What would you do?

[velvetfinch]

So I sell an item to an international buyer. Before they buy they ask me condition of the item even though the listing already describes the condition.

One hour after they make payment, I get a message that says only "When you gonna ship?".  Now I am not some crazy picky seller that insists on my buyers being polite or anything, but this just gives me a "no" feeling.  I feel like this sale is not going to go well and the buyer is setting up to be very difficult.  Would you just cancel the sale?

[pierrelebel]

"Would you just cancel the sale?"

No.

I would simply answer the inquiry advising that shipment would take place on Monday July 13th once the Post Office re-opens after the weekend.

I avoid that problem by:

1) posting positive feedback to the buyer immediately after payment is received

2) sending an email to buyer at that time thanking him/her for the payment, advising that positive feedback had been posted on eBay and advising that the purchase would be mailed on (date).

That simple message has been very effective for seventeen years on eBay, minimizing the number of inquiries from buyers.

[femmefan1946]

Polite is harder in a second language.

Even though the buyer uses a slang expression in his question, that is not really an indication that his English is fluent.

My second language is French, and while I'm told I have a good accent, the fact that I have picked up some common slang and useful curses has fooled a few francophones into thinking I understand them.

[pocomocomputing]

More information needed.

What is the item?

What is the sale price?

What is the cost of shipping?

What country is this international buyer in?

What is their feedback number? What is their feedback given and left?

What shipping method are you using?

For a low priced item with shipping totaling under $100, I would ship Small Packet Air International with third party insurance if possible (normally not done by me) because of the current communication gives me trouble signs. That might save you money but not Negative or low DSRs or defects if it goes bad.

[velvetfinch]

Thanks for your replies!  I will take both of your advice.

[velvetfinch]

Pocomocomputing: They only have a feedback number of 12 and never leave feedback for others.  They are located in Israel.  Item is a lululemon top for $18 and shipping $6.99 - certainly not a fortune, but still I don't feel like losing $25 US.  Shipping has to be light packet.

Sigh, I guess I'll just take my chances.

Pierre: I politely gave them information on when I ship and how long it would take.  I asked them if maybe they were in a hurry to receive the item and maybe would prefer to cancel rather than wait.

[femmefan1946]

FWIW-- less than that.

Your cost for the sale is your procurement price (less than $18 I hope), eBay and PP fees and the actual postage - less any PP discounts or actual price of discounted mint postage.

[fatdane]

Many international buyers are not fluent English speakers or writers, and if they use an online translation service the resulting English can at times be almost comical.

For international buyers just keep the communications simple, polite and timely.

[recped]

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@velvetfinch wrote:

So I sell an item to an international buyer. Before they buy they ask me condition of the item even though the listing already describes the condition.

One hour after they make payment, I get a message that says only "When you gonna ship?".  Now I am not some crazy picky seller that insists on my buyers being polite or anything, but this just gives me a "no" feeling.  I feel like this sale is not going to go well and the buyer is setting up to be very difficult.  Would you just cancel the sale?

---

Happens from time to time, Germans especially in my experience (although they are not the only ones).

Asking about the condition is the result of previously going by the description and being very disappointed.

Asking when you will ship is a simple enough question, it's certainly not the same as "why haven't you shipped yet?"

Get ready for the third question that will come right after you ship...."what is the tracking number".

Would you just cancel the sale?

No I would not cancel, I'm here to sell not play games.

[velvetfinch]

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@recped wrote:

Would you just cancel the sale?

No I would not cancel, I'm here to sell not play games.

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Lol, recped, I guess that's exactly why i would consider cancelling a sale.  Precicely because I am sick of playing games with some buyers.  The majority have been great, but when they're bad they're very bad!

[velvetfinch]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

FWIW-- less than that.

Your cost for the sale is your procurement price (less than $18 I hope), eBay and PP fees and the actual postage - less any PP discounts or actual price of discounted mint postage.

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Yes, definitely much less than that. Just meaning that I don't feel like being out the potential $20+ profit.

[rose-dee]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Even though the buyer uses a slang expression in his question, that is not really an indication that his English is fluent.

My second language is French, and while I'm told I have a good accent, the fact that I have picked up some common slang and useful curses has fooled a few francophones into thinking I understand them.

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Here's a little story that may illustrate this point.  

My husband grew up in BC, got only the minimum requisite French language training in high school, promptly forgot it, and couldn't carry on a 1 minute conversation in French if his life depended on it.  I grew up where bilingualism was the norm. 

When we drove across the country (from Victoria to Nova Scotia), we had a lot of time to do nothing much, so I decided -- in an attempt to make him less completely helpless once we reached Québec -- to teach him a simple "lifesaver" phrase: "Je m'excuse, je ne parle pas français" [I'm sorry, I don't speak French].   I told him to say it very politely, with a hint of despair in his voice. 

Well, we worked on that phrase for thousands of kilometres, day after day.  He would say it, I'd correct his pronunciation, over and over and over until he had the idiomatic delivery just about perfect.  

Day 1 in Québec: we're both exhausted after a long day's driving, he offers to go across the road and pick up a pizza.  Left alone staring mutely at an all-French menu, with the restaurant staff beginning to wonder why he was there at all, he pulls out his magic phrase.  Well, unfortunately he delivers it so well that they think he's actually being rude, insulting and truculent, and basically they scare him off the premises (in French).  I ended up going and getting the pizza. 

The moral of the story is that things can get very badly misconstrued when a native speaker makes assumptions about a non-native speaker's abilities in that language.  I'd say Google Translate et al can be even worse.  

[treasure.hunter.d]

You know what I would do just to put my mind at ease? I would look for your item (a similar one to yours I mean) on Ebay Israel and see what it can be had for locally. There is no shortage of Lululemon items available locally in Israel so (most of the fabric for Lululemon athletic wear is actually made in Israel) that begs the question as to why order all the way from Canada.

A savvy not so honest buyer will know it will be very unlikely you are going to send the item with tracking so getting a free item in exchange for a little patience waiting to declare their purchase not received may be the plan.

If i was an oddball hard to find item I wouldnt even think about this but given the low feedback, lack of feedback left for others and the type of item involved, Id be feeling a tad suspicious.

Just my 2 cents.

Best of luck.

thD

[prarie_nerd]

First of all you should only ship to locations where tracking is available.
Second if a claim is going to be opened they usually do it right after the item is marked as shipped. When I get a bad feeling I mark it as shipped then wait until the next day before I actually mail it.

[recped]

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@prarie_nerd wrote:
First of all you should only ship to locations where tracking is available.
Second if a claim is going to be opened they usually do it right after the item is marked as shipped. When I get a bad feeling I mark it as shipped then wait until the next day before I actually mail it.

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Why?

All the tracking in the world won't help you if the package never gets delivered.

I've shipped more than 20,000 orders with no tracking and can count on one hand the number of (suspected) fraudulent non-receipt claims.

In my 15 years selling on eBay on a number of id's I have never once ever had a claim opened "right after the item is marked shipped". never mind right after, I've never had one sooner than a week.

[pjcdn2005]

First of all you should only ship to locations where tracking is available

Many sellers don't use tracking as it isn't always practical to use it when shipping from Canada.

Second if a claim is going to be opened they usually do it right after the item is marked as shipped. When I get a bad feeling I mark it as shipped then wait until the next day before I actually mail it.

They wouldn't be able to do that on eBay though they could do that through Paypal. But I've never had that happen and I don't think that it happens very often.

[pjcdn2005]

I have to quit following you around recped. lol

[recped]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

I have to quit following you around recped. lol

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It's ok just don't do it when I post something that's not accurate (of course that never happens!).

Don't worry, I'm going away for a month in a few days and you'll be on your own.

[pjcdn2005]

Of course it doesn't happen!

I hope that you have a great trip. Are you going camping somewhere remote this year?

[recped]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Of course it doesn't happen!

I hope that you have a great trip. Are you going camping somewhere remote this year?

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I'm going solo this year so I picked a route that in my opinion is hardly remote at all. That said most of my friends think I'm nuts. Most of the places I've paddled in recent years have been 500+ km from the nearest phone, road or person, this year it might be 50km and I'll almost certainly see a few other people along the way.

If I meet more than 3 or 4 people over the course of three weeks I'll be complaining that it was far too crowded for my liking!

I do carry a satellite phone and a SPOT tracking device just in case of problems.