Nervous about shipping to eBay buyer - any advice?

RFW

soolin said:

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!

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.

It did with me. I rarely bid on auctions but this was in my product category and the seller had a load more. I would have been able to buy all their stock at a reasonable price. Without contacting me they cancelled. I had no option to report seller as they were patently lying. I ended up leaving a factual neg for which I then received a load of abuse, all I did was bid on an auction, I was somehow to blame for no one else bidding and the seller using a low start price.

itm2

I buy and sell ALOT on eBay and it has become clear that buyers are much, much better protected than sellers. Buying from eBay is pretty much risk-free, and even if a dispute is raised eBay will decide in favour of the buyer in 99% of cases, all other things being equal. 
If a buyer changes their mind, damages an item they receive, or simply wants to defraud, it's very easy for them to get what they want. with the seller being liable for return postage costs. For this reason I've become extremely cautious when selling high value items. Prices are definitely higher on eBay than FB Mktplace, but this always has to be balanced against the added risk to the seller.

BelMalinois

IftiBashir said:

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??

I sell quite a bit with the GSP and in the past when a buyer opened a return case claiming it arrived damaged you could escalate it and hold GSP responsible.

As I discovered recently this has changed. If a buyer opens a return request, unless they claim "package is damaged in transit" there will be no option for the seller to escalate. It gives you the option to refund or accept return and provide a prepaid return label. I telephoned eBay and detailed the buyer's false claims (like the smashed glass had cut his fingers when the item had no glass) and eBay refunded him from their own funds. The buyer had also made a point of saying in the return that the item arrived with no damage to the packaging so clearly knew what they were doing.

The downside of selling through GSP is the risk if the buyer claims an item is defective or is damaged (but not in transit).

RFW

IftiBashir said:

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?

On the scenario I mentioned above, the seller cancelled the order within a minute of auction ending. I was able to leave negative feedback and I hadn't paid. Whether the buyer can get it removed I don't know, as of right now, about a day later, the neg is still there.

prowla

soolin said:

Firstly, it is up to you as the seller to mark the customs declaration honestly, never make a fraudulent statement to HMRC.

It's not a declaration to HMRC - it's a declaration to the receiving country's customs.

Buster_Danog

IftiBashir said:

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?

This is why I never shipped with GSP and rarely shipped abroad at all. I made two or three exceptions in my time on ebay and made a judgement on the risk in each case. The ebay T&Cs stipulated that the requirements could vary on different ebay sites from country to country.

As a rule I would not ship to any country where I could not provide a prepaid returns label for a reasonable price. To my memory I shipped to Portugal, Denmark and the Republic or Ireland, but I refused to ship to many other countires in case of a fraudulent claim as I would have had to pay a lot of money to organise return shipping.

Exodi

I just don't sell any high value items or any items to people outside of the UK, on eBay.

I'm just uncomfortable with that level of risk. I could not imagine the 'frustration' to sell a new iPhone 14, send it to another country, have them claim it was not as described, have to pay an exorbitant amount of money to get it back, to then find out I'm now the proud owner of a different/stolen/broken phone/calculater/whatever the buyer decides to grace me with. Plus I get the priviledge of giving them all their money back for the honour.

Nope, just no, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

I think sub £100 and UK only is what I'll stick to.