Do you use the Global shipping program .

[leogexx]

I was just about to buy some car parts on ebay and then noticed that the seller was using the Global shipping program. Shipping is more than first class international so I declined on buying the parts. Has anyone used the shipping program ? Does it do anything other than cost the buyer more money and cure me of impulse spending ?

[hondamedic]

It's unfortunate that your buyer didn't understand that "Priority" is only a USPS marketing term.  It doesn't take "priority" over First Class International.  It's just a fancy term for "parcel post," whereas "First Class International" is just a fancy term for "international letter mail". 

Yes it is unfortunate that International buyers don't know this, but it is the sellers that suffer their wrath for this ignorance.

[marnotom!]

At the International Trading forum they advocate refund without question.

Honda, I'm not following your train of thought.  You've made point "C" and I've made point "A" but you haven't made a point "B" to connect the two.

All I'm getting from your post is that you seem to find it abhorrent to return a buyer's money when there's no evidence that the buyer received their item.  The poster you've quoted, on the other hand, knows that such instances are pretty rare and it just makes good business sense to do this, not to mention being the ethical thing to do.  You're not just posting to put your ethics into question, I hope?

[hondamedic]

While I can understand how this experience may make one leery about shipping time-sensitive items overseas, I don't follow how this has made you uncomfortable about using untrackable FCI.

Honda, I'm not following your train of thought.  You've made point "C" and I've made point "A" but you haven't made a point "B" to connect the two.

....

Sorry if I didn't connect the dot's for you.

A. Sellers in the US should not fear shipping Internationally without DC.

B. Posts at the International Forum always say "Oh well, refund buyer."

C. Without DC that's exactly what a seller has to do.

[marnotom!]

....

Sorry if I didn't connect the dot's for you.

A. Sellers in the US should not fear shipping Internationally without DC.

B. Posts at the International Forum always say "Oh well, refund buyer."

C. Without DC that's exactly what a seller has to do.

Still don't really see a connection between these points since a seller still has to return a buyer's money for a shipment where DC has been purchased but there's no delivery shown for the item.

[theposhmermaids]

I'm not worried about having to refund a buyer if he/she never receives the package, and it is proven the package was not received.  I do not want to refund buyers who claim they have not received the package, when in fact they have and are just trying to scam me.  That is why ALL of my packages in the US have DC and the same goes for my International packages.

I don't understand why you are trying to make it appear that I have some kind of bias against International buyers, I don't.  I sell my items at a fair price with the best possible customer service to ALL of my customers.  I also use DC to protect myself.

[bluemountainretailers]

exactly - and I sell several things that I could ship straight first class (vice first class package) and know a dollar or so off my shipping costs (adding it in to my profit) - but I don't because I'm worried about scam losses on items without DC.

The question, and I don't have good enough knowledge on the scammer rate to answer, is whether I would be offset on my scam losses by my increase in revenue.  Plus, generally speaking, customers like tracking . . .

[marnotom!]

I'm not worried about having to refund a buyer if he/she never receives the package, and it is proven the package was not received.  I do not want to refund buyers who claim they have not received the package, when in fact they have and are just trying to scam me.  That is why ALL of my packages in the US have DC and the same goes for my International packages.

I don't understand why you are trying to make it appear that I have some kind of bias against International buyers, I don't.  I sell my items at a fair price with the best possible customer service to ALL of my customers.  I also use DC to protect myself.

What do you feel you're being protected against?

You're currently selling a 15+ year old CD-ROM for five bucks.  To ship that to me with "protection" would set me back another $28 and change.  To ship that to Australia would cost the buyer just shy of forty bucks.

To me, that's like a produce manager at the supermarket keeping the bananas by the tills under lock and key so that a few don't go into somebody's overcoat.  Sure, it's going to cut down on what I hope would be a small amount of pilfering, but that produce manager's also going to end up with a lot of black bananas because most shoppers aren't going to want to jump through hoops just for half a dozen bananas.

I can't think of any reason why anyone would want to make a false claim of non-delivery for a very modestly price museum piece of a CD-ROM.  A mobile phone worth hundreds of dollars is a different kettle of fish, however.

Something else to keep in mind is that just because an item with DC may show as being "delivered" doesn't necessarily mean that it made it into the buyer's hot little hands.

[bluemountainretailers]

I can't think of any reason why anyone would want to make a false claim of non-delivery for a very modestly price museum piece of a CD-ROM.  A mobile phone worth hundreds of dollars is a different kettle of fish, however.

Something else to keep in mind is that just because an item with DC may show as being "delivered" doesn't necessarily mean that it made it into the buyer's hot little hands.

Part of the point is to have a policy that makes your business sustainable.  And the reality is that shipping may make a $5 CD-Rom unaffordable for some destinations.  If its not worth send FC International with DC, then it's not worth sending . . . how many of those CD-rom does a seller have to sell to make up for one scammer?  eBay provides ZERO protection to a seller in the event of Item Not Received if the seller didn't use DC.  As far as I'm concerned, that mean that it is eBay's implicit policy that sellers use DC . . . not sure why any buyer would expect anything different?

[theposhmermaids]

You're currently selling a 15+ year old CD-ROM for five bucks.  To ship that to me with "protection" would set me back another $28 and change.  To ship that to Australia would cost the buyer just shy of forty bucks.

[theposhmermaids]

Opps--hit button too soon.

I don't know where you're getting your numbers, but I recently sent an item weighing about the same amount as that CD to Canada for $6.60 FCI, not $28.00.

In the past I have shipped numerous items to Canada and Australia with FCI before it included tracking.  But only after communication with the buyer that made me feel comfortable with the transaction.  

If you prove to be a PITA buyer from the beginning, I'm not going to feel comfortable enough shipping something to you without "protecting" myself, regardless of where you live.  If you don't like my terms, then don't buy from me.  If I don't sell my "15+ year old CD-ROM" that seems to bother you so much, so be it.  I'd rather not make the $2.00 or so in profit than get neg fb and low stars which would cause me to loose my 20% discount---which adds up to more than $2.00.

[hondamedic]

Still don't really see a connection between these points since a seller still has to return a buyer's money for a shipment where DC has been purchased but there's no delivery shown for the item.

...
Don't know about Canada, but here in the US a seller has a 99% chance of not losing an INR with DC sent internally, unlike Internationally where it's unavailable.

[marnotom!]

I don't know where you're getting your numbers, but I recently sent an item weighing about the same amount as that CD to Canada for $6.60 FCI, not $28.00.

The shipping rates and method for your PhotoSuite CD-ROM are stated right on the listing page.

If you prove to be a PITA buyer from the beginning, I'm not going to feel comfortable enough shipping something to you without "protecting" myself, regardless of where you live.  If you don't like my terms, then don't buy from me.  If I don't sell my "15+ year old CD-ROM" that seems to bother you so much, so be it.  I'd rather not make the $2.00 or so in profit than get neg fb and low stars which would cause me to loose my 20% discount---which adds up to more than $2.00.

Seeing as buyers can no longer receive negative feedback, I'm not sure I follow your point about buyers being PITAs from the beginning.  My wife and I have found that there are lots of perfectly fine people who don't come off all that well in email, particularly those with English as a second language, so we try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

We just try to treat our buyers the way we'd like to be treated.  It's a philosophy that seems to work just as well for us as following eBay or PayPal guidelines for "protection" and discounts.  In fact, it might work better, as we're selling stuff that would probably go unsold otherwise.

I'd suggest to you that your items that have "overkill" shipping methods listed are probably causing many good international buyers to hit the "back" button rather than contact you first as they don't want to pester you (they're nice, remember?) or else they've been burned in the past by similar sellers.  This leaves you with the less desirable ones who don't know any better or don't care to give you a rough ride.

---

Don't know about Canada, but here in the US a seller has a 99% chance of not losing an INR with DC sent internally, unlike Internationally where it's unavailable.

Don't know about American buyers, but most international buyers of modest to moderately-priced merchandise aren't going to file an INR case or claim unless they haven't received the item, and tracking or DC won't cover the seller's area below the tailbone in those circumstances.

[trav7801]

I used to use it, then I found it is actually costs the buyer more in shipping fees to have it delevered as opposed to just doing it yourself, sometimes as much at $25 more for the buyer.  Then the Global Shipping place lost my package.  The say that they are responsible for the package once in their hands, but its been over 4 months now and have not seen any return of my money for a package not being delivered.  $80.  Tracking said they received the package, but dead tracking wise from there on.

[leogexx]

I bought a few items in the last week and only went with the sellers that offered FCI , anyone sellers offering priority ,courier or global shipping got overlooked , As a buyer with a good rating I will boycott any seller trying to make me spend anymore in shipping than I have to. Glad there are lots of sellers that actually want to sell stuff on ebay . By dictating shipping practices you limit your sales .

[bluemountainretailers]

I don't know where you're getting your numbers, but I recently sent an item weighing about the same amount as that CD to Canada for $6.60 FCI, not $28.00.

Lyn - I think that's the point - because of the cost associated with GSP, that what the buyer would have to pay on your listings that you activated GSP for . . . a 1 lb FCI package to Vancouver would cost $9.50, using GSP its $28 . . .