Another Ebay problem...

[Jenn]

I am a new seller on Ebay - really getting into it and I've made $300 in a couple of weeks. I specifically state I only ship in the US. I had an auction end and the winning buyer is in Germany.

I had other bidders, so I decided not to hassle with International shipping and do the second chance offer with the next highest bidder instead.

I filed a request to mutually withdraw with the Germany bidder stating the reason that I don't ship Internationally and that it was noted in my auction. They haven't responded yet and it's been a couple of days. They haven't paid for the item, because I need to calculate what the international shipping would be to get the total.

Tonight I get home and there is a message from them asking for the total so they can pay???!!! I sent them a seperate email telling them about the mutual withdrawal, and Ebay sent them the official request.

Should I be doing anything else? Can I go ahead and ship the item to the other bidder? I'm nervous I could get dinged on my feedback, although the Ebay policies are very clear that I do not have to sell to this person since they didn't adhear to my auction rules. Any advice?

 

[dreamscometrue]

Hi there:

I too started selling on E-bay a short time ago and just last Wednesday night an auction ended to someone in NEW ZEALAND!!! Hello my auction says, "ships to United States." Mine was a fairly new ebayer. I sent them an e-mail saying I do not ship internationally and then I sent the 2nd chance offer out. I went to the E-bay chat area and asked an e-bay rep about what I should do. Basically I had already done the first two things they told me. They also said to wait 7 days and then file a dispute for the unpaid item. THis would get me a credit for the final value fee that e-bay charges. I have also been told to change my preferences to not allow bidders from areas that I do not ship to bid on the auction. I believe it was under buyer preferences. I never realized you could exclude certain buyers eg: bidders with minimal feedback, international bidders.

Good luck!!!

 

[formernyer]

First file the unpaid item report in order to recoup your FV fee. If you use the "relist" button and the item sells, you won't be double-charged for your listing fee either.

Going forward, don't let international buyers bid on your items at all. Adjust your settings here:

My eBay
My Account
Preferences
Selling Preferences
Buyer Requirements
Block Buyers Who:
Are registered in countries to which I don't ship

 

[disneysteve]

Going forward, don't let international buyers bid on your items at all.

I suppose you could go that route.

I've been selling on ebay for over 9 years and have made sales to many countries around the world. My goal is to get the best prices for my items. If the winner happens to be in Tokyo or Sydney or Belgium, that's fine with me. International shipping isn't difficult at all. The post office makes it pretty easy. You can calculate postage at www.usps.gov and just have to fill out a small customs form when you ship.

I see no reason to limit myself to US buyers only. Many times, an item that is very common and readily available in the US is rare and hard to come by in other countries, thus higher prices paid. So I say expand your horizons.

 

[luvdzne]

I have to agree with the above poster. When I stated selling I didn't want to have to ship to another country. It seemed like it would be too difficult to deal with. I had a person from England email me on one of my items, she was very interested in it and wanted to know if I would let her bid. I told her that I didn't want to have to deal with the process of sending it overseas. She said that it was not harder than sending something here. So I checked with the post office and the only added thing was filling out the customs form. No biggie. She ended up winning my auction (I actually got more for my item than if I would have left it up to US only) and I had no problem sending it. I did add I think a $2 handling fee as I normally did all my shipping from home and had to go into the post office.

 

[Disneyrsh]

I think you're in a bit of a gray area here.

When you created your auction, the listing setup specifically asks you to which countries you will sell to. You must check "US Only" or other countries can see your auction and bid on it.

While you did put US only on your auction, there's the issue that you created an international auction through ebay and may now be contracturally obligated to follow through.

The german bidder may not speak english well enough to understand your shipping terms perfectly, and the fact that he was allowed to bid and won your auction constitutes a contract.

At the very least, he's probably going to leave you negative feedback for not completing the transaction with him.

It's not hard to ship to germany, you might want to consider completing this one once you receive the payment from him and just being more careful in the future about selecting US only on the listing form...

 

[ceecee]

I don't mind doing the custom forms but I find the USPS calculator for international very confusing. I did ship a toy to England (under charged by $8.00) and it took 4 weeks for her to get it, but the shipping for the air would have been $20.00 MORE than I paid and the toy wasn't even worth that much. The next time I shipped to Japan (got my quote from the Website and took it to PO for a quote and it was very different) it was easier then as I knew the exact shipping, but obviously that won't be doable every time you sell something.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I also shipped many items internationally, including sericels!

I often have my listings say US only, but if theycontact me anyway, I open it up to their country.

 

[formernyer]

I wasn't suggesting that nobody should ship internationally. I do it myself. I was simply responding to the OP who didn't seem to want to deal with international orders.

I will add one comment though...while I do ship internationally because there's more money to be made that way, there's also more hassle. I have international shipments get lost regularly...probably one per month.

 

[seashoreCM]

It's your choice:

1. Tell the winning bidder that you only deal with U.S. buyers and shipping, and also file with eBay for a refund of the final value fee,

2. Tell the winning bidder that you only deal with U.S. buyers and shipping, and immediately make a second chance offer to the next high bidder,

3. Tell the winning bideer that you will make an exception "just this once" but he will have to send payment in the form of your choice. For example you may disallow Paypal even though PayPal is plastered throughout your listing. The winning bideer may then choose to go ahead or back out.

4. Complete the sale normally.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm