American claiming refund - Once again

I made a post like 2-3 months ago about starting to notice a tendency from americans to claim INR refunds. Always the $40-60 packages range. Funny it's never cheap orders. Well it's still actuality. It starts to be a problem. Today i got a claim on a $50 order, once again an american. Always the same pattern. They open a case without contacting. They claim a refund and not their order. Same similar wording asking for tracking number everytime. Like they know exactly what they are doing. Then ghost after refund. Never had a single payback. It's always, always, always the same pattern. I started noticing a clear false claims issue from americans past months. At least from what i experience. 

 

I start to have a ratio of around 9 claims US for each 1 claim CAN. It's not normal. I'm about to add a few bucks of shipping to US as a 'scam tax' to cover this new tendency i'm facing. I wonder if anyone shipping lettermail/letterpost with a good pace of sales notice this tendency too?

 

 

Message 1 of 29
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Re: American claiming refund - Once again

Glad to help.
Message 21 of 29
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Re: American claiming refund - Once again

I think i'm going to jail. 

Message 22 of 29
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Re: American claiming refund - Once again

I'll SELL you a "get out of Jail free card" after 30 days LOL!

Message 23 of 29
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Re: American claiming refund - Once again

If I recall, you sell trading cards and trading card accessories. Smaller items. 

 

Assuming your lettermail cost to the USA is $3.19, the marginal cost to ship Chit Chats Express is going to be about $5.00. 

 

If you are frustrated, the only solution is to go with tracking and find a way to structure the price to lower the sticker shock. I would consider baking the Canadian shipping cost into the BIN price of your items, and then charging USA buyers the difference for shipping. So instead of selling a $5 item for $5+$2 in Canada or $5+$8 to the USA, sell it for $7+$0 in Canada or $7+$6 to the USA. 

 

Experiment with this for a month and see if your US orders remain steady enough, even with the raised overall price. 

 

What I find with USA customers is that unless you sell something very niche that they cannot get somewhere else, price is not always the top concern. Usually it's placement that attracts them, as in your item is the first one they see. I say this because it is almost always cheaper for someone in the USA to buy domestically, not from Canada. If they are already paying more to buy from you, a few extra dollars for tracking might not dissuade them. 

 

The number I would be interested in is not how many claims you get when comparing USA orders to Canadian orders, but how many USA claims you get per order to the USA. Are you getting 1 claim in every 10 orders, 20 orders, 30 orders? How much are you actually losing in terms of the cost of the product and the cost of shipping and supplies? 

 

While I would never advocate for sending goods to the USA via lettermail, I also understand you're not asking people whether you should or shouldn't do that. You're unlikely to find a business model with tracking that can compete with those kind of savings - so your option would be to add tracking because making a bit less money overall is worth it to you in order to eliminate the hassle of dealing with INR cases, or to continue getting your current rate of INR cases.

 

I would at least experiment with different price points that allow you to include tracking and see how much it actually costs in terms of lowering your margin or lowering your volume of sales if you have to raise your price. 

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Re: American claiming refund - Once again

 

   Thanks. I think you make a good point. Having a brick & mortar retail store wasn't without its safety choices.

 

   After my 2nd late nite break in my building owner thought it was one of his enemies. He started sleeping above my store with a shotgun. When the alarm went off again I didn't want to attend. The police usually took forever to get there and  was a chance  I might accidentally get shot by the building owner.

 

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Re: American claiming refund - Once again

Hi @reallynicestamps 

Thanks for your input.

Going to the trouble of reading a poster's question, then going to their posting id and then sending the poster a request for access to their blocked information is never going to happen in a public forum.

 

It's way too much trouble. Unless the poster knows you they will respond with a negative. 

 

I sell about 95% to the States. To help with this  question  I need to look at the widgets quickly to see if I could relate.  Would you post a listing on eBay without any pictures and expect buyers to msg you 1st? 

 

 

 

Message 26 of 29
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Re: American claiming refund - Once again

Got another claim from an american today. Same pattern. No communication at all and just straight open a case. Claim refund and not the order. Show none interest in receiving the order. Concerning tendency.

 

First case in this thread was a bubble mailer, this one was a white envelope. There is also many orders i shipped to US past month that were delivered. I'm pretty sure it's not cross border issues. 

Message 27 of 29
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Re: American claiming refund - Once again

What's going on with US buyers? Received my first negative feedbacks right now, after 2 years selling and over 2000 sales. The order was placed only 5 business days ago. Marked as shipped same day. Buyer jumped in the middle of the night a saturday to leave a negative about not receiving his order. Estimated delivery is in 2 weeks... Easy removal but US buyers are getting insane. Every single problem i have is a US buyer. It's back to back to back right now. While i did not changed anything in my selling pratices. 

Message 28 of 29
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Re: American claiming refund - Once again

it's that domino affect...or perhaps disgruntled buyers run in packs like wolves...

Message 29 of 29
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