Sales to Wilmington, DE

[jfei9578]

Hi all! I have sold and sent two packages to a Wilmington, DE address and have an offer for an item currently for another item. They have all been cassette tapes and three different buyers with the package going to the same address but with a different suite number. The user accounts all show a Ukraine location for the buyer. 

Everything gets sent with tracking, The first parcel was paid for delivered and no issues. The second one is to be delivered today. Am I at risk with these sales? How long after a package is indicated as being "delivered" by our Canada Post mail service does the buyer have to initiate a false statement of not having received, or damaged, or item returned?

Just trying to be cautious as I saw a number of issues with Delaware shipments but almost all are two or three years old. Does anyone else have any experiences with shipping to Wilmington???

TIA!

Jeff

[reallynicestamps]

Delaware has no sales tax, and has long been a popular location for freight forwarders.

DON"T PANIC!

The actual buyer is overseas, but you are shipping to the US address and there your responsibility for delivery ends.

The forwarders deals with import fees, so there is no danger of the customs scam.

And while the Money Back Guarantee for Not As Described products is still in place, you are only required to supply a Return Shipping Label to the forwarder's address.

It's up to the buyer to get the product back to the forwarder and persuade/pay them to use the RSL.

All in all, the only safer address is a post office box, where the boxholder has a key for access.

Certainly safer than a suburban porch in an area infested with porch pirates.

One caveat, the buyer will be using a non-US payment method and you will be paying a (1.5%?) "international fee" on the sale.

[jfei9578]

thank you for the great info and super fast response! greatly appreciated!

[dbfolks166mt]

Delaware has no sales tax, and has long been a popular location for freight forwarders.

DON"T PANIC!

The actual buyer is overseas, but you are shipping to the US address and there your responsibility for delivery ends.

The forwarders deals with import fees, so there is no danger of the customs scam.

And while the Money Back Guarantee for Not As Described products is still in place, you are only required to supply a Return Shipping Label to the forwarder's address.

It's up to the buyer to get the product back to the forwarder and persuade/pay them to use the RSL.

All in all, the only safer address is a post office box, where the boxholder has a key for access.

Certainly safer than a suburban porch in an area infested with porch pirates.

One caveat, the buyer will be using a non-US payment method and you will be paying a (1.5%?) "international fee" on the sale.

     Good response one minor correction. The international fee has nothing to do with the buyers payment method it is charged based on one of two factors if you are not using eBay International Shipping to ship your item. EBay charges the 1.65% international fee if either: I

• The delivery address for the item (entered by the buyer during checkout) is outside the US, or
• The buyer's registered address is outside the US (regardless of the delivery address for the item)

[monroe67]

"Does anyone else have any experiences with shipping to Wilmington???"

Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware.  (Its capital is Dover.)  
Many freight forwarding companies are based in Delaware.  
There are no state-wide sales taxes in Delaware, which makes it very attractive to European and Asian eBay buyers who contract with those freight forwarding companies.

My eBay selling ID has mailed many items to addresses in both Wilmington and New Castle, Delaware.  
One of them, I know, ended up with the buyer in Australia.  Most others had final destinations in Eastern Europe.  

I have never, ever, had any problem with a transaction sent to Delaware.  

[brightlightbookseller]

If a buyer pays, I ship.  No time to research addresses, nor does it do any good.

[ittybitnot]

And while the Money Back Guarantee for Not As Described products is still in place, you are only required to supply a Return Shipping Label to the forwarder's address.

It's up to the buyer to get the product back to the forwarder and persuade/pay them to use the RSL.

@dbfolks166mt 

Actually, a buyer that uses a freight forward would not have Money Back Guarantee protection.  Unfortunately, unless the seller KNOWS that a freight forwarder was used, AND knows where to turn for assistance, eBay will processes it as any other domestic sale.  

It is best to contact eBay through one of their social media portals (not regular outsourced foreign CS reps you get in a call back or chat) .  That way the claim can be dispensed with BEFORE a return label has to be provided, and the situation escalates to an additional "fake tracking return" scam they often ensues as a result for more expensive items when the transaction goes south. 

The OP says the items were cassette tapes, not IPhones, so the transactions may go just fine.  Not all buyers that use forwarders are bad actors, but one should be informed of the resources available if you should become a victim. 

For your reading pleasure: 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Buyer-using-USPS-return-scam-Ebay-decided-case-in-buyers-favor...
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Help-Miami-Freight-Forwarder-says-wrong-item-sent-and-returnin...
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Getting-screwed-over-for-months-as-a-seller-on-on-an-blatant/m...
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ebay-refunded-a-buyer-without-me-getting-my-item-back-from/m-p...
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Return-scam-nothing-new/m-p/34302635#M2358896
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/The-new-buyer-scam-and-eBay-s-ignoring-Policy/m-p/34301810#M23...
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Return-Scam-so-simple-but-super-effective-What-should-I-do/m-p...