ebay international shipping

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Bob Forman
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ebay international shipping

#1 Post by Bob Forman »

I've learned something about eBay I thought I should share here. I sold a 911 part to a guy in Kentucky, or so I thought. The buyer's address is in Erlanger, KY. As it turns out, this is a transfer point for shipments going to international destinations, in this case to Germany. UPS marked the package as "delivered." I won't make this into a shaggy dog story but the buyer withdraws payment because he hasn't received the item. Forwarding him the delivery notification, he informs me he's in Germany. This has been going on for weeks now and it's still not settled. So, if you've sold something to a buyer with an address on Airport Way in Erlanger you may want to reconsider the transaction.
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Adam Wright
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Re: ebay international shipping

#2 Post by Adam Wright »

I assume he paid by Paypal. If so, escalate it to a claim, show the tracking and that it has been delivered, Paypal will rule in your favor.
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Spencer Harris
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Re: ebay international shipping

#3 Post by Spencer Harris »

Adam of course is correct and highlights an important issue whether buying or selling on eBay, Registry or Samba and that is - use the features afforded by PayPal. If you're selling generate an invoice through the PayPal system. The buyer must enter or confirm his shipping address when making payment. If he enters Kentucky but expects the item to be delivered to Germany, he is at fault. If you're a buyer insist on a straight-up PayPal transaction and pay whatever additional cost the seller asks (should be ~3% for domestic transactions). Buyers and Sellers who seek to save a couple of bucks transferring funds "to friends and family" are not only skirting the rules but lose the backup from PayPal i.e. seller protection and claim features.

Just curious Bob: did PayPal charge you 2.9% + $.30 for the sale or 4.4% + fee for payment made by foreign currency?
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Bob Forman
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Re: ebay international shipping

#4 Post by Bob Forman »

There was a shipping fee of $3.66 that wasn't supposed to be there as I offered free shipping to the USA. Not sure where that came from but it could have been a transaction fee. I think it's easier to deal with the IRS than with all the entities involved with int'l sales.
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Dan Macdonald
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Re: ebay international shipping

#5 Post by Dan Macdonald »

In my experience, using Ebay's international shipping is extremely expensive for the buyer.
It's a bit of work to ship internationally without this service but it is WAY less expensive.
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Adam Wright
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Re: ebay international shipping

#6 Post by Adam Wright »

Dan Macdonald wrote: Mon May 06, 2019 1:51 pm In my experience, using Ebay's international shipping is extremely expensive for the buyer.
It's a bit of work to ship internationally without this service but it is WAY less expensive.
One reason for that is it automatically puts the value on the item based on what the buyer paid, so the international buyer has to pay import duty based on the high priced item. They normally ask you to lower this to evade customs, but you have to do it manually and run the risk if you have to file a claim on a damaged or last item, the value is the lowered value, so it's risky for the seller because you would have to refund the buyer the full amount, while you could only collect the lowered value.
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Spencer Harris
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Re: ebay international shipping

#7 Post by Spencer Harris »

I had a similar issue arise yesterday with an international buyer requesting shipment to a US transshipment address. There are dozens of pages of comments and guides on the internet for dealing with transshipments - mostly dealing with container loads of freight shuffled from one boat to another. Using my dime-store law degree, I added the following terms to my invoice in hope of preventing an outcome similar to Bob's. ($500 worth of legalese for a $40 transaction.)

Goods are tendered Ex Works with shipping paid and arranged to Buyer's transshipment address in the Continental United States. Purchases involving transshipment from Buyer’s US delivery address to a final destination address outside the Continental United States shall be deemed delivered when delivery has been made to Buyer’s US address and confirmed by the USPS tracking number system. Seller’s liability shall be limited to delivery of goods to Buyer’s US address and shipment risk transfer shall pass to Buyer when delivery to Buyer’s US address is confirmed as defined above. Any issues involving loss, delay or damage during the transshipment process shall be the Buyer’s responsibility. Likewise, any and all additional costs for shipping, inspection, transfer, freight forwarding, clearing, duties, taxes, customs formalities and other charges including transshipment costs shall be to Buyer’s account.

FWIW, RIM Logistics, Ltd. (no affiliation) has a very concise -and legally complicated - summary of the various types of shipments and corresponding responsibilities of sellers and buyers.
RIM Logistics Terms.pdf
(2.94 MiB) Downloaded 69 times
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Emil Wojcik
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Re: ebay international shipping

#8 Post by Emil Wojcik »

Spencer, what you've written is basically how all eBay sales are handled--once tracking shows the item was delivered to the US address as supplied by the buyer, the item is considered delivered by eBay. But you're still not off the hook since in most countries the buyer can still have their money refunded if they file a complaint with their credit card company (this is true even in the US), even though eBay will side with the seller that the item was deviled. So you win with eBay but lose with the credit card company. For lower dollar items eBay will generally cover the seller for their loss as long as it doesn't happen often. For high ticket items you may have a problem since eBay will only cover the transaction as a courtesy and are reluctant to be overly courteous.
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Spencer Harris
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Re: ebay international shipping

#9 Post by Spencer Harris »

Interesting. I've really never had an issue like Bob described, and don't want to. I'm just trying not to exclude buyers outside the US and still protect myself. I hate seeing "no sales to XXXX" on a sale listing - what's the solution? No sales to transshipment addresses?
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Emil Wojcik
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Re: ebay international shipping

#10 Post by Emil Wojcik »

Unfortunately, because chargebacks are always possible, especially in most foreign countries, there's no way to be 100% protected. In other words, there is no solution. We always hear Registry members say "buy the seller", well, you really have to "buy the buyer" too when it come to online selling. Just the nature of the game.
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Juha Vane
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Re: ebay international shipping

#11 Post by Juha Vane »

I have used also such shipping. Have stuff shipped to a freight forwarder in Florida who is packing it in a container and ship to Finland.
This is very handy with heavier & bulky parts and Lithium batteries. Some of you don't want to deal with international shipments as they
need more work. This is understandable.
If this dude in Germany is trying to withdraw the payment and you have a tracking showing that shipment has been received in the
destination he gave, I don't understand why he's claiming you? He should claim his freight forwarder. Or am I missing something here?
There is always a possibility that things go wrong and to me unknown reason some just don't want to accept it. If this shipper from Kentucky
to Germany is a big shipping company they probably have covered them self. Perhaps this dude from Germany has faced a brick wall with his
claims and therefore try to cover his loss from Bob.

Really hope that this kind of buyers won't stop you to sell overseas.
KTF,

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Adam Wright
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Re: ebay international shipping

#12 Post by Adam Wright »

International shipping is usually a numbers game. We lose about 2 packages a year, normally to Italy and have to refund the buyer and eat the cost. Filing a claim is useless because the USPS only covers their part, and since the Italians lose it that leaves me trying to go after them, so we just eat it. But the only other option is to not do international shipping and that would be short sighted considering how much we sell overseas. Just the cost of doing business.
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Vic Skirmants
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Re: ebay international shipping

#13 Post by Vic Skirmants »

We only use UPS for international. That way we're covered all the way to the customer. Incidentally, the only loss we ever had was to Italy. Strangely, the shipment stayed in Germany for a week, and only the crankshaft was missing.

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