eBay

musicyouneed · ‎07-29-2017

So far in the last 6 months, 4 parcels sent to Australia at different times took 3 months to arrive when I shipped them airmail.

One parcel to Spain, One to Germany and now today one to the Netherlands did not arrive. For the last 3 I lost $30 alone just in shipping. I can't afford to send international anymore.

I don't have that many anyways but 1 out of 4 go missing, I just can't afford it when I only make a couple of dollars on a CD. This last one was $6.99 plus $10 for shipping total 16.99. I paid $10.10 for shipping, 2.89 in fees, .75 for the envelope total $13.74 and then add in the cost of the CD, say $2.00. My profit was a whopping $1.25. I will have to sell over 10 CD's to make up for my loss just for the shipping. Now I realize I will get my fees back less 30 cents. but jeeze.

So sad but I can't afford the losses.

thewoodguy1 · ‎07-29-2017

I stopped international shipping to every country except the USA. It is the smartest move I have done on ebay. I am sure that you will find the same benefits.

All the Best,

Fred

esclyons · ‎07-29-2017

I also stopped international shipping, 3 years ago. and i have never looked back. nor do i believe it has hurt my business, not even in the slightest.. i sell usa, and canada only.. and in 3 years i have not had one person ask if i would make an exception..

musicyouneed · ‎07-29-2017

I have made an exception for Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong until there is a problem.

It is just not worth the head ache and the lost funds due to shipping and the CD's are not worth shipping with tracking which would make them too expensive.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-30-2017

The only country I have consistent problems with is the USA, due to their unfamiliarity with concepts such as 'Canada". And an expectation that Canada Post owns a time machine that will get their doohickey there overnight.

Even there not many problems.

I am a little concerned about a current shipment to AbuDhabi, since the address included the instruction "behind the Holiday Inn".

That was on the PP address.

Seriously.

I edited for the label, then got a Google Translate version of the address I was given in Arabic and taped that onto the package as well.

My profit will be more than $1.25. Fingers and toes crossed.

silverpinups · ‎07-30-2017

All International packages go with a Tracking Number, no exceptions.

Actually, all my packages go with a Tracking Number but at least it is affordable within North America. I charge 12.00USD to Canada and the USA.

I'm getting to old for the grief I might experience in sending packages without tracking......

hlmacdon · ‎07-30-2017

@musicyouneed wrote:
So far in the last 6 months, 4 parcels sent to Australia at different times took 3 months to arrive when I shipped them airmail.

One parcel to Spain, One to Germany and now today one to the Netherlands did not arrive. For the last 3 I lost $30 alone just in shipping. I can't afford to send international anymore.

I don't have that many anyways but 1 out of 4 go missing, I just can't afford it when I only make a couple of dollars on a CD. This last one was $6.99 plus $10 for shipping total 16.99. I paid $10.10 for shipping, 2.89 in fees, .75 for the envelope total $13.74 and then add in the cost of the CD, say $2.00. My profit was a whopping $1.25. I will have to sell over 10 CD's to make up for my loss just for the shipping. Now I realize I will get my fees back less 30 cents. but jeeze.

So sad but I can't afford the losses.

I'm guessing you are still using small/light packet given the higher costs of first class package relative to the items you sell? Rather than giving up entirely maybe move those to first class package international to go with your other USPS shipments? I've had one shipment issue in the last two years with USPS with no significant delays other the one misdirected shipment. Not a great time to be shipping regular airmail unfortunately as it gets zero priority for shipment or clearance with many countries. Definitely kicks you when you do the math on average profit dollars vs losses.

momcqueen · ‎07-30-2017

I thought you used USPS through a service like ChitChat? At what price does their international tracked parcels start?

Otherwise, I'd suggest you do what I did and that is to reduce and/or eliminate untracked international items.

Service with tracking has been reduced in price for Canada Post Tracked Packet if you have a Solutions for Small Business account. With a tracked service, anything aha goes of-the-rails, you can ask CPC to address and they will.

If the buyer doesn't want to pay for that, so be it. If you're already prepared to eliminate international orders, it's no loss to you.

widgetc · ‎07-30-2017

I am a little concerned about a current shipment to AbuDhabi, since the address included the instruction "behind the Holiday Inn".

I have had a dozen such addresses....to India and the middle east. All arrived safely. One read like "the little house by the pharmacy behind the great hall near the city center" ...I don't remember the details.

rose-dee · ‎07-30-2017

@musicyouneed wrote:
So far in the last 6 months, 4 parcels sent to Australia at different times took 3 months to arrive when I shipped them airmail.

I've been selling on eBay for over 10 years, using mostly non-tracked services (Light/Small Packet) until recently, and so far the only international parcel that has ever not arrived within the expected time has been to Australia, about 3 months ago. It did finally arrive, after making the rounds for over a month. In the meantime, I'd sent my buyer another identical item (she was a repeat customer that I didn't want to lose), which arrived in under 10 days. Now she has two.

If you sell small, relatively inexpensive items (like CDs or sewing patterns), using tracking for international shipments makes little sense, unless they are in so much demand that a buyer might be willing to spend $30 to get a $15 item.

I think for those of us selling such items, who historically have a fairly low international buyer volume, there are three reasonable choices:

(1) Use non-tracked international shipping (but charge what it actually costs) and absorb the occasional risk if international buyers don't make up a large portion of your market (mine are in total less than 10%);

(2) Use non-tracked shipping but restrict selling to the U.S. and Canada if that makes up the vast bulk of your sales. There seems little point in losing money or getting defects on a majority of sales in markets that make up a very small percentage of your total buyer base. You might want to leave the U.K. and western European countries on your list, depending on the demand for your items (BTW, Germany seems to be a known problem destination for some reason).

(3) Offer international shipping with tracking (Tracked Packet) only on the few items of higher value and/or high demand that you list, and charge the buyer what it actually costs to ship (i.e. don't reduce the shipping cost). If they really want it, they'll pay for shipping.

If you go with options (2) or (3), you can of course still choose to allow other international buyers to contact you for shipping quotes and decide on a case-by-case basis, depending on the country. As a seller of music CD's, you may unfortunately be somewhat more susceptible to theft in certain countries.

I personally would not advise listing tracked shipping for international on all of your items. If you're like me, with a lot of items under $25, that would make shipping higher than the item costs in most cases, which isn't going to do you much good in terms of appeal to buyers or site visibility anyway.

Shipping ... always a headache one way or the other.

cumos55 · ‎07-30-2017

There was a time ....10 and more years ago where there was no problem with shipping worldwide.... surface mail was absolutely no problem... Then gradually things changed, mainly because of what eBay was doing and buyers were following eBay's view of things

Then gradually my do not ship to list grew.

Many countries along the Mediterranean were deleted when the buyers from that country became defined as very , very anxious about when the mail would arrive.... It appeared to be the character of the buyer in certain countries of southern Europe

Then Australia, and other south Pacific countries were deleted...mainly because people were not willing to wait for surface mail.

A major push on deleting international shipping was eBay rules, and the interpretation by buyers...... more anxious frustration than anything else.

Then cam the summer of 2014......................

About 10 parcels were shipped to countries in northern Europe....All had tracking paid for but tracking stopped at Montreal for five parcels.... and the buyer got the impression the parcel never left Canada...

Could this have been due to a misunderstanding, or a mess created by summer employment at Canada Post? Tracking not being recorded

There was a problem with three parcels.... buyers were difficult... but everything eventually got resolved.

Now I ship only to Canada and the US... No more headaches..... no more frustration.

Many of the problems that sellers encounter may be due to the type of inventory a seller has for sale, and then the character of the buyer.... ready to buy that inventory.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-30-2017

"Character of the buyer"

Yes indeedy.

I've never had problems with La Poste (France), but French customers are antsy.

Australians and Scandanavians are laid back.

Americans are.... American. Mistrustful to the point of paranoia and litigious.

And my customers are people who are used to reading and following instructions.

I feel pity for sellers of fancy sneakers, motorcycle parts, and gaming equipment.

Anyone selling to young males-- historically the criminal class.

And having slurred an entire gender and age group, I'll go away for a while.

musicyouneed · ‎07-30-2017

I use chit chat and have no problems in fact it is the best service all with tracking. I have only had 2 parcels in Canada go missing in that past 4 years, if it was 1 out of 4, I'd be blocking Canada too.

momcqueen · ‎07-30-2017

My question was whether through chitchat you can offer cheaper Tracked international packages via usps.

snoopwiz · ‎07-30-2017

Never mind.

E. Latella

hlmacdon · ‎07-30-2017

@rose-dee wrote:
(2) Use non-tracked shipping but restrict selling to the U.S. and Canada if that makes up the vast bulk of your sales. There seems little point in losing money or getting defects on a majority of sales in markets that make up a very small percentage of your total buyer base. You might want to leave the U.K. and western European countries on your list, depending on the demand for your items (BTW, Germany seems to be a known problem destination for some reason).

Germany is only a problem in that customs holds and inspects packages more readily, as it pertains to collecting VAT. If you ship a package without an included invoice it will get held pending documentation from the recipient if it gets checked. That becomes an extra point of failure as a customer might see that and decide they don't want to pay the VAT and decline to proceed further, in which case your package may never get returned, or in other cases the recipient may miss a notice that an item is being held pending customs release.

momcqueen · ‎07-30-2017

I've never had that happen with a parcel shipped to Germany.

hlmacdon · ‎07-30-2017

@cumos55 wrote:

About 10 parcels were shipped to countries in northern Europe....All had tracking paid for but tracking stopped at Montreal for five parcels.... and the buyer got the impression the parcel never left Canada...

Could this have been due to a misunderstanding, or a mess created by summer employment at Canada Post? Tracking not being recorded

A lot of the challenges to international tracking have been getting scanners in the hands of postal carriers across the world as well as setting up consistent formats of data interchange between the various postal carriers. Many countries are also transitioning from using registered mail as a method for tracking parcels so that has been problematic as well as their processes were geared around registered mail. Even today, a scan rate success of 9 out of 10 is the benchmark for what is considered acceptable by the postal services. The other problem is that most "tracked" services are not really using tracking, but rather delivery confirmation which only includes what is referred to as milestone scans, which are exit from customs in destination country and delivery. The time gap between customs release for export in sender country to customs release in recipient country is usually where the problems with anxious/nervous buyers begin as there can be weeks between updates while an item sits waiting for custom clearance. Since an inbound into customs scan is not guaranteed the buyer is none the wiser and assumes the package is lost. I've found that explaining this point of differentiation to customers can help in situations where panic arises.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-30-2017

I'm curious too why you don't send international packages via first class international at least for the places that have first class delcon which has delivery confirmation. It would be about $14US to most countries for up to 8 ounces / 226 grams. It is a bit more expensive than light packet but that comes out of the buyer's pocket, not yours. If you aren't familiar with first class delcon, here is some information.

https://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immc2_022.htm