Archive for August, 2007

Dear eBay Queen

I used to sell internationally and to Canada.  But, recently I’ve had quite a few problems with items arriving or it taking a long time to get where it was going. The other day, I had a Canadian buyer bid on an item that I state shipping to US only.  She said I was the first person she ever encountered that won’t ship to Canada. She is not happy, and told me to go ahead and file with eBay, because she has no intentions of paying if I won’t ship to Canada.

This buyer is not new to eBay, she has been buying and selling since 2002. I plan on leaving her a negative, since she bid knowing that I don’t ship to Canada. I don’t know why she didn’t think she had to ask if I would ship there before she bid. I’m sure she will give me a negative in return. I haven’t had a negative in a long time (I have 4 out of 7500 feedbacks), but I think this negative will feel good, after the letter she wrote me telling me how mad she was that I wouldn’t ship to Canada. My husband says I should just send it to her. What do you think I should do?

Canadian Blocker

Dear Blocker;

Your letter sounds as though you want the buyer to pay for the item, even though you will not send it, as a sort of penalty for not reading your auction terms. If this is the case, it is completely wrong. If you told her you will make an exception and send the items to her, and she will not pay because you don’t ship internationally, then you are on the right track.

If this were my transaction, I would send her one last invoice requesting payment. I would tell her I would be happy to make an exception and send the item to her in Canada. If she does not want to follow through with the transaction, I would file for my fees back doing the “mutually agree not to complete the transaction”. As for feedback, I would choose to not leave it. I don’t know anyone that likes to be made to feel dim-witted. This buyer already feels bad for not reading your description. I would try to ease her frustration and keep her buying on eBay if not as your international customer, as someone else’s customer.

Dear eBay Queen;

I was pretty excited when I woke up this morning with two new purchases from my eBay store. When I sent the invoice to each buyer I noticed they are from two separate accounts in China, this was a red flag for me, because I have never sold anything to China. After digging a bit more, I discovered the accounts were created within a week of each other, they each had very low feedback score and most of the feedback was from the same people!  

Have you had this happen before? Am I making something out of nothing? Why do they both have the same feedback from the same people? Is there anything I can do? Should I complete the sale? These were low dollar figures, so I won’t be out a lot of money if the sale falls through.

Mary

Dear Mary;

I haven’t ever sold anything to China, but I completely understand your apprehension with this sale. There could be several reasons these buyers have the same feedback, most of which are on the up and up. I would email them and thank them for their purchase, and ask for their address so you can figure shipping. If their response is weird or their addresses are the same, I would email back and ask why they used the same address and different eBay user ids. I would also consider reporting them to eBay if you are uncomfortable. http://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ShowCUPortal&ShowCUPortal=&guest=1

These buyers could also try to build up their feedback scores by purchasing merchandise with lower starting amounts. This isn’t against eBay rules, as long as they are not trying to manipulate feedback. For more information on feedback manipulation:  http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-manipulation.html  

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 260145824374 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the home page). How much do you think an old beer bottle is worth? What if it were FULL, would that make a difference in your decision? Museum Quality ALLSOPP’s Artic Ale Beer 1852 SOLD $503,300.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330149410179