Sellers getting shafted by Ebay 1 month delivery policy

I've been shafted twice by Ebay this past month. I sell a lot of CDs to China and because of the situation over there post is taking 6-8 weeks to arrive, but because Ebay only have a one month window in which to claim an item hasn't arrived it encourages buyers to make a claim before their packages have arrived.

Twice this month Ebay has forced me to refund buyers in China who will undoubtedly receive their CDs and then not pay me. Not happy!

 

Selling overseas is too risky for me. You pretty much have to use an inured carrier, not the mail, to protect yourself. I think eBay is going to see the number of sellers to Chinese customers shrink over this dumb policy.

I have thought about using eBay to sell again but it isn’t worth the hassle anymore.

 

Stop selling to China.

 

I've never used it, but isn't this what the eBay Global Shipping Program is for? Pay for Media Mail and ship it to their US depot, and it's considered delivered and out of your hands.

 

Imagine charging Global Shipping Program to sell one CD that is listed 34 times on eBay with postage much much cheaper without it. Just avoid overseas sales, a CD will sell domestically with media mail and tracking for under $4.

 

For the stuff I sell Chinese pay way higher than local buyers. It all worked fine with Paypal as they had longer to claim if post got lost. I feel the current Ebay policy just pushes them into claiming non receipt too early and then the process automatically refunds them.

I'll need to look into the Global Shipping Program from the UK - can you apply it on a listing by listing basis?

I'll also look into using insured carriers.

thanks for all comments!

 

That's cool they pay more....maybe the whole country will get involved with internet product in a big way.

 

Super easy solution:

Use eBayGlobal Shipping.

They take care of shipping. If it's lost or stolen or damaged in transit, you are off the hook.

Yes, it costs your buyers more in shipping. That's how it goes.

There is no other tenable solution when shipping is so risky.

Insurance is a pain to collect, and won't pay off if the item is just late (beyond 30 day window).

 

When I use to sell on eBay, I only shipped to the U.S. I didn't want to bother with international scammers...I mean buyers.

 

Yeah when they dumped PayPal I figured this would happen. As a buyer, I knew that if an item hadn't arrived within that 30 day window, I had no choice but to start a claim because once that window ends, you are SOL. Generally, I always get my stuff within that window anyway but there have been a few times over the many years I've been buying on eBay where it all goes wrong and I've waited 60 days+ on occasion. Can't do that anymore.

 

Using eBay Global Shipping will stop this problem, but it is so expensive, you probably won't sell much unless you cut your sales price. The best solution for me was to not sell to any countries where shipping delays create problems. My hat's off to anybody able to sell on eBay with much success, too many obstacles to cause problems, lost or delayed shipments and bad buyers are the biggest. Shipping increases and fee increases have been brutal as well.

 

But how is not selling to other countries better than selling using eBay Global Shipping. Yes, eGS adds cost, and some people won't buy because of it. But I do occasionally sell something via eGS--and those sales wouldn't have happened if I focused only on US. I mean, it's just a tick box when listing.

 

Is that how it works, you can select it or not for each listing? Sometimes my Chinese buyers ask me to add their address in Chinese Charaters + phone number to the English address - would that be possible via EGS do you know?

 

Sure, I understand why using eGS is acceptable for you and others. I also understand why the eBay eGS fee is so outrageous, eBay has to be compensated for taking the time and risk to offer it. I would prefer to sell where I can possibly build a relationship and maybe sell to the same person again in the future. It might take much longer to sell it by avoiding eGS but I will take my chances. The world is definitely a bigger market but I consider the risk too great to sell using traditional shipping and won't be part of the eGS system.

 

Yes you can apply eGS on a listing by listing basis, at least I can in the US. It surely isn't any different for UK sellers if offered for UK sellers.

 

Yes, you can add eGS on a listing-by-listing basis (as someone above noted).

You don't need to know anything about the buyer's address AT ALL (outside of making sure that the buyer is in a country to which you agree to ship).. All that info is between eGS and the buyer. All you need to do is ship to a local address in your home country. When the item sells, and you go to print a label, the label will have a local address. You ship it using that label. When eGS receives it, they relabel it appropriately for the voyage to the buyer. At that point, if anything happens (item doesn't get to buy, wrong address, damaged in shipping, received late) that is handled by eGS.

 

How many overseas buyers will buy/bid on something that the seller uses the eGS format with big postage cost over the regular First Class International? The buyers are covered. No tracking number no problem, even if they get it they can get a free refund. The Germans and French racked me up for years on the "What's my tracking number?" Then the reversal.