Sold item where buyer is based in Turkey but shipping address is in FL?
So I sold a ~$50 consumer electronics item and I saw that the buyer is based in Turkey. I especially noticed this when my sale got charged an extra 1.65% international fee. My listing said that I only ship within the domestic USA.
The buyer's shipping address is to a Margate, FL address, which I looked up to be a single house residential address. The name of the person to ship to is definitely not Turkish sounding. The buyer is an ebay member since May 2022 and has about 100 feedbacks received as a buyer (0 as seller) and has left about 20 feedbacks (all positive).
Do I have anything to be concerned about here? What might be going on here (is the person I'm shipping to not the actual buyer)? Is there anyway to restrict buyers to be based in the U.S. so that I don't get dinged for the international fee on my sales?
byrd69er
·3 years agoMargate, Florida is in the domestic USA.
Ship it.
danslai
OP3 years agoThanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. I think this is the first time I've been in this kind of situation as a seller and I only noticed it when seeing the international fee being charged. (Maybe it's happened before to me, but I just didn't notice the international fee.) I've gone ahead and shipped to the FL address that was provided. Just hoping everything turns out ok and no issues come up later.
The 1.65% international fee isn't a big deal for my sale, and I'm just a casual seller. I imagine though that it would be a bigger deal for higher volume sellers and those that rely on ebay for a significant portion of their income. Margins are pretty tight with all the increased costs involved these days (shipping expenses and other ebay selling fees) and I got to think that a 1.65% fee is not an insignificant cost for some sellers out there.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoOP apparently has not run into this before and so asked a good question, and got good advice.
Cheerleading...or experience? **You decide!**
isaiah53-57
·3 years agoThe advice given of just ship it without concern is fine for sellers who ship 10 to 50 items a day and can absorb a fraudulent sale in the profit from additional sales. This seller had 3 items listed and the sale of regard was the most expensive of the 3.
I think it to be irresponsible to tell this person to just ship it without concern when they can take 5 minutes of due diligence to cover themselves in the case there is maliciousness involved.
Surely there is a high chance the sale will go on without a hitch, but when you have 3 items listed, you should, and likely have the time to take care to cover your bases, especially in cases of this nature that have a higher chance of fraud - a case where there is a moderate to high likelihood that a foreign buyer may be using a freight forwarder.
Sending the buyer a quick email to ask them to validate the shipping address to ensure their current address on file is correct, and, in the event you find the address to be a known freight forwarder, to ask them if they are in fact utilizing a freight forwarder service is the right thing to do for low volume sellers - If the buyer replies back saying yes it is a freight forwarder, then you have it in writing and have all the information you need to win a case if things go bad. If they reply no, well that would give greater pause for concern. A 5 minute email will give you everything you need to know of how this sale will likely turn out. That is my advise and I believe it to be correct in this situation.
isaiah53-57
·3 years agoYou are getting a lot of you sold it, you need to ship it advice from the cheerleaders.
Since ebay offers negligible up front protections, I believe a bit of due diligence on your part is the right way to go to ensure a trouble free transaction for yourself from start to finish - Could be their account needs updating and it hasnt been done - Could be its going to a reshipper. In these cases, I always send an email to the buyer to have them verify and validate the situation - I would google the shipping address and see if it is a known reshipper - If they tell you in the reply that all is well and they are shipping it to a reshipper then you have all the information you need to win a case if need be as the reshipping of an item voids the Money Back Guarantee - My advice is to send an email to verify what information you can in writing for your own piece of mind.
meekamaye
·3 years agoIn regard to no invoice being enclosed, he may be trying to avoid his country's import tax or VAT. Turkey is very strict on items entering their country and that is why I quit shipping there several years ago so it may be he is avoiding being caught with a prohibited item.
soh.maryl
·3 years agoBut, as has been discussed here endlessly, he is not shipping to Turkey.
simply-the-best-for-you
·3 years agoNothing unusual about any of this, just ship the item. I wouldn't be too concerned with 100FB buyer & the item is only $50. There is no way to avoid these sales before they happen. I get 1-2 a month. Honestly, most of them I don't even notice, until I do the numbers for the month.
ETA: If it's a residence, then it is likely not a FF, they are typically in commercial warehouse type space.
joseh1445
·3 years agoI have sold to oversea buyers, that use a drop shipper with out any issues. 1 watch that I sold was about $250. No issues.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoI would simply ship and not complicate life for myself. You'll get these orders from time to time - it's part of the business. Also, I've sent a number of items where someone has purchased for someone else, explained that and asked me not to put in an invoice.
ckimodog
·3 years ago@danslai
Perhaps that person moved to the US and hasn't updated their location as of yet. They may be staying with family. Was it a confirmed address in the US? You may want to ask the buyer before shipping, just to be sure.
monica-sells
·3 years agoYou posted:
"...My listing said that I only ship within the domestic USA..."
Then posted:
"...The buyer's shipping address is to a Margate, FL address..."
Not to be condescending here, but last I looked, FL (Florida I assume) was domestic USA
Also, I personally get more grief from domestic customers than international customers.....
and to not pay 1.65 fee for a $100.00 order is foolish
danslai
OP3 years agoI simply made those two statements to provide some context of my question. Of course since this international buyer is able to provide a US shipping address, they are able to purchase the listing. But no one wants to pay extra fees if they don't need to, and I think I could have easily sold the item to a domestic buyer. I'm also concerned there may be more hassles to deal with an international buyer if a dispute arises later like them claiming that the item is not as advertised or that it was damaged when it really wasn't.
soh.maryl
·3 years agoWhat extra fees would you be paying in this case?
simply-the-best-for-you
·3 years ago@soh.maryl They would pay the 1.65% International Fee.
soh.maryl
·3 years agoThat whopping 1.65% which he would be paying if he was shipping directly to Turkey also?
keziak
·3 years agowhy is there an international fee when it's going to Florida?
richard1rst
·3 years agoThe fee has nothing to do with where the SHIPMENT is GOING. The fee has to do with where the PAYMENT is coming FROM. Somewhere between where the buyer pays with Turkish Lira and the payment the seller gets in U S Dollars a money changer or brokerage house is involved in converting one to the other. Nobody works for free.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoThe fee has nothing to do with where the SHIPMENT is GOING. The fee has to do with where the PAYMENT is coming FROM. Somewhere between where the buyer pays with Turkish Lira and the payment the seller gets in U S Dollars a money changer or brokerage house is involved in converting one to the other. Nobody works for free.
It has everything to do with either where the shipment is going or what the buyers registered address is regardless of the payment source. The CC company charges the buyer though their CC statement for any fee conversion. EBay charges the international fee:
International fee
If your registered address is in the US, we charge an International fee if either:
soh.maryl
·3 years agoThe "funding source" is presumably international.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoThe "funding source" is presumably international.
The international fee has nothing to do with the funding source.
maxine*j
·3 years agoIf a buyer's credit card issuer is a non-U.S entity, such as a foreign bank, the seller will pay the nominal "international fee," to cover currency conversion, etc. (I agree with another poster who said it's a silly holdover from the pre-whiz-bang-electronic processing days, but what can you do?)
-
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoIt has nothing to do with the location of the bank and everything to do with either where the shipment is going or what the buyers registered address is regardless of the payment source. The CC company charges the buyer though their CC statement for any fee conversion. EBay charges the international fee:
International fee
If your registered address is in the US, we charge an International fee if either:
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoThere are a couple of items here. The first is the international fee which is a relic from days gone by. Most ecommerce sites and CC companies have gotten rid of international fees. This really started to happen as travel companies introduced CC's with rewards programs and no international fees. EBay just continues to hang onto it. While you can specifiy you only ship domestically it matters little if the buyer has a domestic address but their registered account address is international you are going to get hit with the fee.
The second item is the shipping address. While it is domestic as others mentioned you have no idea, although googling the address may provide some clues, whether the buyer is using a FF, shipping to a friend or relative or is temporarily located in the US. While there is some added risk it is probably no more risky than actual domestic sales. For me it's more of a personal preference. While I currently only sell domestically I have canceled a number of orders, using problem with the buyers address, because there are countries that I will not sell or ship to under any circumstances.
Expanding a little you also have no idea with regards to a buyer using a FF, or when a seller makes an international sale, what happens to the item after it leaves the states. A lot of merchandise is flowing into Russia, around the sanctions, through FF's in China and potentially even the US FF's. This is not exclusive to eBay and in fact eBay is probably a minor percentage of that traffic.
danslai
OP3 years agoI did google the FL shipping address provided and as I mentioned before, it's just a single residential house. There were no results that indicate anything like a business being run out of the house. I thought freight forwarders were run out of commercial businesses/locations. Can a freight forwarder really be run out of a house by someone who works at home?
Another odd thing is that the buyer added a note saying that the order was for a gift and to not include the price, invoice or any ads on the package. (They specifically said "on the package", but maybe they really meant inside the package.) Not sure why they would request this. I thought a freight forwarder would just open up the package and take the item to re-package it to its final destination so their request didn't make much sense to me.
monica-sells
·3 years agoI think you are way overthinking this...
It could easily be a friend here in the states...they will receive it..leave it in the package....put the new label on it and send it off to their brother in Turkey...
that being said....you have to do what YOU are comfortable with within ebay guidelines
soh.maryl
·3 years agoPerhaps that FL address is that of the friend for whom the buyer is purchasing the gift.
Or perhaps, considering that request of no invoice or packing slip, that buyer is using you as a drop shipper.
Regardless, you have a sale which you need to ship to the given address, regardless of what you believe it to be.
slippinjimmy
·3 years agoTagging on........
People need to understand that at any point in time there are 10 - 20 MILLION legal temporary residents in the US, a large percentage of those are in Florida. Some are here on vacation, some for school and many for temporary employment (not including temporary farm workers etc.). Besides the primary reason for their visit one thing that almost all of them do is SHOPPING.
soh.maryl
·3 years agoYou ARE going to ship to the domestic USA, either a freight forwarder or a friend or relative of your buyer.
richard1rst
·3 years agoFirst off the "ding" in 83 cents on a $50.00 sale. Why would you give up a $50.00 because of 83 cents? Something about the nose and the face comes to mind.
He has 100 feedback so obviously he is a regular buyer. The Florida address is a way to avoid expensive international shipping fees. Might be a freight forwarder, might be a relative. But you are covered once it gets to Florida.
I get a lot of those and never hesitate.
danslai
OP3 years agoI realize the international fee being charged on this particular sale is not that much. But I am thinking also of future listings, perhaps if I list something more expensive or decide to list more frequently. The fees can add up and I'd rather not deal with an international buyer in case some complications or a dispute comes up later.