Posting to International Countries

lemonade_lifestyle

Hi,
I need some advice on a problem. I have been selling a few bits recently on ebay, now when I fill my form out I never tick the ship to International addresses bit as it is too much hassle.

Anyway most of my items sold, 2 people automatically paypalled me, but the other one waited for an invoice. I hit the send invoice button, entered the postage cost which I stippulated at the time off sale and everything seemed fine. I then looked closer and realised they are from Australia. So now I have to send a parcel which is going to cost more than I quoted.

I have emailed person concerned and asked for extra payment for the postage (they had paid me via paypal shortly after invoice arrived) via another paypal payment,
HOWEVER
A) Am I being unfair asking for this?
B)Why if I didn't want my items posting to international countries, could someone from the other side of the world be able to purchase said item?

HELP...moral dilema, should I post it and put it down to experience?

Kay_Peel

You've sent an invoice stipulating the postage costs and the person has paid what you asked. I would say that you cannot ask for more money once you've sent the invoice .... however ....

Have you made it clear that you only ship to the UK? Did the buyer ignore these terms and bid anyway? Or is it a case where you have assumed that an unticked box will act as a barrier to non-UKers? (it doesn't).

Best case scenario: your buyer may well pay the extra since you made an (understandable) mistake and are still prepared to post the item.

Worst case scenario: If he or she doesn't, and you have to send it then you may be seriously out of pocket. It might not arrive unless you use a trackable and expensive form of delivery and the buyer would make a claim for a refund. A big risk for you.

I think I would have sent the buyer a message after the invoice, explaining the mistake and I would have refunded immediately. I would have been prepared to stomach the report to Ebay as a non-performing seller and any negative feedback - because there was a genuine reason for not going ahead with the transaction. I would have stated that reason against the negative feedback.

Good luck with it. You are between a rock and a hard place - either way is a risk.