changing international shipping after sale

[deetroyt5]

Hi there community.  Dealing with my first international sale which has been a headache so far.  I had a buyer from Germany ask if I would sell a certain item to him (I'm in US) and I said sure.  On my listing I put eBay international standard shipping, and the buyer paid $12 which was the estimated cost initially.  After reading the fine print I see that there's a minimum box size of 7.25 x 10.25 which is bigger and therefore heavier than I need, so the weight becomes 12oz. when normally with my usual size box would be 5-6oz.  Using eBay international standard this will be $20, but USPS 1st class international is $13 something.  My question is can I ship this with USPS or will this create a problem?  I know I'd have to enter the customs information which sounds simple enough.  I chatted with someone at eBay and their suggestion was to just ask the buyer to pay more which I think is **bleep**.  Would greatly appreciate any help, thanks!

[wastingtime101]

"I chatted with someone at eBay and their suggestion was to just ask the buyer to pay more which I think is **bleep**."

Terrible advice. Ignore it.

"After reading the fine print I see that there's a minimum box size of 7.25 x 10.25"

Where are you reading that? I see nothing about that on the ISD policy page. Can you post a screenshot of the message?

If the buyer's ok with it then you can switch to USPS as it's a more direct and typically faster service. I really don't think you need to switch based on package size - you should be able to use eBay ISD.

[daveo62]

In a case like this the honest thing to do it eat it and pay the extra money and ship it to them. Be more careful next time. 

[deetroyt5]

Thanks for the replies.  Starting from the "ship your order" screen, it's in the fine print that you have to open before you click on "purchase shipping label".  Here's the link, it's about a third of the way down under Parcels, letter C:

https://pages.ebay.com/sell/send/termsofservice.html

I also verified this in the chat I had.  I know, it sounds bizarre to me, too.  I checked the USPS dimension requirements and it's nothing like that, and the boxes I normally use are fine.

[stephenmorgan]

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@deetroyt5 wrote:

After reading the fine print I see that there's a minimum box size of 7.25 x 10.25 

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I did not know about this minimum size.  I have use the the USPS Small Priority Box several times when sending to eBay Standard International Shipping and have not had a problem, yet.

I will have to pay more attention to the box size from now on.

I recently sent this item to Spain and had no problem.

If you use you box and place it in a large Plastic Shipping Envelope would that not meet the minimum size requirements and keep you within 8 ounces?

[pjcdn2005]

Those minimums are in the terms of use but I've never heard of a package being sent back to the seller from international standard because it was 'too small' so it doesn't appear to be enforced very often if at all.

Putting the smaller box in a larger envelope is great idea.

[deetroyt5]

I saw other sellers mention the plastic shipping envelope method.  I'm not sure if that's OK or not but going by their fine print it sounds to me like the answer would be no.  I was out of time for this transaction and I had to get it out, so I ended up switching to regular USPS with my usual size box.  In the future I kind of doubt I'm going to bother with international.  The more I look for answers the more I see confusion, unanswered questions, old links with outdated info, and horror stories.  I just don't have the time for all that.

[argy_eyes · Accepted solution]

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@deetroyt5 wrote:

Using eBay international standard this will be $20, but USPS 1st class international is $13 something.  My question is can I ship this with USPS or will this create a problem?  

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Detroit,

I switch from eBay International Standard delivery to USPS 1st Class International all the time. If the destination country is a Delcon country (which tracks USPS 1st class to the destination address) I change to USPS because I find it is generally faster than eBay International Standard. It the destination is not a Delcon country I leave it eBay International Standard.

Mike

[baae02]

Every time I ship something Ebay international shipping, it comes back with an adjusted label cost higher than the original paid amount with no explanation as to why, and I just get stuck eating the cost.  So done with international shipping!