[GUNG]

Downlow:

Newbie, 0 feedback bidder BIN's my auction ($625 retail, $499 selling price on eBay...read: mucho dinero) and pays instantly , only after haggling me earlier with questions about free shipping. This buyer lives in Singapore. I am in California. So they pay instantly as opposed to waiting for an invoice for me to notate international shipping. The instant payment reflects that he paid US shipping charges ONLY of $16.50, and not the international charges he would have been paying if he had let me send an invoice.

I send him a message and inform him that shipping to Singapore is an additional $17.00 and I will send the bag out when I receive that payment.

Then, I get this....

Hi!

Thanks so much for the prompt clarification!

In regards to shipping, I located a postal service in Portland which will collect the package on my behalf and then redirect it to my Singapore address. So, could you please post the package according to the following address:


UGH!? What do you guys think about this?

[LT bag lady]

Not a chance! No way would I do that. You have NO protection from Paypal if you ship that bag to an unconfirmed address. You will have no way of proving you sent them the bag if you send it to that 'service' and the buyer can very easily win a Paypal claim. You will be out the bag AND the money. DON'T do it!
Relist and block bidder in countries you do not ship to and only check off the countries you will ship to US, UK and Canada unless you want to risk losing the bag.

ETA: Refund the buyer, block the buyer and move on.
Cheers,

[PinkSuadeSoho]

DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not worth the risk, maybe he is not a scammer, maybe he is, but why be out the bag and money. Tell him you will not do that, unless you know he can't scam you. Did he use PP?

[GUNG]

Originally Posted by LT bag lady

Not a chance! No way would I do that. You have NO protection from Paypal if you ship that bag to an unconfirmed address. You will have no way of proving you sent them the bag if you send it to that 'service' and the buyer can very easily win a Paypal claim. You will be out the bag AND the money. DON'T do it!
Relist and block bidder in countries you do not ship to and only check off the countries you will ship to US, UK and Canada unless you want to risk losing the bag.

ETA: Refund the buyer, block the buyer and move on.
Cheers,

Thank you very much for your advice! I was wondering though...why only US, UK, and Canada? Do those countries reflect differently to Paypal?

[peppy]

This 'service' is a rerouting service that Singapore Post offers, as they realise that a lot of US sellers do not ship international and that they can make money through this. So, Singapore Post has an office (in fact I think they now have 2 or 3 USA office addresses) where USA sellers can ship to, then Singapore Post will ship to the Singapore buyer and of course charge him a fee for this.

As the 'middleman' is the Singapore Post, there's no 'funny' business involved, and Singapore Post will ensure that the package is delivered to the buyer's door.

However, yes, the USA address will be unconfirmed, but if you were to ship direct to the buyer in Singapore, his Singapore address would be unconfirmed too. So, if you are not comfortable with shipping to unconfirmed addresses, then you should just cancel the transaction altogether.

Personally, I think the buyer should have emailed you before bidding and ask if you'd ship to his US rerouting address. That said, my gut feel is that he's not going to scam you, JMO.

[peppy]

Originally Posted by GUNG

Thank you very much for your advice! I was wondering though...why only US, UK, and Canada? Do those countries reflect differently to Paypal?

Paypal only has the ability to confirm addresses in US, UK and Canada. Everywhere else in the world is unconfirmed. Obviously a lot of eBay business is still done everyday with unconfirmed addresses, some sellers are comfortable shipping to unconfirmed addresses, some are not.

[PinkSuadeSoho]

Unless he can pay using a method that's not an issue like Paypal, I would refund him asap. It seems to be a huge headache, regardless if they have a middle man.

[maritza1973]

I would not do it. Avoid a terrible headache.

[bulletproofsoul]

What is with all these people haggling? Especially after the fact. I had a similar situation with a buyer from Singapore, asking me to end the item for her, for the starting bid amount and for free shipping. In fact, she is a PF'er! Since she is a PF'er and she seemed like a decent person, I agreed to do it and ended the auction (even though I wasn't buying her "student budget" story when she's constantly posting her new buys for very pricey items). Bad move, I know! Live and learn! We were corresponding very cordially back and forth and every time she kept trying to haggle lower and lower, and changing the deal saying "OK so, how about if I send you xx amount" and it was lower each time! Meanwhile, I got an email from someone offering asking me why I ended the auction and begging me to sell it to them for MORE than the BIN! I came back to her and told her this and she got VERY uppity with me saying how I was backing out of our deal and dishonorable! Even though she had some nerve, I apologized, told the other person no, and pointed out that she was being very sneaky by trying to offer me less and less, but that I would still sell it for our original deal and sent her an invoice. She asked if I was saying I wanted to stick with my deal and apologized for trying to go lower and lower and I said I was and guess what? I never heard from her again despite sending her another invoice. Very shady of her. I had to relist the stupid thing, but at least it sold, to someone willing to pay shipping, and for my original BIN. (LOL- sorry about the long story!)

Anyway, I don't understand you buyer's deal. They are presumingly trying to get out of paying shipping, but those shippers are for buyers who want to purchase an item when the seller won't ship and they have to pay MORE than a normal buyer for the service. They are going to have to pay the shipper another fee, so I don't see the point. They seem very sneaky and I would just refund and relist. I'm sorry about the hassle. Better safe than sorry, though.

[PinkCupcake]

Personally I'd send it to him. He should have emailed you beforehand to ask if you're okay with shipping via the rerouting service ... I have quite a few times emailed US sellers to say I'd like to buy an item but as they don't ship to Australia, I can give them a US address to ship to (family or friend of mine) and they will forward the item on to me. That's only polite, and in most cases the seller has offered to ship to Australia for an adjusted shipping rate. There have also been a couple where the item was shipped tomy friend who then posted it on to me ... either way, I haven't struck any problems.

In this case the buyer should have contacted you beforehand, but given that he's paid with PP I don't think you need worry. If you were shipping to me (I have 400+ transactions on eBay and 100% positive fb), I still couldn't give you a confirmed address ... although I meet the requirements of a confirmed address, it "can't" be confirmed because I live in Australia.

[handbag-ho]

Originally Posted by bulletproofsoul

What is with all these people haggling? Especially after the fact. I had a similar situation with a buyer from Singapore, asking me to end the item for her, for the starting bid amount and for free shipping. In fact, she is a PF'er! Since she is a PF'er and she seemed like a decent person, I agreed to do it and ended the auction (even though I wasn't buying her "student budget" story when she's constantly posting her new buys for very pricey items). Bad move, I know! Live and learn! We were corresponding very cordially back and forth and every time she kept trying to haggle lower and lower, and changing the deal saying "OK so, how about if I send you xx amount" and it was lower each time! Meanwhile, I got an email from someone offering asking me why I ended the auction and begging me to sell it to them for MORE than the BIN! I came back to her and told her this and she got VERY uppity with me saying how I was backing out of our deal and dishonorable! Even though she had some nerve, I apologized, told the other person no, and pointed out that she was being very sneaky by trying to offer me less and less, but that I would still sell it for our original deal and sent her an invoice. She asked if I was saying I wanted to stick with my deal and apologized for trying to go lower and lower and I said I was and guess what? I never heard from her again despite sending her another invoice. Very shady of her. I had to relist the stupid thing, but at least it sold, to someone willing to pay shipping, and for my original BIN. (LOL- sorry about the long story!)

wow! What's crazy about your story is that it's a PF'er! I wouldn't expect that from one of "us". I guess there's a lot of shady people here on the forum too... Well, I am glad that you sold the item at it's original BIN. That's the best part of it all.

[bnjj]

You can have more than one confirmed address with PP. I would ask him to get the US addy confirmed and then you will ship the package.

[CynthiaNYC]

Unless I'm totally mistaken there is no way that this buyer could get the US address confirmed because it's not HIS and won't match any CC billing info he might have.

[[coco]]

Originally Posted by handbag-ho

wow! What's crazy about your story is that it's a PF'er! I wouldn't expect that from one of "us". I guess there's a lot of shady people here on the forum too... Well, I am glad that you sold the item at it's original BIN. That's the best part of it all.

^^was thinking the same thing!! Sureeeellllyyyyyy "one of us" would understand how hard it is to get a decent price for a bag on eBay??? Hmm... I would pay any amount for piece of mind and open communication. The sad thing is, postage is pennies when you are looking at $1000 for a bag. I would not even consider haggling unless I felt I was being ripped off...