Against my better judgement i decided to send to Italy.. big mistake

[juvikingnorway]

A while back i sold an expensive doll to a buyer in Italy and of course Italian customs spent over a month just registering it.. the buyer opened a case, but was understanding and waited  to escalate until we got some movement, but it was stressfull to say the least, but he was of the type that opened a case just in case and clearly showed that he had experience with dealing with Italian customs and postal service before.. it was more of a formality with him.

Fast forward a couple of years and here i am, somewhat hurting for money decided to accept an "best offer" and send an expensive coin set to Italy.. it worked out last time so why the heck not.. i might as well take a chance right? Wrong. One month goes by with no tracking updates and the buyer opens a case with a text written in tutti frutti bambino and today i was forced to refund over a thousand dollars to said buyer.

So now i guess i will have to endure the stress of seeing the package get some movement in the next couple of days, no sympathy from ebay and find a way for the buyer to refund me the money if he feels like it.

I Live in Norway, so no access to the fancy shipping programs you Americans have.

Another GREAT part about all of this is that anything email related will automatically get flagged in the messages so i can't really send him paypal information either.

If you live in Europe, don't send to Italy, their postal service is sub-par to even countries you imagine to be absolutely terrible.

Anyways, just wanted to vent a little.

[stoney45]

Oh Boy - been there and done that many times over the years.   They have a nit picky system when it comes to anything they consider "art" coming into or out of their country.  Also so far behind I suppose.  But the good part, IT DOES FINALLY ARRIVE UNDAMAGED.   

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@assortedcollectibles wrote:

Usually messages with emails in them gets flagged and not sent. At least that is my experience with it because ebay fears people doing business outside of ebay. I knew it happened one time in the past where i had to charge a buyer extra because i had to resend a package after they had forgotten to pick it up. I also sometimes get messages with attached images where they have the email as well, so i don't think you interpret that correctly.

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Hi @assortedcollectibles 

Of course contact information is allowed to be shared after a transaction.

If you are being flagged for a contact violation after a successful sale, then that should be challenged by contacting customer service and referencing the policy.

It is only a violation if contact info is shared prior to the sale. Here is another policy to discuss it:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/payment-policies/offers-buy-sell-outside-ebay-policy?id=4272

“Buyers and sellers can't:

• …Share or request direct contact information prior to completing a sale
  • Exception: Sellers may opt to provide their phone number as part of the Ask a Seller a Question (ASQ) or any other eBay endorsed functionality”

[assortedcollectibles]

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@fashunu4eeuh wrote:

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@assortedcollectibles wrote:

Usually messages with emails in them gets flagged and not sent. At least that is my experience with it because ebay fears people doing business outside of ebay. I knew it happened one time in the past where i had to charge a buyer extra because i had to resend a package after they had forgotten to pick it up. I also sometimes get messages with attached images where they have the email as well, so i don't think you interpret that correctly.

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Hi @assortedcollectibles 

Of course contact information is allowed to be shared after a transaction.

If you are being flagged for a contact violation after a successful sale, then that should be challenged by contacting customer service and referencing the policy.

It is only a violation if contact info is shared prior to the sale. Here is another policy to discuss it:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/payment-policies/offers-buy-sell-outside-ebay-policy?id=4272

“Buyers and sellers can't:

• …Share or request direct contact information prior to completing a sale
  • Exception: Sellers may opt to provide their phone number as part of the Ask a Seller a Question (ASQ) or any other eBay endorsed functionality”

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I can almost guarantee that leaving an @ anywhere in the message will stop it.

Why would that change after a sale when they can't even give out the actual email adresses to buyers, just temporary ebay-based ones?

So @ get stopped only before a transaction? How would they differentiate that on this 100% automated site?

[vintage-camerastuff]

Italy is one of the worse places to ship to regardless of where you live.  I've had issues with Italy for years.

[juvikingnorway]

Trying to pay what i owe ebay for refunding the buyer now and whaddayaknow the popup for selecting payment is glitched. The only button that works is the x in the corner that closes the window... great.

[juvikingnorway]

OK seems it was a browser problem. Switched to microsoft edge and got it done.

[monster-deals]

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@juvikingnorway wrote:

Oh and furthermore, because i decided to wait and have "ebay decide" (let's be real here the outcome would have been the same regardless, 

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The outcome is distinctly different in one single very important way...the ding.

[juvikingnorway]

Update.

I searched for the tracking information on the website for the italian postal service, just to see if there has been any movement and whaddaya know, first now it gets updated close to 3 weeks after delivery and it turns out the buyer opened a case the same day package was out for delivery.

I made an appeal and i guess we'll see. eBay really need to step up their game when it comes to local conditions.. they have the data to know that Italy is a problematic country and should require some additional time.

Uploaded a screenshot in the appeal that shows delivery and now i guess i will have to wait and see ebay tell me that i have to work it out with the buyer.

[juvikingnorway]

This information has not been available until today on both the norwegian and italian postal service websites which is due to the Italian postal service only updating retroactively. Interestingly the buyer opened the case the 6th of July the same day the package first was attempted delivered.

This is the stuff us europeans have to deal with.

Italy should in my opinion be added to the list of countries that are disabled by default.

[juvikingnorway]

This is the message he sent the 14th which is a whole week after delivery:

"L oggetto doveva arrivare entro il 12 giugno e dopo un mese l'unica spiegazione del venditore è stata quella di dare la colpa alla dogana italiana "

The item had to arrive by 12 June and after a month the seller's only explanation was to blame the Italian customs

Judging by the wording and the fact that he had in fact received the item at the time he had ebay step in tells me that 1. He knows how to work the system and 2. He feels justified in keeping the item because of ebays deadline.

[juvikingnorway]

OK. Another update. Got a response on the appeal.

Now an ebay representative has sent me an email. All in italian, telling me i have to provide proof of signature delivery. The shipping service is obviously signed for, but i don't have access to that apart from confirmation of delivery from both the italian and norwegian postal service which i hope will suffice.

[juvikingnorway]

got  another email in italian telling me to show a signature.

[juvikingnorway]

Obviously that information is not readily available online due to privacy laws so i will have to contact the norwegian postal service and see if they can access it and then fork that over to the Italian speaking ebay customer service.

Ah yes, the joys of selling on ebay.

[juvikingnorway]

I simply love getting lengthy canned response emails from italiian ebay representatives even though it is clear they understand that i do not know italian and communicate with them in english.

Wondering if i have a chance of opening an appeal again if they decide to close it because i suspect extracting a signature from the italian postal service might be a time consuming operation.

[juvikingnorway]

After writing a lengthy email, showing proof of delivery, linking to both the Norwegian and the Italian postal service twice, uploading the shipping label receipt in desperation, threatening to leave the platform and complaining about having to deal with Italian customer service i did finally win the dispute. The email response was in English as well. Well done ebay. Faith restored, faith in the Italian postal service however is not.