*Warning* for sellers shipping out of the Country

[angelponies]

Yep I agree, there are a lot of dishonest sellers too, but you can't fake a shipping receipt and you can't fake a custom slip with the postal stamp on it, and if you go to the shipping site you can see it was shipped too. I can't gurantee the buyer will get the item after it leaves my hands and I can't afford to fly it their myself, tho I would love to travel, so I think that I will not ship out of the Country anymore, with shipping in the U.S. atleast there is Delivery Confirmation    I like to save the buyer money and I mark all my stuff as a gift and low amount to help the buyer, but It was a valuable lesson learned that there is not a 100% certainty you can't get burnt shipping out of the Country,  when you have shipping proof. I never had problems with it before, but after today what I learned, it scared me a bit and so I wanted to give others a heads up, and for me personally I wont sell anymore out of the U.S. I found out today it is too risky 

[Izrabeth]

I'm really sorry it happened to you Angel  this is really totally unfair, and it's not right. You had the proof of shipping, this is totally ridicolous...I disagree it's not right that a seller must pay for postal faults. Can happens that parcels are lost, of course there are the disonest sellers and buyers, but not all are, sometimes it's just bad luck and your package get lost 

Here in Italy registered is the most secure way, you have to sign to receive your parcel...it's why I also use that system too to ship, and registered is totally international the tracking number doesn't change, you can check the status once it left your country simply by putting the tracking number on the post website of the receiver's country. I doubt paypal can state it's not delivered 

We shipped more than $200 worth of product to someone in Italy, but we didn't have tracking on it and so he made a claim in Paypal and was refunded the full amount.

And now he probably got the goods you know, italian customs/post is slow....really a shame there wasn't a tracking number but still if paypal acts like that you would probably had to refund them in any case 

EDIT: and would add that is sad Angel if you and many others will not consider anymore to sell internationally, we had a couple of deals and they went perfectly fine 

[Sternenstaub]

I'm so sorry for you Angel!! 

That is one reason why I ALWAYS ship by registered mail with signed for.
I never sent unregistered for my own protection - anyway if I sent a simple loose Blind Bag or a high priced pony. You never now!!

At ebay I have discusions with buyers from time to time if I can ship unregistered for cheaper shipping costs - but I never do that. It's only 2,05 Euro extra to add registered mail in germany and I hate the discusion abiur saving 2 Euros or not... I know that lot of buyers track down my 5 stars feedback when the yonly give 1 or 2 stars for "high shipping costs" - but  I'm better down n my stars then on money.

I can only give advice to anybody - when you deal with a person you'd never dealed to before - use any kind of tracking that you are on the safer end!!

[banditpony]

Yes, you can't fake the shipping slip and all that. But the thing is, is the responsibility is to get the package to the person... that's why the proof of shipping is (semi) useless. Just because you dropped it off with a third party (post office), does not mean it was delivered to the person.
Pretty much, it's still your responsibility. I know it sounds awful , but as a buyer... I do appreciate it.
If amazon shipped something to someone and the post office lost it, you would still expect that amazon would send a new item, or refund. It's amazon's responsibility to get the item to you.
I stink with words. But I'm just trying to explain why...

[Galactica]

Yeah- paypal has been like this for a few years now.  The sad thing is that a lot of times- the package is just slowed down in customs and it eventually turns up.  You might want to follow up in a couple of weeks and ask the person if the package turned up.  That's what I would do.

I will send expensive stuff registered or priority- but when it is just a single pony?  The price to register a package in the U.S. is not just a matter of a couple of bucks- the last time I checked on a single pony it was an additional $11.  International priority has become really expensive too   So I send small cheap stuff first class- I have been shipping stuff for many years and have had very few things get lost- oftentimes it seems as though the "lost" stuff just gets stuck in customs and turns up a month or two late.   (I find this to be true for the U.K in particular for whatever reason)

I think Italy is known for having unreliable mail though- so if it went to Italy, you may be sunk. 

It's funny because traditionally in the U.S. once a package is placed into the hands of the mail carrier-  the risk of any loss during transit belongs to the recipient.

[Izrabeth]

I think Italy is known for having unreliable mail though- so if it went to Italy, you may be sunk. 

It is the customs the problem, they free the parcel after a lot of time, sometimes they loose stuff...also it depends where you shipped to, north and south are completely different, north is more reliable

[angelponies]

Yeah stuff gets lost,  I am still waiting on an Argentina OOAK pony that I won a few months ago now, the seller gave me the shipping info on her and after she hit customs in CA she vanished, I am still hoping that she arrives but I didn't blame the seller and I didn't open a dispute with him because he had tracking and proof of shipping, I just asked him that if they send her back to him by some chance, to please let me know. I guess it is just different for some people.

I will ship out of the Country to those I have dealt with before so no worries there but other than that I think I am done with it, my hubby is being really sweet about it and told me not to worry that it was only money there are more important things in life than money, it just kinda sucks, so I wanted to gives a heads up, I just happend to learn the hard way 

BP thanks for your kind words, but it is different for some people than others, if I didn't get a shipment from Amazon that I ordered and they had proof of shipping and I know it was shipped. If it got lost I would not blame them and would not try to get a refund, they did their part and it was out of their hands, but it is just different for me than for some others is all

[GoldenLambPony]

Oh no! Maybe it will show up still. That is sad. I always send anything over $100 with insurance. That way if it doesn't say it was delivered, I go to the post office and get my money back. I had a package that didn't show delivered once so I refunded the buyer, and then miraculously 5 weeks later the packaged showed up. My buyer re-sent the payment thankfully. I hope yours ends up showing up.

[Ringlets]

How awful! it really isnt right that you are out of ponies and monies if you have proof of shipping   I know there isnt much you can do now though apart from hope that the parcel shows up and that your buyer is honest enough to tell you and refund you    
.......
I guess that one good thing about living in the Uk is that things are different here when it comes to parcels going MIA. If you have the proof of postage, even if Paypal sides with the buyer, Royal Mail will refund you. Which is why I have no problems shipping worldwide   Slightly OT but speaking of Italy,  I have only ever had one parcel go MIA on the way there. Someone stole the parcel (my moms fault cos she wrote on the outside of the box what was in there as we sold a lot of stuff at the time, and the dolls were very sought after  *facepalm* ) - I did get refunded though  since I had proof of postage, and I had a second set of dolls to send to my buyer as a replacement, and they reached him just fine. I've sent a lot of items (pony and no-pony) to Italy without any other issues.

[HoustonCollector72]

I think Italy is known for having unreliable mail though- so if it went to Italy, you may be sunk. 

It is the customs the problem, they free the parcel after a lot of time, sometimes they loose stuff...also it depends where you shipped to, north and south are completely different, north is more reliable

I'm waiting for a package from Italy, how delayed is this going to be ?? any idea ?
also the seller has not provided me with any tracking , I paid a lot for a pony and kinda getting anxious about this item, ebay doesn;t show  the item shipped ,but he messaged me telling me he had shipped , is this normal on ebay ?? also on another one from Poland    I had a fast shipping from Germany and Greece though .

[Izrabeth]

Thank you Ringlets to defend a bit Italy, it is not so poopy as depicted
As said are the customs the problem here. 

Angel, I really hope that your buyer receives the pony and refund you, I still say holy cow it's not right that a seller pay for postal mistakes even with a proof they shipped!
And honestly I completely agree with you, I would never ask a refund if my seller has a proof, it just happened to me to refuse a refund from a lovely member here as the package is probably hostage of my custom 

I'm waiting for a package from Italy, how delayed is this going to be ?? any idea ?
also the seller has not provided me with any tracking , I paid a lot for a pony and kinda getting anxious about this item, ebay doesn;t show  the item shipped ,but he messaged me telling me he had shipped , is this normal on ebay ?

About 2 weeks for US, if they sent you in priority there's no tracking

[RockinPrettyBeats]

That's a bit unfair. You can always ask people to mark the payment as a "gift" so they can't ask for refund. Or just don't use paypal, since the problem really is with them and not with international shipping. If people wouldn't ship stuff internationally none of you would have any nirvanas, because none of them are from the US.

It's a really bad idea to mark things as "gift". I used to do this on this forum as well to save everyone on fees...until I found out that Paypal can and will ban your account if they see a trend in accepting gift payments.

Once you are banned from Paypal you usually don't come back. It's not worth it. Gift is really supposed to be an actual gift.

Edit to say: As you said, accepting another form of payment would be a better way to go to avoid refunds.

[Marigold]

I didn't know that about gift!   


Has anyone sent something overseas with insurance and had the person claim it didn't arrive?   Wouldn't you be able to get the post to pay what you insured it for even if PayPal refunds the buyer?   I thought that is the main safety precaution a seller should take. 

[hokuspokus]

Oh no! I'm very, véry sorry for you! Now you loose all the money... So weird that they choose buyers side when you have proof of shipping. I'm beginning to feel like Ebay thinks a buyer NEVER does something wrong, they always back them up. Not always the best way.

This kinda scares me though. My buyers also pay with paypal, but since the Netherlands are so expensive with shipping (non-tracing is €17), everyone chooses non-tracing. So now i'm like, if they wanna screw me...well... they can, apperently. :\ Again, sorry you had to go through this! I can totally see why you're upset; who wouldn't be?!

Andddd now i can't buy one of your lovely argies!

[angelponies]

Hehe precisely why, I started putting actual "Gifts" in the packages along with the item, so they are receiving a free gift along with their item 

I haven't had any trouble with Italy, France, Germany etc.. all my problems lately seem to be with Spain. I am not having the greatest luck, that is where the gal lives who bought the pony and that is where the pony that I am still waiting for since July was coming from  Why Spain Why!! 

Sooo anything going over seas to someone I know will need to be insured, just incase it doesn't get there. And I am really hoping that this gal is honest and will send the money back when the pony arrives it worries me though that she keeps saying she thinks it is stolen. I told her customs can take awhile, but she thinks it was stolen and she doesn't want to split the costs, she wants a full refund, so I am hoping that she will be honest, but I am not holding my breath just incase