@worrly wrote:
Oh, I so didn't need to hear that after she finally paid!
Did you send Small Packet? I have this rationalization that Light Packet is more likely to get there than Small Packet due to different sorting stream.
What kind of items are you sending her, and what is their value? You may be right about Light Packet -- I've found these get to Europe very quickly. I personally have never had a problem with Belgium.
If the item isn't worth sending with tracking/insurance, you'll just have to take your chances. If the item is of mid-range value (say, $50-100) and lightweight, check the Tracked Packet rates to see if that service would be workable (you do get a small discount if you use Paypal labelling). You might want to only charge her for Light Packet, but actually pay for Tracked Packet if you're really concerned about non-delivery or bad DSRs from this buyer.
You know, your buyer may not be stupid, but just uninitiated in the ways of buying internationally on eBay. Her comment about time zones, all the confusion over invoices and not understanding how to pay tell me that she is a mixed up newbie and not trying to deliberately rip you off.
Remember, you are in Vancouver and she's a half-day ahead of you. That can make communication very awkward. You may send a message during your business hours, but it may already be the middle of the night in Europe at that point, and it might be the following evening before your buyer can get home from work and check her messages. That's quite common, and quite reasonable.
When I lived in Victoria, with my European buyers I allowed 48 hours for any one message to be received, and another 48 for a reply, so 4 days for one "round trip" message. If you've had a couple of rounds of emails from Vancouver to Belgium, it's not unusual to take a week or more to get to the point of payment.
So, that being said, now that your buyer has in fact paid (and has already hinted at a complaint about communications), I'd say your main strategy should be to avoid any further issues, and turn your frustrated buyer into a happy buyer. If your DSRs are important to you, I'd do the following:
1) Contact her again by email, and keep it very friendly and very professional. If you're certain that eBay messaging is getting through to her, stick to that system. Don't let your anger seep into the messages. Thank her for her payment(s), apologize sincerely for the confusion, and let her know the date you send her parcel, and the date she can expect to receive it (add 7 days to the Canada Post estimate, at least). I tell my European buyers to expect 3 weeks, including customs processing by their own country. Usually it takes about 6 to 8 business days, but I never say so -- I prefer to let them be pleasantly surprised.
2) In your email, ask her to contact you should the parcel not arrive in 4 weeks -- actually, provide an exact date, for example April 30th. Be prepared to refund in the event of an INR claim.
3) When you send the parcel, tuck in a little personal note of thanks and apology for the confusion. Print the note from your computer if you like, but sign it with your own first name, in pen. If you really want to try and smooth things over with this buyer, prepare your note in English and use Google's online translation to convert it to (more or less intelligible) French. Then print out the bilingual note and sign it. (You can also provide a translation of the email in #1) above, to really cover things off).
4) Remember to allow 3 to 4 days for any round-trip email message/reply.
4) Once you get past about 6 weeks, if you haven't received any FB/DSRs, you can rest easy and probably assume she received her parcel. If she slams you in her FB/DSRs, you can't do much about it, but you can leave factual, calm responses to the FB.
You can also decide to block her once you're far enough out from the transaction. I'd be careful about blocking while the buyer may still be able to leave FB/DSRs. Also, if you have your preferences set to prevent blocked buyers from messaging you, that could enrage an already slightly upset and confused buyer. I'd wait until the transaction is completely closed.
