eBay

rio1953 · ‎11-12-2015

I did everything right, double box my item, send it by courier overseas, pay for insurance and....

i just got contacted by the buyer to inform me that the item which is a statue has had the original box torn and there is a small hole

drilled in its back. I have contacted the shipping courier which is asking for pictures but at the same time tells me that it may have been done by custom. Has anybody ever heard or dealt with something like this? What are my recourses? How can they ruin a piece of art....

please any Input, suggestions,help will be greatly appreciated.

treasure.hunter.d · ‎11-12-2015

@rio1953 wrote:
I did everything right, double box my item, send it by courier overseas, pay for insurance and....
i just got contacted by the buyer to inform me that the item which is a statue has had the original box torn and there is a small hole
drilled in its back. I have contacted the shipping courier which is asking for pictures but at the same time tells me that it may have been done by custom. Has anybody ever heard or dealt with something like this? What are my recourses? How can they ruin a piece of art....
please any Input, suggestions,help will be greatly appreciated.

Customs, in most countries, can open anything coming into the country at will. They have absolutely no requirements whatsoever to show care and caution with the items. I have had a box of porcelain opened, every piece unwrapped and then the lot thrown back in the box still unwrapped and the box taped closed and delivered to me.

You will be completely at the mercy of the carrier and whatever terms and conditions you agreed to when you shipped the package. Most people, from my experience, don't bother to read those terms but it's situations like this that you only have to go through once and you will never forget to read those terms or blow them off ever again.

Anyway, give the courier whatever they ask for in terms of evidence of the damage. If you have any receipts for the original purchase of the item that will really help in setting a value for a claim if you get to that point. Any photos that can be date verified showing recent condition of the item will be very helpful as well.

Remember, you are at the mercy of the courier so as upset as you might get bepolite and calm with them or they can quite easily send you packing with nothing.

Now, once the courier business is settled, if you end up on the bad end of things, if PayPal was involved in this you can contact them and go over the incident, they may be able to help with compensation. As you say, you packaged the item very carefully, sent it via courier vs post, all the diligence that anyone could ask, so this is not your fault. I have had similar situations in the past and PayPal has been very helpful if presented with all of the relevant documentation in a nice package so that it is easy for them to see how hard you worked to make this a positive experience for your buyer.

Best of luck with this and let us know how you make out.

Cheers,

thD

rio1953 · ‎11-12-2015

I have asked the buyer to send pictures. He wants my email address to send them.

I requested that he sends them through eBay, to keep everything here.

Should I have him send those pics. to my email?

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎11-12-2015

eBay Messages allows your buyer to send up to 5 photos as attachments. It is wise to have all correspondence come through eBay so they can review it if necessary. It may be a good idea to have them sent to your email as well, since you may need to forward these to the shipping courier - I don't know if you can copy photos sent through eBay Messages.

momcqueen · ‎11-12-2015

Customs may have thought your 'statue' was merely a vessel through which to smuggle contraband. What was the destination?

Get the photos sent to you via ebay Messages so that ebay has a record of it.

They will be poor resolution.

Ask for a second set of the damage to be sent to your email for the courier to see. They will want to see what happened.

Couriers are *supposed to* act as Customs Brokers for you so that this kind of thing does not happen.

Best of luck. I'm sorry to hear this happened for you.

Be polite with your buyers as I am certain he or she is just as upset as you are. Promise to do whatever needs to be done to see they get their money back. It is up to you as a seller to file a claim with the courier but the buyer cannot be expected to wait for the resolution there. It could be weeks.

momcqueen · ‎11-12-2015

Oh. My. Gosh.

Was this the Giuseppe Armani 2001 The Deposition of Christ L.E. 22/5000 Signed NIB with COA?

I'm having heart palpitations just looking at your list of Ship-to Destinations. May I suggest you cull most of the high-risk ones in future? That may help in the long-term for you.

cumos55 · ‎11-12-2015

The TV show .... Border Security ... Customs personnel....Canada, Australia and New Zealand.... has been a real experience.

Customs will do just about anything to find something illegal....

Things are opened.... drilled and whatever....

and it never ceases to amaze one what is found.... as to how things get hidden... and what was hidden

Customs will do a wipe and test of an item to find if there was contact with drugs... of any kind.

They will X-ray... and if it looks very strange on the X-ray... they will drill as most likely happened in this situation...

Even some very minor... just by chance contact ....with an illegal drug.... makes customs personnel suspicious.

and... in today's world... by chance contact...... is highly probable..

Contact with drugs.... previous owner... incidental contact.... packing materials... the box..... even contact in transit that cannot be controlled..

and then there is always the possibility of a false positive.....perhaps...

rio1953 · ‎11-12-2015

Yes that is the item and it wasn't going to a third world country but to Malta, which is a British Island off the coast of Italy and being shipped from a Country( Canada) that is not a hot spot for smuggling.

That statue has been in my possession since I bought it from a retail store, here in Canada.

I don't know what they could have found so suspicious to warrant a treatment like that.

It is made of the same material as any other statue and no openings to put something inside.

Please I need some input/information on how to proceed to make it right for me and the buyer.

I would especially like to hear from sellers that have found themselves in a similar situation.

Thanks.

treasure.hunter.d · ‎11-12-2015

@rio1953 wrote:

Please I need some input/information on how to proceed to make it right for me and the buyer.
I would especially like to hear from sellers that have found themselves in a similar situation.
Thanks.

I have been through similar situations several times.

Your only recourse at the moment is to deal with the courier company under the terms and conditions that you agreed to when shipping the item. If they allow you to open a claim they will tell you what steps to take and what information (proof of damage etc) they need to proceed.

You are on the hook to refund the buyer obviously once they have supplied the pics showing the damage. The only question on this is if the buyer will give you a little room to breathe to deal with the carrier to see if you can get compensation from them before refunding the buyer. Just be up front with the buyer and tell tham that is what you are doing. If they agree then great, if not well then you'll have to refund them and work on getting compensation for yourself.

If the carrier will not compensate you then contact PayPal (if they were involved in this transaction) and explain the situation. They may be able to help. Obviously this is not your fault so you do not deserve to be out the money and the merch.

It's pretty straightforward...Again, start with the carrier and go from there. I would start with reviewing what terms and conditions you agreed to when shipping the item. Most carriers have pretty clear terms regarding fragile items.

best of luck.

thD

momcqueen · ‎11-12-2015

I realize this is a stressful situation for you. It might be best to contact eBay Customer Service. If the item were intercepted by Customs, it could also be due to its intended recipient. We have no idea, most of us have never been in this situation before. We are a relatively small base of members here on the eBay Canada community. If you pose this same scenario on the US eBay discussion board with its greater numbers of sellers, you might find a better answer. I do know that the group will do its best to help. There are a number of experienced sellers who post later into the evening and overnight who will have insight to share. Of that I am sure.

momcqueen · ‎11-12-2015

(Notwithstanding thD who is clearly knowledgeable on this. Take that advice to start.)

rio1953 · ‎11-12-2015

What about getting the item back?

shouldn't the buyer send it back in order to get a refund? And who is responsible for the return expense?

femmefan1946 · ‎11-13-2015

Yes the buyer should return it.

Assume it will be you, pray that the buyer assumes it will be him, try to negotiate going halvsies.

EBay may tell the buyer that you will send a return shipping label. This is not possible. Just not. Neither couriers nor postal systems have a way of doing this internationally.

So return shipping will certainly be paid by the buyer, trusting that you will repay him when it arrives.

Don't forget to have him mark it 'Returned Merchandise" so you don't have a fight with CBSA.

treasure.hunter.d · ‎11-13-2015

@rio1953 wrote:
What about getting the item back?
shouldn't the buyer send it back in order to get a refund? And who is responsible for the return expense?

At this point I really wouldn't be worrying about getting the item back. Provided the buyer provides documentation of the damage that satisfies both you and the carrier of the veracity of the damage claim then what point is there to getting back a damaged item. Not to mention the fact that any buyer with half a brain is not going to pay one red cent to return the item and why would they?

In the event that the carrier pays out on a damage claim, you no longer own the item (nor does the buyer) so they may well request that the item be returned to them and if so they will definitely supply a return shipping label to the buyer to facilitate that.

So taking all of that into account, and given that the buyer supplies everything that satisfies your, and the carrier's needs in so far as again the veracity of the claim and the integrity of the buyer, there is really no point in worrying about the return of the item at this point.

IMHO anyway.

Cheers,

thD

momcqueen · ‎11-13-2015

Shouldn't the seller want to see this him- or herself to verify it is in fact their exact item that was damaged? To rule out absolute any chance this is a switch-out of an item previously damaged for theirs? I realize it's a rare and valuable statue but it's also one that is numbered. It would not be the first time that someone turned to eBay to find a replacement for something damaged.... and then returned to a different seller. Who better than someone in another country? Unlikely, I realize, but still within the realm of possibility. There are 2000 of these statues out there? 1999 now.

momcqueen · ‎11-13-2015

Pardon my error: 5000 were made and signed. What if this is a fake? Drilled with a hole for the expresses purposes of claims such as this? Photographs can be altered.

treasure.hunter.d · ‎11-13-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:
Shouldn't the seller want to see this him- or herself to verify it is in fact their exact item that was damaged? To rule out absolute any chance this is a switch-out of an item previously damaged for theirs? I realize it's a rare and valuable statue but it's also one that is numbered. It would not be the first time that someone turned to eBay to find a replacement for something damaged.... and then returned to a different seller. Who better than someone in another country? Unlikely, I realize, but still within the realm of possibility. There are 2000 of these statues out there? 1999 now.

Yes you are definitely right but this is where the photos come in and the interaction with and/or history of the buyer. Between the photos documenting the damage and the behavior of the buyer , I would be assessing how I feel about what is going on.

Also, I'm not completely negating the possibility of the return of the item because if the whole situation goes south regarding compensation from the carrier or PayPal you will want the item sent back at that point but for now, at this moment in time while this other stuff is being sorted out, I don't think it's necessary to worry about the return of the item.

Cheers,

thD

treasure.hunter.d · ‎11-13-2015

@mjwl2006 wrote:
Pardon my error: 5000 were made and signed. What if this is a fake? Drilled with a hole for the expresses purposes of claims such as this? Photographs can be altered.

I realized that I missed mentioning one thing in regards to the return of the item.

Part of the process of verifying the veracity of the damage claim will be to mention the possibility of the need to return the item and see what kind of reaction you get from the buyer.

Beyond that, I wouldn't wory to much about the return until the rest of the situation sorts out.

Cheers,

thD

momcqueen · ‎11-13-2015

Thank you for your insight and advice on behalf of all of us here. The Original Poster is in the throes of experiencing, I think, the worst possible thing that can happen to a seller on ebay. (Short of agreeing to a Local Cash on Pick-up and instead being robbed at gunpoint on your doorstep.) I would hope we are giving him or her the best possible advice.