Model Forum / General / Models / November 2007

Purely out of interest, why do so many US Ebayers refuse to ship
overseas?  Is it because of dodgy payments? Or does the US postal
service make it difficult ?

T.

I even stopped selling to Canada. Every time a Canadian
bought something & I sent them a postage rate, they wanted to haggle &
wanted me to get the lowest rate possible. What is with those guys?
Anyway, I just don't ship to Canada or anywhere else outside the USA.

On Oct 30, 10:57 am, "cr...@earthlink.net" <cr...@earthlink.net>
wrote:

I gladly sell outside the US and have had no more problems than with sales
inside the US.  And, some of my most profitable sales have been outside the
US.

I make my instructions simple and clear. They still don't always read them
but still, few problems.  Some sellers write a book's worth of meaningless,
unorganized crap that is difficult for an English (or American) speaker to
figure out.  One buyer realized his only option (without PayPal) was to send
a Western Union MO.  He fussed and expected me to figure something out.  I
politely told him my terms were clearly spelled out; my solution would be to
leave negative feedback and go to the next highest bidder.  He sent a MO.

Insist on payment by PayPal.  It makes it all near effortless.  No problems
with money conversion, etc.

I also save all my post office receipts.  If the item is slow getting there
you send a scan of the receipt to prove you mailed it.  For some reason, it
takes longer to send something to Canada than Antarctica.

And, if anyone would like to visit my auctions, my seller ID is 10fe.  Got a
bunch of aviation books right now.

Curt
KVPS

My most frequent problem is people asking for a shipping estimate an
hour before the end of the auction.  I clearly state that all requests
have to be made before 24 hours before the end of the auction.  I often
check in on my auctions after they end and find requests for shipping
estimates.
  My solution to this is, if the item hasn't sold, to get an estimate,
send the estimate along with a polite re-statement of my policy and add
when I expect to re-list the item.  It worked this week when I sold one
item to a fellow who didn't read the policy 2 weeks ago.
  I send stuff to lots of places, the Isle of Skye being one of the
least likely places and Hong Kong being one of the farthest.  I once
sold a kit to the mayor of Yellowknife, NWT.  All those years of seeing
it on maps and I end up selling a kit to a guy there.  There are some
neat features to E-bay.
  One of the things about E-bay that really gripes me is the level of
difficulty involved in just listing things for sale.  5 years ago when I
started it wasn't anywhere near this difficult.  After all that fussin'
about and then they up their fees too.  I can see why one of the
investment firms lowered their stock listing because of E-bay's loss of
their core business.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Well with what you're describing, it could be there's a language
problem, but yes, lots of people don't read what you say. I know you can
reject bids if you want; I wonder if there is any way of filtering bids
in the first place. Find out if you can set filters that will not allow
any overseas bidding. I bet you can.

I have to laugh when it shows clearly in the item description that
shipping for XYZ is $10 within the US and someone always asks how much
to Kentucky, how much to California, how much to whatever... sometimes I
goof them and say $10 unless your state has seceded recently..

--- Stephen

I've found the Ebay dispute process works pretty well.  My issues have
revolved around buyers not paying or as you have experienced, being
inelegible to purchase.  When a problem occurs, I inform the buyer why I
cannot or will not proceed with the transaction. Usually we are able to
agree on a mutual retraction which refunds me the listing and final value
fees, and does not leave them with an unpaid item strike.  The only time I
think I levied unpaid item strikes against a buyer was after three weeks of
"the check is in the mail" email volleyball he played with me - all the
while he's buying from and paying other sellers like a mad bandit.  As long
as your terms are clear, you've got the higher hand.

Things I've learned on intl transactions that may be of help to some :

1. Specify immediate payment via PayPal for foreign buyers.  Specify that
foreign buyers have Paypal accounts that are confirmed and verified.  I
still have buyers that do not read - and conduct transactions with
unverified accounts - BUT - I have the option of declining if I want to. To
date I've declined only a few out of spec buyers and (knock on laminated
desktop) I've had no theft or fraud issues with intl buyers.

2. For USPS shippers - Specify you ship US Priority Mail International
(formerly Air Mail Parcel Post) as your minimum level of shipping. If you
ship surface and the shipment is undeliverable, YOU have to pay to get it
returned.  USPS Priority International ships it back for free. Ship surface
at your own risk.

3. For USPS shippers - In addition to sticking on the clear enevlope with
your multiple copies of the customs paperwork, write YOUR NAME and ADDRESS
directly on the box in heavy ink.  This advice was given to me by my local
USPS clerk on my first intl shipment - and it wasn't long after I found out
why. A month later another intl package was returned to me because by the
time it got to NJ for export, the customs forms had been removed from the
clear envelope. That piece of labelling advice meant the difference in
getting an $80 kit back. I produced my copy of the customs papers and had
the item shipped out a second time at no cost. That's probably a benefit of
having small town post office service, so you're mileage may vary.

4. The process of printing USPS customs forms by hand is a thing of the
past. This was the number one pain in the a.s thing to deal with that for
years soured me on intl sales. Now you can do it thru the USPS site or thru
Ebay/Paypal. I hate the fees, but Paypal has its uses.

   4a.  Shipping USPS Priority Mail via Paypal provides delivery
confirmation at NO CHARGE to domestic
          destinations.

5. Previously, you could not use the free Priority Mail boxes to ship
Airmail Parcel Post. That has changed and they can now can be used on the
newly branded USPS Priority International.  I no longer have to spend the
extra minute or two reversing the boxes to the brown side, :-).  Yes, I know
the USPS started marking the inside of the boxes years ago. Yet to this
date, I've never seen one.

6. Familiarize yourself with the international restrictions on your
preferred carrier.  For instance with USPS, there are girth, weight and
content limits that vary by country. In fact, many sellers probably do not
familiarize themselves with the girth limits of domestic packages and get
the surprise of their lives when the shipping cost they gave to the buyer
are half of the actual costs because they misclassed an oversized box as a
regular size. Ask me how I know :-(.

   6a For just such an occassion, specify that the buyer pays all shipping
costs. It's not bulletproof considering the error
        may be on your part, but it's better than nothing.

7. Be clear when you say shipping to the US only, that you mean the
continental US.  Shipping to AK, HI, territories and APO/Fleet are all
considered "US", but the shipping costs and procedures vary. My experience
with Ebay's shipping calculator has been that it underestimates HI and AK.
APO and Fleet destinations require additional paperwork that on my last sale
was not yet automated. It's not that much of a bother but my preference is
to have all my work done so that I can drop off pre-paids or call for a
pickup without spending much time at the counter filling out multiple copies
of forms that are not all that self-explanatory.

Preaching to the choir to many, news to some. Sorry for the long winded
type, but I find myself with ample amounts of time on my hands.

WmB