Shipping from US to South Africa?

lorihmatthews

A taste for the arts
O.G.
Oct 7, 2006
32,300
11,104
I sold 3 DVD sets to a buyer in South Africa. I don't believe I've ever shipped anything to that country before. I have a few questions:

1. The buyer is brand new, no feedback, and says that Paypal doesn't work in his country. He wants to send me an Amex gift check. Does this sound like a good option? Does Paypal not work in South Africa?

2. I thought the only way I could ship to him with tracking would be to use Global Express. The package is about 2.5 pounds and the USPS website says it will be $42 to ship. The site says it will take 3-5 days to arrive. Now he's telling me my shipping estimate is too high. What do you all think?

Many thanks everyone!
 
I don't know about u, but I wouldn't go on any further with this buyer. All of the scammers that I have learned mostly are from Africa. They always ask to use other forms of payments that are not legit or whatever.
 
no, i wouldent go any further with this buyer either. alot of scams come from south africa, ive almost been scammed from someone there too. also i think paypal would work there i dont see why it wouldent. it seems suspicious.
 
It's a true scam.

I had experience with these ppl before, first they claim that they work at a country and they are trying to buy a present for their son or husband's birthday present in South Africa. Then they would tell you that they have sent out their payment and stuff requesting you to give them the tracking number before they can release their payment. But when you give them your tracking number the payment disappears.

I would be really awared of this buyer especially without any feedbacks!
 
He really is in South Africa, here's what he wrote to me:

Thank you very much for the speedy come back but I'm sure the shipping must be wrong. I thought buying all these items from you alone and bundling them together will save me on shipping but all you did was charge me $14 individually.

I even went done to our Postal Office which is the most expensive postal service in the Africa and thier price where even way less than yours.

Please could it be possible to combine these items in one package and readvise the invoice you've send me please...

Confirting $72 to ZAR currency will cost me R 580 and that will be streching it for me...

Thank you....


The best way of paying from South Africa, i've realised is sending you a "American Express Gift Cheque" which I send with overnight mail. It takes about 5 working days to get thier...

Will this be possible... Paypal does not work in south africa yet...



Any other opinions -- although I have to say I'm getting a bit wary of this transaction ...
 
OK.. i found out where exactly was the scam last time when they contacted me. They wanted me to send my IPOD to Nigeria... If your buyer is from Nigeria.. then I won't do it 100%
 
becareful with buyers with very few feedback who wanted to get their item shipped to south africa. When I put my used cellphones on ebay, i got this kind of request A LOT. they even sent me a FAKE PAYPAL receipt mail to my email.

The email has paypal logo and everything, just looks like those u get from paypal. But the email address isnt from @paypal.com, its something like [email protected]. So becareful! The email says something like "this amount will appear on your paypal account AFTER you ship the item and email the tracking number to the buyer."

If its me, I would rather not deal with the kind of transaction u are having....but if u insist, u can tell them that u will cash their whatever cheque first before u can send the item.
 
I think usually when you post up electronics for sale, they would contact you.. that's what I've noticed the pattern was.. with ppl who has past experiences.. same deal..
I think someone went as far as going with the deal.. but in the end they noticed that the emails were fake so they stopped their shipment.. and the buyer started to threaten them with giving their info to FBI...

I just think the deal is just too much hassle..
 
Well, this is still ongoing. I opened a dispute because I don't have his payment yet. He claims that he is sending me an international money order and mailed it on the 16th. I still don't have it. He responded to the dispute saying it was mailed but there is no tracking number. I'm torn because the mail could be slow but I also don't know if he's just stalling. I'm thinking I might wait a few more days but after that I give up.
 
I just encountered a scammer from Nigeria about 10 minutes ago :roflmfao: They claimed to be from the UK, even sent me a fake paypal email saying I received payment. Of course I checked and there was no such payment. It had a Nigeria mailing address and it said that the wanted to send a wedding gift to someone. What a scam! Be careful, and make sure you have a secure, REAL payment before you send anything out :smile:
 
Argh, he is definitely a scammer. I'm sorry I wasted almost 3 weeks waiting for this loser. Here's what he had to say in the eBay dispute console. Of course I would NEVER give him my account info as he's requested:

I thought that the mobile telcommunication serive of having 3G have reached America before Africa butclearly it have not. If you are making a time frame of just 5 days for me do to a payment. Please give me your account details so that I can do I direct transfur of funds into your account. Because I can not gaurentee that payment will reach you within 5 days. My banking details is ABSA 9119866695just to show you a token of good faith... pls reply