Advice on seller protection via GSP to Mexico

kjw327

Evening all,

I am looking for a little reassurance / advice on if I am setting myself up for possible fall.

On re-listing an item I either inadvertently checked the the GSP or didn't realise it was an option.  Regardless, I have a die-cast car that is has a bid on of £1475 and the current winning bidder is from Mexico.  They have a 78 feedback score and been an eBay member since 2020.

I am nervous about completing this transaction should anything go wrong.  I believe that once the item is at the UK distribution centre then I can no longer be liable losses associated with damage in transit or lost item, but what about the item itself?  

I recognise that I am the creator of my own situation, but just don't want to get stung. 

Is this just too much of a risk?

soolin

I love GSP , the items I sell , and just recently with the free private listings I’ve also been selling vintage collectable items, often have a great appeal to the foreign market. 

You just need to make sure you use a tracked and insured service to the eBay hub , you’re responsible for that part of the journey. Ebay then send it on and they are responsible thereafter. 

I’ve been using GSP for years and have quite a high percentage of sales through it, I’ve had 2 items broken. Both had SNAD cases open and on both occasions I spoke to eBay and told them my packaging was perfectly adequate and they refunded and I kept my funds. 

I’ve had more INR cases, again buyers have been able to open an INR on me, but I’ve always called eBay. A few of the European ones they closed within a week in my  favour. An Australian and Far East one was also closed within a week. My only issue , which really irritated me was 2 US ones where eBay kept extending the deadline. Whilst we sellers sending direct get the 4 days or whatever to refund eBay kept the buyers hanging on for weeks. I actually phoned on one occasion and told ebay it couldn’t be one rule for them and one for us, and if we only got 4 days then it should be the same for them. 

Overall I find it almost easier using GSP than normal sales and it certainly increases my sales. I certainly wouldn’t ever go back to posting overseas independently having seen how long some of the items take to arrive. 

soolin

I just remembered one from ages ago, possibly the US as I seem to recall they used dthe word dollars but I might be wrong. Buyer got their item and emailed me to say they hadn’t realised how much they had paid for it as they hadn’t really understood the currency conversion and just saw a number and assumed it would equal a much lower dollar amount. The item was only about £5 and they insisted I accept a return for a full refund of all their outgoing costs. 

I told them to take it up with eBay and spoke to eBay myself, buyer complained a bit that it was going to cost them loads of money to get it back to eBay and eBay were refusing to refund them in full anyway . Their passing shot was that when ‘ I’ accepted their bid I should have emailed them and told them that it was using a foreign currency and how much it was going to cost them in dollars. 

One last thing, not understanding the on costs is a slight issue with GSP as although the costs are shown up front a lot of buyers ignore them, so my percentage of non payers is higher for GSP items than for local sales. 

kjw327

Thanks soolin, it's good to hear about your experiences of selling in this way.  I appreciate you taking the time to do this. 

soolin

Just adding something to this. I mentioned I sell a lot via GSP, recently sold an item which has just arrived damaged- buyer has sent photos, and included photos of the boxes and wrapping (outer box looks quite battered) . A case for a return/refund was opened yesterday.

I phoned ebay this morning, spoke to 2 very helpful reps in Dublin, they could see I have sold a few of these items (private account selling off a collection of similar things) with no other reports of damage- immediately closed the case, , released my held funds and said the buyer would be refunded in full by ebay. 

This is why I use GSP, if I had shipped that direct and box had been damaged on the way breaking the item inside I would have had to refund myself, and so would have lost my original item, but also the entire outward postage which for a 1.8 KG parcel to Australia tracked and insured would have been a fair bit.