topic Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do in Selling

When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

springyzone — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 21:06:22 GMT

My sister just sold a glomesh bag. When you click on postage and handling details, it clearly says Posts to: Australia.

The postage cost for the boxed bag is pretty much only Aust post price ($13), maybe even a fraction less and her dilemma is the winner of the auction is someone from NZ.

I just looked up the postage to NZ and for this item it would be $28.15 (for one with a signature required).

My sister isn't a professional seller, just we are trying to clear a few bits and pieces lately from an estate.

What would you suggest she do?

I suggested she write to the buyer and explain she sells only to Australia, as outlined in the ad, because postage to NZ would be too dear.

But should she ask for a cancellation and if she does and the buyer ignores it, can she later open an unpaid item dispute?

But what if the buyer pays? I have said if that happens to refund it.

If my sister does that and asks for a cancellation, will she get a defect?

We are having a bad run lately.

First she sells a bedroom suite and the buyer messages next day to say sorry, no transport not buying, have a nice day, then this!

What is wrong with some buyers lately??

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

phorum_junkie* — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 22:19:50 GMT

It is not enough to just say you only post to Australia, you have to use your buyer blacks to exclude any member with a primary delivery address you do not post to.

In this instance I would just invoice the buyer with the international delivery charge added and then post if off when they have made payment.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

mccrae2007 — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 00:30:27 GMT

I would message that the postage was for Australia only & tell them how much it is to post to NZ

Then send the invoice which should allow you to change it to it to International post & add the price it will cost.

Try that first before you worry about the rest.

(I think a lot of buyers see what they want but don't read the details.)

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

springyzone — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 06:39:23 GMT

Thank you both for the replies.

I was just taken aback as the first thing I would look at with an overseas seller is whether they post internationally and for how much, that would be a pivotal question in my mind.

I guess everyone is different.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

chameleon54 — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:26:13 GMT

I understood the item would not show the postage cost in listing if viewed from an overseas site, unless the seller had included a fixed price for International postage or added the weight and size dimensions in the international postage section. ( after the seller clicks on the International postage option when listing. ) Postage cost is generally pretty reasonable to NZ so perhaps the buyer is aware of this and happy to pay. When an overseas buyer buys an item, the seller must send an invoice with revised postage cost. If the buyer gets a shock, it is best to encourage them to message you through ebay messages requesting a cancellation. Then select " buyer purchased by mistake or changed their mind" as the reason for cancellation. This should ensure you do not recieve a defect.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

springyzone — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 19:43:00 GMT

Oh dear, I can sense this is not going to end well, the buyer will give my sister a low rating and one star etc I am sure of it.

My sister messaged the woman to say that international postage to NZ would be $28.15 ( this is for registered post international, which requires a signature. I assume this is the postage sellers need to have to cover themselves).

The woman responded by saying that is ridiculously expensive and she recently had a glomesh bag posted to her for $10.55. My sister replied that over here, the postage even interstate would be $13 for the weight it is (between 500g-1kg)

Then the woman was going to get it sent to an Australian address, but not for 7 weeks (my sister said she could do that, but it would need to be paid for within one week).

So now she is grumbling but says she wants to go ahead and buy the bag, & will pay for it to go to NZ.

I just don't understand why a person would bid on an overseas item without once asking about the international postage cost or even asking the seller. She would be as capable as i am of looking up Aust post website to get an estimate. Logic would tell you a boxed bag of the dimensions in the ad was likely to come in at over 500g, surely.

To add insult to injury, if my sister wraps the parcel and pays commission on postage, it is not as if she is making any profit at all on the postage cost, quite the opposite.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

i-love-my-sheep — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 09:29:07 GMT

I would have sent an invoice with a postage cost of $100. Then after 4 days open an UPI dispute, then close it 4 days later. It would be unlikely she would pay that kind of postage. At least by doing that, she can't then turn aorund and trash your sisters feedback or stars.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

springyzone — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 03:33:56 GMT

The saga continues.

The woman sent a message that she received another glomesh bag from Australia and postage was only $10.55, so $28.15 was ridiculously high. When my sister wrote that that was the exact post office cost, the woman countered with she had looked up australia post and there was a postal rate of only $21 that could be used and she saw no reason why it should be sent registered post as it was inconvenient to have anyone home to sign for it anyway and she had not had a problem with postage going astray.

I told my sister that the buyer is not in charge and to just tell her ebay regulations require proof of delivery and in fact she (my sister) was willing to take a loss on postage costs as she would have to pay ebay fees on the $28.15. My sister also added that she quite understood if the postage costs were too high andif the buyer did not wish to go ahead, that was okay, what my sis would do is leave it 4 days and just open an unpaid items case which the buyer did not need to respond to, it was only a formality to get the ebay selling fees back.

I advised my sister to send the adjusted invoice before the buyer could go in and change addresses to Sydney (as it would mean a 7 week wait). Apparently the buyer was very angry at the mention of an unpaid item case.

The buyer has paid but I don't like the chances of a good star rating & now my sister will probably get neg feedback as well. If she does, we will work on a factual reply to it, i think.

What gets me is this. The woman bid without asking about postage, she then told my sister it could be done for $10.55 "Other sellers do it', but when told it was $28.15 she was pretty quick off the mark to jump in and say there was cheaper rate of $21.

She obviously knows how to google Australia post so why do it after a sale? It puzzles me.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

springyzone — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 03:40:39 GMT

LOL

We never thought of that.

My sister is a bit over the whole transaction. She is a polite person but can be blunt. She told one other non paying bidder (with only 3 feedback) not to waste people's time in future by bidding if he didn't intend to buy. I said if you get stroppy they can get nasty and she said she doesn't care, she'll say it like it is.

I have been doing cut and pastes of the replies in here and emailing them to her. I think I will do that to sheep's reply too, even though the saga is sort of over.

It might give my sister a smile.

On the positive side, it has been a learning experience. She now has international bidders completely blocked so that is one good thing.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

i-love-my-sheep — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 12:26:19 GMT

Has she been in here and ticked all the boxes as well as excluding from locations she doesn't post to? http://cgi5.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ExcludeShippingList&guest=1

I know some will say ticking these boxes isn't necessary, but I figure, to be sure, to be sure. You only have to tick the top box for each location to fill them all in. Then tick the apply to all current live listings befor clicking apply.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

springyzone — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 11:02:44 GMT

Thanks, I will send her that link, though she said she is a bit over trying to sell on ebay and won't be doing much of it.

All the same, best to cut off as many trouble makers as possible.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

cherry*135 — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 12:51:49 GMT

Postage cost isn't reasonable to NZ from Aust., especially since they removed the under 250gm category for parcels a year or so ago.

Not including registered post etc

Up to 500gm is $10.55 airmail .. would a glo-mesh bag weigh more than that? It would need protective packaging which would increase the weight.

Over 500gms to up to 1kg is $21.15 airmail

1-1.5 kig is $29.55 airmail

A 1.1kg parcel to NZ for $29.55 is quite a lot considering it is only 3 or so hours by air from Sydney.

There is no cheaper sea mail option to NZ.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

springyzone — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 21:20:39 GMT

500g-1kg is indeed $21.55 airmail, but the point is, that is not registered and has no tracking.

It is a bit over $28 to send the same parcel registered, and I can't see why an ebay seller would choose the cheaper option as they have no protection then if anything goes wrong.

The bag my sister was selling was in a box and weighed about 480g on its own, so in the box, it weighed over 500g and also, out of the box, it would have needed extra wrapping which would have sent it over the limit as well.

You are right, postage cost between Aust/NZ is quite dear, but the whole problem could have been avoided if the buyer had asked for a postage quote first, or even asked if my sister was willing to post to NZ as there was nothing in her ad that suggested she would, it said posts to Australia.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 20:16:25 GMT

As ebay now charges fees on postage it is not worth your while to post. I just say no I wont post to you and refund them, not worth the expense and hassle and with this lovely new return policy if they don't like it you are going to get hit with the expensive postage cost. Too risky.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

chameleon54 — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 23:36:16 GMT

Around 20% of my sales are to overseas customers and it was a rapidly growing market 12 months ago. Since the FVF on postage and return policies making tracking essential, this overseas expansion has come to a grinding halt. It seems to have been the straw that has broken the camels back. As others have mentioned the new return policies are certianly very concerning for overseas sellers and while I have not had a claim yet, I,m not looking forward to the first one. ( it is quite common for my post cost to be $80-$100 for a single item. ) With the high International postage costs, I cant add any extra to postage cost for self insurance ( in fact I am now subsidising many quotes ) and feel I am just getting squeezed out of international sales.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 04:16:01 GMT

Yep too expensive, too risky, they have so many days to claim their money back and you are out of pocket for an 80.00 postage cost. I had my first return and it was automatically ticked that i was to pay for return postage or just pay them the back the whole cost. I will not sell anymore expensive items on ebay and I certainly will not pay for postage that is anymore than 13.40.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

cherry*135 — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 07:05:57 GMT

@springyzone wrote:
500g-1kg is indeed $21.55 airmail, but the point is, that is not registered and has no tracking.

It is a bit over $28 to send the same parcel registered, and I can't see why an ebay seller would choose the cheaper option as they have no protection then if anything goes wrong.

The bag my sister was selling was in a box and weighed about 480g on its own, so in the box, it weighed over 500g and also, out of the box, it would have needed extra wrapping which would have sent it over the limit as well.

You are right, postage cost between Aust/NZ is quite dear, but the whole problem could have been avoided if the buyer had asked for a postage quote first, or even asked if my sister was willing to post to NZ as there was nothing in her ad that suggested she would, it said posts to Australia.

Yes, that is the point. Sorry, my post was mainly referring to an earlier post (quoted below). I hit reply to the last post at that time which was yours.

chameleon54 -Postage cost is generally pretty reasonable to NZ so perhaps the buyer is aware of this and happy to pay.

Postage rates from NZ to Aust are lower than Aust to NZ . Perhaps the buyer thought Aust Posts rates would be similar to sending a parcel from NZ to Aust. As you said the buyer should have asked first if the item could be sent to NZ and at what postage cost.

I can buy something from NZ, from a commercial seller and the small parcel rate the cost is $5NZ.

You can't send any size parcel even domestically in Aust for $5. Much smaller postal network in NZ though, compared to the land size of Aust.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

springyzone — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 05:48:55 GMT

It is as I suspected, things have gone bad.

My sister received quite a polite email from the NZ buyer, thanking her for posting the bag, but saying the item was listed as in excellent condition but a couple of the glomesh links on the back of the bag are missing.

My sister examined the bag before she posted it and there were definitely no missing pieces.

She has sent a reply to say she is sorry to hear about this and could the buyer send some photos of the damage so we can compare it to our own photos of the back, as there was no damage when we examined it.

But where do we go from here?

I just know in my heart of hearts this woman is not happy because she paid international postage rates, so she is going to want her money back somehow.

Must we necessarily pay her return postage costs?

My sister is adamant that the woman can't keep the money and the bag, even if it means the buyer may wilfully damage the bag in the meantime.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

thecatspjs — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 08:18:48 GMT

If you have in your possession:

good clear photos of all angles of the bag that clearly show that the relevant area of the bag was not damaged when listed

AND can craft an objective supporting statement that succinctly outlines the transaction issues

AND point to a reliable, consistent paypal buying & selling history with a low level of disputes or claims relative to the volume of your paypal activity,

then IMO and experience, you have the upper hand in dealing with the buyer, and in defending a paypal claim.

However, all of the above may not be relevant if the buyer chooses to open an eBay MBG dispute - I will wait and see, I imagine my turn to gain some experience is not far away.

Re: When an overseas buyer bids on an Australia only item.. what to do

goaussies1 — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:13:05 GMT

I'd pre-empt the buyer. Send an email to ebay with the transation history, and your concerns with the buyer. I've found the ebay email option excellent. Better than phone calls. Include all id details. Provide relevant photos. If you have suffcient photos on the ad to show the bag is not damaged, there can be no case aginst you. But the buyer might find their end a little uncomfortable.