I have an inexpensive (less than $100) purse listed for sale on ebay. A potential bidder asked me if I would ship a purse to her address in Canada where she is working for a while even though her ebay account is in Germany. I asked how she would pay and she said paypal if that was all right. From what I've read, its not a good idea to accept paypal if the mailing address is different. Should I ask her if she would pay with a money order or should I just tell her that I'm sorry but I can't ship it to a different address? Am I being too cautious? Thanks in advance!
Buyer in Canada, ebay address in Germany. What would you do?
- Thread starter Joy2shop
- Start date
No - you are not being too cautious. I almost lost a $450 Kooba because of that. I had an overseas buyer using a local US address in paypal and wanted me to ship it to Russia - ugh it was a nightmare. Thankfully, I retrieved the bag from the local address (!!!! - a very long story) only to find out that the monies paid to me through paypal were fraudulent. I'm having a hard time with international stuff anyway, so I don't ship anymore outside of the US. Tell her that you've run into too many problems shipping outside of the US but you'd be happy to send it to a US address if she has a friend. And lastly, when dealing with outside stuff like this, my advice is to HOLD ONTO THE ITEM FOR 48 HOURS until you see that the paypal funds have cleared. I recently sent a package to a Holiday Inn about an hour away from here because they're coming here from Thailand. Not shipping to Thailand, I'll tell you that! Nope - she paid me, and I waited 48 hours and then sent it. Good to go. I suggest you err on the side of caution. There will always be another buyer....
a german address is never confirmed or verified - so i am not sure how that protects you with paypal. my point is: it might not make a difference either way, kwim?
since she is in Canada, it would be fairly easy to get an IMO, and send it to you, so you could always ask her for that.
I have asked sellers to ship to another address and have done the same for buyers - I think it has been based on gut instinct, communication and feedback.
in the end I would go for whatever you feel is the best course of action.
since she is in Canada, it would be fairly easy to get an IMO, and send it to you, so you could always ask her for that.
I have asked sellers to ship to another address and have done the same for buyers - I think it has been based on gut instinct, communication and feedback.
in the end I would go for whatever you feel is the best course of action.
I had a similar incident before too..
It was something really cheap - but it totally was such an annoying experience!
I sold a straw bag for $7 to someone originating from Italy - and she didn't respond after the auction ended - so I went ahead and looked for prices online - since it is in Italy I wanted to pick a service that I can track... so the service that has the best of both worlds turned out to cost $35 (Canada Post does have more expensive rates compared to the US)
So I sent her an email, politely saying to her that she should have asked me to quote her a price for shipping because its not cheap and I know she will be upset - surprise surprise, she well nuts and yelled at me - then she said she wants it send to her address in NY - and you how how her address is entered? It was an Italian Paypal account, so the ending has "Italy" on it - and then she squeezed her American address in there...
I didn't want to offend her more, but seriously it really annoyed me because it took her forever to respond - she didn't tell me she was going to ship it in the states, and then the paypal address is messed up..
Fortunately I did get positive feedback from her but now I will only ship to confirmed addresses - unless she pays me with money order or whatever - then I will ship to where ever they want me to..
It was something really cheap - but it totally was such an annoying experience!
I sold a straw bag for $7 to someone originating from Italy - and she didn't respond after the auction ended - so I went ahead and looked for prices online - since it is in Italy I wanted to pick a service that I can track... so the service that has the best of both worlds turned out to cost $35 (Canada Post does have more expensive rates compared to the US)
So I sent her an email, politely saying to her that she should have asked me to quote her a price for shipping because its not cheap and I know she will be upset - surprise surprise, she well nuts and yelled at me - then she said she wants it send to her address in NY - and you how how her address is entered? It was an Italian Paypal account, so the ending has "Italy" on it - and then she squeezed her American address in there...
I didn't want to offend her more, but seriously it really annoyed me because it took her forever to respond - she didn't tell me she was going to ship it in the states, and then the paypal address is messed up..
Fortunately I did get positive feedback from her but now I will only ship to confirmed addresses - unless she pays me with money order or whatever - then I will ship to where ever they want me to..
the problem with paypal is that once you register in one country you can't change it. the 'italy' part stays fixed - actually if she used ebay they have now hooked up their data with paypal, so it will come through automatically with the selected shipping address. but this could be a new thing: when i send a payment the address that comes up now is the address i want it to be shipped to, not the registered address. it will show as confirmed/unconfirmed of course.
Thanks very much to all of you for your advice. I think that I will go with my instincts and ask her to mail a money order and then I won't have a problem with sending her the purse in Canada. I just am not comfortable with using paypal in a situation like this though its probably fine to do it.
Thanks again!
Thanks again!