dealer help wanted ...Update

theboz11 · November 4, 2003 8:22PM

I recently won an Ebay bid for a coin from Dorset Coin Company in England for 8.50 GBP and he wanted 4.5 GBP for S/H. I did not have access to GBP's so I sent an International Travelers Check M/O for equivelant 16 GBP ($25.92). The extra was to be the cost of his cashing it. It cost me $3.50(2 GBP) to get it.

He has informed me that he will not send the coin and will keep my M/O unless I send him an additional 8.50 GBP. That would make this total 24.50 GBP or $39.69 for a $13 bid. He has sent me a payment reminder for that additional 8.50 GBP and will not answer my emails.

I find this totally unsatisfactory and would like input from you before preceeding.

edited to make GDP into GBP

ccrdragon · November 4, 2003 8:28PM

Total BS! Contact SquareTrade and have them deal with it!

newbiecollector · November 4, 2003 8:33PM

Absolutely unreasonable! In the first place asking 4.50 GBP (I assume you mean British pounds) for shipping is a total rip-off. Unless your coin weights a kilo, of course.. report him/it.

SYRACUSIAN · November 4, 2003 8:51PM

He pulled an ugly trick on me too

Let's neg his a$$

wybrit · November 4, 2003 8:56PM

Poor practice.

What's his ebay ID?

theboz11 · November 4, 2003 8:57PM

I'm with you Dimitri.

That extra 8.50 GBP , he said was a fee to Cash the M/O

His Ebay User ID is dorsetcoinco

newbiecollector · November 4, 2003 9:03PM

Total rip-off. It does NOT warant £4.50 to ship you a single coin, no way, not ever.
I live in a place that has possibly the highest posting costs world wide. I can not even thin of offer a single coin for auction on eBay without asking $3.50 for shipping and it would still cost me a little more than a dollar over that.

I hope you work out the problem, from what you have said you were more than fair.

trozau · November 4, 2003 9:07PM

Charge it to experience and never deal with them, again.

newbiecollector · November 4, 2003 9:11PM

theboz11........ sorry I jumped on your post with my rant

.It just "pushed my button"

theboz11 · November 4, 2003 9:14PM

that's OK newbie, this whole deal has my blood rushing to my head.
The coin is the last part of my Goya type set, the 1996 Spain dressed Goya, I really wanted it.

newbiecollector · November 4, 2003 9:20PM

<< <i>that's OK newbie, this whole deal has my blood rushing to my head.
The coin is the last part of my Goya type set, the 1996 Spain dressed Goya, I really wanted it. >>

That must upset you even more! I did get carried away a bit but what you have been asked to pay, what you HAVE paid, and the additional demands are "out of order".

See if you can reason with these folks. Maybe it is a large operation and you have been "lost" in the money shuffle.

Anyway my best wishes for you to sort it out the correct way...

1jester · November 4, 2003 10:15PM

That's outrageous. You were more than generous, and this guy is a total crook. However, I don't know how to proceed from here without jeapardizing your fine ebay record (for fear of a retaliatory negative). If this is any consolation, you could try to find another coin somewhere else, and not try to pursue this matter any further, but also not give the crook any more money. If he negs you, you can neg him and tell the whole story. Otherwise forget it, as Trozau mentioned.

theboz11 · November 5, 2003 12:36AM

Square Trade Case has been filed, we will see what happens.

MrEureka · November 5, 2003 3:06AM

Unless I'm missing something, you guys are way off base. Call your own bank and ask them what they would charge you if you wanted to deposit a GBP money order in your USD checking account.

theboz11 · November 5, 2003 3:23AM

Andy, I called my bank, United Southern, A small Bank, and they would Charge me NOTHING to deposit it. It would go into my account at the current exchange rate.

Since I sent him the amount equal to 16 GBP in the money Order It should convert to the price he wanted for the coin and shipping. He is asking for an Additional 8.5 GBP or $14 as a fee to cash it. That is above and beyond the 16GBP($25.93) that I sent him making the cost of this $13 coin, $39

Lloyd · November 5, 2003 3:39AM

Which auction was this?

1jester · November 5, 2003 3:58AM

Maybe I jumped to conclusions calling the guy a crook; I thought you'd sent Pounds Sterling. Now I understand you sent the USD equivalent of pounds. If he doesn't have a dollar account, he'll probably incur some fee for processing the money order. However, I've never seen more than a few percentage points charged for such a service, which amounts to way less than the extra you gave him. In effect, you gave him 16 pounds for an 8.50 pound purchase, or nearly 100% mark-up for shipping and handling. That seems way generous, if not excessive. He now wants another 100% mark-up for more handling. I still feel that's outrageous, and two questions come to mind: 1) if he's selling in the US, which uses dollars, he shouldn't even require buyers to convert to his currency, and 2) his bank account should be set up to receive currency in dollars and euro as well as pounds. I have a bank account in which I can have cash/checks/money orders sent to me in ANY CURRENCY I choose, WITH0UT ANY EXTRA CHARGES!!!! So what's his deal? I stand by my earlier assertion that he's an opportunist, if not a downright crooked sheister.

edited to add: this is true of my personal savings account, which costs me nothing to administer, as well as my business checking account, which costs me $5 per month.

Lloyd · November 5, 2003 4:09AM

I can confidently and categorically state that if you send me a $5 money order and I present it to my bank (Nat West) I will owe them money. It will cost me a minimum of £5.50 to present ANY major foreign currency cheque or money order - whatever the amount. That's why I don't accept them - because I would have to keep adding charges which appear to be unreasonable.

I've tried to use Bidpay but they charge me $5 to send me a cheque in GBP. Good value when the cheque is £100+

Whilst the shipping charge is a rip off (unless he's doing signed for uninsured) I feel that you all are unacquainted with the practice of British Banks. NOT a pretty sight, believe me.

L

1jester · November 5, 2003 4:14AM

Poland is cheaper than Britain, apparantly.

Lloyd, do you have an account denominated in dollars/euro? If so, how much does such an account cost to own? And here I thought London was one of the banking capitals of the world.

Looks like it's time for Maggie to come back and deregulate.....

Lloyd · November 5, 2003 4:18AM

Jester
they would never do an account like that - it would lose them a fortune.

You'd have to be way up in the money tree for a foreign currency account.

L

ajaan · November 5, 2003 4:25AM

This is why I mainly only use PayPal when dealing with British coin dealers. PayPal has the options of paying in £ sterling now. There have been occasions when I've sent a money order in £ sterling to the UK, as Lloyd knows. My bank, HSBC, doesn't charge me anything for this because I am a Extradvantage, or whatever they call it, member. PayPal is so much easier.

canadiancoinguy · November 5, 2003 5:22AM

Paypal or cash ususally works. Myself, I usually keep about 40 pounds in change (~£20 in £5+£10, £10 in £1 notes, and £10+ in coins). That way, I always have the right amount ready for payment. The £1 notes are really handy if I need to avoid using coins in payment, but with dealers I'm familiar with, I sometimes make even a £20 payment completely in coins, especially when I've got tons sitting around.

As Llyod said, British banks tend to hit you hard in the pocketbook for non GBP financial instruments.

1jester · November 5, 2003 5:28AM

I use cash. However, that has its limitations.

wybrit · November 5, 2003 9:46AM

PayPal is great, but the seller in question doesn't take it. I imagine because he doesn't want to pay the fees.

Unfortunately, if he wants to sell internationally, he's going to have to make it easier for folks to do business with him. It's rather like Lloyd's comment on another thread about US shippers not shipping British coins overseas.

I stand by my previous comment. Handling and deposit charges or not, what is happening here is customer unfriendly and is poor practice. Given his prior good feedback, this surprises me somewhat.

SYRACUSIAN · November 5, 2003 4:03PM

<< <i>Given his prior good feedback,this surprises me somewhat >>

Well,I think that it's this very same feedback ,that intimidates possible unhappy winning bidders and stops them from proceeding to neg him.I'm counting the days one by one and his feedback rating is about to change.

The main reason of my complaints is a result of not accepting PAYPAL (he could easily state "add 4% for PAYPAL" ).He's unprofessional ,arrogant and I've had it with him and a few others too.

Lloyd · November 5, 2003 4:32PM

One economist recently commented that Ebay was the only business he could think of where the seller goes global from day 1. There's no build up - you stick 100 cheap world coins online and the result is that you'll sell to at least 8 seperate nations, probably on three continents.

This is the reason I accept Paypal AND absorb the stiff fees. I figure if somones's going to pick my pocket they might as well give me a good reason - immediate payment and shipping. In some cases I've received payment and closed the envelope before the endofauction announcement arrives.

This guy sounds like a right prat, who THINKS he wants to trade but seems intent on imposing rules. You cannot do this, I'll only do that.....

L

theboz11 · November 5, 2003 10:11PM

This is the reply that I received from my Square Trade case. Notice the THREAT to cut my Money Order into Pieces. What a Sweet person.

We will hold you to the deal. You should read the payment terms before bidding. We will enter into no other correspondence with you, we have said all that we really needed to say in previous emails. If you do not complete the deal we will send you an email of the cheque cut in many pieces. Blackmail is a strong term and does not apply to the splendid eBay Auctions. You may well find people happy to take a dollar cheque, but not us we live in England and are more than happy with the old British Pound.

1jester · November 5, 2003 11:48PM

If they're so proud to be British, it's a damned shame they feel it necessary to murder the Queen's English. Not to mention their horrid customer service practices.

Askari · November 8, 2003 11:09AM

While the S&H fees are outlandish, British bank fees are just as Lloyd presented them -- outrageous. (German banks aren't much better either.) That's the reason many of the British sellers I deal with prefer cash -- they can send it to those they buy from in the US without ever going through the bank.

laurentyvan · November 8, 2003 11:40AM

There's a business opportunity here, just lurking...

wybrit · November 8, 2003 10:55PM

That's the reason many of the British sellers I deal with prefer cash.

I accept British pounds on this side for the same reason. The pounds can be turned around and sent back for purchases there. The big problem with British pounds is that the smallest shippable denomination is a five pound note (about $8.33) - that usually turns out to be a big diasadvantage to the buyer. Thank goodness the Sacagawea dollar hasn't caught on.

silvereaglecoins · November 8, 2003 11:23PM

<< <i>(He could easily state "add 4% for PAYPAL" ). >>

This would be great is this were possible but unfortunately it is against eBay and PayPal policies. I tried it a couple years ago on a low margin bullion lot on eBay ("Please add 3% for PayPal payment") and the auction got shut down immediately along with a written warning from eBay. Their rules state that you can't add a surcharge to the selling price for PayPal or credit card payments - period.

Since then, I simply look at the PayPal fee as "the cost of doing business". If this seller was a little more savvy, he would realize that and adjust his selling prices accordingly to cover the fees. It's a shame this seller has this attitude since he usually offers some nice coins. PayPal also has a new UK Website with reduced fees for UK sellers and buyers.

dealer help wanted ...Update

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