topic Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback?? in Selling

Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

cremo1 — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 04:26:56 GMT

Hi there.

Just tried to post a parcel to Austria - NO GO.

Then the girl looked it up, apparently all postage to certain countries is suspended (lots of them)...

https://auspost.com.au/about-us/news-media/important-updates/coronavirus/coronavirus-international-updates

Example from the link above.:

AUSTRIA: 23 March 2020

Australia Post is no longer able to provide international delivery services to Austria and will no longer accept any items for delivery. This is due flight cancellations and/or border closures.

For items lodged before Monday 16 March 2020 we are making every effort to find alternative delivery methods.

Please note, Austria will no longer be performing signature on delivery for items delivered to Austria due to government restrictions.

The language barrier has been a challenge already with this buyer...

What happens if someone leaves bad feedback because of something that is totally out of your control due to this Virus stuff?

Thanks
Bruce

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

daydreams_12 — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 04:34:30 GMT

I personally would cancel the ssale using "problem with sellers address" reason. Refund then immediately and notify buyer by message. What other options do you have?

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

cremo1 — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 04:44:46 GMT

I've messaged the bloke and given him the options
- cancel and refund
- hold and post when postage is allowed again

Its all I could think of at the time, after having spend over an hour in post office with 2 different people trying numerous times to put the parcel through the system (which gave some generic "we get that all the time" error) , then the lady came from out the back and showed them a list of cancelled countries.

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

anniesvintageemporium — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 04:45:56 GMT

I've currently suspended all international sales - there are so many disruptions, it's simply not worth possible negative ramifications

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

imastawka — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 04:46:07 GMT

In the current climate, I'm taking no chances.

All listings have been edited to block overseas sales.

FYI -

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/Australia-Post-no-longer-taking-international-mail/m-p/2311518#M196430

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

anniesvintageemporium — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 04:47:37 GMT

I cancelled 3 x sales, 1 x UK, 1 x US, 1 x Russia - put 'problem with buyers address' as reason - it's really not worth it - heaven knows how long until international mail will be fully up and running again?!

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

cremo1 — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 04:50:16 GMT

USA and UK are fine, sent 12 parcels today/yesterday to them..

but yea think I'll be editing all ads which will be painful 1 by 1 😞

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

kopenhagen5 — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 05:14:17 GMT

You can bulk edit especially if you are using business policies for postage.

But you can't edit those with current bids.

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

lupercal — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 06:37:11 GMT

@cremo1 wrote:

The language barrier has been a challenge already with this buyer...

What happens if someone leaves bad feedback because of something that is totally out of your control due to this Virus stuff?

Thanks
Bruce

----------

As for the language barrier, you could use a translation website and try to write to them in German. I've done this sort of thing before (you've been a bit unlucky to find a European who doesn't have a working grasp of English). If nothing else they'd probably appreciate that you went to the effort of trying to communicate. They may also find it amusing 🙂

As for bad feedback as a consequence of virus related delays - I'd recommend getting onto an eBay rep (or agent or whatever they call themselves). It was easier when you could talk live, but chat is better than nothing. I've found that reps will be helpful and sympathetic - I've come away with strong assurances that negative feedback would be reviewed in my favour, given that

. I have an electronic 'paper trail' of doing the right thing, communicating with the buyer, etc.

. I've refunded the payment

Get a reference number for the conversation - you can get this even with chat.

It really helps if you get the eBay rep on your side from the get-go. It's harder when you're limited to text, but as soon as they introduce themselves I always open with "Hi, (whoever) - how are you?" I'm sure this is such a rare occurence that they definitely notice it, and immediately feel more inclined to help you.

Refunding:

If you refund, make sure you use the 'problem with buyer's address' reason. It won't count as a strike against you. I've done this quite a few times lately with overseas buyers who intially were somehow able to buy despite my having closed overseas sales. None of them left negative feedback after I'd politely explained my reasons.

And lastly, though this won't help with this particular case - just stop selling overseas until things change for the better.. I did this weeks ago, when os post was supposedly still functioning, and didn't regret it Every time I used to sell a higher priced item, I'd wince when the buyer turned out to be overseas, worrying some sort of late item issue. It's a big relief to know I only have to deal with local transactions now.

Also - and I admit this might not automatically be the case for everybody or all types of items - my local sales have gone ballistic this month, which has made up for the overseas stuff anyway.

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

lotsamagsnbags — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 06:49:04 GMT

Kopes, I'm not using business policies for postage, do you know how to Bulk edit cancelling international sales option on listings please?

TIA

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

lupercal — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 10:13:06 GMT

I had to do two things before I shut out overseas buyer completely.

First I blocked all overseas countries in postage settings, then I removed overseas post options from all my listings. Maybe the second procedure would be sufficient by itself, but if you want to be sure, this worked for me.

This should take you to 'Manage Posting Settings'

https://www.ebay.com.au/ship/prf

Near the bottom of the page is the option 'Exclude Postage Locations' Click 'Edit'.

On the page that comes up, just tick every box under 'International'

After doing that, I still had overseas buyers, and had to remove overseas post options from individual items. Fortunately you can do this in bulk (I can't remember if I could do this before I had a store, but I'll assume so.)

From your 'All Selling' page, tick the box at the top of your listings that selects all items, then click the 'edit' button.

On the subsequent page click 'Edit Fields', and select 'International Postage'.

Choose 'No International Postage'

After you've clicked 'submit', it will remove whatever overseas postage specifications you have from any items.

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

lupercal — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 11:32:06 GMT

BTW, I think I remember why I had to go back and remove overseas postage from individual items. There is an option to apply settings to existing items, and there was a glitch in the system which produced an error message when I tried to do so. Hopefully this has been fixed.

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

mic-s-korea — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 14:35:07 GMT

https://www.melbourneairport.com.au/Passengers/Flights/Departures

AP might be accepting packages but not a lot of flights out from what I can tell, so be careful having too much O/s stuff in the pipeline.

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

chameleon54 — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 20:41:57 GMT

@lupercal wrote:
I had to do two things before I shut out overseas buyer completely.

First I blocked all overseas countries in postage settings, then I removed overseas post options from all my listings. Maybe the second procedure would be sufficient by itself, but if you want to be sure, this worked for me.

This should take you to 'Manage Posting Settings'

https://www.ebay.com.au/ship/prf

Near the bottom of the page is the option 'Exclude Postage Locations' Click 'Edit'.

On the page that comes up, just tick every box under 'International'

After doing that, I still had overseas buyers, and had to remove overseas post options from individual items. Fortunately you can do this in bulk (I can't remember if I could do this before I had a store, but I'll assume so.)

From your 'All Selling' page, tick the box at the top of your listings that selects all items, then click the 'edit' button.

On the subsequent page click 'Edit Fields', and select 'International Postage'.

Choose 'No International Postage'

After you've clicked 'submit', it will remove whatever overseas postage specifications you have from any items.

I have also suspended international sales on my main selling account using the method highlighted above ( bulk edit ) but there is a sting in the tail. It only takes a few minutes to remove international post from your listings, but re-instateing it later ?

If all of your items are different, its going to be a time consuming pain in the b*tt. You may have to edit each listing individually. what I plan to do is group similar items that I can search using key words in the title and bulk edit the international post on them. There will still be a large number that will need to be revised individually. With over 1000 listings on this account, its going to take several days to reinstate international postage.

I have left things as they are on my smaller selling accounts, cancelling sales with the reason " problem with buyers address " as I simply don't have the time to edit another 700 - 800 listings on top of the 1000 on the main account..

Like Lupercal, my Australian sales have increased slightly and this is helping to offset the loss of international sales, but with 30% of my sales normally going overseas, the local stuff has not completely covered the loss of international sales.

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

cremo1 — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:46:53 GMT

All ended well, buyer was happy to cancel, so I did
He got refunded - Ive now added only selling to AU and USA - as US still ships as tight **bleep** $$.

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

kitty-kat-kollection — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 08:49:52 GMT

I don't usually post overseas, but last week someone from Norway asked me for a price to post a top there, and they were willing to pay. So all good, blah, blah...today I went to the post office, and Norway is also on the no-post list.

I apologised to the buyer, cancelled the sale citing a problem with the address, refunded them and relisted the item.

Re: Aust Post suspended sending to certain countries - Feedback??

chameleon54 — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 09:18:37 GMT

I have excluded international postage on my main account, but still have it as an option on my smaller selling id,s. Sent an item to the U.K. today and the PO advesed it will take a minimum of six weeks. Apparently a lot of mail is going by sea again as airlines have ceased flying.

AP must be rubbing its hands together at the moment. Charging full air mail price for international sea mail. Charging 10% more for letters but only offering half a service and taking forever to deliver all the extra parcels it is getting.