New Accounts Placing Orders, and Not Paying

[videotimeplus]

I have noticed this past week that 2 new accounts (one made the day of the "sale" and the other back in May) have each placed an order, but have not paid yet. One was a few days ago and one yesterday. They are both far away countries (China and South Africa). I suspect that they will not end up paying so I was wondering how long they have to pay and what action I can take if they do not pay in that time frame?

[reallynicestamps · Accepted solution]

I had a buyer in Turkey who was unable to pay recently.
I know Turkey does not allow Paypal for some reason, but I could see no other problem.

After four days (96 hours) we can open an Unpaid Item claim and have the transaction ended, any fees returned, and the deadbeat gets a Strike.

I gave him a week's grace, but then went for the claim.

[videotimeplus]

Awesome, thank you. I will wait a bit to give them the benefit of the doubt and then do the claim. 

[sapphyres-designer-jewellery]

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@videotimeplus wrote:

Awesome, thank you. I will wait a bit to give them the benefit of the doubt and then do the claim. 

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What I do when the buyer has higher feedback is send them a courtesy note to ask them when they'll make payment. Sometimes they reply of problems they're having or delays.

If it's low feedback or zero, I don't usually do that and just cancel after 96 hours like I'm allowed to.

C.

[easoss]

Best way to avoid this problem is to not sell to China or South Africa. I sell to Canada, the US ( and that's wobbly at the moment) and the UK with exceptions for a few other countries (mostly on smaller items). Shipping to Asia (except Japan),  South America and most of mainland Europe for me becomes more of a hassle than it's worth. 

[sapphyres-designer-jewellery]

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@easoss wrote:

Best way to avoid this problem is to not sell to China or South Africa. I sell to Canada, the US ( and that's wobbly at the moment) and the UK with exceptions for a few other countries (mostly on smaller items). Shipping to Asia (except Japan),  South America and most of mainland Europe for me becomes more of a hassle than it's worth. 

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I don't ever ship to South America (or Africa for that matter).

I do ship to a few places in Asia without problems... Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore. 

C.

[recped]

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@videotimeplus wrote:

I have noticed this past week that 2 new accounts (one made the day of the "sale" and the other back in May) have each placed an order, but have not paid yet. One was a few days ago and one yesterday. They are both far away countries (China and South Africa). I suspect that they will not end up paying so I was wondering how long they have to pay and what action I can take if they do not pay in that time frame?

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@videotimeplus 

I have identified the problem with your listings that is likely causing our non-payment situation.

1 - Your listings are offering Canada Post Xpresspost for overseas, this service is only available for some countries. If a buyer from a country where Xpresspost is not available this is what they see:

Since the service is not available no shipping amount is shown to the buyer which means that the buyer cannot complete Checkout.

2 - This is related to #1, Xpresspost is a VERY expensive service for overseas, this is what a UK buyer sees for a single Game cartridge:

Buyers who see that amount are never going to buy and buyers who don't notice the price will buy but not pay.

There are cheaper options for shipping than Xpresspost, if you want to have overseas sales you'll need to switch the services offered, Tracked Packet is probably your best option.

[reallynicestamps]

Be careful-- Because  Canada Post gives you the lowest price first is is very easy to choose Small Packet Surface which is cheap, untracked and sllllloooooooow.