eBay: what to do...

GuidoTorpedo

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Don't know why I'm worried about this one, but it seems a little fishy.

Guy from Spain wins a board off of me. In the auction, it says will ship to United States. I don't specifically say no internat'l shipping in the description, but where it says "will ship to" beyond the description, it says United States. He just went ahead with buy it now.

The user is again from Spain. His feedback is 0%. He has a 13 score, but he hasn't rec'd feedback for over a year. All 13 feedbacks are from the same ebay user, in Spanish.

Do I put the cabash on this one, or calculate postage and send the invoice?

-Mike
 
For the record, I don't mind international shipping, but I set my auctions that way to get internatilonal bidders to email me first, just to get a feel for if im dealing with a genuine person or a schmuck.

-Mike
 
Mike,

That's a tough one. I refuse to ship overseas unless they pay for a shipping method with tracking and insurance.

I have often cancelled a sale because the buyer was from overseas and the auction was for US only.
 
If the auction is for US only they shouldn't have even been able to bid on it. Adding tracking/shipping only guarantees it as far as the border. Once it goes to Spain the US post office doesn't have to claim responsibility for it, and if the buyer says he never received it you're pretty much screwed out of the money and the item.
 
Of course, even if it says US only, you have to specify in the shipping details where you're willing to ship or foreign buyers will be able to bid and you'll have to honor it.
 
Under the shipping and payments tab, it sayd will ship to United States. Are you saying that his bid should have been automatically blocked because of this?

-Mike

When you're listing your item there is a field called "Exclude shipping locations." You check off all the continents/countries you do not wish to ship to. Otherwise people from those countries can in fact bid on your auction despite it saying "US only" (or whatever it says).
 
The biggest problem is if he files a claim then PayPal will tie up the money forever and you may not get it back. Also if its a hijacked PayPal account then you just loose the money automatically. Without recent feedback I'd be too afraid its a hijacked eBay account. You'll loose out a lot with shipping on top, I'd cancel the sale, relist and block him as a bidder.
 
The biggest problem is if he files a claim then PayPal will tie up the money forever and you may not get it back. Also if its a hijacked PayPal account then you just loose the money automatically. Without recent feedback I'd be too afraid its a hijacked eBay account. You'll loose out a lot with shipping on top, I'd cancel the sale, relist and block him as a bidder.

+1 Having dealt with Ebay in another hobby of mine for quite some many years, I can definitely say that Spain is one of those "stay away" countries. I'm not sure why, but they are near the top of the list with overseas fraud.
 
Italy is really bad too, and most of Asia, and all of Africa, and South America, and...you know what, maybe you should just sell to the US and Canada :)
 
Thanks guys. I went with my gut (and the consensus here), relisted the item, and blocked the original bidder.

-Mike
 
Italy and Spain are really bad as far as shipping. As far as international, stick with the UK, France, and the Netherlands...I have shipped to all of them with no issue, nor heard of anything major.

Italy and Spain are both immediate red flags.
 
Every time i want to bet on something that is only listed as "ships to US" i contact the seller and ask if he will ship overseas...
Relisting the item and blocking the seller is not the right way to go IMO, he could be genuine... Did you have any communication with the guy after he won??

I think you should block oveaseas bidders so they can't bit on the item without contacting you first = problem salved :)

-edit-
im from Denmark btw....
 
I wouldn't. I'm 2 for 2 on getting burned shipping internationally. Both times, the buyer said the item wasn't received.

I had tracking to prove the item left the USA, but thats where your paper trail ends. I won both claims because of the tracking, but it wasn't worth dealing with the BS for the price of the items.
 
I would tell him where to go and relist it. Cut your losses and try again. You may or may not remember that I had a similar problem with a guy from France a couple of months ago. He won a lot of Megatouch projects that were stated as local pickup only. I can't read French and he apparently can't read English. After much going around with E-bay, he agreed to part ways reasonably and I got my fees back.
 
I sold international before, a guy offered $300 for some Super Soakers I was selling and I couldn't pass up that offer. I was able to verify he was active on eBay and he resold the guns so I didn't worry about getting ripped off. I've been on eBay since 98 and burned once as a buyer. I had one guy claim he didn't get his package and closed the case when his neighbor showed up with it. You just have to go with your gut and dont trust people if you have any doubt.
 
I find that if you have a buyer that seems fishy you just quote them EMS shipping with a large box and LOTS of padding to make sure it gets there safely.

EMS gets there within a couple of days and there is a lot of tracking involved.

It's also very expensive so if they balk it gives you an easy out. :D
 
Lol I never thought of that, I always get the people that want the cheapest shipping and want it packed like a tank....how is that possible?
 
"Will ship to" is not the same as saying you will not ship to a certain country.

So you would be in the wrong not to follow through with the transaction.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.
 
I just had a thought.

You said you'd ship to United States. You didn't block international bidders. Ergo, while you have to honor the auction, the responsibility is on him to figure out how to get it out of the US -- along with any liability. I would send him a message stating you will only ship to the US and he has to arrange for moving the item out of the country on his own, and he should let you know where in the US to send it once arrangements are made. Since you didn't really make this clear in the auction details, I'd give him the option of canceling the bid and moving on.

If he actually follows through on it, your liability ends where the USPS drops it off. If not, oh well, no harm no foul.
 
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