Scammer Beware!!

[eotru-0]

Beware...Buyer is a Scammer who preys on Letter mail sellers knowing there is no tracking... first purchases items then clames not recieving items for full refunds.

[femmefan1946]

We face a tough choice given Canada Post's high tracking costs.

We can pay 92c for LetterPost  and trust that our customers will receive their purchases and happily leave feedback.

Or we can charge $12 or more dollars for tracked Parcel service and get fewer sales.

We all have to do the math.

When you look at all the sales you made last year, did you lose more in (possibly) false Not Delivered claims than you made in profits on your sales shipped without tracking?

You have to decide when your Free Shipping is only going to be enough to cover the cost of LetterMail- reasonable on a $10 DVD or will be Expedited Canada or Tracked Packet USA with the $15 or so shipping included in the $75 charge for the movie.

Remember Free Shipping just means you are including the cost of shipping in the asking price.

You might also look into using a freight forwarder like chitchatexpress or stallionexpress if one of those is near you.

(They are not useful to me, but others are very happy with their service.)

These companies accept your packages (for a fee) and carry them across the border to take advantage of cheaper tracked USPS rates.

[teenytrinkets]

Hopefully you've left follow-up fb to warn other sellers,  and reported to ebay. I really wish ebay had a setting to auto-block buyers with an excessive INR / INAD rate!

[femmefan1946]

Most sellers never see feedback.

Only about 15% of listings are Auction, where the auctioneer can see the bidder's ID before he buys. Even then most Auctions receive bids in the last few minutes of the Auction, which does not give the auctioneer enough time to react.

And if the listing is Fixed Price or Buy It Now, the seller meets the customer when he buys.

We do occasionally hear from buyers who have been told they cannot use the Money Back Guarantee, but between being unwilling to admit that embarrassing fact, and the possiblity that their account has been completely shut down, it's not often.

It's the time between the first scam and the last that is too long.

[parts_and_diecasts]

live from beautiful Victoria, BC "where people sleep at night and rest during the day" - a play on the fact that it's mainly a retirement community and government jobs

don't worry, my Vancouver colleagues never cease to remind me that the sun revolves around Vancouver (despite our head office being in Toronto), only speaking in PST terms, not wanting meeting before noon, but late Friday afternoon EST time is OK

[reallynicestamps]

I actually live in the suburb of Oak Bay, where the catchphrase is "where seniors go to visit their grandparents".

[parts_and_diecasts]

I spit out my coffee, had a good laugh 😀

 @femmefan1946 made it it known that he/she lives in Victoria, BC where unfortunately Chit Chats service is  unavailable (yet?). He/She is a trooper for recommending the service despite not being able to benefit from it. 

[jimmy_wg]

Well, buyer who did it will be directly pulled into my block list . so they can not buy anything from my store until they return the "not received " item. i met too many scammer that reported not received but never reply my message about my refund policy. they can create another new account but i also set limit for "fresh new" buyer.

[danbullion]

I would like to know if we can share with each other the buyer user names of all the people who have scammed us. Then as a collective community we can block those troublesome buyers from purchasing from anyone of us? Any eBay employee's able to reply?

I sell old silver currency/bullion and there is a lot theft happening to me and other sellers when we send by a cheap stamp.

[rocketscollectibles]

No we can't. Because most cases are based on assumptions and we only have one side of the transaction. The number of times i seen people screaming about scams while it was not, or while they had no real proofs about it. I can't count. Exactly like here. You can't even know when you ship untracked if it's a false claim or if a buyer really did not received it. Mail lost, adress mistake, porch thief, etc, lot of things exist. I myself experienced a few orders undelivered by buying lettermail. Not every item not received is a false claim. 

[fh991586]

No, you can't share that type of information on the boards here.
Furthermore, this is a zombie thread...

[byto253]

Yup, Zombie thread.   

One thing I do is NEVER say lettermail, just list it as generic economy shipping as that provides lots of time for delivery.

[reallynicestamps]

@byto253  gives good advice.

If you choose to ship without tracking, you put yourself at risk of being scammed .

How often it actually happens depends on the category. Coins are a high risk category, so are sportscards.

Disguising the shipping method is a basic protection. Putting the cost of shipping (which is a tell) into the cost of the item (aka Free Shipping) is another.

And being willing  to upgrade to a tracked service from time to time if your Spidey Senses are tingling.

Do the math.

If you lose one item out of 100, you are in the same position as most retailers.

If you lose 10 out of 100, that's bad, but it might be the norm for numismatics.

Then you have to decide whether you raise your prices (the price being both asking and shipping) to  track more often, raising your costs to a minimum of $12 per shipment , or continue to go commando but add Cookie Jar Insurance.

CJI just means adding a small amount* to every purchase to cover the occasional loss. Those pennies or dimes go in a virtual Cookie Jar, and when you have a  Claim, true or false, you pay out of the Cookie Jar.

*Yes it's a self-insurance premium, but Cookie Jar Insurance is more memorable.