International buyer

[discogirl888]

Hi All,

just sold an item at £20:00 and the buyer has messaged me in Italian requesting a reduction in shipping costs. I was not expecting an international sale and I cannot see the shipping costs as the listing had a price for UK postage. 
A couple of queries please would the listing have shown different shipping cost to the buyer as they were bidding from Italy? Also will I incur a lot of additional costs to post to the EU ? 
Thanks in advance 

[signs_and_vintage]

Have they paid?

[vintique*violet]

Hi- Did you use Ebays Global Shipping option on the listing?

I only post to the UK , and I am sure there are others on here that could help you better - however I would give eBay a call as if your post is showing for UK only , I do not see how it would be less costs to post to Italy so why is the buyer asking for a discount? 

Whatever is on your listing you see is what any potential buyer sees- check your postal options to see if you have overseas posting available?

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

Your recently sold items were all listed as being available to various other countries via Ebays Global Shipping Programme which is very expensive for buyers.I don't think the cost can be reduced and GSP items cannot be combined.

The p+p cost to Italy was shown as £13.95 plus import charges of £9.63 so over 100% on top of item price.

[signs_and_vintage]

There is a way to slightly, ahem, nudge the system by absolutely entering the correct article weight and dimensions in the appropriate boxes. Like a postcard. Just saying.

[discogirl888]

Hi 

no they haven’t paid as yet

[discogirl888]

Thank you for your advice

[signs_and_vintage]

Forget this person, they knew the price when they bought, and it may also be a crude attempt to get you to communicate outside of eBay etc...

Someone else will advise but I feel the best thing is to ignore them and wait for the 4 days to go without them having paid. Then you will be able to cancel the sale without fear of NFB and report the buyer (other people please confirm this!).

Then block the buyer.

Then consider removing GSP.

[discogirl888]

Hi 

thank you your reply is very helpful. 

Amateur error not realising the listing showing on non UK sites 🤦‍♀️

Can I just check the posting plus import charges charges you mention are all paid for by the buyer?

 If they are unhappy with the cost is it an option to offer to cancel the sale?

many thanks ☺️

[discogirl888]

Thank you for your advice 

[signs_and_vintage]

I believe that its better for you to leave them not to pay, I believe that even if they ask to cancel, and you cancel, they can still leave negative feedback AND you can't report them, which seems fair to do as they are absolute timewasters. But someone else will confirm the best approach in a minute I'm sure.

[plpmr]

After 4 full days cancel with - buyer did not pay - they get an unpaid strike, you get your selling fees back and no feedback can be left.

[rjwilmsi · Accepted solution]

The idea of Global Shipping Program is that it's easier for the seller: you would still post to a UK address. eBay sorts out the international postage and import fees. Buyer pays a price that reflects all of that. Disadvantage for the buyer is they are paying for two lots of postage (and probably an eBay handling fee incorporated in there too).

eBay does like to enable it by default, which comes as a surprise to some sellers.

In this instance you just reply to the buyer (in English) that eBay sets the postage costs and customs duties so you can't change them.

Bear in mind the disadvantage of GSP for the seller: if the buyer receives the item and says there is a fault so opens a return, they don't have to communicate with you in English, don't have to respond to requests for additional info/evidence, and if you want the item back you are responsible for providing a return postage label from them to you (or you can tell them to buy the postage but you have to refund them for that in full later).

Personally, I don't want to deal with returns from GSP (UK returns are fine when postage cost is low and any comms can be done in same language), so I don't offer it.

It may be better that this buyer doesn't pay so then you can cancel the sale for non-payment.

[discogirl888]

Thank you for your reply I’ll be better informed for selling in future 

[signs_and_vintage]

I will say this - when items arrive damaged, I have not had too much trouble persuading eBay that the damage occurred on the overseas leg - which they DO take responsibility for. Maybe I have just been very, very lucky there. I guess because all external damage on arrival at GSP UK HQ is noted.

But, as you say, when a buyer in France wants to return a 30KG item... I think they were trying it on for a partial refund (caused mainly as they hadn't translated the description correctly and misunderstood a few things that were and weren't included / working) and when I held fast and issued a £90 DHL pre-paid collection label, funny enough it wasn't returned. I cancelled the label afterwards.

[wyntersemporium]

When I used gsp I did combine orders together just write the A followed by various numbers on same envelope all items got there safely. Don’t do this now as system is being abused by so called lawyers trying to sue .

[myriad*seller]

The GSP costs include the import charges the buyer has to pay to import the item

GSP takes care of that part - so you cannot reduce the GSP costs as eBay calucalted them including shipping and customs fees. 

It is an expensive way to send items as they pay UK postage on top of the shipping costs from UK to Italy+ customs fees rather than paying one price to send direct from the seller to Italy. So they pay postage twice