eBay International Shipping - Fantastic!
jmlanzaf
Posts: 33,407 ✭✭✭✭✭
I know many of you don't bother with non- domestic sales. I, however, do.
In March, I sold a $20 stamp set to a customer in Honduras. It tracked until May 9th when it arrived in Honduras. Then nothing.
The customer contacted me 2 days ago. I sent him the tracking information. Today, he opened an "Item not received" case on eBay. Within minutes, eBay informed me that they had closed the case, paid the customer and that I owed nothing and would have no negatives on my account.
I literally did nothing other than use the service in the first place.
Simply fantastic!
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That's good to know. eBay sometimes has your back and sometimes not so much.
$20 is pretty cheap to make a claim go away. Below a certain amount, they probably just write the check without investing any time or money to investigate.
Try that with USPS
Ebay haa always had my back, as long as you obey the rules
I followed the rules and ebay not only screwed me, they charged me $20. Sent a $200 coin with delivery confirmation. Tracking said it was delivered. Buyer claims he never got it. I asked to buyer to check with his PO to see if they delivered to wrong address. Heard nothing until I get a message that buyer filed CC chargeback. Ebay took my $200 and charged me another $20 for the chargeback. So much for ebay backing you when you obey the rules.
As a buyer I don't bid on items that use Ebay's Global Shipping Program. It's absurdly expensive.
If you shipped it yourself and ebay made everyone whole then that's great.
Meanwhile, I'm out $7800 on a domestic shipment that was stolen in transit.
Chargebacks bypass ebay. The credit card company runs that show.
Ebay global shipping is a different program
Glad it worked out for you.
I've a question for shippers who have had a shipment be lost using USPS. I've asked this before, but in 20+ years of utilizing USPS, I've never lost a package I shipped, but have not received a few. As the shipper, how successful are you in receiving reasonable insurance recovery funds for raw coins. I believe the fact that very few shippers have their raw coins evaluated by an acceptable firm. How do you prove to an insurance company that your coin is worth what another sold for when the insurance company most likely has no idea of grade/value or doesn't care?
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
Same.
Smitten with DBLCs.
Generally, I agree. I have had very few problems selling on eBay and when I have had a problem with a buyer, eBay has been there and resolved the problem. I did have one transaction though, very similar to @Connecticoin .
I sold a coin for $250 with no problems. Buyer left positive feedback and I thought we were done. About six weeks later the buyer says he wants to return the coin for a refund. I told him we have a 30 day return but if he returns the coin we will refund him. No problem.
That's when the problems began. I would get a message from him about once a week for the next 6 weeks or so. Each time I would tell him to return the coin and I would send a full refund and each time there was a new problem. First with his eBay account and then he thought someone had hacked his bank account. Finally, after over 3 months had passed I felt that I had done everything that I could and either this buyer had problems I couldn't help him with or he was just scamming me. So, I told him that I can't do any more and I was out. He said, that he would go to his credit card company for a refund and that he had done this to other eBay sellers.
A few days later I get a message from eBay for a charge back. They request information and I tell them the story above but in much more detail. A couple weeks later I get a message that the credit card company decided in the buyer's favor. eBay then withdrew the funds from my bank account to refund the buyer, who got to keep the coin and eBay tacked on a $20 fee for the chargeback.
eBay doesn't always have your back.
Again, that's the CC company. If you ask nicely, you can usually get ebay to refund the $20 fee. All of that is the CC company and the CC company does NOT have your back because the buyer is their customer.
By the way, this is why I advise people to be generous with returns on eBay. The last thing you want is to force the buyer to come a charge back.
[It's also why I advise buyers to always use a CC to purchase. ]
I have mixed feelings about the eBay International Shipping program and I do a decent amount of international sales.
It is expensive for the buyer but it is very efficient for the seller, no different than a domestic sale and shipment (which it actually is). Where the program falls down badly is the when the buyer tries to combine shipments, even when the items are purchased on the same day. eBay has been promising a solution for about a year but their trial program of combined shipments was/is terribly inconsistent and not available to buyers in many countries. Often times the shipping charge is more than the individual item sold for which makes winning multiple items prohibitively expensive resulting in multiple items not paid for. This have definitely hurt my sales.
I'm currently in the middle of an enlightening situation. I sold an obscure 32mm silver Masonic token ($32) to a previous known customer in Scandinavia. When he opened the package there was a used Bulova watch inside with my return address on the label so he contacted me with images of the watch & package immediately. I have never sold watches. I contacted an eBay concierge who after discussion with higher ups said it probably only could have happened during the x-ray and re-packaging process at the Illinois transshipment hub.
She told me that the buyer should simply make a claim through his end and that I was not responsible for anything. He made a claim and got turned down because the package was shown as delivered (even though it had the wrong item). They had no interest in tracking what went wrong through working with the label or with making my customer whole. I now have a very ticked off (ex-?) customer.
You are talking about ebay Global Shipping not eBay International Shipping. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME PROGRAM. You can charge whatever you want, or nothing, when shipping via eBay International Shipping.
Right now I have a package struck at eBay hub for 12 days now. I don’t know what they are waiting for. It used to be pretty quick to move from hub to international transfer but I don’t know why this time it just sat at the hub.
Ebay seller protection covers a lot of usps problems. As we've seen with packages arriving empty, the buyer can open a case and when it shows that it was delivered, the seller can get covered and the buyer has to get ebay to refund them which they will do but the process can take a while. Ebay blocks chargebacks in my experience.
On international shipments through their global shipping program I've seen a lot of false and fraudulent claims.
Ebay can't block CC chargebacks. They aren't even involved in the process. It is all handled by the CC. They can, in some instances, make the reimbursement themselves.
You are incorrect. I'm very familiar with the international shipping programs over the past 25+ years and am not speaking about eBay's Global Shipping program. I have never registered for nor used Global Shipping. I signed up for eBay International Shipping as soon as I could after it was announced and have been involved in a couple of their beta tests for new features since. The minor shipping charge to Glenview Heights which you seem to be referring to is not the question; the lack of meaningful combined shipping for the eBay determined charge from Glenview Heights to the buyer's country of residence is the point made above with a quiet voice.
My mistake. Yes, there is an issue with combined shipping as well as inconsistent assignment of duties. But the shipping itself is generally cheaper than Priority Mail which is the only way you could insure international. It is not particularly cost effective for cheap items that don't necessarily require insurance. But there is no way I would send even $20 items to certain countries without insurance due to the target high percentage of lost or missing packages.