Most of the items I have listed on Ebay have bids and/or watchers. I am very happy with the responses I have gotten thus far. Even if I don't make much money on the items, I will just be happy to free up some space in the house. This weekend I plan to attack the attic area above the garage to see else I may be able to list.
An international bidder won an auction a few days ago. Based on past experiences, I explicitly advertise that I will not ship to international addresses. I haven't had very good luck with it. The person paid via paypal and provided me with the shipping address. Well, I packaged the item up and went to the UPS store to ship it (his method of choice) and was told that the postal code was invalid. I then went to the USPS store and the woman there told me the same thing. Upon trying to enter the city name, still no luck. Now I know this can happen with domestic addresses also, but whenever I give in to shipping internationally (I've only done it twice)...there is always an issue. Has anyone else had bad experiences shipping items either domestic or international?
I've sent an email to the buyer explaining the problem and offered to refund his money. I haven't heard any response from him yet. What would you do?
Have a good evening!
Ebay Update & Shipping Woes
August 30th, 2008 at 12:30 am
August 30th, 2008 at 03:04 am 1220065487
In your case, I would do just what you did. Write to the buyer and explain the problem. You can't ship if you don't have a correct address. As soon as you get the correct address, go ahead and ship it.
August 30th, 2008 at 03:49 am 1220068167
Terrible experiences with international buyers (just 2, but all bad). But frustrating since we clearly stated we do not ship outside US. I think it is less because of their international status and more because they didn't follow directions.
I am sure there are many wonderful int'l ebayers out there, but too many to give the rest a bad name so I would personally steer clear.
I am sure more experienced buyers will chime in what to do. I am not very experienced; it didn't seem there was much recourse for when int'l bidders won, even when they didn't PAY. So just bad experience personally.