EBAY ISSUE!!! Pls help!

[AdventureGuru]

Ok so I thought I would try my hand at ebay and see if I could make a little extra money...WELL...I posted something for the first time-I listed that is was FOR US ONLY...since it was my first time I didnt want to deal with overseas etc. So, a girl writes me and asks if I would consider sending to UK...I said not at this time but it would be something I would consider in the future -pretty straight forward right? Welll then she emails me and says she has someone that I can send it to in the US...not sure if it was a scam I ignored the email...dumb on my part...anyway...I didnt realize that she had the winning bid 1 min and 18 seconds until close of auction...BF tried to cancel her bid but that didnt work...it closed before he was able to do so.
I sent a complaint to Ebay and reported this...and have not sent an invoice b/c I am still waiting to hear from Ebay (they said 24-48 of recieving complaint. Which I should get sometime tomorrow) She has emailed me asking for an invoice and if I would send it to her directly -if not there is someone in US I can send to...
NOW WHAT DO I DO...BF said to wait for Ebay to respond...which I will...but this has been THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!!!
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!!!

 

[DianeV]

Alot of foreign bidders do have friends or family or even pickup locations in the US for mail. Thats not super unusual - she shouldnt have bid before finalizing with you yes but since she did its really not too hard to ship to the UK or even to her friend

As long as you dont take Paypal and then ship somewhere else you should be fine. I would require a bank check drawn on a US bank or cash payment if you end up shipping to the person in the US (maybe even a postal money order?)

By the way for UK shipping you can go to the post office's website after you have weighed your item (you need to know it to the ounce) and get the shipping rates there. All you need is to fill out a small customs form and that is really it

It stinks because it threw you off but its not really as horrible as it seems

 

[imsayin]

I've done this several times for international buyers. I just make sure they pay me, then I send to the US address they give me (calculating shipping on the US address of course). I don't find it to be a problem.

 

[Madi100]

I've done this too, and I don't think it's too big of a deal. I didn't have any problems from it. Tell her you'll send it to the US address and see if that flies.

 

[seashoreCM]

Tell her now that there is no Paypal and no credit card payments, she has to send bank check or money order.

She should give you the U.S. address to send the item to.

Caution: If someone sends a check, even a bank check, for more than the amount needed and asks for change, stop everything. This is the sure sign of a scam. Do not send out the merchandise. Do not send back change.

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

Even if you forget to tell the buyer in advance before the auction closes, you still have the right to refuse Paypal payments from someone who does not own all three: the eBay account, the Paypal account, and the shipping address.

 

[DMRick]

I do this often. The US person collects the stuff and sends off a box to the bidder, so they save on shipping. I'll mail direct out of the country too, but this saves them money.

I do take Paypal even if I'm not shipping to them, since I take it even if I do ship out of the country and Paypal doesn't offer my any protection (or did they start with some countries now?). Some send a money order if they don't have Paypal, and it always says pay in US funds on it, or well concealed cash.

As was mentioned, I don't give "change", but I only get that if it's not a real bid, but a scam..and they usually aren't bidding if it's a scam.

 

[Kellydelly]

I wouldn't worry about it unless the buyer has bad feedback? What does her feedback look like? I ship overseas and to Canada with no problems. I take paypal from people overseas with no problems . It means I have to trek to the post office instead of using Paypal shipping, but that's a small inconvenience.

 

[mking624]

Personally, if this were me and I specifically told her I would not send overseas and she bid and after bidding continued to ask me to send it directly to her, I wouldn't be very happy. She is the one who is deliberately ignoring what you had in your auction. She may very well have a US address to ship it to, in which case I would ship it if I received payment...but I probably also would leave a nuetral feedback for her ignroing what you had said.

 

[Kellydelly]

Well she didn't ignore the information you gave her, she found a way around it . So that doesn't warrant neutral feedback if you get your money.

 

[epcotfan]

Shipping Internationally isn't difficult however since the bidder broke the terms of your auction you are not obliged to sell to her. You stated only US bidders only and she ignored the terms.

 

[mking624]

Well she didn't ignore the information you gave her, she found a way around it . So that doesn't warrant neutral feedback if you get your money.

In my opinion, it does warrant it. The OP said in her auction that she would not do international shipping. The potential bidder asked if she would, OP said no. Potential bidder asked her if she could send it to another US address, OP ignored email fearing a scam. Potential bidder went ahead and bid anyway without ever being told that she could. Bidder then contacted OP asking her once again to send it directly to her, but continued to say she had another US address. Payment or not, the person is still trying to get the OP to send it internationally and actually bid on the item even though she was already informed via the auction and via email that the item would not be sent internationally. She still bid and still asked about international shipping. Even if she does provide a US address, the bidder still ignored what was said to her and bid anyway. That, in my opinion, warrants a neutral feedback because the bidder was not paying heed to what the auction said. Even if she could get a US address, she bid before she even got her answer. Too many scammers out there...just because someone sent a payment doesn't mean that what was going on was decent enough to say "wow, this bidder was great!"

It would be one thing if the OP send a response to the bidder saying that it was ok for the bidder to give her a US address, but the OP did not. But that's not what happened. Instead, the bidder just bid anyway and still asked her to ship internationally. It's pretty bold to ask someone to ship it internationally more than once if it was already indicated that she would not. I don't care if the person winds up giving me a US address as their last resort. If they went ahead and bid without waiting for my answer and asked to send it directly to them when I already said no, that's not someone who's going to receive a positive from me.

 

[DianeV]

Thats the way it goes on ebay sometimes..you just have to go with things sometimes..its not worth it and its a sale

 

[Kellydelly]

As far as I know you can't exclude someone from bidding on your auction just because they don't live in the US. You can refuse to ship internationally, but why would that mean someone from another country can't bid and have the item shipped to a friend in the states? Yes, she could have had the bid removed and then blocked if she'd thought of that fast enough, but she didn't. If the person has the money I don't see what the problem is? I want to know what their feedback is. That makes a big difference.

 

[Trixiezzz]

Caution: If someone sends a check, even a bank check, for more than the amount needed and asks for change, stop everything. This is the sure sign of a scam. Do not send out the merchandise. Do not send back change..

Now I'm curious. How does this work. Why would someone want a little change in US funds?

 

[~Kathie]

I provide a bidding/shipping service to many international bidders who want items from sellers who don't ship internationally. I have a few regular bidders from the UK.

Sometime I bid and pay, other times they bid and pay depending on the seller's terms, but everything get shipped to me and I ship to them.

When the questioning email was not answered, the bidder most likely bid on the item anyway so as not to lose out on it.

As a seller, it's important to answer every question if you want repeat business.
Every seller sets their own terms so it's up to the individual to respond as they see fit. A simple, "I'm sorry, I'm not comfortable sending to anywhere but confirmed Paypal addresses." or something similar would have worked.

And if you really think someone is trying to scam you by sending an email with a question like this, you can block their ID from bidding.

 

[DMRick]

In my opinion, it does warrant it.

For me it's about making a sale. She said she didn't ship internationally, so the gal found a work around. IMO it doesn't deserve a neutral. Sure she can refuse to sell it to her, and not get a bad mark, however, unless it resells, she'll owe the listing fees (and she can end up with a big fat negative, as unfair as it would be..but if she can leave that nuetral, the bidder can also leave feedback). Yes, she'll get back the end fees, and if it sells won't have to pay again for the listing fees again, but what a pain. She sells and ships within the US, and everyone is happy. My son in Ireland has stuff sent to me all the time, and I send within the US if someone wants me too.
I don't see any reason why it would be a nuetral, just because she didn't answer the email (thinking it was spam)..since she says she ships to the US, and that is where it can be shipped.

Why would someone want a little change in US funds?

There is a scam where someone asks to send you $150 via Paypal, if the item is, say $5. And wil you do them a favor and send the item, and $100 to their friend, and keep the $50 for being so nice. You send it, they cancel the Paypal. You're out the money.

 

[~Kathie]

As far as I know you can't exclude someone from bidding on your auction just because they don't live in the US.

Ebay allows sellers to block anyone they choose from bidding in their auction by blocking ID's. You can not for example block all UK bidders, but you can block specific bidders, as many as 1000.

 

[rflorek]

Now I'm curious. How does this work. Why would someone want a little change in US funds?

There is also a scam where they send you a "bank check" for an amount greater than the sales total, and you ship the item and the US funds change (the buyer claims to have made a mistake in the total). Then, when you try to cash or deposit the bank check, it turns out to be a fake. NOw you're out your item, the shipping charges, and the extra US "change" that you sent.

Robyn

 

[lilsonicfan]

In my opinion, it does warrant it. ...

It would be one thing if the OP send a response to the bidder saying that it was ok for the bidder to give her a US address, but the OP did not. But that's not what happened. Instead, the bidder just bid anyway and still asked her to ship internationally. It's pretty bold to ask someone to ship it internationally more than once if it was already indicated that she would not. I don't care if the person winds up giving me a US address as their last resort. If they went ahead and bid without waiting for my answer and asked to send it directly to them when I already said no, that's not someone who's going to receive a positive from me.

This is, in my opinion, totally ridiculous. Had the bidder not asked any questions and bid/won, and submitted a US address to the OP for shipping, would that warrant a neutral, if all payment went through fine?

The bidder is NOT asking the seller to ship internationally!!! The bidder provided a US address.

Speaking as someone from outside of the US, it offends me that some people think this way at all. Let's say I won your auction. If you don't want to send an item to me, fine. But if you say you'll ship to US addresses, then send it to my friend in the US.... don't leave me a neutral or negative just because I'm Canadian. I paid just as any American bidder would have, in fact more, since I won.

 

[mking624]

The bidder is NOT asking the seller to ship internationally!!!

Perhaps you need to reread the OP's comments:

So, a girl writes me and asks if I would consider sending to UK

and

She has emailed me asking for an invoice and if I would send it to her directly

So yes, she DID ask it to be send directly to her. That would be her ignoring what was said in the auction and what was actually told to her. Whether or not you find it ridiculous is not something that concerns me. If you find it so offensive, than don't do what the bidder did...that is, don't ignore what the seller said and bid anyway.