eBay

fergua3 · ‎07-07-2022

i had a buyer purchase from me a few days ago. We had communicated back and forth prior to his purchase, as he wanted some details about the item before he bought. Then he bought. However after he paid he sent me the following message:

"I just buy it but could you delivered this a few days later?"

I'm not certain if he wants me to wait before shipping to him or if he wants it to be delivered really fast. I have messaged him twice with no response. Ebay is pressuring me to ship. The buyer's address is a freight forwarder in the US. I'm not concerned about dealing with freight forwarders, i have done it many times without incident.

Should i just go ahead and ship or wait til i hear from the buyer?

joels-retrocade · ‎07-07-2022

I would just ship it, All that matters is it gets there before expected date shown.

Cheers,

Joel

msau4301 · ‎07-07-2022

I've had this happen to me before in the summer when someone was going to be away and didn't want item delivered (sometimes left on porch) while they were out of town. I would (did) wait a couple of days before sending it. You shouldn't get a fault for late shipping when you have the buyer requesting it. I wouldn't wait too long though since the estimated delivery date will still be a factor, but a couple of days should be okay.

fergua3 · ‎07-07-2022

i don't mind waiting, the problem is i don't know what the buyer is asking. To delay shipping or ship it so it arrives quickly. Since it's being shipped to a freight forwarder, the fact that the buyer may be away on vacation isn't really a factor, i don't think.

The name of the buyer and the name on the address are different, so the buyer may be using a friend's freight forwarder. Not sure that clarifies anything though.

ricarmic · ‎07-07-2022

My main concern would be that the buyer is using "google translate" which doesn't always do a good job so they may be asking something different than it reads.

Since you don't know the "home language" (if you do, send the response in both english and their home language) I would send a clarification message back asking if they want you to wait and how long before sending.

I've always honoured the delay requests* and figured out the way to avoid getting late shipping dings based on the situation. (but again I'm in the happier stamp world)

Ooops I just noticed that you've messaged them twice with no response. If it is going to be tracked, given the situation I would ship now, I probably would send a (bilingual if possible) message as well advising that I wasn't sure about what the message meant so I send it ASAP to be safe.

*as Msau says mine also are usually because the person is going/away on vacation.

msau4301 · ‎07-07-2022

Ahhhh, I see how his message can be taken either way! When I read it I took it as to arrive a few days later than is supposed to, but if he does mean to ship so it arrives super quickly you don't have control over the time once it leaves your hands. In this case better to just ship now and tell him you messaged a couple of times but didn't hear back so you just sent it and timing is now in the hands of the shipping company (hopefully with tracking!) Good luck!

brettjet38 · ‎07-07-2022

Are you shipping the item with tracking, I would just ship it depending on the value.

Usually, any special shipping requests should always be made before the buyer purchases the item, technically if the Buyer is requesting something after the sale is made and that was not offered or stated in the listing, you can actually cancel the transaction without any strike on your account.

Also, the fact the Buyer is not responding to your message falls under eBay's "unresponsive Buyer" flag.

Again, you can cancel the purchase. in this case, just use "problem with address" as the reason.

It all depends on how risk-averse you are and of course the value of the item you are shipping.

fergua3 · ‎07-07-2022

well, it's $45 i'd be out if this blew up somehow. My spider sense isn't tingling, so i am going to go ahead and ship it. If it's a scam of some kind i should be covered by the UR/CA tracking number. The only thing i wouldn't be covered for is a SNAD. But that's a risk with every sale.

thanks for the advice.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-07-2022

@fergua3 wrote:
well, it's $45 i'd be out if this blew up somehow. My spider sense isn't tingling, so i am going to go ahead and ship it. If it's a scam of some kind i should be covered by the UR/CA tracking number. The only thing i wouldn't be covered for is a SNAD. But that's a risk with every sale.

thanks for the advice.

According to the shipping method your customer paid for, will it arrive according to his "requirements"? The time ebay uses is an estimate with a window...Especially for Small Packet Tracked to USA. Do you think he was wanting you to ship with a quicker service but on your dime? And often with freight forwarders, depending on the country involved they have a schedule they use for shipping. Miss that schedule and your order gets held until they're scheduled to ship next.

-Lotz

fergua3 · ‎07-07-2022

i don'tknow what he was asking, that's the problem. 🙂

i don't care about the freight forwarder's schedule. Once tracking shows delivered at the freight forwarder i'm in the clear. If the forwarder is slow, screws up etc that's not my problem.

still haven't heard. I hope he wasn't asking me to wait so he could confirm the provided address was correct. 🙂

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-07-2022

@fergua3 wrote:
i don'tknow what he was asking, that's the problem. 🙂

i don't care about the freight forwarder's schedule. Once tracking shows delivered at the freight forwarder i'm in the clear. If the forwarder is slow, screws up etc that's not my problem.

still haven't heard. I hope he wasn't asking me to wait so he could confirm the provided address was correct. 🙂

You could try the old fashioned way(because the purchase has been completed) and let your fingers do the walking...hope for the best that they speaka da English. Just a thought.

-Lotz

reallynicestamps · ‎07-07-2022

When you ship, give the tracking number to the customer along with the date and the service. Even though he should have that already from eBay.

When tracking shows arrival at the forwarder, give that information to the customer as well. It is possible that the forwarder does not do this.

Accompany the arrival notice with a cheerful and polite note that shipping is now the responsibility of his forwarder.

If you can send these messages in both languages, do so.

fergua3 · ‎07-07-2022

i'm not a big fan of giving UR tracking numbers to buyers via a message. The first thing they may well do is to look it up on USPS site, which will show no such number exists, forever. With UR numbers i just quietly add it when i ship and do nothing else. I'm a big believer in letting sleeping bears lie. The UR tracking number is to cover my behind, not inform the buyer....that's my view of it anyway.

Now that i have tracking, via UR numbers, i do inform when package is received by a forwarder. It's only been in the last year or so i've been able to do that because prior to that i didn't use UR numbers (oblivous to them). I have only had 2 instances since using UR numbers of shipping to a freight forwarder.

I would never try to communicate in the buyer's language because i can never be sure of what i'm saying (or what good old google is saying). I just use as simple english as possible, no slang, no contractions. I wouldn't even trust someone's translation for me because i don't know how fluent they are and i don't know that they're not sabotaging me in some way, even as a joke. In this particular case, i don't even know what the buyer's language is. I'm guessing some dialect of Chinese but all i really know is that it's not english.

ricarmic · ‎07-07-2022

What I do when I am responding in something other than English, Spanish for example, I use google translate to translate from English to Spanish then I open another window and translate from Spanish to English. (I also send BOTH English and the other language to the buyer, in two messages if necessary)

This helps avoid the slang etc conversion problems. With both windows open you can just keep editing and copying to minimize the disruption.

Note though that of course there is still a risk because this is Googles translation and there's no way of knowing how close it matches to reality.

I will say that I've not had any disasters since I started doing the converting to and back to double check and sending both. I did have some disasters before I started doing that.