@4channel wrote:
@lyndal1838 wrote:
You really don't have a clue, do you.
There are plenty of ways to scam a seller, and not just by paying.
I do have a clue actually Lyndal. Your bringing the scamming part into the debate has no point as it is irrelevant. I with courtesy approached a seller requesting she please change the settings for the item sale so I could pay the normal post amount as opposed to paying the "three times" excessive amount. I mentioned I had a PO box as many sellers feel more comfortable sending items to a secure postal address rather than a letter box on the street.
I doubt very much if any seller on Ebay would be feeling uncomfortable dealing with someone because they have a PO box as opposed to a street adress. If you're talking about Canadian lotteries then maybe but thyen again any scamster can use a street adress just as easily as a PO box. Sorry but you're 100% wrong.
4channel, I think where you may be missing a little of the seller's perspective is the fact that in the US, PO boxes have been for YEARS the classic "non-secure" address for people desiring anonymity. It's not like renting a PO Box here in Australia. Here, of course, we're aware that we must go to the post office outlet/shop and present our ID, which is verified on the spot. Fake licences or passports aren't going to cut it. PO box locations are in close proximity to post offices manned by AP employees or the employees of the PO shop - just outside, or similar. AP employees are respected individuals - most POs will have staff who are qualified to certify documents and in some cases to witness signatures. Because of these factors, PO box addresses in Australia have a long tradition (as you know) of being secure postal addresses; they're not identified with anonymity or criminal activity because the person who hired the PO box cannot hide behind anonymity.
In the US, it's different. While you do need to present ID, there are many instances of fake IDs being able to be used in order to rent the PO boxes anonymously. Apparently (so I am told) the IDs are verified some months later, so people who rent PO boxes with fake ID actually rotate PO boxes regularly, and have different fake ID for the next time. It may be harder now for people to do this (except of course for career criminals who have extensive networks) but at the same time, even the average person nowadays, wanting to receive purchases anonymously for, let's say, multiple Item Not Received claims, can find out how to obtain fake ID on the Dark Net. (Not that I have personally ventured there, so I am speaking only from what I've researched and had reported to me by third parties - one third party in particular.)
At any rate, apparently PO boxes in the USA have already become more secure as postal addresses, but their dark legacy - from years of anonymous abuse of such addresses - is reflected in the general feeling by US sellers that it's riskier to send purchased items to a PO box than to a residential or business address. Even though you know that your PO box address is perfectly secure and legitimate, a plethora of US sellers will not feel that it's secure. From their perspective, it's a riskier address than a home address.
Not only that, but several domestic carriers within the US will not deliver to PO box addresses. (Of course, that simply reinforces the idea that a PO box address isn't safe.)
Then - bringing this back to a discussion of international couriers being used for shipment from a US seller to an Australian buyer - don't forget that couriers won't deliver to PO box addresses. (The only exception is StarTrack, which is an arm of AP; they DO deliver to PO box addresses because they are not charged the fairly substantial per-parcel fee by AP for delivering to a PO box. Every other courier is, however, charged that fee - and courier companies are not willing to "eat" that charge, hence they won't deliver to PO box addresses. Lyndal can explain this much better than I can.)
So... that, I hope, helps to explain why US sellers are either reluctant to send to a PO box address, or cannot send to a PO box address (if they're sending via a courier).
If you want to get US sellers to send by a postage method that leaves them more vulnerable to buyer behaviour that would or could impact their seller standing, it's a tricky proposition. Some sellers just won't budge (and I can't blame them because the GSP is by far the safest method for a seller to use, in sofar as eBay Seller Protection is concerned), but others - especially if they see by various means that a buyer is a reasonable person with no history of being difficult, and the communication is ultra-polite and indicative of someone who's easy to deal with, not prone to complaining or waiting for items, with a great history of giving appreciative and positive feedback - are willing to make exceptions. It may often come down to how a request is phrased.
I'm always conscious of the need to reassure sellers if I am asking them, in effect, to risk their Seller Protection. I always let sellers know, too, that if they are not able to or not happy to send by a different (more cost-effective) postage method (bearing in mind too that it will involve a little more work for them if they're accustomed to simply sending items to Erlanger), that I will buy anyway and will in that case use my US parcel address.
But... when I contact sellers, I'm already "sold" on the item in question, and am ready to purchase. I'm definitely not the sort of buyer who asks a question and then disappears after receiving the reply.
With all of that, I am confident that if sellers gossip among themselves about international buyers, they're going to hear nothing but good about me. (However, I don't expect my 100% feedback to count in the slightest, since even the worst buyer has 100% positive feedback!) It's also worth considering that sellers may google usernames to see if any hint of a problem arises, so anything that I post publicly may be used as a "decider".
. Lazy contractor at the very least should have come back rather than leave it. In that case his signature wasn't worth dirt. Karma will probably get the theif at some stage.
