My experiense selling stuff...

MIkhail said:
4 weeks later is has not arrived yet. Stupidly I did not buy the insurance or tracking, shipping being expencive as it is. I started calling post office, but they have no way of tracking...
To make the long story short, 5 weeks later I refunded the money to a guy.
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Nothing unusual here. Everytime I ship to Australia or NZ via post office it takes 1-2 months.

Now if he is honest he will notify you once received and will pay you.. 🙄
 
I shipped something from the Cleveland, Ohio to Switzerland, on November 30, 2010, via Express Mail International. It arrived in Switzerland on January 10, 2011. The item as in a different box and was soaking wet.

Shipping to other countries is not the problem. Shipping with the USPS is the problem.
 
Never, ever, ever ship an item you have sold without a tracking number. International or domestic makes no difference, packages are routinely "lost" in shipment, but somehow the only ones which end up getting "lost" are those which are not tracked. How much would tracking have cost you? $1.50 extra?

I sell a lot of gear, and I ship anywhere and everywhere. I ship overseas because buyers overseas usually pay more than domestic buyers. I always ship by priority mail, which in Japan automatically comes with tracking. In the last few months I have shipped perhaps 100 cameras and lenses to every continent, and not a single one has been lost.

Shipping internationally takes no more time for most people than
Shipping domestically. From time to time I grab a handful of customs forms at the post office so I can fill them out at home rather than while waiting in line.
 
The Aussie mail tracking system has never worked for me. I get zero feedback every time I enter the number.

Frontman--that's quite a record. Have you ever tried to ship to Italy? It is notorious among watch enthusiasts for "lost in the mail". I've noticed too many ebay dealers won't ship there-period.
 
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Bill58 said:
The Aussie mail tracking system has never worked for me. I get zero feedback every time I enter the number.

Frontman--that's quite a record. Have you ever tried to ship to Italy? It is notorious among watch enthusiasts for "lost in the mail". I've noticed too many ebay dealers won't ship there-period.
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As a matter of fact, I shipped a Canon 7 with a lens to Italy a couple of weeks ago. I was surprised because it arrived in only 4 days. It was the second camera I had sent to Italy, I had no problems with the last one either.
 
Bill58 said:
The Aussie mail tracking system has never worked for me. I get zero feedback every time I enter the number.

Frontman--that's quite a record. Have you ever tried to ship to Italy? It is notorious among watch enthusiasts for "lost in the mail". I've noticed too many ebay dealers won't ship there-period.
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Try using a third-party tracker. I can't track using EMS' system, but I have no problems when I use another service.
 
htimsdj said:
Shipping to other countries is not the problem. Shipping with the USPS is the problem.
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USPS uses FedEX to ship international.

The real culprit is usually customs. In the US (and many other countries I assume) Customs hands the package over to a contractor to determine what (if any) duties are required. The contractor opens the package to inspect it, and then re-packages. Sometimes well, sometimes not so well. And it's Russian Roulette on which packages get opened.

And Customs is a black hole. What ever shipper you use you see the package leave the country and then dissapear. One high dollar item from Sweden to the US dissapeared for about two months recently. Tracking was no help, it showed it left Stockholm and then it dissapeared. Finally I got a letter from a contractor in NYC saying no duties were assessed but I had to pay $50 to re-package it and for filling out the customs forms. If I didn't mail the money immediately it would off to Customs auctions.
 
the question is--will he send you the money again once the goods arrive? because arrive they will. surface mail can easily take a couple of months between north america and europe and that's a small pond to cross--that one is a bit wider. well, i guess someone had to flinch first

😎
 
Always always always send items with tracking. Tracking is just as much for the seller as the buyer. Totally worth it for peace of mind.
 
I have shipped items all over the world with USPS EMS mail with tracking. Some countries take forever the process in the customs. Australia is among the most expensive countries to ship to. One thing I am still confused about, Canada is next door neighbor of US so one would think the shipping speed would be as fast as domestic mail. WRONG! even the EMS service takes longer than shipping to Asia.
 
back alley said:
it might still arrive safe and sound.
i had a package from oz to canada take well over 3 months to get here.
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Above is about where the lesson is. And the lesson is that international post at the cheapest option CAN take up three months. Gotta tell people to be a bit more patient, particually if you are posting around december or january.
regards
CW
 
tbarker13 said:
Is this something the folks at PayPal agree with? Perhaps I am missing some fine print to the fine print, but it is my understanding by my reading of PayPals rules that it is always the seller's responsibility to prove an item arrived.
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I always had the impression that the PayPal buyer protection was essentially useless unless the purchase is done through eBay? Besides, PayPal ToS are different from country to country.

In any case I don't see why one would voluntarily refund money to a buyer who requested uninsured shipping. At the very least let him go through the trouble of filing a claim with PP. Stay polite but don't be a sucker.

Anyways, I don't use PayPal very often and I've never had an item not arrive at its destination.
 
I had once sent a package oversees via USPS and it took almost 8 weeks (even though they said 4 weeks would be the max). On another occasion I had to go to a local USPS office trying to track a package delivered to me that hasn't arrived. They let me in their storage room (at a local branch) and I was shocked to see the mess there. No wonder they lose so many items.
 
Paddy C said:
As stated above, you need more than a tracking number or even delivery confirmation with Paypal. You need a signature.
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Not true. I had exact the same case and it was solved in my favor because I could provide a proof of shipment. No signature involved.
 
Here is my experience of bying stuff and I am based in a country which mail system is not as great as in the US. Actually, many US sellers do not like to mess with Russian customers.
My success rate in getting the mail is about 99%. It happened only once when I didn't get the package and it was partly my fault -- in a month I forgot about the coming shipment, it went to my second home address, I was away from home and the package returned back to the Netherlands and lost somewhere in the mail. I lost about 50 euro, but learnt some lesson of tracking things!
Thus, the rule number one: always ship with tracking. It's easy to track down the package whereabouts through the Internet. Even in case of snail mail you know if it reached the customs, customs cleared or not etc.
The rule number two deal with people who have references or participate the forum. Once I was tricked out by a fellow from SF (nickname Bombaygoose on evilbay) who made a "second chance offer" to me off the site and I didn't realize it was not the eBay purchase. OK, I learnt my 2nd experience.
The third rule be patient! It takes at least a couple of months to ship from the US to overseas. Once I bought a bunch of S&T magazines and it took 3 months to deliver. Since then, I prefer the US purchases to be shipped to my friend's address in US - waiting time is much less! Although recently I bought a Luigi case from an Ozzie fellow and it took only a month and a half to reach Russia - not bad!
And the last advice you should have some trust in people. A year ago I bought a Contax-Leica adapter from Amedeo Muscelli here. He shipped to my address it took a month and a half to deliver to Moscow... but the thing was not delivered to my address for whatever reason! So the adapter was returned back to Venezuela by the mail service. Obviously, I apologized to Amedeo and told him I would pay extra for the 2nd shipment although I don't know why this happened. Anyway he wrote the address in Cyrrilic again and I got it on the 2nd attempt (I even didn't pay for the 2nd shipment).
Sh..t happens, but it doesn't happen all the time. Besides you have a pleasure to communicate with people around the world. Sorry for the long message!
 
xoDox said:
Here is my experience of bying stuff and I am based in a country which mail system is not as great as in the US. Actually, many US sellers do not like to mess with Russian customers.
My success rate in getting the mail is about 99%. It happened only once when I didn't get the package and it was partly my fault -- in a month I forgot about the coming shipment, it went to my second home address, I was away from home and the package returned back to the Netherlands and lost somewhere in the mail. I lost about 50 euro, but learnt some lesson of tracking things!
Thus, the rule number one: always ship with tracking. It's easy to track down the package whereabouts through the Internet. Even in case of snail mail you know if it reached the customs, customs cleared or not etc.
The rule number two deal with people who have references or participate the forum. Once I was tricked out by a fellow from SF (nickname Bombaygoose on evilbay) who made a "second chance offer" to me off the site and I didn't realize it was not the eBay purchase. OK, I learnt my 2nd experience.
The third rule be patient! It takes at least a couple of months to ship from the US to overseas. Once I bought a bunch of S&T magazines and it took 3 months to deliver. Since then, I prefer the US purchases to be shipped to my friend's address in US - waiting time is much less! Although recently I bought a Luigi case from an Ozzie fellow and it took only a month and a half to reach Russia - not bad!
And the last advice you should have some trust in people. A year ago I bought a Contax-Leica adapter from Amedeo Muscelli here. He shipped to my address it took a month and a half to deliver to Moscow... but the thing was not delivered to my address for whatever reason! So the adapter was returned back to Venezuela by the mail service. Obviously, I apologized to Amedeo and told him I would pay extra for the 2nd shipment although I don't know why this happened. Anyway he wrote the address in Cyrrilic again and I got it on the 2nd attempt (I even didn't pay for the 2nd shipment).
Sh..t happens, but it doesn't happen all the time. Besides you have a pleasure to communicate with people around the world. Sorry for the long message!
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On the contrary, thank you for sharing. Thank you everybody for sharing your stories.
I did not mention the time frame - it all happened in the beginning of November last year. Maybe the buyer will receive the lens yet. MAYBE he will let me know about it and pay the money again.
Why I was compelled to return the money to him after 5 weeks of waiting? Am I a sucker? Maybe….Frankly I don’t know. He is a member of this forum, and I did not want to loose the "reputation" of a good seller, for what it's worth. It was a gesture similar to "the hell with this crap".
But the lessons I learn - you have to pay for the education, and it's a pretty small price 🙂
Multiple responses tell me that this is relatively common issue. More reasons to keep people informed of it.
 
berlincontemporary said:
Not true. I had exact the same case and it was solved in my favor because I could provide a proof of shipment. No signature involved.
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Must have been less than $250 value. Paypal's rules are very clear on this:

If you're responding to an "item not received" claim, you'll need to provide Proof of Delivery from a shipping company that meets the following conditions:
  • It shows the status as delivered.
  • It confirms the date the order was delivered.
  • It includes the recipient's address, including a minimum of the city, state, and zip code (or equivalent).
  • For payments of $250 USD (or local currency equivalent) or more, it includes proof of the recipient's signature to confirm delivery.
The link: https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?...tent_ID=security/seller_protection_learn_more
 
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