I have just sold an item sell on Ebay for £10 to a US buyer. I hadn’t quoted shipping fees to the US, and had only declared postage to the UK. The buyer has paid £7.50 on top of the winning bid, which is more than the quoted UK postage, though I don’t know how the higher figure was calculated. The item is likely to cost around £14 to post due to size and weight. After fees etc, I’ll be lucky if I break even.

Not sure what I should do here – am I bound to send the item to the buyer’s location, and if so, can I expect them to cover the proper postage costs? Or, can I refuse to accept their payment on the basis that I did not intend to ship to that location? 😕

Thanks…

Hey, what’re you doing on this side of the fence?!

Dunno about the question though..

I pop over from time to time 🙂

Plus, the item in question wasn’t strictly bike related…

bump for the morning crowd

Not bike related? Do you do anything non bike related? 🙂

From time to time, yes.

Actually I know you do of course 🙂

It has to be said I do a lot less than I used to…

Anyone else happen to read this post and able to comment on the original topic??? Emailed Ebay, but they say response within three days, which is about as much help as toothache.

So where did the £7.50 figure come from?

Did you specify in your auction that you wouldn’t post overseas?

Send them an Ebay message stating what the actual postage cost is and ask where they got £7.50 from? Then send an invoice for the rest of the money owed.

It’s not something with a [ebay] fixed postage cost is it?

I specified postage to UK under the main P&P details, but also said in the description that postage to EU would be £7.00. I hadn’t realised the buyer was US based until I saw his shipping address on the paypal receipt.

No idea where the £7.50 came from. I didn’t specifically exclude any areas, which I perhaps should have done, but given that I wasn’t advertising postage outside the EU, the buyer was making an assumption that I’d post to the US.

Going to have to email the buyer at some point, but wanted to check the facts first.

Edit: the item is a vinyl record: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180677515912

If you have their postage address, check the cost, and email them back saying it will cost £X.

They may be required to send more money to you if the £7.50 is not enough.

Is it really that complicated? 😯

I agree, not complicated – I was canvassing opinion, and as I said earlier wanted to check the facts as I wasn’t expecting to have to send the thing to the other side of the world. Thanks for the responses.

Vinyl records are on the maximum chargeable list [£4] but it says these don’t apply to overseas sales

So that’s that theory of where he got it from out of the window – damn, I thought I’d cracked it 🙂

Hmm, seems odd – most stuff I’ve bid on in the US either specifies worldwide postage or will refuse to let me bid when my address is set to UK.

Either US ebay works differently or he has a UK eBay address and uses a US one for paypal shipping invoices which is a bit cheeky.

Contacted the buyer, so will see what happens. I need to be more specific about my postage details on future auctions I think…

On a happier note, my lens has made it through German customs according to USPS tracking. However I don’t know if that means I have dodged import duty or not!

import duty payable on delivery usually 🙁

What, to the postie? I assumed I’d get a letter with a bill in it.

Apparently there’s no import duty on cameras to Germany but there is on accessories ie lenses.. I think…

If not, I should stock up from those Hong Kong places.

Contacted the buyer, so will see what happens. I need to be more specific about my postage details on future auctions I think…

I always say that I will post worldwide but ask bidders to contact me for a price.

Weigh the item plus packaging before you start the auction and then use Royal Mail.com to work out postage.

You can’t be made to send it to him unless you said in the listing that postage to the US was £7.50.

What, to the postie? I assumed I’d get a letter with a bill in it.

in the UK – USPS stuff will come through Parcelforce

They hold things at the local depot and send you a card telling you to pay up before they’ll deliver
I got a card on Monday for my nice new Fox Forks – £29.01 to pay all in 😉