Universal Ebay Question - Reliability Update?

chosen1s

chosen1s

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It has now been a reasonable period of time since Ebay made its most significant change to seller's "rights" by eliminating the option to leave Negative Feedback for buyers. While I admit that this hasn't led to the increase in feedback-blackmail from buyers that I had expected to encounter, I have noticed a SIGNIFICANT increase in "item not received" claims from International buyers over the last 6 months.

I can't help but wonder if International buyers have figured out "tracking" is often unrealistic (who is going to pay $15+ just to track a $30 game?) and now that Ebay has removed the last form of accountability, dishonest claims are rising...

Has anybody else has experienced a spike in "not received" claims, or have thoughts on why this may be happening? It is almost a weekly ritual now to find a new claim of "item not received" in my Inbox...

Note: "Just don't sell Internationally" does not address the above question and is not useful - though I will say that this new development is probably going to end up being "the last straw" for me altogether with Ebay.
 
Do you ship to all countries? Some are more troublesome that others (I remember hearing Italy for example has a lot of problems with mail delivery).

Maybe limit the amount of countries you ship to? I don't ship internationally anymore because it was too risky for me because of all the horror stories I read about but I never had a problem with Canada (where almost all my international shipments went). I shipped to Mexico, Australia and France a few times and didn't have problems with those either.
 
Hi. I sell on eBay a lot and I do not like shipping internationally for this very reason. Anybody can just file an "Item Not Received" case, and tracking is too expensive to get for international packages. My solution is to overcharge for international shipping (my shipping charges are clearly stated) so that I will not get as many international orders. When I do get an international order, I simply not put tracking on it because it is generally STILL too expensive and not worth it to me. In the event that I do get an "Item Not Received" case against me, then it sucks but it's not really a big deal. I just email the buyer and tell him that his game is on its way. If he persists, I just refund the money and go on my merry way. I primarily deal with ~$10 games anyway, so although it sucks, it's not really a big deal. This solution of mine allows me to profit off of international shipping charges, which some members may not agree with, but at the same time it does not shut out international bidders completely, and allows me to deal with much fewer international orders. I will however say that I rarely get an "Item Not Received" case against me for international orders, I'd say around 5% of the time (which if you think about it, is WAY too much anyway). I actually just got another "Item Not Received" strike against me today for an international order. :whistle2:(

NOTE: When I do get an international order I usually write down the customs # and will send it to the buyer if they email me asking where there game is. A customs # only gets scanned once when it enters the destination country, NOT when the item is delivered, so it will not hold up against an "Item Not Received" case, but it still is nice to send to an international buyer to give him a peace of mind.

Peace
 
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burnambill - Have you communicated this complaint to Ebay? I just spoke with a representative today and they are specifically evaluating this policy now. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one this is happening to.

Update for anybody interested: Since my last post, I have had 2 Item Not Received cases from international bidders - one from a buyer in Australia whose echeck cleared 2 days ago and has already been allowed to file an "Item Not Received" claim against me through Paypal. Technically, since the payment cleared on a Sunday and he filed the claim while I was sleeping last night, that means I had all of "same day delivery" to get the package from the US to Australia.

I am not one to pursue legal action against large companies, but this is getting ridiculous.
 
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