Selling To Europe...Too Many Problems

soolin

fenwick458 said:

problem with GSP is the buyer can say anything and win a SNAD claim, and then it's up to the seller to pay for return postage which will be more than the items worth probably (well they always are in my case).
It's so open to abuse that way. 

Never had a problem at all and I sell a lot on GSP. I did get one claim that stated it was more brown than black, but my item specifics stated it was brown so I won that with no fuss at all. Overall I get very few SNAD claims, but I am very careful in my descriptions and item specifics . 

i_love_it

I have a few sales through GSP and if I’m watching my device at point of sale the shipping charge is eye watering often more than the item itself. 

It’s costs a bit more to have an international buyer and if you are opted into to GSP you don’t have control over that. 

But in all fairness while it leaves me a bit shorter on margin and thinking I sold too low ( buy it now) often I didn’t get a uk buyer for over 6 months of relisted. 

Plus once it reaches the uk sorting depot, and is tracked as such. Your liability on the shipping ends. 

So for me it widens my buyer portfolio and to date I’ve had no issues 
I don’t offer international sales by any other method. 

Personally I think that especially with the weak pound it’s worth opting In to GSP ( global shipping program ). 

i_love_it

goodfella66 said:

soolin said:

I actually gave up selling independently overseas a couple of years back, far too many issues. On eBay I now only ship via their GSP and they handle all the issues. 

I've always been confused how GSP works. Do you have to weigh each item and enter on the listing? Also, do you have to send by a tracked method to the GSP centre?

I treat every listing as a potential UK sale. 

I just happen to be opted into GSP. 
when I have an international buyer I pay a bit more attention to the packaging and use at least small parcel post which generates a delivery confirmation to the uk sorting depot. 

I wouldn’t for instance use a standard large letter which gives no reference on delivery. 

But otherwise I treat it as a uk sale.

soolin

i_love_it said:

goodfella66 said:

soolin said:

I actually gave up selling independently overseas a couple of years back, far too many issues. On eBay I now only ship via their GSP and they handle all the issues. 

I've always been confused how GSP works. Do you have to weigh each item and enter on the listing? Also, do you have to send by a tracked method to the GSP centre?

I treat every listing as a potential UK sale. 

I just happen to be opted into GSP. 
when I have an international buyer I pay a bit more attention to the packaging and use at least small parcel post which generates a delivery confirmation to the uk sorting depot. 

I wouldn’t for instance use a standard large letter which gives no reference on delivery. 

But otherwise I treat it as a uk sale.

I don’t change postage method at all. If it was listed as a Large letter then that’s how I send it to the hub. I sell a lot of sub 100g items so charge for a £1.05 LL, won’t pay the £2,85 for a parcel as I don’t need it tracked, after all eBay isn’t likely to scam me and pretend something hasn’t arrived when it has. Once the hub has received it the item is marked as received regardless of how it was sent, then eBay put their own tracking on it for the overseas bit.

goodfella66

Thanks everyone for the responses. Now I'm a lot clearer about it, I'm going to bear in mind GSP for the future but I have noticed this weekend a large increase in US orders, probably due to the weaker pound, so I am going to keep posting myself to keep the P&P costs down and just reinstated a few European countries where I have had no problems in the past. 

MR1988

I was hesitant with GSP at first bu lately I find myself listing more and more with the GSP option.

So far I only had one item that arrived damaged by my buyer and eBay handled everything smoothly and refunded the buyer without any impact for my account.

As for the postage price, I believe eBay sets postage based on price of the item. I had this buyer from US that wanted to buy an item so I listed the item at £200 and left Best Offers on as we didn't want someone else to grab the item. Shipping rates were higher compared to when I relisted item for £120.