is going back up again now. I can only assume they saw UK sellers like me as being expensive and deciding to,shop elsewhere, then it dawning on them that all UK sellers have put their prices up- so coming back again.

mgdavid

insufficient detail; what sort of items? can they be obtained easily in Oz? New or s/hand? are these specialist items, the buyers of which form a world-wide community, like stamps or old car parts, or just random ubiquitous items which can be got anywhere and are bought by all and sundry?

RFW

mgdavid wrote: »

insufficient detail; what sort of items? can they be obtained easily in Oz? New or s/hand? are these specialist items, the buyers of which form a world-wide community, like stamps or old car parts, or just random ubiquitous items which can be got anywhere and are bought by all and sundry?

There are odd buying trends from Australia, back when postage wasn't as prohibitive as it is now for many items I sell I would have runs on products that sold to Australia. I never did fathom them out.
There isn't an Amazon there, so they have less buying options and more money to spend.

pingua

Hello.
I am in oz and often buy things from the uk ebay as they are cheaper. If the seller won't post to oz for me I just send them to family in uk to post over for me. More often than not though the sellers do post to me here -although my feedback is more than 0 !
Post over here is slow and things tend to arrive quicker from the uk.

Alot of items are cheaper in the uk -although at the moment $ to £ we dont get as much value. Last year I bought more from uk as the exchange rate worked out better.

Not sure if you did post and they opened up not received who deals with your claim? If its paypal over here in oz, as long as you have proof of posting to their paypal address you will be fine. But it need to be full address not just postcode. ( dont need proof of delivery for oz paypal) PO Boxes are fine to send to too.

pingua

Oh and our postage rates over here are shocking and have not long been put up again -happens every 6 months -so that probably enters into the equation regards the sporadic sales.

Ebay fees and fvf postage fees are also gone up. we did have a special postage rebate offer when the postage changed the other month but that has just finished so I guess sellers here have taken that into account and had to up their prices over here a bit more too so yes, back to looking for items from the uk.

ailey

pingua wrote: »

Hello.
I am in oz and often buy things from the uk ebay as they are cheaper. If the seller won't post to oz for me I just send them to family in uk to post over for me. More often than not though the sellers do post to me here -although my feedback is more than 0 !
Post over here is slow and things tend to arrive quicker from the uk.

Alot of items are cheaper in the uk -although at the moment $ to £ we dont get as much value. Last year I bought more from uk as the exchange rate worked out better.

Not sure if you did post and they opened up not received who deals with your claim? If its paypal over here in oz, as long as you have proof of posting to their paypal address you will be fine. But it need to be full address not just postcode. ( dont need proof of delivery for oz paypal) PO Boxes are fine to send to too.

pingua wrote: »

Oh and our postage rates over here are shocking and have not long been put up again -happens every 6 months -so that probably enters into the equation regards the sporadic sales.

Ebay fees and fvf postage fees are also gone up. we did have a special postage rebate offer when the postage changed the other month but that has just finished so I guess sellers here have taken that into account and had to up their prices over here a bit more too so yes, back to looking for items from the uk.

Thanks Pingua. My worry is the zero feedback and the person only joining EBay a few days before bidding on 3 items. I have sent 2 items to buyers in Australia and they received them and gave feedback but I also lost 2 parcels which I sent to my niece (one when she lived in Sydney 3 years ago and the other to Melbourne where she currently lives). She said that parcels are quite often just left outside people's doors if they are not at home so that's a bit off-putting. I never got around to claiming Royal Mail for them but that part was my own fault. I mean to do things then time passes and I sometimes forget. I'm just a bit wary because the person has no feedback.

Items just ended so going to work out the postage. I'll maybe post individually so that, in the event of the parcel getting lost, I won't lose all the items. I sent a brand new sterling silver pendant and earrings to London a few months ago and it did not get there. I claimed Royal Mail and they said because it was sterling silver and not sent by 'Signed for' mail, that they would not pay out so I was left £16 out of pocket. Possibly if I had just told them it was a pendant and earrings and missed out the sterling silver part, they may have paid out. Crazy system! I'm too honest.

You're lucky that Paypal in Australia will accept the proof of posting if an item goes missing. Does that mean that they actually refund the person but not from your funds? I wouldn't think that would be right although I'm asking this question lol.

Thanks for your input.

ailey

PenguinJim wrote: »

I imported quite a few things from the UK when I was in Australia. The £ is comparatively weak. Certainly it may be cheaper to import from the UK than buy locally, depending on the item.

If you have Australia listed as one of your accepted countries for International postage, and you haven't requested sellers with 0 feedback contact you before bidding in your listings (ha! Do they ever listen? ), then you've already offered these contracts to them, and they can accept it.

If you offer combined shipping for international orders, then that may explain why they have bid on several of your listings.

I have Australia listed as an accepted country but haven't said anything about zero feedback unfortunately. I have sent to one or two people with zero feedback and it's been fine but not overseas. I must add that to my listings. I know people have to start somewhere so that's why I don't block people with under 10 of a feedback. I've offered combined shipping but haven't mentioned in relation to international shipping. I do have a comment at the bottom to ask people overseas to ask me about shipping before bidding but a lot of people don't read that. Thanks for your help.

ailey

soolin wrote: »

I have noticed a very large increase in Australian buyers at the moment. After the last price increase my Australian sales plummeted, but is going back up again now. I can only assume they saw UK sellers like me as being expensive and deciding to,shop elsewhere, then it dawning on them that all UK sellers have put their prices up- so coming back again.

I've had a couple of Australian sales which have been received okay it's just this zero feedback which is putting me off and the fact that the person has only joined EBay a few days ago. I'll price the postage for the individual parcels as that might be the safest way. Thanks soolin.

theonlywayisup

ailey wrote: »

I have Australia listed as an accepted country but haven't said anything about zero feedback unfortunately. I have sent to one or two people with zero feedback and it's been fine but not overseas. I must add that to my listings. I know people have to start somewhere so that's why I don't block people with under 10 of a feedback. I've offered combined shipping but haven't mentioned in relation to international shipping. I do have a comment at the bottom to ask people overseas to ask me about shipping before bidding but a lot of people don't read that. Thanks for your help.

You cannot block buyers with zero feedback.

Your only options for blocking in relation to feedback are:

Block buyers with a negative feedback score.

Block buyers who do not have a credit card on file.
Only apply this block to buyers who have a Feedback score of (enter 5 or lower).