Shipping expensive lens to US - advise needed

[valdas]

I have just cancelled the transaction using "something is wrong with the buyer's address" reason, but thanks for all the input (useful to have that knowledge for the future). I thought that even if he changes his mind and asks me to ship to the verified Paypal address I still would not want to do it, it was too suspicious. I'll keep my summicron for now 🙂

 

[peterm1]

This input is probably redundant now given the cancellation but I have one piece of input on an experience using eBay that impressed me and is worth passing on.

I live in Australia and last year I bought an item of clothing (A lovely and rather expensive Barbour waxed cotton coat I had been lusting for) from a private seller in the back blocks of England - a little village in the Midlands. He shipped using eBay Global Shipping (I think that's what they call it) and while it was comparatively rather expensive (about $50.00 US from memory) I was OK with that as it was a quite expensive item (though I happened to get it cheaply due to lack of bidding from others) and it was a biggish parcel. And I wanted that surety.

The clothing arrived on my doorstep from the other side of the world within one week and I got virtually daily SMS message updates on where it was at every point in its journey from that village to my front door. In fact when I got the delivery I got another message telling me it had been delivered before I made it back into my house from the front gate. Lovely - courtesy of those fantastically efficient German folks DHL. I like being able to log in to get shipping updates on my parcels. But getting regular, sometimes twice daily SMS messages unbidden giving me that info at every step of the journey was the cream on the cake.

To compare that experience, a couple of weeks later I bought a liner for that same coat also on eBay from a seller in another Australian state no more than 800 kilometers from me. He used ordinary delivery and it took two weeks to get to me via ordinary delivery and without tracking. There was no comparison.

My take away from this is if you are selling (or buying) an expensive item it makes sense to opt for the best delivery option (and there is no doubt, that eBay Global Shipping option seems the best to me) with all the bells and whistles. It will do wonders for your piece of mind no matter which end of the transaction you are on.

 

[ForestCap]

OK, now the funny part started. The buyer replied to my message and asked if I could ship to a different address in Hong Kong? Hacked account (it is a US buyer with PayPal address in CA will 100% feedback on more than 500 purchases)? Report to ebay, refund and cancel the transaction?

I have eBay register-address in China but shipping address in Sweden.
Changing register address requires uploading additional paperwork which does not really make sense, so I leave it be. I guess many people does so as well.

It is fishy that he asked you to ship to another address through message since he can just change shipping address in eBay setting or every time he pays for an item.

 

[valdas]

I have eBay register-address in China but shipping address in Sweden.
Changing register address requires uploading additional paperwork which does not really make sense, so I leave it be. I guess many people does so as well.

It is fishy that he asked you to ship to another address through message since he can just change shipping address in eBay setting or every time he pays for an item.

Well, I got the sale cancelled and final fee credited by ebay, but now buyer asked me to relist the lens saying that now he would pay from his confirmed address in HK. I am not sure I want to do this - never shipped to HK before, shipped to China once and had some problems (buyer asking for partial refund due to lens rear cap being generic) so my general approach is to keep business within a certain geography (not that I am stereotyping or something, simply being more risk averse).

 

[Ecnarongi]

Well, I got the sale cancelled and final fee credited by ebay, but now buyer asked me to relist the lens saying that now he would pay from his confirmed address in HK. I am not sure I want to do this - never shipped to HK before, shipped to China once and had some problems (buyer asking for partial refund due to lens rear cap being generic) so my general approach is to keep business within a certain geography (not that I am stereotyping or something, simply being more risk averse).

I'd still don't trust him. Probably I'd tell him, if he's *actually* in Hong Kong, he can highly probably buy the very same item at that certain shop that belongs to our famous Russian/Ukrainian/German/Austrian friend Boris (Mr Yamchtchik), or Mr Yamchtchik's (ex) wife or Mr Yamchtchik's cousin (or whatever strange tax evasion construction they've invented) ... 😀

 

[valdas]

I'd still don't trust him. Probably I'd tell him, if he's *actually* in Hong Kong, he can highly probably buy the very same item at that certain shop that belongs to our famous Russian/Ukrainian/German/Austrian friend Boris (Mr Yamchtchik), or Mr Yamchtchik's (ex) wife or Mr Yamchtchik's cousin (or whatever strange tax evasion construction they've invented) ... 😀

It's funny you mentioned them... Because I googled the buyer based on his HK address, he is from http://www.mkkcamera.com/ Hopefully reputable business?

 

[Ko.Fe.]

IMO. Even if buyer has no bad intentions, if it is getting too complicated, better to avoid it.
eBay is all about simplicity (this is why they charge this much). Buy it now - pay by PayPal. This is it. PayPal has verified shipping address. If you'll try to ship by not verified address, I think, it will gives some trouble.