Suspicious Sale to Australia

[worldwandering]

Buyer has one  (1)  feedback

17.00 vintage polaroid camera 

Notification of Payment Received

80 total with 60 in shipping.

 Doesn't say confirmed address in Green, but shows a "Seller Protection Address"

I'm suspicious, what'chall think?

[worldwandering]

$56 Tracked packet to Australia

Im giving the camera away to fees and taking a big risk monetarily 

Help from experience please!

[froogal_electronic_parts_and_overstock]

if it's sold, it's kind of like closing the barn door after the horse has left. 

suck it up, send it out, worry a little, but not too much. 

not too much of a black market for vintage polaroid cameras. If it was an iPhone, worry more. 

I wouldn't worry about it. 

[pjcdn2005]

Are you suspicious just because the buyer just has 1 feedback? I rarely have problems with low feedback buyers and mail to Australia is quite reliable. I doubt that I would send an item with a low value like that with tracked packet as it is an expensive service but you will have up to $100 in insurance on the package, If the buyer claims INR the insurance and/or the delivery confirmation will help to prevent fraud and the initial postal scan will protect you against an authorized credit card charge.

Confirmed addresses have not been required for a few years.

[femmefan1946]

The tracking is a lot less important than using Air Mail to get it to Australia within your 45 day window.

And check canadapost.ca to see what insurance is on their Air services. You big cost isn't the possible loss of the camera, which I am going to assume cost you next to nothing if you listed it to sell for $19, but the high cost of postage. You would want to be covered against losing that.

Air Mail will help a lot to solve problems before they start.

[worldwandering]

I hastily refunded their money (before I saw the advice here) and sent them a cancel transaction request with the reason 'other' and no description. The buyer refused and eBay sent me a email

"

The buyer, ----------, has rejected your request to cancel the transaction for ######

As a result, you will not receive a Final Value Fee credit for this transaction. Please complete this transaction with the buyer.

What does that mean? I have already returned their money. $Total transaction w/ shipping was around $80 - Does that inflate the FVF because of the high shipping payment?  I've actually sold to Australia in the past with only one refund I think.  I just cant fathom someone willing to pay $80 for that camera, no feedback, it's all just to fishy to me.  I could be totally wrong though... Gut Feeling says otherwise.  I should have looked deeper into the insurance/liability of it, or even communicated with the buyer.   Has anyone else been stiffed by sending items there with ridiculous shipping rates and low value items?

What would you suggest I do from here?

 My top rated is projected gone now too.

[reallynicestamps]

It means that you don't send the camera.

It means the transaction is still sort of live.

It means you will get some sort of black mark/violation/defect on your seller account.

It means that the customer can leave feedback and Detailed Seller Ratings, which will also affect your seller account. Very hard on a new seller.

Sigh. There is no good way out of this.

You could contact the buyer, either through eBay Messages or by phone (eBay will give both of you numbers) and have a calm discussion. There is no shame in telling the customer you panicked. Ask if the total is acceptable. Ask for a repayment of the refund.

And politely ask why this particular camera is worth so much. There may be something about the model that you don't know.

Try to be calm and take it as a learning experience.

Do you want to sell overseas? You can Block countries and even whole continents that you do not want to ship to.

Did you have the shipping cost to Australia activated ? (Air Mail and probably tracked, of course). If the buyer sees a 'too high' shipping cost, he will either decide that's fine with him or he will move on.

The more information about the product and its actual on the doorstep cost you can give, the better for turning a browser into a buyer.

If the buyer still gives you the willies, add him to your Blocked Bidder List, on the Site Map, middle column, under Manage Bidders.

[Anonymous]

Why suspicious?  Tracked Packet is safe and you will see the tracking information, so what is the problem?

[toff3]

Worldwandering,

Your byline (or whatever you want to call it)

There is no reasoning with the unreasonable

pretty much says it all but here goes anyway.

Whatever possessed you to propose to send this $17 (that was the sale price, correct?) camera to Australia via Tracked Packet - the latest inane product from the revenue-desperate Canada Post designed to entice the tracking/DC-obsessed customer into handing over a ridiculous sum of money - when you could send it Small Packet Air at half the cost?

So your (ex-)buyer had a feedback of one. So what? You have to start somewhere. Do you believe that using the mails is a high-risk proposition and/or that the average eBayer is out to rip you off? Actually, I also question the sanity of your buyer in accepting your shipping quote but realize that Australian postal prices have recently risen significantly althought not to the insane heights of Canada Post's.

And where do you get a price of $56 ($60 in another post) for a Tracked Packet to Oz? I can't reproduce this figure. Well, never mind, whatever it was, the postage was too ridiculous for words. 

Tom

[silentmobius]

You shouldnt be worried about low feedback its the 200-900 serial buyers you have to worry about. 

[mr.elmwood]

---

@toff3 wrote:

Worldwandering,

Your byline (or whatever you want to call it)

There is no reasoning with the unreasonable

pretty much says it all but here goes anyway.

Whatever possessed you to propose to send this $17 (that was the sale price, correct?) camera to Australia via Tracked Packet - the latest inane product from the revenue-desperate Canada Post designed to entice the tracking/DC-obsessed customer into handing over a ridiculous sum of money - when you could send it Small Packet Air at half the cost?

So your (ex-)buyer had a feedback of one. So what? You have to start somewhere. Do you believe that using the mails is a high-risk proposition and/or that the average eBayer is out to rip you off? Actually, I also question the sanity of your buyer in accepting your shipping quote but realize that Australian postal prices have recently risen significantly althought not to the insane heights of Canada Post's.

And where do you get a price of $56 ($60 in another post) for a Tracked Packet to Oz? I can't reproduce this figure. Well, never mind, whatever it was, the postage was too ridiculous for words. 

Tom

---

I'm liking that quote.

Cdns are generally regarded as the most OVER-insured in the world. We basically buy insurance on insurance. Ya never hear of insurance companies going belly-up, now do ya? Why is that? Insurance is a no risk venture for the insurer.

[maximus7001]

I guess you can use this situation.as a learning experience. The $60 shipping is where you shot yourself in the foot. Makes no sense to ship that way for a low valued item. Now the final value fees are going to be around $8, so you now payed $8+ for nothing.

We ship to Australia all the time. Never shipped tracked, always shipped by air, never had a problem.

Also NEVER ship overseas by surface. It will not arrive within the 45 day window and you will loose.