Shipping to Argentina

[kewagg69]

I recently sold some cassette tapes to a buyer in Argentina. Filled out the customs form, everything was good. He never received the items-tracking showed it was delivered to Argentina, but not delivered. 3 months later, it was returned to me with a label that said “Return for export compliance-unclaimed”

I’ve read that Argentina is a PITA to ship to, lesson learned. However, the buyer still wants the items, but doesn’t want to pay for shipping again. If I can make it work, I’m happy to re-ship, but it was $40, and I don’t really want to pay that again, and this wasn’t my fault. 
Any tips or ideas? Should I just refund him and relist the items, or is there a better was to ship this to ensure they’ll get delivered?

[wastingtime101]

Refund LESS your shipping costs and non-refundable eBay fees. You said this was 3 months ago? Make sure the order still appears on your Orders page in Seller Hub and hasn't timed out yet because it may be too late to refund, and you don't want to promise that if you can't follow through.

If you're still willing to get the order to the buyer, relist and add the Global Shipping Program to the listing. Tell buyer they can repurchase. GSP fees will probably be higher for them.

With the loss on the original order and increased rates on a new order, I think this sale will probably be lost.

I don't ship direct to Mexico/Central/South America/Africa and a few other locations because there are too many issues with mail theft, etc. I do have buyers in those regions, but they use US freight forwarders to get their orders.

[714ricki]

I would just refund him the money & relist the cassette tapes. You were very fortunate to receive the items back from Argentina. Your customer either didn't want to pay the duties or the duties/customs clearance notification never reached the customer. I had that same issue along with item never received using 1st Class Air Mail & Priority into South America. I ended up requiring USPS Express Mail, UPS, or FedEx and the issue stopped happening. 

[kewagg69]

Thanks. Global Shipping Program doesn’t include Argentina, probably for this reason. I can still refund him, I think I’ll go with that. 

[tex-421]

Also, to make your life easier and less prone headaches and to scams from international scam artists, go into your seller account and in shipping preferences https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf click "Exclude shipping locations". Exclude everything but the 50 US states.  Also exclude PO Boxes.    

[wastingtime101]

Why would you exclude PO Boxes @tex-421? They're one of the safest options for delivery.

[tex-421]

Bad guys that want to commit fraud are going to use a PO Box, so its just a matter of risk reduction.  Obviously you might be excluding legitimate buyers who have legitimate reasons for using a PO Box, but you need to balance the risks.  I personally don't ship to PO Boxes, and I dare say there is a reason eBay allows sellers to exclude shipping to PO Boxes.

If I were a big commercial seller, I'd probably take the risk.

[kensgiftshop]

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@tex-421 wrote:

Bad guys that want to commit fraud are going to use a PO Box, so its just a matter of risk reduction.  Obviously you might be excluding legitimate buyers who have legitimate reasons for using a PO Box, but you need to balance the risks.  I personally don't ship to PO Boxes, and I dare say there is a reason eBay allows sellers to exclude shipping to PO Boxes.

If I were a big commercial seller, I'd probably take the risk.

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I would ship to PO boxes all day long, the safest place to ship.

They allow sellers to block PO boxes if they use a delivery service that can't deliver to them.

[tex-421]

Good point, there are USPS PO Boxes and then independent vendors that offer mail boxes.  If you have a USPS Box, Fedex and UPS won't be able to deliver there.