Ebay selling postage dilemma

[269sqnhudson]

I'd like your opinions chaps.

I list jackets on ebay sometimes, usually Eastman repros. I used to send worldwide until I had a false non-receipt claim made against me from Malaysia. Because the jacket sold for over £150 Paypal insisted I need a scanned signature as proof of delivery They don't mention this on ebay of course!
Now, to get this service from the UK to say the Far East costs £70-£73 but if I list this price I get bombarded with 'why so expensive/ Can you send it cheaper' emails AND risk a low P&P charges rating from the buyer.

Therefore I list UK/Europe only and if someone with great feedback or a VLJ member I know contacts me outside this area I send it cheaper.

Am I doing the right thing here, I can't see a way around this?

 

[John Lever]

There is a solution but it's expensive. Paypal offer a postage service where you print your own label and pay online through your PP account. It has tracking and insurance BUT it is about 50 % more expensive than the comparable Global Priority cost.
The scanned signature issue is a particular worry, as not many services offer this proof of delivery, only a ' Delivered ' status on the tracking record.
I prefer to buy rather than to sell on ebay though I have been lucky recently.
BTW all fees can be avoided when selling to a forum member if the purchaser sends payment as a gift, though there is a small charge for the payer, but not much.

 

[asiamiles]

Am I doing the right thing here, I can't see a way around this?

You could exclude the likes of Malaysia and Mainland China from the places you will send to, but hey, there's just as many crooks in the US. I think as an eBay seller you have to accept you're going to get ripped off 2 or 3 times. The money you lose out on by restricting your sales to Europe is probably going to be far greater than from these unfortunate incidents. I know from experience that there's times you feel like giving up on eBay, but if you're going to sell things you're going to end up dealing with the good and the bad; sometimes you can sense a problem beforehand, and if you find someone from some far flung part of the world with less than stellar f/b the winner of your auction for a $500 jacket then you can always back out...buyers do it all the time and with eBay's business down big time due to the recession they're not going to suspend you for failing to carry through on one transaction.

 

[m444uk]

The solution is to ignore the likes of the Post Office,Parcelforce or Paypal and use couriers.
Go to a broker like www.interparcel.com and you can select from companies like FedEx,UPS and DHL.
and get a big discount.

So, a 3kg package to the States comes in at £30 with FedEx. For enhanced compensation it works out at 2% of the value of the item. So £250 insurance is an extra £5.
Schedule a collection and print off 3 copies of the shipping label and custom declaration.
Tracking and electronic delivery signature operate in the normal way.

 

[John Lever]

I just tried the link and got a quote for a 3kg parcel to the US. Fedex cost £93, DHL cost £95, both prices did not include insurance. For the same parcel with insurance using Parcelforce Global Priority insured for £450 the cost is £77...

 

[269sqnhudson]

The solution is to ignore the likes of the Post Office,Parcelforce or Paypal and use couriers.
Go to a broker like http://www.interparcel.com and you can select from companies like FedEx,UPS and DHL.
and get a big discount.

So, a 3kg package to the States comes in at £30 with FedEx. For enhanced compensation it works out at 2% of the value of the item. So £250 insurance is an extra £5.
Schedule a collection and print off 3 copies of the shipping label and custom declaration.
Tracking and electronic delivery signature operate in the normal way.

Ooh that's pretty useful, thanks

 

[m444uk]

I just tried the link and got a quote for a 3kg parcel to the US. Fedex cost £93, DHL cost £95, both prices did not include insurance. For the same parcel with insurance using Parcelforce Global Priority insured for £450 the cost is £77...

Enter the parcel dimensions accurately. Remember it's dimensional weight for air. A postcode is also required.
I sent out today that ELC Luftwaffe jacket that I had up for sale. The original ELC box
measures 65cm x 40cm x 9cm, actual total weight 3kg. Total price inc £250 insurance was £35.80.
I paid by credit card. BTW you can get an additional discount of 5% by registering after first consignment.

For UK deliveries over 2Kg they are also good. Next day by TNT for example is cheaper than Parcelforce.

 

[Jaydee]

.
BTW all fees can be avoided when selling to a forum member if the purchaser sends payment as a gift, though there is a small charge for the payer, but not much.

Not anymore. If the gifted money is sent from paypal or a bank account, it's free. If the money comes from a credit card through paypal they charge 2.9% + $0.30. :evil: The sender decides who pays the fee.

 

[John Lever]

It's free to the receiver. I did this recently to a member who bought a jacket, the fee to me the seller was £5.

 

[Jaydee]

It's free to the receiver. I did this recently to a member who bought a jacket, the fee to me the seller was £5.

Heres the official word. The sender decides if credit is used 2.9%(It sucks! IMHO):
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees

 

[asiamiles]

It's free to the receiver. I did this recently to a member who bought a jacket, the fee to me the seller was £5.

Heres the official word. The sender decides if credit is used 2.9%(It sucks! IMHO):
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-fees

Paypal states that personal payments are "Free when you use your PayPal balance" though they always seem to find a way to add some kind of small fee...maybe if both the sender and recipient are in the same country there are no fees at all?

 

[John Lever]

The small fee to the sender is much smaller than the usual fees to the receiver.

 

[m444uk]

Often a payment is of mixed source which is not clear to the recipient . So a transfer from a euro to another euro country would be free from a Paypal balance. But, if there was a credit card element as well Paypal would quite rightly pass on the credit card charge. This would be at the credit card merchant rate plus Paypals small handling fee on top.

Paypal also makes money on any international transactions by offering an exchange rate lower than the bank rate.

 

[Jaydee]

The small fee to the sender is much smaller than the usual fees to the receiver.

It seems we are talking about different fees / situations John. I simply wanted people to realize that if the buyer pays via credit, there will be a 2.9% + .30 fee assessed.Even if the payment is sent as a gift. This fee is not applied if the payment is made with a cash source.

It is a good thing to know ahead of time because you can arrange who will pay this fee before the transaction. 3% can really add up when your selling something worth a lot of money. And no one likes that type of surprise!

Getting back to the original issue, I don't think you should exclude buyers just because it's expensive to ship. Some buyers want items badly enough to pay the extra cost, and by not offering your item worldwide you are cutting out a huge portion of your potential market.

What I would suggest is that you explain the situation in the listing, and then require that international buyers wait for an invoice before payment. Of course it would be good to also welcome any questions about shipping cost, before bidding.

After all it is not your fault that it's expensive to ship. Most people are reasonable enough to realize this. Especially when they get the item and see that the postage amount on the box matches what they actually paid.

 

[John Lever]

Then there's the added complication of e-cheques....

 

[Jaydee]

Then there's the added complication of e-cheques....

:lol: I hear ya there!

 

[m444uk]

I just tried the link and got a quote for a 3kg parcel to the US. Fedex cost £93, DHL cost £95, both prices did not include insurance. For the same parcel with insurance using Parcelforce Global Priority insured for £450 the cost is £77...

Enter the parcel dimensions accurately. Remember it's dimensional weight for air. A postcode is also required.
I sent out today that ELC Luftwaffe jacket that I had up for sale. The original ELC box
measures 65cm x 40cm x 9cm, actual total weight 3kg. Total price inc £250 insurance was £35.80.
I paid by credit card. BTW you can get an additional discount of 5% by registering after first consignment.

For UK deliveries over 2Kg they are also good. Next day by TNT for example is cheaper than Parcelforce.

Just to update this: FedEx picked up on a Friday and it was delivered on Tuesday in Colorado .
Not bad for the standard service. Express would have been only a day quicker so not worth the extra premium.
http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI ... ckAsSeller

It's difficult to see Parcelforce has any future in the International delivery business when tied to the postal system. In the above shipment they would have been almost twice the price !
I think by law they have to offer a full service but actually have a punitive pricing structure to deter retail customers/non-account holders.

 

[wheat1479]

I live in North Carolina and sold an A-2 jacket to a member in Belgium.Listed as gift for 40.00.Cost was USPS 45.50 shipping,no insurance.He payed by Paypal.Charge was 13 dollars and some change.It was sent last Tuesday,arrived at Belgiums customs yesterday.Im thankful it went alright.