eBay

co4565 · ‎05-23-2018

I have been reading about internationally buyers using forwarding services to get their items sent to them in another country because I think I just got one of those buyers. He is not registered in the US, but has a US shipping address, which I googled, which is how I found our it was a forwarding service.

Online, I saw a lot of negative reviews and comments about this address and other forwarding services in general. Reading about this here, I understand that I should be covered because my responsibility ends with delivery to the forwarding service. Is this still correct? As long as my tracking shows that the item was delivered to the US address (which PayPal and eBay BOTH say are seller protection eligible) I should be covered?

I hope so, because I already sent the item! Yikes!

But, I started to think about this more and wondered if I would I also be covered if the buyer decides to scam and lie about the item that was received being the wrong item, damaged, or whatever? I know that ebay's MBG is voided in this case, but what about PayPal? What if an international buyer who used a forwarding service to purchase an item files a claim with PayPal for something other than "item not received", how would PayPal handle this? It seems that a lot of the scam comments were about international buyers (using these forwarding services) making claims that they were sent trash, damaged items or wrong items, or that they didn't get their items at all.

It may too late now, but I'd like to understand this better in case it happens again later.

jonathankirkland · ‎05-23-2018

Yes you should be covered.

We have seen cases where somehow buyers were able to open cases even though they used freight forwarders, but that is not supposed to be allowed to happen. I'm not sure if those were extremely rare cases or what.

Anyhow, I would say that like most scams that occur it is a very low overall percentage of freight forwarding sales that occur. I've seen a lot of sellers on here say they've shipped to people in other countires using freight forwarders a lot and never had any trouble.

I think it's a bit shortsighted to assume an international buyer using a freight forwarder is a scammer. Many of them just want items that they are cannot get in their country and are willing to spend the extra money and take the extra time to have the items forwarded to them.

I wouldn't worry about it! Congrats on the sale!

missjen831 · ‎05-23-2018

@jonathankirkland wrote:
Yes you should be covered.

We have seen cases where somehow buyers were able to open cases even though they used freight forwarders, but that is not supposed to be allowed to happen. I'm not sure if those were extremely rare cases or what.

Buyers are not blocked from opening cases when using a forwarding service.....these weren't extremely rare cases.

Just because the MBG doesn't cover items that are forwarded after delivery, it doesn't block a case from being open. A buyer can always open a case even if there is an MBG is exclusion....nothing is blocked.

One life is all we have to live
Love is all we have to give

**Formerly known as MissJen316**

cherry*fizz · ‎05-23-2018

If anything I would think they are taking on extra risk to themselves, (the buyer) because now they have to count on 2 people coming through, instead of just one. honestly, I would prefer to send to a forwarding service for international sales, that would be their address, so if I just have to get it to them I should be covered, after that, the buyer has to hope that the forwarder does their job.

co4565 · ‎05-23-2018

Thank you!

It's just crazy how you hear/read so many negative things about selling on ebay! But I agree that the bad stuff is probably a very small percentage of the transactions, whether they use a forwarding service or not. Like in any other circumstances, people usually post or speak up about the bad experiences over the good ones!

retrose1 · ‎05-23-2018

I would rather ship to a forwarding service than to most of the US. But it depends on the country you are shipping to. Many of the ones in California are shipping to Asian countries and never had a problem. But the ones in Doral Florida have had reports of problems from buyers.

If you are shipping to a reshipping service, know that they want to conserve as much space as possible to get as much in the cargo container as they can. So they will often remove and repack merchandise that uses up a lot of space. If you double box, they will strip it out of the extra box. They will remove layers of bubble wrap, ect. So often if your item is fragile, it will arrive broken if you let the extra layers do the protecting.

I pack as tightly and conserve as much space as possible in the first layer and often do not include a second.

And if you item is a new electonic one, you will probably be having problems, no matter where you shipped it to.

(*Bleep*)

co4565 · ‎05-23-2018

Even if nothing is blocked... they would not win the case, right? Since there is basically no protection afforded to them?

jonathankirkland · ‎05-23-2018

@missjen831 wrote:
@jonathankirkland wrote:
Yes you should be covered.

We have seen cases where somehow buyers were able to open cases even though they used freight forwarders, but that is not supposed to be allowed to happen. I'm not sure if those were extremely rare cases or what.

Buyers are not blocked from opening cases when using a forwarding service.....these weren't extremely rare cases.

Just because the MBG doesn't cover items that are forwarded after delivery, it doesn't block a case from being open. A buyer can always open a case even if there is an MBG is exclusion....nothing is blocked.

Why would they be allowed to open a case if they voided their MBG by using a forwarding service? That makes no sense.

Anyway I would think it'd be nearly impossible for someone overseas to return their item to the forwarding address that you would send the pre-paid label to in order for them to even be able to return it.

tealt · ‎05-23-2018

I agree.

I'd much rather ship to a forwarding service (did one last week) than an international address.

In fact, when I get my eBay business restarted in the fall, I'm considering going with specifying no international sales when I list. Buyer's who want my items seem to be able to find a forwarding service.

co4565 · ‎05-23-2018

It's not electronic, or anything like that. It's a small collectible item. Not really breakable, but it is protected well inside an outer shipping box. I put the boxed item (collectible in it's own original box) inside a larger brown shipping box, and even though it's not breakable, I add peanuts and bubble wrap to make sure that there is enough space and cushion in between the item's box and the shipping box, to prevent the box from getting crushed should the outer box get a squished corner/edge etc.

co4565 · ‎05-23-2018

Thanks everyone! I feel A LOT better now.

deja8318 · ‎05-23-2018

Most of the forwarding services virtually no issues and I much rather get then INT sales. However there is one in Delaware that is very problematic they service mostly Russia. There is a lot of reports of fraud with them not just on Ebay all over the Internet.

co4565 · ‎05-23-2018

Acckkk! Delaware! That's where I mailed my package. My buyer is using a forwarding service in Delaware! But it's not going to Russia. It's going to China.

phono_0490xxxxxx · ‎05-23-2018

castlemagicmemories · ‎05-23-2018

@jonathankirkland wrote:
@missjen831 wrote:
@jonathankirkland wrote:
Yes you should be covered.

We have seen cases where somehow buyers were able to open cases even though they used freight forwarders, but that is not supposed to be allowed to happen. I'm not sure if those were extremely rare cases or what.

Buyers are not blocked from opening cases when using a forwarding service.....these weren't extremely rare cases.

Just because the MBG doesn't cover items that are forwarded after delivery, it doesn't block a case from being open. A buyer can always open a case even if there is an MBG is exclusion....nothing is blocked.
Why would they be allowed to open a case if they voided their MBG by using a forwarding service? That makes no sense.

Anyway I would think it'd be nearly impossible for someone overseas to return their item to the forwarding address that you would send the pre-paid label to in order for them to even be able to return it.