Nervous about shipping to eBay buyer - any advice?

Exodi

soolin said:

Exodi said:

se2020 said:

If the buyer has purchased using the GSP then the price they have paid will have included all the international shipping and import taxes already.

You will have received the original amount you sold for (minus ebay & currency fees)

The gsp center will know how much the item sold for and charge the appropriate duty.
You do not declare any value or fill in any other forms.

I would use the buyers name as it appears in checkout. Copy and paste if you don't have the character's on your keyboard.

All you need to do is post it to the uk address given in your sold items and make sure the reference number is on the package.

You could email the buyer and tell them how the gsp works if you like or just don't say anything and then it will be a nice surprise for them when the item arrives with no import charges and you might get some decent feedback.

I think the duty declaration part was only a minor part of this.

Reading between the lines, I suspect the seller is more worried that they will be scammed - e.g. "I received the parcel and it did not contain the media player, instead it contained [insert low value item of similar weight]".

Then the only way round that is not to sell online- but to stick to face to face trading, whether or not cash sales at the door is a viable way to shift items is dependent on where you live - I can imagine sales would be better in the middle of a busy city, but few and far between in a rural setting.

It's not as black and white as you make out.

The OP has said they've got no issues selling to 'reputable' buyers (qualify as you will: account history, feedback, etc), also they may have a preference on countries (which they should specify on the listing).

Of course it's reasonable to prevent being scammed where we feel it is a possibility. The OP has asked whether they can limit sales to 'reputable' buyers to prevent this issue in future, it's not like the OP feels that all buyers are potential scammers and refuses to sell to anyone - it's just in this case, they're getting red flags that are making them uncormfortable to proceed.

I'd be uncomfortable in these circumstances also... though I'm not sure what they can do, bar record themselves wrapping the item and delivering it to the post office, all in one take lol... but then doing that would look suspicious!

itm2

Exodi said:

soolin said:

Exodi said:

se2020 said:

If the buyer has purchased using the GSP then the price they have paid will have included all the international shipping and import taxes already.

You will have received the original amount you sold for (minus ebay & currency fees)

The gsp center will know how much the item sold for and charge the appropriate duty.
You do not declare any value or fill in any other forms.

I would use the buyers name as it appears in checkout. Copy and paste if you don't have the character's on your keyboard.

All you need to do is post it to the uk address given in your sold items and make sure the reference number is on the package.

You could email the buyer and tell them how the gsp works if you like or just don't say anything and then it will be a nice surprise for them when the item arrives with no import charges and you might get some decent feedback.

I think the duty declaration part was only a minor part of this.

Reading between the lines, I suspect the seller is more worried that they will be scammed - e.g. "I received the parcel and it did not contain the media player, instead it contained [insert low value item of similar weight]".

Then the only way round that is not to sell online- but to stick to face to face trading, whether or not cash sales at the door is a viable way to shift items is dependent on where you live - I can imagine sales would be better in the middle of a busy city, but few and far between in a rural setting.

It's not as black and white as you make out.

The OP has said they've got no issues selling to 'reputable' buyers (qualify as you will: account history, feedback, etc), also they may have a preference on countries (which they should specify on the listing).

Of course it's reasonable to prevent being scammed where we feel it is a possibility. The OP has asked whether they can limit sales to 'reputable' buyers to prevent this issue in future, it's not like the OP feels that all buyers are potential scammers and refuses to sell to anyone - it's just in this case, they're getting red flags that are making them uncormfortable to proceed.

I'd be uncomfortable in these circumstances also... though I'm not sure what they can do, bar record themselves wrapping the item and delivering it to the post office, all in one take lol... but then doing that would look suspicious!

That's exactly right. These days if I sell a higher value item to anyone (UK or overseas) I try to remember to check the buyer's profile before I ship the item, in view of the trouble that I've had in the past (as have a couple of my friends).
This particular buyer had zero feedback or history which, combined with the other factors, made me uneasy about going ahead with the transaction. 

soolin

For my own information can you tell me if it was easy to cancel the sale? I ask because I did once have a GSP sale where buyer asked to cancel and I wasn't able to do it from my end to ensure buyer got the ebay money back as well. I had to phone ebay and get a supervisor to do it for me , and I am always interested in how things continually change on ebay.

itm2

soolin said:

For my own information can you tell me if it was easy to cancel the sale? I ask because I did once have a GSP sale where buyer asked to cancel and I wasn't able to do it from my end to ensure buyer got the ebay money back as well. I had to phone ebay and get a supervisor to do it for me , and I am always interested in how things continually change on ebay.

Yes it was very easy. I went to the order details in eBay and selected "Cancel order" from the dropdown. I then selected the relevant reason from the dropdown list (not in stock or damaged, I think), and that was it.

soolin

itm2 said:

soolin said:

For my own information can you tell me if it was easy to cancel the sale? I ask because I did once have a GSP sale where buyer asked to cancel and I wasn't able to do it from my end to ensure buyer got the ebay money back as well. I had to phone ebay and get a supervisor to do it for me , and I am always interested in how things continually change on ebay.

Yes it was very easy. I went to the order details in eBay and selected "Cancel order" from the dropdown. I then selected the relevant reason from the dropdown list (not in stock or damaged, I think), and that was it.

Thank you, It is always useful to know when things are updated. However, if you chose 'not in stock/broken' then you may find you have a seller strike on your account , although I have no idea where to view them anymore . Be extremely cautious for about a year now to avoid getting another for any reason.

RFW

soolin said:

For my own information can you tell me if it was easy to cancel the sale? I ask because I did once have a GSP sale where buyer asked to cancel and I wasn't able to do it from my end to ensure buyer got the ebay money back as well. I had to phone ebay and get a supervisor to do it for me , and I am always interested in how things continually change on ebay.

I don't know about after a few days but I've just had a seller cancel on me within a minute of auction end. It seemed a lot easier for them than it should have been. The item was lost within a minute of a low priced auction ending, odd one that!

soolin

RFW said:

soolin said:

For my own information can you tell me if it was easy to cancel the sale? I ask because I did once have a GSP sale where buyer asked to cancel and I wasn't able to do it from my end to ensure buyer got the ebay money back as well. I had to phone ebay and get a supervisor to do it for me , and I am always interested in how things continually change on ebay.

I don't know about after a few days but I've just had a seller cancel on me within a minute of auction end. It seemed a lot easier for them than it should have been. The item was lost within a minute of a low priced auction ending, odd one that!

I’m finding it very difficult to keep up to date now , things are possible that weren’t possible a year ago, ad there’s never any announcements.  The ability to cancel an auction, from a sellers point of view, has never been easier- and there’s no comeback at all for a seller if they opt for a ‘not their fault’ option. Yes a buyer can complain, and occasionally eBay do warn sellers who have a history of cancelling if they don’t achieve their price, but realistically most buyers don’t bother complaining.

Whilst sellers might see this is a good thing I am always concerned that it will start putting buyers off and that could have an impact on all sellers.

se2020

I've canceled a couple of sales, 
Mostly because the buyer has made ridiculous requests,  ie. Items listed with free 3-4 day delivery on a 2 day dispatch time and they purchase at 6pm on a Friday and ask if I can be sure the item will be delivered to Ireland or the top end of Scotland by Monday!

Every now and again I sell a BIN item that has been listed for ages and I have either lost it or sold it off ebay and forgotten to remove the listing.

It's easy to cancel but if you log in on a pc you can usually see some sort of defect on your account for doing so.

I'd also expect a fair % of buyers to leave bad feedback. Especially if it's an auction that they think they have won at a bargain price.

GadgetGuru

I understand how the GSP works, and your responsibility lays with getting it to the UK shipping center only. 

However, where does that leave a seller when it comes to a return?
Buyers generally open an Item not as described/faulty case in order to get the return shipping costs covered by the seller irrespective of whether it's a change of mind or actually faulty. In this case, is it now down to the seller to foot the bill for the return directly from the buyer's country back to the UK, which could cost a small fortune?! Or does the GSP get involved here too??

GadgetGuru

se2020 said:

I've canceled a couple of sales, 
Mostly because the buyer has made ridiculous requests,  ie. Items listed with free 3-4 day delivery on a 2 day dispatch time and they purchase at 6pm on a Friday and ask if I can be sure the item will be delivered to Ireland or the top end of Scotland by Monday!

Every now and again I sell a BIN item that has been listed for ages and I have either lost it or sold it off ebay and forgotten to remove the listing.

It's easy to cancel but if you log in on a pc you can usually see some sort of defect on your account for doing so.

I'd also expect a fair % of buyers to leave bad feedback. Especially if it's an auction that they think they have won at a bargain price.

If you cancel a sale, is the buyer still able to leave feedback or is that ability removed??
Does it make a difference if the buyer has paid or not at the time of cancellation?