Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › Where do you refuse to ship?
- This topic has 11 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by Antique Frog.
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10/22/2021 at 1:32 pm #93621
I’d have to add it up, but today I’m dealing with the 4th or 5th case so far this year from international buyers who live in places where no tracking confirmation exists. Why does eBay allow sales to come from these places if all they have to do is open up an INR to get the item for free? There’s no recourse. It’s pretty much the honor system.
Anyone got a list of where USPS can guarantee delivery 100%? I’ve also tried eBay International Standard Delivery, but found that eBay’s INR case system doesn’t accept the tracking numbers associated with eBay Int. Standard Delivery. I’ve yet to have issues with Global Shipping, but I don’t do a ton of it.
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10/22/2021 at 4:13 pm #93623
The whole thing about the Global Shipping Program is that they refund your buyer if there are any delivery issues, either non-delivery or damage. The bottom of this page shows all the eligible countries:
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/ebay-global-shipping-program.html
For the US post office, you can find a list of countries that provide tracking status for first class international (4 pounds and below) here:
https://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immc2_022.htm#ep3032639
I thought that all international Priority mail provided tracking, but I could be wrong.
Right now, I have a buyer from China that is asking me to ship direct on a set of small porcelain vases. This is the second time she purchased it. I cancelled it the first time, and I’m waiting for a response from eBay for Business through Facebook as to whether there is an issue with the buyer seeing a price for GSP. If I don’t hear from them by tomorrow morning, I will have to cancel again. I’m just not willing to ship to China without going through GPS, period.
I’ll ship to most of Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, and probably a few others outside of GSP, if they ask. But, hell no for China!
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10/22/2021 at 6:05 pm #93625
I just received an answer from eBay for Business, and, for some reason, the vases are restricted in China. Not sure why, but might be one of my key words I used. I will cancel it and explain the reason to the buyer, but I’ve put them on my blocked buyer list this time around.
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10/22/2021 at 8:33 pm #93628
We’re with Sharyn. We ship through Global Shipping Program. Once we get the item to eBay KY warehouse, they basically guarantee it from there.
I know other sellers who ship internationally on their own and are happy with it. They say they sell much more without GSP. I assume more sales just means more risk.
If you’ve lost 4-5 items in 10 months, do you think you’ve made up for it with volume?
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10/23/2021 at 2:53 am #93630
I’ve got a little metal sign on auction; shipping weight is going to be about a pound. Bidding at the moment is up to 10 USD. The quoted GSP cost to the US is 60 USD- if I posted it directly the cost would be about 20 USD tracked, signed and insured. The GSP cost covers taxes and duty as well, and expedited passage through customs (probably.) Presumably as the bidding rises the quoted GSP cost will rise- I don’t know, never thought of checking,
Before GSP I used to get Chinese buyers to send a scan of their address in characters, which I printed out and stuck on the parcel. I’m not sure this is necessary- I’ve not done the same with items sent to Russia.
The GSP hub in the UK is at Lichfield, run by Pitney Bowes. I had a GSP package “seized” last week as the listing had the word ‘Mahogany’ in the title- there’s some confusion over the CITES regulations regarding export of antique mahogany. An eBay commentator claims that they have bought from a Lichfield auction house boxed items, complete with eBay seller’s paperwork, which presumably come from Pitney Bowes’ stash of naughty stuff. Hmm…
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10/23/2021 at 8:11 am #93631
The GSP hub in the UK is at Lichfield, run by Pitney Bowes. I had a GSP package “seized” last week as the listing had the word ‘Mahogany’ in the title- there’s some confusion over the CITES regulations regarding export of antique mahogany. An eBay commentator claims that they have bought from a Lichfield auction house boxed items, complete with eBay seller’s paperwork, which presumably come from Pitney Bowes’ stash of naughty stuff. Hmm…
We’ve also had items seized by customs over some obscure rule. Item probably ends up being resold in a bulk auction. Good news is GSP deals with the customer and we keep our money.
UK buyers complain about GSP prices because all the taxes and import fees are charged up front. They always want us to ship regular mail. But when we’ve shipped regular mail to the UK, we then have buyer complain that they have to pay the extra fees at the post office 🙂
One buyer refused a package because the UK mail service was charging her a 15 euro delivery fee? But because it was just regular mail, we got the package back and had to eat all the shipping and costs.
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10/23/2021 at 12:04 pm #93634
If the customs duty is not paid beforehand, Royal Mail charges an extra fee for collecting the duty and remitting it to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. As the UK was until recently a member of the EU customs union, nobody here is accustomed to paying duty.
Presumably there’s a way of paying duty upfront other than through GSP. I don’t know; every time I try to get to grips with customs and VAT regulations I get confused. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the only country in the world with an internal customs border, across the Irish Sea.
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10/23/2021 at 12:17 pm #93635
This is why I like GSP. It is more expensive and I assume there are extra fees involved for the convenience. But it also makes the cost totally transparent. There are no “hidden fees” that I, as a seller, have to deal with when customers complain why the price isnt what eBay said. When I say “these are your countries fees”, the buyer doesnt care.
Canada is another country where buyers almost demand we send items using normal mail. They swear there’s no extra custom fees (when there is). Maybe it’s just a very porous system where not everything gets taxes? At the end of the day, I just dont need to be involved in a man and his hatred of taxation.
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10/23/2021 at 3:59 pm #93639
Sometimes GSP does work out cheap- I sent a heavy piece of electronic equipment to Barcelona via GSP while the UK was still in the EU. It cost the buyer 20 dollars airmail for something that weighed 10 pounds. I think it cost me 12 dollars to send the thing 40 miles down the road to Lichfield.
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10/23/2021 at 4:52 pm #93640
It seems I tend to sell mostly $20 / $30 stuff international. Volume-wise I think I lose out in the long run, as the deals gone bad wipe out the profits from approx. 2 international sales gone right. I do actually have GSP enabled, but it seems the buyer is able to choose at checkout which option they want to go with. Seems I’ll need to dig through my business policies and figure out how to toggle that off.
The impression I’m getting from reading the replies here is that eBay’s handling of international shipments could be better in regards to making both the buyer and seller aware of the fees/risks involved. Even if eBay can’t directly quote the fees the buyer will have to pay, it’d be nice if they put a disclaimer somewhere so it doesn’t fall back on the seller to handle it.
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10/24/2021 at 12:21 am #93641
@Jay “At the end of the day, I just dont need to be involved in a man and his hatred of taxation.”
Ahmen!
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10/24/2021 at 5:13 am #93642
Oh my, where’s the spirit of 1773 now? 🙂
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