Another Thread asking for Ebay Advice.

[the_hawk]

OK after years of being fairly complacent and never having a problem with Ebay something's come up.

I sold my GBA SP NES Edition to some dude in Italy for £56.11 & tenner postage - auction ended 30 Aug, 2009. He paid fairly quickly & I sent it by Airsure Small Packets at the cost of £7.99

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0461922237

I got an Email yesterday to say that it hadn't turned up so I've sent the proof of purchase to the Royal Mail who may reimburse me with up to £39 (Which is fair as I didn't pay the extra fiver for the insurance, silly me) & will take up to 90 days to process the claim!

I've explained the above to the guy, but the question is how should I now proceed?

Ebay's FAQs say that ideally we should sort it out between ourselves, however if I reimburse him the full £66.11 I'll lose out not only on the £27.11 (difference between this amount & the compensation, that's assuming I get it!) but also the listing fees, the paypal fees, the 10% Ebay skinned me for selling it & my potential 90 wait for the compensation.

I do understand that these are fairly minuscule amounts, but I am completely skint at the minute (aren't we all!)

On top of all this there's the nagging suspicion that the fella at the other end may well have received the GBA & is pulling a fast one.

Can anyone with more EBay experience than me offer any advice?

[firebreather]

Not sure how to proceed, but im awre that lots of people have ahd problems sending stuff to Italy, if you put the true value of the item on the parcel then its possible that the parcel is being held by italian customs.

[thevulture]

Depending on which International delivery you went for, don`t they give you 2 options? The 1st and cheapest is International Std.I seem to recal-Once it`s pasted onto overseas delivery.you cannot track it as such.The 2nd, more expensive option, gives you a track and trace option where you can track via online.

Best piece of Humble advice i can give is this-forward Any emails etc you`ve made to Royal mail, to the buyer, thus proving your not trying to rip him off and sent the item in good faith and it`s just got miss-placed somewhere along the line.IF you put a sent by...adress on it, it should arrive back to you within a month-Had a caper where i sent a large parcel to spain-std.airmail. People reciving it never picked it up from their sorting office and it arrived back to me 4 weeks later.

I was pretty miffed-Cost me £30 on postage alone.But it survived 2 postal services twice, so lot to be said there.

Anywho, it really depends on just how 'understandable' buyer is-If your lucky? he`ll give it time to see what royal mail come up with.Has he checked sorting office his end etc?.

However, If he`s not so keen on this and you smell a rather large rodent? Yoou may be better off just giving ebay all the relevant info. and proof and let them deal with it(at the sloth-like pace they do).Otherwise? you could end up paying out for nothing.

Take it a step at a time.And best of luck.

[FatTrucker]

If you're sending overseas always go for tracked delivery (excellent post problem advice I know).

Is the user you've sent it to an established ebayer, with good feedback or a newish user with previous for items 'not turning up' ?. If its the former then I would say its probably genuine and in the absence of any proof tp the contrary treat him/her in the way you would expect to be treated if the situations were reversed. If its the latter, then TBH, I would ask the user to wait for a bit to see if the item is bogged down in the post or customs service somewhere, and if you feel comfortable about it being a scam then hold out for the ebay dispute and make your case.

This is one reason though why so many ebayers won't do postage outside the UK.

[psj3809]

I normally try to send things by recorded delivery, if someone wants it sent normal 1st class instead (or being a right jippo and 2nd class!) then i do that but if it gets lost it gets lost as its not obviously insured.

Whats the guys feedback like ? If its 100% i cant believe hes trying to pull a fast one.

I'm always nervous sending things abroad so i always make sure those are sent the equivalent of recorded. Look at his past feedback, if hes bought lots of similar GBA type things then you can tell hes a collector rather than someone looking to make a quick scam.

But sadly a lesson learnt, always get the insurance just in case and charge extra for postage abroad. Cant see what evidence you think its a scam, if the guys got 100% feedback, over 10+ then you cant really tell. To be fair even if he was a new bidder you cant assume hes off to rip someone off. Isnt there an option on ebay to only sell to people with 10+ feedback ?

Again if his feedbacks decent then i wouldnt say hes dodgy

[the_hawk]

Thank guys, this sort of advice is exactly why I posted my dilemma on here.

The guy seems ok; 129 items, 100% feedback, mostly Nintendo stuff, but some of the "positive" feedback seems a little dodgy....

KANN NICHT LESEN! DUMMER VOLLPFOSTEN! WER MIT IHM GESCHÄFTE MACHT WIRDS BEREUEN!

be happy! Never never never deal with him again!

Non fate come me... non vendetegli niente! Rovina i feedback senza nessun motivo

Although 2 of these were from the same guy who is no longer registered on EBay & the rest of his feedback seems fine.

My gut instinct is that he's on the level & is no doubt even more hacked off than I am given he's paid eighty Euros or whatever a month ago & got nothing in return.

I guess I should ask him to wait another week or two & if he gets nothing I should offer a full refund & chalk the 35 odd quid loss ( or 75 odd quid if I don't get Royal Mail compensation!) down to an expensive lesson.

Not sure if this would be a better option than going down Ebay's dispute resolution process or not.

[psj3809]

Head up son ! All been there !

Good that you checked the feedback, thats whats so crap, yeah hes got 100% but has had issues recently, people nowadays leave (as they have to) positive feedback but put something negative if it didnt go well.

But yeah overall you seem to say his feedback is fine so just one of those things, next european winner tell them they have to pay extra for postage/insurance etc.

[bensonrad]

I think the post serice is very much up the spout, I sent a computer to spain Airmail, signed for, their website says it is now with the spanish postal service, and then a dead end! oddly the first part of the parcel arrived straight away, yet no signiture was needed?? So could be post service and strike delays. I did get £39 recently for a missing parcel to New Zealand and that was not tracked, took about 40 days for the post office to reply to that one.

[the_hawk]

OK Message sent to member

Thank you for your patience.

As the item was posted 30 days ago I am worried it has been lost.

If you would be so kind as to check your local sorting office to see if it has been misplaced there.

Please could you also give it one more week to either turn up there, or to be returned (I have put my return address on the parcel.)

If it doesn't turn up then I guess we have to discuss a refund.

As mentioned I have issued a Compensation for Lost International items form and sent it with the proof of postage to Royal Mail.

The maximum compensation I can receive is £39 and it may take up to 90 days to process, so as you can see I would be very out of pocket with a full refund (including Ebay fees, paypal fees and postage!)

Ideally the item will either turn up there or be returned here in the next week or two, if it does not, I am sure we can come to some sort of arrangement regarding the refund.

If you like I can send a pdf of the correspondence I have sent to the Royal mail for your records, just send me your Email address & I can forward it there for you.

Sorry about the inconvenience, I hope things get sorted soon.

Regards,

David

Self indulgent thread over. Thanks all for the advice .

EDIT

took about 40 days for the post office to reply to that one.

This is helpful, with their 90 day limit I'm a bit worried I might not get any response till after Christmas!

[RMLF]

Italian post is ALWAYS notoriously crap... even the Italians ive had contact with on ebay with joke about how rubbish it is. turning up late, not at all or whatever.

Having said that sent a number of things over there never had a problem. Always, well 99 percent of the time use the tracking service.. okay it costs a couple of quid more, but tracking it, means its easier to find, if it gets lost and easier to reimburse

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump ... aId=400035

[Megamixer]

This is one reason though why so many ebayers won't do postage outside the UK.

That's me right there. I've sent stuff as far flung as Australia before and even something to Italy. The items have got there alright but I worry too much about them getting lost when in the care of multiple postal services etc.

If I knew that a buyer with healthy feedback and a good reputation (the Australian guy I sold to was a really nice guy for example who even gave me a little extra for the overseas postage despite me telling him it would be okay without) would buy my stuff then I'd probably rethink it but you can't choose who bids on your items so I'd rather keep it here in the UK.

[Mayhem]

I'll send anywhere as longer as the buyer agrees to how it's sent. I've not sent anything to Italy without it being tracked and insured, as RMLF noted, Italian postal service is real shitty at the best of times...

[thevulture]

I think the post serice is very much up the spout, I sent a computer to spain Airmail, signed for, their website says it is now with the spanish postal service, and then a dead end! oddly the first part of the parcel arrived straight away, yet no signiture was needed?? So could be post service and strike delays. I did get £39 recently for a missing parcel to New Zealand and that was not tracked, took about 40 days for the post office to reply to that one.

Parcel i sent to spain yesterday.went Std Airmail.Asked how much extra it would be for Tracking service-Signed for at their end, lass behind the counter said: 'Extra £9, as parcel was over 5Kg'.

But yep, unless you do that option, all you can track it is as far as it leaving Royal mail hands and handed to which ever overseas postal service your using.

[Megamixer]

The Royal Mail's pricing is too random for my liking. I have one of those leaflet guides that gives you the boundaries/categories for parcels etc. Half the time, it always comes out a different price when I post something.

Example: I had two, separately-packed, PS1 games. Same size, same weight but one cost more to post 2nd class the other did to post 1st class .

[Rinoa]

Just remember, people can't leave negative feedback for buyers anymore so make sure you've checked the feedback he's left other people - possibly the easiest way to see if he's pulling a fast one. If he's left loads of sellers negatives or neutrals then he's one to stay clear of!

Also, can't agree more with everyone who said send your items recorded/international signed for in future. Can save you a few quid in a situation like this.

Anyway, hope everything works out for you. These are really annoying situations.