Question About International Transactions

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diggs25
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Question About International Transactions

Post by diggs25 »

I have a potential who buyer in Singapore, who has a confirmed address with paypal and good eBay feedback; however he wants me to mark the package at a much lower value in order to save him on custom fees. It does appear that they have excessively high import duties, but I'm still hesitant. Any thoughts????
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pennylesspig
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by pennylesspig »

As long as he's aware that if the item becomes damaged during transit he will be SOL on the insurance, then I don't see a problem.
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diggs25
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by diggs25 »

Thanks, Pennylesspig.

Anyone else have any experience with a similar situation or any cautionary tales they would like to share?
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Re: Question About International Transactions

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pennylesspig wrote:As long as he's aware that if the item becomes damaged during transit he will be SOL on the insurance, then I don't see a problem.
Unfortunately the only person who would be SOL in that situation is the seller. As the seller of the item you are responsible for the item from door to door. So if you mark the item with a lower value and insure it for that value and the item gets lost or damaged you as the seller will most likely only get the insurance value.

What would most likely happen is the item gets shipped and insured for a lower value, it gets lost, he then files a claim for the item saying he never received it. At that point you send the email exchange to paypal to try and win the claim but they send you a nice form letter saying "awesome email bro but it sucks to be you".

This is the worst case scenario and from what I have experienced the most common, you might get lucky and the buyer might not file a claim and accept a return of the lower value but I haven't ever had that happen to me.

My advise to you would be to offer to send it as a gift but let him know that you can't offer a lower value because of the liability that you would take on. In these cases I always offer the buyer to pay the amount he wants me to claim the item for via paypal and the rest via western union, but funny enough no one has ever taken me up on that offer. :)
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pennylesspig
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by pennylesspig »

I've been fortunate enough to never have an incident in an international transaction, so I was probably not the best person to answer your question Diggs25. It's always better to err on the cautious side, and Backpackpunk seems to have hit it right on the nail.
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by whyhoo »

you can also have the buyer send you a gift payment in paypal - that way they take responsibility for the package marked at a lower value. :D
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by conartstudio »

whyhoo wrote:you can also have the buyer send you a gift payment in paypal - that way they take responsibility for the package marked at a lower value. :D
Not every country's paypal can send a payment as a gift. I believe (I may have my countries mixed up) Germany PayPal users either don't have the personal/gift option at all or don't have it for international transfers.
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by whyhoo »

fribhey wrote:
whyhoo wrote:you can also have the buyer send you a gift payment in paypal - that way they take responsibility for the package marked at a lower value. :D
Not every country's paypal can send a payment as a gift. I believe (I may have my countries mixed up) Germany PayPal users either don't have the personal/gift option at all or don't have it for international transfers.

singapore does just fine though! i have sold to a few of them lately and they all ask the same thing!
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by diggs25 »

Thanks for the suggestion, but how does sending it as a "gift" provide protection on my end?
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by whyhoo »

diggs25 wrote:Thanks for the suggestion, but how does sending it as a "gift" provide protection on my end?

because they never actually "buy" anything from you. they send you a "gift" and then you send them a "gift" :D


i.e there's no recourse for the buyer if the package doesn't show up or if it's damaged!
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by diggs25 »

ah-ha...good to know. Thank-you!
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by whyhoo »

usually i say "look at my feedback - you're trusting me to package and ship correctly and you're trusting the post office not to F it up - that's the trade off for getting a low declared value"
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Re: Question About International Transactions

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whyhoo wrote:usually i say "look at my feedback - you're trusting me to package and ship correctly and you're trusting the post office not to F it up - that's the trade off for getting a low declared value"
exactly and if they dont agree, you either tell them to pay the duties (hey they bought your item its not on you to accomadate saving them some extra cash) or you take a bit less and sell it to someone with no hassel
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Re: Question About International Transactions

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Seems like this would be the best place to post this without starting a new thread. I just had an auction end with a BIN on eBay for $90 plus actual shipping for an international buyer. Not 6 mins later the so called buyer is asking me if I will take $80 including shipping to Germany. What kind of crepe is that? Yes there was the "Make an Offer" option on this auction but that is supposed to be done before agreeing to purchase the freaking item. I told him "NO" and explained that he had agreed to purchase the item for $90 plus shipping.

A lot of you are experienced and seasoned pros at dealing with international sells on eBay. What the hell should I do to rectify this? What do I do if he never responds? How long do I have to wait before filing some sort of complaint with eBay?

And yes this just happened so I am probably jumping the gun here but the last thing I need is to have $90 tied up and not in hand before Christmas.
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by unioneighteen »

I would invoice him with the full shipping costs and give him a set deadline for payment - 24hrs, 48, 72, whatever you are comfortable with. Let him know if you don't receive payment by that date you'll open a case with Ebay. I had a similar situation recently, and after a couple of weeks of waiting for payment, finally handled it as described above. I received payment immediately. I don't think there's a whole lot you can do, but dealing with Ebay claims may be enough potential headache to get him to do the right thing.
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Re: Question About International Transactions

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unioneighteen wrote:I would invoice him with the full shipping costs and give him a set deadline for payment - 24hrs, 48, 72, whatever you are comfortable with. Let him know if you don't receive payment by that date you'll open a case with Ebay. I had a similar situation recently, and after a couple of weeks of waiting for payment, finally handled it as described above. I received payment immediately. I don't think there's a whole lot you can do, but dealing with Ebay claims may be enough potential headache to get him to do the right thing.
Thanks for the advice. I will do as you are describing and hope for the best. Thanks again!
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by Fattyramone »

hexterb wrote:Seems like this would be the best place to post this without starting a new thread. I just had an auction end with a BIN on eBay for $90 plus actual shipping for an international buyer. Not 6 mins later the so called buyer is asking me if I will take $80 including shipping to Germany. What kind of crepe is that? Yes there was the "Make an Offer" option on this auction but that is supposed to be done before agreeing to purchase the freaking item. I told him "NO" and explained that he had agreed to purchase the item for $90 plus shipping.

A lot of you are experienced and seasoned pros at dealing with international sells on eBay. What the hell should I do to rectify this? What do I do if he never responds? How long do I have to wait before filing some sort of complaint with eBay?

And yes this just happened so I am probably jumping the gun here but the last thing I need is to have $90 tied up and not in hand before Christmas.

This kind of arsehole-ism doesnt belong under potential problems with overseas transactions , this guy is an arsehole no matter what his nationality .
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by jjttdw »

Definitely not a smooth move. 90+shipping is very different than 80 shipped to Germany. I would probably tell him he could pay 90+shipping or we could cancel the transaction. It's better to call off a deal rather than risk trying to force a deal with someone like that IMO. If its priced right you can find a better buyer.
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Re: Question About International Transactions

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unioneighteen wrote:I would invoice him with the full shipping costs and give him a set deadline for payment - 24hrs, 48, 72, whatever you are comfortable with. Let him know if you don't receive payment by that date you'll open a case with Ebay. I had a similar situation recently, and after a couple of weeks of waiting for payment, finally handled it as described above. I received payment immediately. I don't think there's a whole lot you can do, but dealing with Ebay claims may be enough potential headache to get him to do the right thing.
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Re: Question About International Transactions

Post by hexterb »

Thanks everyone for the help. After going back and forth and back and forth, he is paying up. Not exactly what I was asking but I'd rather just be done with it so it's his. Thanks again for the help.
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Re: Question About International Transactions

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hexterb wrote:Thanks everyone for the help. After going back and forth and back and forth, he is paying up. Not exactly what I was asking but I'd rather just be done with it so it's his. Thanks again for the help.

for future reference, requiring immediate payment solves this problem:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/require- ... yment.html
Requirements to list with immediate payment

To require immediate payment for your item, you need to meet the following requirements:
Have a PayPal Premier or PayPal Business account when you list your item. Find out more about upgrading your PayPal account.
Have an eBay seller account in good standing.
Specify a Buy It Now price of no more than $10,000.
Specify shipping costs or offer free shipping when you list your item.
Include all other related costs, such as taxes, so your buyer knows exactly how much to pay.
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Re: Question About International Transactions

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Thanks Whyhoo. All of these suggestions are helping me with my "once bitten, twice shy" attitude towards the Interwebs. :)
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Re: Question About International Transactions

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hexterb wrote:Thanks Whyhoo. All of these suggestions are helping me with my "once bitten, twice shy" attitude towards the Interwebs. :)

Its called paranoia and it breeds like wildfire in forums
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