eBay

diannescurations · ‎08-21-2022

Hello. I'm preparing an order to be shipped tomorrow. I checked the address and it's a Chinese freight forwarder. The reviews of this business are terrible and there are warnings of it being a scammer. The buyer has all 100% top rated reviews. The buyer nsme and name on the address appear to be different. I've contacted the buyer and asked if he/she is aware of this. Thank you in advance for your help.

stainlessenginecovers · ‎08-21-2022

Overall a bunch of **bleep** reviews; again, only those that get 'taken' from someone out of the country, post.

So, for every 1 that posts, 2000 don't.

Also- depends HEAVILY on what the item is.

They WILL NOT scam for a $50 item.

diannescurations · ‎08-21-2022

I have definitely shipped to other freight forwarders but none of them had bad reviews. The buyer is very active. Again I may have disappointed this person but I had to do what I felt was right for my situation.

stainlessenginecovers · ‎08-21-2022

$48 is NOT a desirable designer brand. $480 might be. Please don't confuse yourself.

shag182 · ‎08-21-2022

@diannescurations wrote:
Hello. I'm preparing an order to be shipped tomorrow. I checked the address and it's a Chinese freight forwarder. The reviews of this business are terrible and there are warnings of it being a scammer. The buyer has all 100% top rated reviews. The buyer nsme and name on the address appear to be different. I've contacted the buyer and asked if he/she is aware of this. Thank you in advance for your help.

Of course the buyer has 100% POSITIVE reviews, didn't you get the memo that NO neutrals or NEGS can be giving to buyers???

dbfolks166mt · ‎08-21-2022

ebay put their foot down on the use of freight forwarders years ago. If your buyer tries to open an item not received case against you, they will lose. You just call and demand the case be closed in your favor, its really that simple.

You are correct once the item has reached the FF and most of the time this applies and the seller will win. There are cases where eBay has waffled on this however. The bigger worry/concern is not with the eBay claims as you noted with FF'ers the seller is pretty well protected. The bigger problem is with chargebacks and eBay's foot is not that big. They have no say in the decision making process and the CC company is generally always going to side with the card holder.

Your obligation is to ship to the address provided at checkout. If tracking shows delivered to the freight forwarder, then your job is done. Most of the time.

If you really feel uncomfortable with the transaction, I would just cancel citing issue with buyers address.

Not everyone who uses a freight forwarder is a scammer either. Totally agree and while I don't ship much internationally through FF what I have shipped has gone through without any problems or issues. However, I have also canceled some orders using problem with the buyers address since there are some countries that I simply will not sell or ship to.

a_c_green · ‎08-21-2022

@shag182 wrote:
@diannescurations wrote:
Hello. I'm preparing an order to be shipped tomorrow. I checked the address and it's a Chinese freight forwarder. The reviews of this business are terrible and there are warnings of it being a scammer. The buyer has all 100% top rated reviews. The buyer name and name on the address appear to be different. I've contacted the buyer and asked if he/she is aware of this. Thank you in advance for your help.
You're kinda new, member since ONLY 2015. I've been selling on eBay when payment was sent SNAIL MAIL, before PayPal. Trust me. If warnings and reviews are terrible and sounds like a potential scam.

No. Context is everything. Understand that people whose transactions went fine (or whose dinner went fine, or whose plumbing repair went fine, or whose car got fixed properly) simply do not go on-line to loudly announce that they have nothing to complain about.

Thus the only reviews you're going to see about reshippers are negative ones... and a careful reading of those reviews (including the ones posted above) will show that a lot of the complaints are about a scam buyer, not the reshipper, and/or from people who don't understand the role of a freight forwarder or reshipper. That is simply a service forwarding packages from sellers who do not themselves ship internationally, going to users who pay the reshipper for their service.

For that matter, the buyer can be just as much of a scammer without a reshipper, and have the package sent directly to him, not bother with a middleman. In fact, if he does have the seller ship directly to him in another country, he may be able to win a full Item Not Received refund if the seller's choice of shipping method does not provide tracking to that country, whereas if he uses a domestic reshipper in the US instead, your delivery obligation is complete as soon as tracking shows a Delivered status to that of the reshipper (the address you received with the payment).

Beyond that point, it's the reshipper's responsibility to get the item to him in another country, and that is not your responsibility. After that, if he wants to return it for any reason, he will have to get it back to the US reshipper before it can be returned to you, since the reshipper's address is the origin address for the return label you provide.

So basically, I would not believe the on-line reshipper complaints any further than I could throw them by the leg. In fact, several of the quoted complaints above seem to be from people who don't understand the shipping process in the first place, or the forwarder's role in it. I've been selling and shipping here internationally since 2004, via probably every major freight forwarder at one time or another, and have had no problems. A $43 jewelry sale in particular is not something that would keep me awake at night. Just pack and ship.

diannescurations · ‎08-21-2022

Ummm...I'm not confused. Thank you for your advice on all else, though.

carolynnq · ‎08-21-2022

As a_c_green says, any issue is with the buyer, not the reshipper. You can have a scamming buyer from the US or from out of the country. I have had nothing but good experiences with reshippers - the ones in LA, Oregon, Delaware, and Miami. Last year I had a lot of collectible books relating to China and most were purchased by buyers in China. The most expensive one was $2500+. I probably shipped 20 orders through reshippers in a month. No issues at all. (I did purchases signature confirmation and insurance for the pricier books, just as I would have done if they were being sent to a US buyer).

duffy4444 · ‎08-21-2022

@diannescurations wrote:
Thank you all. I may have jumped the gun but I cancelled the order and cited issue with shipping address. I may have disappointed the buyer but these earrings ($48) are a desirable designer brand. And you are all correct, not everyone is a scammer. Thank you again.

@diannescurations:

I don't think you jumped the gun at all. An alarm bell went off in your head, and you protected yourself and your item so that it can be sold to someone else that you are comfortable with.

Your items for sale are YOUR property, not belonging to eBay or to anyone else who has no skin in the game.

The amount of the sale has nothing to do with whether it is a possible scam or not. I also had a pair of Avon earrings worth about $50 that were purchased by a "buyer" from China and were to be sent to a freight forwarder in Oregon. I politely cancelled the order because I don't sell to China, and a higher potential loss of $50 is not acceptable to my business model. The "buyer" then immediately tried again with a different ID, and with the same address slightly modified. That's when I cancelled it again, put both buyer IDs on my Blocked Buyer List, and waited to relist it for about 3 weeks. It successfully sold to a domestic buyer.

Don't let anyone tell you that you must complete a transaction and ship anything which appears suspicious to you.

Cheers, Duffy

duffy4444 · ‎08-21-2022

@stainlessenginecovers wrote:
Overall a bunch of **bleep** reviews; again, only those that get 'taken' from someone out of the country, post.

So, for every 1 that posts, 2000 don't.

Also- depends HEAVILY on what the item is.

They WILL NOT scam for a $50 item.

@stainlessenginecovers:

Oh yes, they will try to scam on an item of $50. It's been tried on me a few times over the 24 years I've been selling here - mostly recently, to boot.

Cheers, Duffy

yuzuha · ‎08-22-2022

@shag182 wrote:
You're kinda new, member since ONLY 2015. I've been selling on eBay when payment was sent SNAIL MAIL, before PayPal. Trust me. If warnings and reviews are terrible and sounds like a potential scam.

One word: CANCEL

I've shipped to that very freight forwarder multiple times. Zero problems.

soh.maryl · ‎08-22-2022

How is this a "Chinese" freight forwarder if it's located in Portland, OR?

You package up the item. You ship it to the address you've been given.

It arrives at that location. Your responsibility is over.

There are lots of international buyers who use freight forwarders. Those in Asia use ones on the west coast. Oregon is a good choice, no state sales tax.

On the east coast, Delaware because again no SST. Some use ones in FL also.