Mailing to Russia. I made a poor decision

[roboscoop-dog]

In  a moment of greed I accepted an offer for a computer from a person in Russia. I really don't feel very good mailing something so expensive all that way. I hear their postal system is unreliable.

Even worse I made up a shipping cost on the spot when I made the listing but forgot later to find a real quote. So it will cost about $250 Canadian to mail it out there, which is far more than I charged him.

Between that and the substantial cut that ebay will take, I am set to lose hundreds on dollars on this sale. I would like to cancel the order, even though all of this is my own mistake. Do you think Ebay will suspend my account or anything such as that?  What would you do?

[pjcdn2005]

I don’t see the listing but if the item plus shipping is $850C or more, you have to send with signature confirmation which is only available with a few services overseas.  Even if you can send without a signature,  I’m sure that it won’t be cheap.  As you  found out, it is not a good idea to estimate your shipping costs on your listings.

If this is your only recent cancellation, you will likely get an out of stock defect which isn’t a good thing but it won’t affect your account unless you gave other defects.  Check your seller dashboard to see if you have any defects so far.   There should be a link on the left side of that page that tells you what the threshold are for defects etc.  

Although I have shipped to Russia a few times without any problems, I probably would not ship any electronics there as they do tend to attract scammers from certain countries.  I would limit listings like that to Canada and the US.

A far as getting your eBay fees back..as far as I know, eBay will credit them for an out of stock cancellation but as I’ve never done one,   perhaps someone could confirm or deny that??  

tyler@ebay  I have heard of situations where a buyer is asked to agree to a cancellation and the buyer disagreed so the seller was not credited their fees.  Could that happen with an OOS cancellation?  It seems that buyers only get asked if they agree to a cancellation on certain situations do I’m not sure how that works.

[roboscoop-dog]

Thank you that is helpful information. I have no "defects" so I guess I might survive this. 

It hadn't occurred to me that Ebay might keep the fees, though! A new thing to bite my nails about....

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I think you can cancel the transaction & pick for the reason "problem with address".  I have done that before as I don't ship to certain countries.  I didn't have any problems with getting a defect & I got my all my fees refunded back.

[silverpinups]

Do Not Ship that Computer to Russia. You are going to get SCAMMED.

Even if you send the package with Tracking and Signature Confirmation the buyer will file a "item not as described" (INAD) claim when he/she receives it. You will then be responsible for paying the buyers return shipping. Even if the buyer sends the computer (laptop) back they will probably send back some broken down computer or a box of rocks and keep your computer and still receive a full refund!    

So you be out $$ for shipping both ways and the computer!!   

Scammers like to prey on new sellers with low feedback and limited experience especially when their selling computers, smart phones etc..... 

I highly recommend taking the hit on this one. In the future only ship to Canada and the USA until you get a feel for selling and shipping costs. 

[tyler@ebay · Accepted solution]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

I don’t see the listing but if the item plus shipping is $850C or more, you have to send with signature confirmation which is only available with a few services overseas.  Even if you can send without a signature,  I’m sure that it won’t be cheap.  As you  found out, it is not a good idea to estimate your shipping costs on your listings.

If this is your only recent cancellation, you will likely get an out of stock defect which isn’t a good thing but it won’t affect your account unless you gave other defects.  Check your seller dashboard to see if you have any defects so far.   There should be a link on the left side of that page that tells you what the threshold are for defects etc.  

Although I have shipped to Russia a few times without any problems, I probably would not ship any electronics there as they do tend to attract scammers from certain countries.  I would limit listings like that to Canada and the US.

A far as getting your eBay fees back..as far as I know, eBay will credit them for an out of stock cancellation but as I’ve never done one,   perhaps someone could confirm or deny that??  

tyler@ebay  I have heard of situations where a buyer is asked to agree to a cancellation and the buyer disagreed so the seller was not credited their fees.  Could that happen with an OOS cancellation?  It seems that buyers only get asked if they agree to a cancellation on certain situations do I’m not sure how that works.

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Thanks for the tag @pjcdn2005! To address your specific question, that cancellation flow is very old and not something that anyone should be encountering (though it is still used in a few cases). This shouldn't be an issue for the OP.

Hi @roboscoop-dog - PJ gave you solid advice: you can cancel the transaction as 'Out of stock or unable to fulfill'. While this will give your account a transaction defect, and a potential negative feedback from the buyer, it may be worth it if the alternative is looking at such a negative financial impact. If you cancel the transaction through eBay your Final Value Fees will be credited automatically. Thanks!

[reallynicestamps]

Go immediately to your listings and Revise all of them to block international addresses.

You should not be shipping internationally until you have at least 10 DSRs, know what DSRs are, and understand why they are irrelevant.

Right now, you are showing willing to ship to Burkino Faso.  For $30. But you really don't.

Near the bottom of the Advanced/Business Sell Your Item form* there is a link that allows you to exclude  countries and even entire continents.

The exclusion list will mean that members in those countries won't be able to see your listings.

With the possible exception of  the United States, don't ship internationally until you have more experience.

You should also know that we pay a premium to sell outside of Canada.

At home in addition to the non-refundable 30c service fee, we pay 2,9% to Paypal .

For US account payments we pay 3.4% and for overseas account payments we pay 3.9%.

(This is slightly better than our US competitors who pay 4.4% on ALL foreign payments.)

The reason this is worth noting is that many overseas buyers, particularly in sketchey countries like Russia, use freight forwarders. For sellers this is a Good Thing.  We ship to the forwarder (usually in the USA) and our responsibility for delivery ends at their plant.
However, we will still be charged PP fees for the foreign payment.

*You can switch from the horrible Simplified form by looking around for the link at the top right of the Simple-minded form.

[roboscoop-dog]

Thank you very much everyone. There is lots of solid advice here. I feel silly for going down this road in the first place as my gut feeling told me to avoid it.

 I never knew where to restrict countries on my listing, so thank you for the instructions for that as well. 

Now I have to think of what to say to the guy, just in case he's actually honest!

[silverpinups]

"Now I have to think of what to say to the guy, just in case he's actually honest!"

Do not communicate with the buyer. Just cancel the transaction as "out of stock" and take the defect. Please insure you change your ship to locations to only Canada and the USA. Exclude the rest of the world. Good Luck!