Difficult sale to China - Postal address in Chinese Alphabet - Any ideas?

[cosmintas]

Hello fellow ebayers,

Would appreciate any advice or suggestions on what is looking like a difficult sale to China.

Sold item last night on my other ID. Over $50.00 so not to be sneezed at....

Buyer has 0 feedback (I try not to discriminate - everyone has to start somewhere).

Firstly, postal address is in Chinese alphabet which I cannot write onto the new customs form for AP. Sent message last night requesting English version of address.

Checkout done this morning stating "I will be sending money order/bank cheque" followed by a message "I'm new to ebay"

So.... I wrote back and politely pointed out that I only accept Paypal for sales outside Australia and besides AP Money Order won't work and I don't accept international bank cheques.Also stated that I could cancel the transaction without any problem. I resent invoice with Paypal only instructions.

This afternoon I received another checkout for "I will be sending payment via Bank deposit" and no confirmation of postal address in English.

Three things:

1. I know an International Bank Transfer can be done but isn't a 'Swist Code' needed? I know my swist code but I will not be giving it to this buyer. So therefore I think he couldn't do a transfer without my knowledge. My thinking is: with bad communication I could be waiting around and checking bank acct for weeks not knowing if or when a deposit was done

2. Has anyone encountered a postal address in a foreign language and had any luck deciphering it? Should I ring ebay and have them find the address for me?

3. Should I cut my losses and cancel the transaction now on the basis that Paypal is my only payment method and buyer cannot meet this method?

I have a second bidder, within Australia,  who also bought items last night and has bought from before, and he wants the item.

I don't want to be unfair to the winner but communication is very difficult and my advice to him would be buy a few items and get used to the way the site works, build feedback, then try again for this item next time I list another.

Thanks for any help.

[justajunk]

My take, the way I see it:

Option #1:

You could try just cancelling the transaction with the reason being "problem with buyer's address". This would theoretically allow you to instantly offer the item to the next highest bidder, but his could also be a drawn-out process since eBay will ask the buyer whether he has received a refund before confirming the cancellation (regardless of whether or not he has actually paid). Also, the buyer will be able to leave negative feedback if you do this. eBay WILL remove any negative feedback if a transaction was cancelled, but you might have to be persistent and have all the rules ready to read out to the eBay rep you speak to.

Option #2:

You could open an unpaid item dispute on Day 4. Your buyer will then have four days to pay via PayPal to close the dispute. You can then close the dispute on Day 8 (assuming he hasn't paid by then) and subsequently offer the item to your next highest bidder. Your Chinese buyer will also be unable to leave negative feedback if the case closes on them without payment. This to me would seem the more logical option... unless you think your second highest bidder wouldn't want to wait 8 days for the item.

I am, however, not an expert in this area, so please check what others think before making a decision!

Sorry, no idea what do about an address in the Chinese alphabet. All that I can say is that this one of many reasons why I don't post internationally any longer...

[phorum_junkie*]

There is a possibility that the buyer has friends in Aus who would be prepared to do a bank transfer or send you an Au money order. If that is not what the buyer means then I would go with option 2.

[clarry100]

You will not be able to write the address in English even if they do send you something.
To do do will definitely cause delivery issues inside China as their delivery people are just ad unlikely to be able to read it as you are to read the Chinese writing.
So if you know a Chinese person you will need to get them to fill in the forms for you.
My wife is Chinese and could do it for you if you happen to live on Brisbane north side.

[clarry100]

...just another thought too.

Your buyer is unlikely to be able to pay using PayPal as it's rare in China to see people paying with PayPal.

They probably will not have an account and if they cannot read/write English won't be able to set one up.

In China they mostly use a Chinese system called AliPay.

I think I would do as suggested above and open an unpaid item dispute after 4-days then close it after a further 4-days.

Then make a second chance offer to your next higher bidder. Hopefully by then they will still be interested.

I would put blocks in place for buyers/bidders in China as its just too difficult if you are not Chinese.

[erg-auto-electrical-wholesalers]

Can you upload it and link it.

My wife speaks chinese.

[chameleon54]

Around 25% of my sales are to OS clients and I have problems with zero / low feedback buyers from time to time. Most have no idea of how expensive AP's international post costs are and just buy the item without first getting a postal cost quote. Most of these sales usually fall through once the buyers realise what the item will cost delivered.

. I just put in a claim for non payment after four days and move on. You can waste a lot of time and energy chasing after buyers who do very silly things. Its their problem, not yours and just not worth the stress of chasing after them and having things go pear shaped once the item arrives in their country or gets lost in the mail.

[*tippy*toes*]

If the buyer does manage to pay using PayPal, would you be able to copy the characters in the address? If they are hard to see on the screen, hit ctrl+ to enlarge the screen. That way you'd be able to see the detail better. Other option is to copy and paste onto a blank document and print it. Under the address in big letters write CHINA.

When I've had items sent from overseas, from China especially there will be 2 address labels. One in English, the other in Chinese. From other countries they will have the address printed in English, but underneath have AUSTRALIA written in whatever language is native to them. I've never had anything lost from sellers who've done this. I guess it's obvious to the postal workers that that particular item has to go to Australia.

With any luck it will all be too hard and you can sell to the other person. In the mean time, it might be worth asking Clarry if his wife could type up a message in Chinese that you could send to the buyer so they know what's going on. You can also try using google translate. If you do that, I would strongly suggest to translate the translation back to English before sending because sometimes what you've written isn't what comes out at the other end. Sometimes it's just a matter of changing a few words that are different but mean the same.

One example is, post office comes out with something weird, but postal office comes out how it should. When "item" is translated to English from Chinese, it comes out as "project" (a good way to know if a seller has used a translator to create their ad, which there is nothing wrong with that, they may just not understand you if you send them a message).

Good luck. I hope it all works out for you.

[justcruising49]

Had this happen a couple of times but they have always paid via paypal. I politely explain I can not write in Chinese ( have had Japanese too) and need an address written in English. They have done this for all but 1 person, but I get the address backwards sometimes - a phone call to paypal with the details and they have given the ok to post like that -always get the details of the person you speak to at paypal, or get them to send you an email confirming it. All but the 1 was successful, that did not send in an address in english, so I cancelled the sale via problems with address no trouble. Bank deposit is near impossible internationall, so do not accept that   

[clarry100]

Tippy...

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

In the mean time, it might be worth asking Clarry if his wife could type up a message in Chinese that you could send to the buyer so they know what's going on.

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My wife could write a message in Chinese but she would need to know to write in Cantonese or Mandarin as they are two quite distinct dialects and usually people from the north cannot understand Cantonese but people from the south can usually understand Mandarin.

My wife is from the south and speaks both.

To do this she would need to see the address to know whether the person is in the north or the south of the country.

But she could hand write the address label/forms in Chinese as an address is independent of dialect.

There are quite a few things that make such a transcation very tricky.