eBay

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎06-22-2018

Was wondering if anyone has had problems recently shipping to France? I have sent there in the past with no issues. Today I had a buyer open a request that they didn't receive their item in the estimated time. The buyer is registered as being in Spain (which I don't send to) but bought the item with a France address. The request has everything written in French so finding it hard to respond. eBay sent me a notice saying I have until June 29th to respond. I responded through eBay messages to buyer that if they didn't receive it by that date then I would refund. Buyer said they received a message from "Envío express" with an order number ES04038392 & they have to confirm some information of the order details. Has anyone heard of this before?

femmefan1946 · ‎06-22-2018

I find French buyers picky, but not usually a problem. It helps that I can respond in French.

You can use Google Translate to understand what they are saying , and the same to translate your reply.

It is a good idea if you are doing this, to include both English and French in your response.

You can plug that number into La Poste tracking (they do support English) but it strikes me that ES may stand for Espana (Spain).

Hmm - you may be using Google Translate for three way translation.

https://www.aftership.com/couriers/la-poste-colissimo

I assume that you used Tracked Packet International for shipping? What does the Canada Post site say when you give them that number?

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/business.page

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎06-22-2018

Thanks for your reply. I think you are right that is Spanish but also received a French reply. Used Google translate & it helped. I do not send my parcels tracked to other countries except the US as it costs more than the item is worth. Have had very few problems with people not receiving items. Maybe a couple in a year if that.

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎06-22-2018

So the buyer from Spain sent another message. Says they haven't received the item & could I please send it to the address they gave me in France & if that doesn't work then the address in Spain. I sent the parcel out on May 25/18. How do they expect me to reroute their parcel? People are strange.

lady.stark · ‎06-24-2018

Is it possible that this buyer used a friend's or relative's address and is waiting for the re-route from said friend/relative? It looks to me the address used was not the buyer's address.... or maybe used a service similar to the GSP? If so, you are not responsible for the re-shipment.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎06-27-2018

Not sure if you have your situation resolved. If you are looking for a website for confirming status of your package you can try this one. Shows yours as pending still. Does give you the option to call or email to follow up with them.

https://www.aftership.com/couriers/la-poste-colissimo

-CM

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎06-27-2018

Does that mean my parcel is somewhere in France or Spain? I never sent it with tracking so wondering what the number the buyer gave me is for. Not sure what to do. I have till the 29th before it is escalated to eBay to step in. Should I just refund them for the purchase? The buyer from Spain had asked me a few times if I ship to Spain & said no because of some problems with the postal system. They then bought the item anyway using an address from France.

hlmacdon · ‎06-27-2018

@2nd-time-around-jewelry wrote:
Does that mean my parcel is somewhere in France or Spain? I never sent it with tracking so wondering what the number the buyer gave me is for. Not sure what to do. I have till the 29th before it is escalated to eBay to step in. Should I just refund them for the purchase? The buyer from Spain had asked me a few times if I ship to Spain & said no because of some problems with the postal system. They then bought the item anyway using an address from France.

If you sent it without tracking you are at the mercy of the buyer. For what is worth I ship to both countries fairly regularly and have only had maybe 1 lost package to Spain in the last 4 years. Offhand I don't recall any other issues. You can post the contents of the buyer's original message and some of us here might be able to give some input.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎06-27-2018

That website is for the postal service in France. What may have happened is once it arrived they assigned their own tracking number to the package as a reference. If you check every so often you may see an update or you can attempt to email for further delivery status. As far as I know the only way it "could" get re-directed is if the customer had a change of address on file. Have shipped a few times to France and had no issues in the past. You could try googling the address to see if it displays as being valid. Would be interested to know how they were able to give you those tracking details. Also wouldn't hurt to ask if the customer can be patient, just explaining that once it is on route you have no control and it may be just delayed in customs. Then decide if you need to refund or not.

-CM

hlmacdon · ‎06-27-2018

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
That website is for the postal service in France. What may have happened is once it arrived they assigned their own tracking number to the package as a reference. If you check every so often you may see an update or you can attempt to email for further delivery status.

-CM

The linked website uses La Poste's (and other national carriers) API to check a tracking number. In most cases sites (and others like 17track, trackitonlne, etc) like this will retrieve some information but don't show all of the same messaging/data as the actual carrier's site at times. The message you are seeing when entering it there is the default for an unrecognized (ABC1234567 returns the same result) tracking number. The reference seems to be unrelated to a tracking number as it does not correspond to a valid tracking number format according to La Poste's actual site (https://www.laposte.fr/particulier).

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎06-27-2018

This is the address I was given. I thought it sounded strange.

14 du jaizkibel hendaya 64700

14 rue du jaizkibel hendaya 64700

francia Centre 64700

France

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎06-28-2018

Was that your original mailing address or the address it's at now?

-CM

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎06-28-2018

That is the original address that the buyer in Spain gave me. I don't know where it ended up at or if it ever arrived.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎06-28-2018

By googling it, it appears to be a post office in Hendaye, France

-CM

ypdc_dennis · ‎06-28-2018

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
By googling it, it appears to be a post office in Hendaye, France

... a city next to the Spanish border ...

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎06-28-2018

Thanks for the info. Hope the post office contacts my buyer to pick up her parcel. Maybe the e-mail she received with the tracking number came from them. This is all very confusing. I will probably have to refund the buyer as I still haven't heard back from her if she received it. I don't want eBay stepping in tomorrow to review the case or I will get a strike against me. Also dealing with Spanish language & having it translated. Very frustrating.

femmefan1946 · ‎06-28-2018

I never sent it with tracking.... Should I just refund them for the purchase?

Probably.

Sigh.

Not refunding wins you a Defect, which is more expensive than your piece.

Sigh.

I did have an unresponsive buyer a while back, who did not escalate her Dispute to a Claim and I won.

Like you I had contacted her to no avail.

x fingers crossed x

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎06-28-2018

Update: Received message from buyer saying she has tried to phone the post office in France to see if her parcel is there with no success. And would I send the item to her in Spain instead. I am not a magician. Having to use Google Translate to translate Spanish to English doesn't help either. Phoned CS which was no help but at least I got to vent. I decided to just refund the money, block the buyer & hope if by some miracle she gets it she will pay me back. Would not be surprised if the parcel is returned to me. That has happened before when I shipped to Spain.

2nd-time-around-jewelry · ‎07-19-2018

So just an update on my parcel that was sent out May 25th to France. It just got returned to me today. Reason for return is it was not picked up. They wanted me to pay the return shipping cost of almost $10.00. Thankfully I know the postal clerk who is in charge & she is able to defer the cost for me.