Ok, for those of you who sell things on ebay... I have a slight problem.



recently I started selling off bits of my own and my partner's collection, getting rid of duplicates and all that since we merged our collections. This is fine, but...



Selling the 3.5 DMG and monster manual i've run into a problem. Despite me asking that all international bidders contact me before actually bidding so I could calculate shipping for them and not have them freak out (seriouly, sending a package that weighs 2.4kg isn't cheap) the winning bidder never bothered to email or indeed to find out anything. This had me a little worried...



now, things have gotten a bit more worrying... i've got alarm bells going off in my head because I just don't trust this person. She finally got back to me after I sent her several emails about postage and her actually paying me.

I accept concealed cash sent at buyers risk, checks from within the uk and of course, paypal... but despite this, she's decided to send a money order.. Something i've never dealt with and never wanted to. I don't know how to cash them, or how reliable they are, or anything.



What the hell should I do? How do you cash money orders from the states in the uk? how long do they take? are they secure? Should I cancel this transaction because the bidder hasn't actually followed ANY of my instructions?



I feel sort of bad, but i've had people screw me over in the past on Ebay... i'm reluctant to trust anyone who can't pay me instantly and who takes 2 weeks to email and doesn't answer my actual query. I'm also a little warey of someone with such low feedback (3) who doesn't seem capible of reading the damned auction description... it's not hard... not like I was ever misleading about anything.



eugh...



suggestions anyone?

But where can you cash it? a bank? a post office? I've never had to use one before.. they seem rather well... old fashioned really. I'm a little ticked off because it's not one of the options I support in my auctions.. why can't people read things?

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:But where can you cash it? a bank? a post office? I've never had to use one before.. they seem rather well... old fashioned really. I'm a little ticked off because it's not one of the options I support in my auctions.. why can't people read things?

You can pay it into your banck account, but they'll probably charge you around £7.  You should try to claim this back from the buyer before sending the goods.  If not, I would just send the MO back and cancel the transaction, then try a second chance offer to your next highest bidder.

Plaag wrote:Is the MO in Euros/Pounds?
Only problem I've had with checks/MOs over here is banks will not cash it if it is not in $, so not sure if its the same over there. Otherwise you can cash it in like a check and the money is good (i.e. it won't bounce like a check can.)

ShaneG.

What he said.  If you are going to accept money orders then you need to specify POSTAL money orders only.  That way when the buyer goes to the post office and specifies which country it is being sent to, the postal employee uses an International money order and converts the dollar to whatever that country's currency is.  That way there is no hassle and you arent charged by your bank.

flying_purple_monkfish wrote:Bloody hell... they'll charge? gah... this is why I don't take money orders damnit.. they're more hassle than they're worth! *sigh* I suppose i'll email them back asking that they use a better goddamned method and actually read my instructions rather than expect me to bend over backwards to accomidate their idiocy.

Why oh why would I put "prefered payment method Paypal" unless I really did prefer people to use it? it's instant and so much less stress for me!

fwiw ALL foreign transactions i insist on paypal. if they cant do that, then i insist on them getting an IMO in £sterling, which is fine, because you can bank them just like a normal cheque. might be worth considering for future transations....as doing it that way, any charges that might be incurred, are done so at their end.

Al

F it man, do it like I do. Flat fee for S/H. If they don't like the fee, they won't bid. Save yourself the strife.