Almost all my post to Germany is not received!!

[ourphonecase]

So recently I have alot of buyers from Germany who are not receiving their items (Or receive their items very late). Because of this, I have alot of opened cases for items not received. I have blocked Germany from buying along with a few other annoying countries that seem to have slow postal service.

I always post my items within 1 business days but I do not have tracking at all (Its too expensive for tracking and Post Office lady tells me its useless to have tracking as it doesn't work overseas, only within Australia).

Can eBay do anything to waiver the INR cases I've been getting? Pretty sure I will get below standard rating for Germany region next month, but hopefully it won't effect my TRS in Australia stores..

Really annoying, especially when I feel like I do everything right (except provide tracking) yet I am so powerless to prevent this damage.

[asporty]

Countries with import duties are always troublesome as customs hold up packages to assess and send out payable notices. UK is the same, where I either lose packages or they are delayed. One guy I sold to in UK said he was familar with the inner functioning of customs being in police, and he said it was simply a mess. 

One solution (not an ethical one) may be to mark items as gift so that customs lose interest in it.

[2106greencat]

If an INR is opened by these German customers, will proof of postage remove blame from you, the seller ??

Seriously, there is no more that you can do other than Post the parcels, so surely you are protected in some way ??

I don't think Germany have paypal whatever, so I would definitely ring eBay and if you get no joy, simply exclude these country's from your 'postage area' (if you can)

[lyndal1838]

Greencat, German ebay sellers can use paypal if they want to but it is not mandatory.   It has something to do with their banking system I believe.

In my experience, most of the larger sellers who will post internationally do accept it happily, but not the smaller sellers.

[digital*ghost]

I have been told that German customs are quite strict, but if you are sending goods (merchandise), the best thing you can do is include an invoice on the outside of the package - a lot of other sellers I've spoken to have said that packages to Germany would take many weeks, sometimes 2 months, to arrive without one, but as soon as they started including invoices on the outside of the packages, they would be processed and delivered in the usual amount of time (i.e. a couple of weeks or so from sending to receiving).

Pack and track is available to Germany, it's expensive though, especially if you're currently sending large letters (currently a bit under $25 for up to 500gm, but I'm pretty sure that's increasing on the 6th), it's supposed to track from posting to delivery, so I don't know why AP would have told you that tracking is no good. 

Also, a lot of the time if the package has some form of tracking, it won't be tracked on AP's website once it leaves Australia, but it will be tracked on the destination country's postal service website. Sometimes, it may turn up a result on a universal tracking site just with the customs number. 

[ourphonecase]

It is a pain in the ass really and I have removed Germany from buying my items altogether. Also Canada has slow ass shipping too, yet I have been hesitant to put them on my block list as I get quite a few sales from there. If I suffer badly in terms of negatives and defects rates I will simply have to remove it..

But I wish this problem can be avoided and eBay should educate their buyers to let them know that ITEMS TAKES ages to ship (simply putting it into my description is not enough).

[i-love-my-sheep]

I think from memory it took around 6 weeks for my German buyer to receive his items. He sent me a message worried that they hadn't arrived yet. I suggested that he contact the customs office in Berlin to see if they had been held up there, or even intercepted. He didn't get around to calling as they arrived 2 days later.

I don't sell overseas any more, but if I've sold something interstate, I will usually send the buyer a message saying that it *may* take X amount of time to arrive due to Aust Post being a bit slow. I'm in regional NSW, so intrastate I don't normally bother as they get their things within a few days, Vic and Southern Qld I say it could take a week to 10 days, SA, NT and far North Qld I say it could take 2-3 weeks, Perth and Tas I say 3 weeks, the rest of WA 4 weeks. I give those figures because it has taken that long before.

I also mention that chances are their item will more than likely arrive much sooner, but wanted them to know it could be longer than what eBay states. They seem to appreciate that and I've never had anyone send me a message wondering when their item is going to arrive (apart from the German buyer).

[phonebite]

Yes my German buyers are waiting for their items too. All they needed to do was wait a bit longer and it actually comes in the end.

The problem is, alot of them have opened cases just to ask when their items is comming.. and thats it. I think they are aware that it takes a long time to arrive, but they are not educated to the fact that if they open a case, we sellers are going to get a defect strike against us.

I'm not taking the blame towards the German buyers, they are not at fault, but I feel like my whole Global store will take into effect because my German store will go to below standard (while my Global store will stay TRS).

eBay customer service have informed me that the below standard will effect all rating on all stores. Its kind of strange how a small % of sales which have 6 buyers who only had to wait, instead unknowningly put my whole account into below standard when I have over 10,000-20,000 sales world wide this year alone.

I don't sell much into  the German region store, but when it sells, it sells.. It was actually doing fine this year.. until August.. a sudden surge of INR cases opened up everywhere left and right.

Now only if my "BELOW standard" was to only effect search ranking results in the German store only. I would be happy with that entirely since I already blocked them from buying, but no, 16 sales in August to Germany and 6 of them opened cases and WHAM.. I have to wait one whole year before it clears off because one country decided to have a much more strict customs suddenly,