What can I do? (eBay related)

[STLGusty]

Hey, all.  I'm not really a big eBay seller.  I usually just turn to it on rare occasions where I can't seem to sell my ponies here at the arena (they're usually pretty common ones so.. ) 

ANYWAY...

I am not comfortable shipping to other countries, so in my description details on each of my auctions I say:

"-At this time I only ship to the United States (sorry!)"

Well, I thought I had disabled the option to allow other countries to bid, but apparently I didn't.  It looks like someone from Australia won one of my auctions.  Ugh.  What do I do?  -- or what CAN I do?  Do I have any ground to cancel the bid/win since I said in my details that I only ship to the U.S.?  Or am I screwed because I forgot to disable the other country bidding so eBay defaulted to say:  "Shipping to: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia" - etc.

UUUUGH.

Thanks for your help!

[Thunderwing]

I am assuming this person did not contact you ahead of time to ask what shipping costs would be?

Here is what I would do: Contact the person, let them know that you don't normally ship overseas. Apologize for the misunderstanding, let them know your forgot to click the 'USA only' option. However, if they are still interested in the item, then shipping to Australia will be $___ with insurance and tracking.

If they still want the item, then invoice them and ship with tracking. Australia is a pretty good country to ship to, you shouldn't have any troubles. Just package it well so there is no damage, ship with tracking an insurance, and you're covered.

If you absolutely do not under any circumstances want to ship out of country, then you will have to contact the buyer, apologize profusely, let them know the reason for the mistake, and that you can not ship to them. They may understand, they may not. Then you go to My Ebay, Sold Items, and in the drop down menu on the right choose "Resolve a Problem" and I believe there is an option in there to "Cancel Transaction". 

[STLGusty]

I am assuming this person did not contact you ahead of time to ask what shipping costs would be? 

That'd be correct.  They haven't paid yet, so I was looking to check out their address was so I could get the package ready to roll.  That's when I saw Australia and I thought, "Welllll, crap."

I'll contact them and see what they say!  Thanks for the advice

[Tigerlilyx]

Perhaps the buyer has a US address to ship to?

[STLGusty]

Perhaps the buyer has a US address to ship to?

Good point! I guess I'll wait and see what the buyer says back

[flying_narwhal]

I agree with Thunderwing's suggestion. I generally do not ship overseas either and NEVER ship overseas on ebay because of their ridiculous policies and needing to prove delivery. If you do decide to ship it to Australia I can tell you that I have shipped there many times and never had any issues. I generally ship First Class and it only takes about 2 weeks for delivery and if postage is purchased online I believe it has delivery confirmation (at least it has every time I've used it).

[STLGusty]

Ok, here's the latest... So apparently this buyer has an address to send the pony to here in the U.S.  That's the good news.  I can't seem to send her an invoice, though, as she is registered as an out-of-the-U.S. user.  It says eBay's global shipping is involved and I can't send her an invoice according to the message I get when I click on "send invoice."  eBay's message said she is able to pay without me sending an invoice....only I still haven't received payment.  Is there something I am supposed to be doing??

Thanks, everyone, for your help

[bluerose9978]

I believe you are able to invoice her through PayPal. Others may know more about it than I do.

[Tigerlilyx]

It's not necessary to invoice (I personally don't) on eBay but maybe you can do so via Paypal. He/she will receive the automated receipt upon payment checkout - maybe enquire when he/she will be transferring payment? 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/checkout-invoices.html

[ooizza]

I would call eBay. If the auction is part of the Global Shipping Program there are import fees on top of the shipping charges. The buyer pays to have the item shipped to a warehouse in Kentucky where a courier then addresses the package to the destination country. The package is usually shipped by courier across the borders and then may or may not be shipped again with the destination country's postal service.

I don't know if the seller has access to any of the import charges etc to include on an invoice. I have only bought through the GSP once and it's not a great system, imo, so I wont sell using it.

If you wish to ship directly to the buyer, I believe it was possible  and still may be. I will try to look up how to do it (possibly a bookmark, I will check). I have had one seller agree to do this but I'm only in Canada so the perceived risk is lower.

[Sebby6]

I wouldn't have thought there would be any import duties to Australia unless you are sending diamonds

[ooizza]

There normally aren't duties on many things but all items through the GSP get duties and handling fees added to the price. Ebay and Pitney Bowes have created an unnecessary middleman and a way for them to get more $$$.

I'd rather have a box valued at $100 go through customs and take my chances as to whether I get charged extra or not. In Canada it is the luck of the draw for which parcels get chosen to have customs charges added to them.

[Ringlets]

I think you can send the invoice through Paypal and she can pay that way  (you may then be able to mark the item as payment received unless it automatically shows up once she pays through Paypal) , other than that you may have to contact ebay about it because of the GSP.  UK ebay is a little different in how it works in some ways so I am not 100% certain   I can have a go at looking it up for you later though
Ponylady will already know the answer to this I'm sure  

[silverdawn]

Get the buyer to put their US adress into ebay and mark it as their primary ship to adress then they can request a total from you (hopefully).  I've done that on bins from the uk where I wanted to avoid the global shipping program. Or you can send an invoice through PayPal. Otherwise ebay won't do squat for you cause they want their massive money chunk from the global shipping program. If she pays you through ebay,  ebay is going to make you send the package to their own usa adress where they will relabel it to go to her foreign country.  If you need more info on this subject, please pm me.  I have extensive knowledge getting around the global shipping program.  Also, unsubscribe yourself from the program as well to avoid future hassles.  Ebay so nicely defaults everyone to that program now.  Sigh.
Silverdawn

[Ringlets]

Thanks silverdawn