=> ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/publi ... nglish.pdf after more than 25 working days from the date the package was sent: can be filled in by either sender or recipient, but obviously it's easier for the sender to do so.

You'll probably lose with eBay due to the lack of insurance but may get some or all of your money back depending on the value; http://www.royalmail.com/customer-servi ... mpensation

Good luck...

It's a common scam. They request "cheap" shipping which they know is untrackable, then claim they didn't get it knowing eBay and PayPal always side with buyer regardless of your proof of shipping. Seller has to use eBay insurance, or pay for proof of delivery, or use a trackable shipping method at shippers expense. Or build it into the cost of the item.

I do a lot of eBay through my real job and UK buyers are getting a reputation akin to the SE Asian countries for this scam to the point they have to pay for insurance/tracking regardless what they buy.

The other issue is that it could be sat waiting for customs to be paid and the seller doesn't want to pay it.

Agreed, shipping without tracking is the same as sending the item for free.

Badmike wrote:I just got an email today asking if I will ship by a cheaper, non-trackable method from a Canadian buyer.  Nowadays I'll lose the sale rather than ship by a cheaper method if I can't track it.  Unless I personally know the buyer or the item is worth less than $10 I won't ship like that anymore.

Mike B.

You are 100% accurate sir. Recently I sold some Magic cards, and I shipped them in normal old envelopes, no tracking. Saves about $1.50 per auction as I offered free shipping. Out of the 20 auctions, one guy says he didn't get his. That $17.50 I had to refund him ate up all the money I saved by not using a method with tracking. Probably and then some. Loki, you were just lucky. All it takes is ONE guy and you're just out a bunch of cash. Historian is right, with the way eBay works now, you ship without tracking, you just gave that guy his stuff for free.

Zenfinite

Badmike wrote: I wouldn't put it past a postal worker who sees a package has no tracking or insurance to take a look inside and if they like what they see, pocket it.  God knows we see enough of those stories all the time over the years where mail has been stolen by an insider.

True. I have to admit that during holidays I don't ship anything to avoid this kind of problem. Or if I really have to, I use tracking in France (because there is a lot of "missing packages" in France during holidays)

I am certainly lucky, and since I don't sell a lot of stuff like both of you, statiscally, I have less chance to encounter a problem of couse.

We will not ship overseas without tracking.  I am not losing sales with that policy, I am cutting the incident of theft by 99%.  It's that simple.  I sometimes get emails from people claiming their package did not arrive that look like a crook's generic template.  They usually demand immediate refund and are careful not to mention feedback.   I offer to send the tracking info (without doing so, just to see what happens) and suggest we open a postal fraud case to find out where the package.  The customers look around the house, ask the neighbors and ask for the tracking info.  The crooks are too sophisticated to want the post office involved in figuring out what's happening to the packages.  They usually also promptly leave positive feedback hoping I don't inquire at the post office.  That's a neat trick isn't it...  they go from demanding the package that arrived to leaving positive feedback in under an hour without me actually giving them the tracking number.

Consequently, I think most of the problems really are with the crooks.  I don't consider those types customers or buyers, rather when they occasionally have to actually pay for something, it simply cuts their profit margin from infinite down to thousands of %.  

I am very happy Amazon and Ebay require SSN for sellers now and if they require them from buyers, eventually, these problems will work themselves out.  I have an acquaintance who has been thrown off of ebay and amazon using his SSN,  his wifes, both children, his brother and a cousin.  Worse, he isn't actually dishonest, (other than using the SSN's), he just doesn't understand how to describe or ship.  I keep trying to help him "get it", but...  if crooks have to resort to forged SSN, forged govt Id's, or other schemes to be able to sell online, eventually they actually will end up in prison.  I had no hope five years ago that the con artists would get stopped or prosecuted by Amazon or Ebay.  But, if the crooks run through all of the conveniently "accessible" SSN's and start forging them... they actually will end up with interested Feds and prosecutors.  I look forward to the first news story... in a couple of years.

Zenfinite wrote:I didn't want to start a whole new topic with just one question, so, I'm asking here instead. How do I find out how many items, what I've sold, how much I made on eBay for say the last month or two? I can't find an option to lead me to that information. Hopefully one of you more business oriented eBayers out there can help me. Thanks!

Zenfinite

Zen;

I think you can only find this info if you have a Store Subscription. On Ebay, Go to "Store Settings", then "Sales Reports", and from that page you can toggle all sorts of info, including sales reports for the last two years (Archived Reports).  

Mike B.

I stopped reselling over this issue.  Too many cool European people to anger, and too hard to make money when any sale might end with a high unknown Euro bidder.

Good luck.

(Totally inappropriate smiley but too cool not to use   )

I feel confident the International shipping issues are going to get easier over time, but the shipping will likely be even slower..  I am sure quite a few of us have routine sales to the companies that bundle purchases and ship containers, particularly to Asia.  These companies act as agents so your obligation is to get the product to their local distribution center, rather than all the way to the final customer.  As gas prices rise and shipping gets more expensive, the demand for container bundling to most European companies will grow and this practice makes sense.  It is likely the only way any of us will be able to ship overseas at all in ten years.  

My only real issue with international customers (as opposed to crooks) is one of education regarding shipping cost and transit time.  Even some of the experienced ones start getting anxious when shipping takes 2-3 weeks or more.  The less experienced ones, sometimes are downright mad that the sellers can't provide personal delivery via first class airline ticket for under $10.  The problem is especially exaggerated by the sizing restriction and cost for international shipping with signature confirmation.  We have paid as much as $300 to ship a $60 bulky item.  Frankly, I don't know why they were willing to pay the shipping and advised against it.