07-22-2013 10:32 PM
I have an item that I sell world wide. Recently I got great reviews from a German forum and sales started to soar. Because shipping to Germany cost a little fortune. I started getting disputes for item not received on a regular basis. To my surprise they are ALL from German buyers. Germany has these ridiculous customs laws and they hold packages for extended periods of time. This causes my customers to open disputes and obviously, I lose because the customer did not select the tracked package option.
I contacted eBay and because I called after 5:00pm EST, I was put on the Asian queue. Obviously they don't know what they are talking about so here I am.
My question is: I offer standard and tracking shipping option around the world. Is it possible to single out Germany so that they can ONLY choose the tracked package option? In the shipping optoins, there is Europe and Germany. But if I uncheck Germany, it still appears because it is part of Europe.
How did eBay engineers manage to overlook something as simple as selecting by continent with a sub menu to display the country?
In the exclusion list, all countries appear. Why not for shipping too?
Thanks
Solved! Go to Solution.
07-25-2013 02:22 AM
I'm just going to cut to the chase here.
If you send a tracked item to Germany and the item gets caught up in customs for an extended period of time, a buyer will still likely prevail in a claim of non-delivery.
Why? Because the tracking won't show delivery.
You're not losing claims because you're sending your items without tracking. You're losing claims because your buyers haven't received their items in what they believe is a reasonable amount of time. If they're used to buying domestically or even within the European Union, they're probably unaccustomed to customs delays. (Unaccustomed? Customs? Bleh.)
Sure, you may be able to appeal the claim if the tracking shows delivery after the buyer's money is returned, but you may be able to do something that's less effort with your untracked packages, which is give your German buyers a heads-up over delays with non-E.U. shipments and instruct them to let you (not PayPal) know when the item hasn't been received in, say, three weeks (or whatever timeframe you think is realistic) after payment. If you get a message at that point, return the buyer's money and instruct them at that time to repay you if and when the item has arrived.
07-26-2013 12:51 PM
The previous poster makes some good points, but I'd like to add another suggestion for your consideration, since I do ship to Germany fairly often.
I can't quite figure out what it is you're selling from the pictures in your listings - some sort of electronic gizmos with lots of coloured components (LOL), but you're in a bit of a difficult price range in terms of deciding what shipping service to use to Germany. I find it hard to justify tracked shipping to Europe for anything under about $100.
My advice would be to follow the previous poster's recommendations for items that you cannot afford to ship with tracking, but when you do use tracking, check on the parcel's progress after about 2 weeks has passed and send the customer a quick email update. The ideal point to do this is when you can see the notation that "item has entered foreign country" -- let the buyer know the parcel has arrived in Germany and is likely being processed by customs, and assure the buyer you will refund him if he does not receive it within the following 2 weeks, and be prepared to refund if necessary. That still gives the buyer time to open a case if he/she feels it's warranted, and you can ask the buyer to return the refund as soon as (don't say "if" ) the item arrives.
I also usually include a quick note to the buyer when I send the item saying something along the lines of: "Canada Post estimates delivery to Germany at about _____ days, but this does not include processing time by German Customs, which can be an additional week or two during busy periods". This gives the buyer some idea of the expected timeline.
The bottom line is that I find that keeping in touch with my German (or other European) customers is the best way to fend off issues before they occur. If it's any consolation, I've never yet had a parcel go astray, tracked or untracked.
Good luck - I know, shipping to Europe is such a headache, and SO expensive!
07-25-2013 02:22 AM
I'm just going to cut to the chase here.
If you send a tracked item to Germany and the item gets caught up in customs for an extended period of time, a buyer will still likely prevail in a claim of non-delivery.
Why? Because the tracking won't show delivery.
You're not losing claims because you're sending your items without tracking. You're losing claims because your buyers haven't received their items in what they believe is a reasonable amount of time. If they're used to buying domestically or even within the European Union, they're probably unaccustomed to customs delays. (Unaccustomed? Customs? Bleh.)
Sure, you may be able to appeal the claim if the tracking shows delivery after the buyer's money is returned, but you may be able to do something that's less effort with your untracked packages, which is give your German buyers a heads-up over delays with non-E.U. shipments and instruct them to let you (not PayPal) know when the item hasn't been received in, say, three weeks (or whatever timeframe you think is realistic) after payment. If you get a message at that point, return the buyer's money and instruct them at that time to repay you if and when the item has arrived.
07-26-2013 12:51 PM
The previous poster makes some good points, but I'd like to add another suggestion for your consideration, since I do ship to Germany fairly often.
I can't quite figure out what it is you're selling from the pictures in your listings - some sort of electronic gizmos with lots of coloured components (LOL), but you're in a bit of a difficult price range in terms of deciding what shipping service to use to Germany. I find it hard to justify tracked shipping to Europe for anything under about $100.
My advice would be to follow the previous poster's recommendations for items that you cannot afford to ship with tracking, but when you do use tracking, check on the parcel's progress after about 2 weeks has passed and send the customer a quick email update. The ideal point to do this is when you can see the notation that "item has entered foreign country" -- let the buyer know the parcel has arrived in Germany and is likely being processed by customs, and assure the buyer you will refund him if he does not receive it within the following 2 weeks, and be prepared to refund if necessary. That still gives the buyer time to open a case if he/she feels it's warranted, and you can ask the buyer to return the refund as soon as (don't say "if" ) the item arrives.
I also usually include a quick note to the buyer when I send the item saying something along the lines of: "Canada Post estimates delivery to Germany at about _____ days, but this does not include processing time by German Customs, which can be an additional week or two during busy periods". This gives the buyer some idea of the expected timeline.
The bottom line is that I find that keeping in touch with my German (or other European) customers is the best way to fend off issues before they occur. If it's any consolation, I've never yet had a parcel go astray, tracked or untracked.
Good luck - I know, shipping to Europe is such a headache, and SO expensive!
07-30-2013 11:14 PM
07-30-2013 11:57 PM
As has been mentioned somewhere on another thread, sometimes buyers leave feedback in error. There's no way to know for sure if the buyer intended that feedback for you or another seller.
That's why eBay/PayPal want some sort of proof of delivery from a party independent from the sale, in this case from the shipper the seller chose.
09-09-2013 03:21 PM
I always found shipping to Germany very slow in clearing Customs, as much as 5 weeks.