No Auctions, but question about your ebay rules....

[midnightdance]

Does anyone have any certain rules that apply to bidders on ebay?
I usually list my under the Auction terms.
Things like - payment due, payment methods, what I will do if I receive cash in the mail for payment

But I also have one that says all international bidders must contact me for bidding so I can discuss additional rules that don't apply to US bidders. I have never had any problems with this rule, or the additional rule until I got an email today and has left me thinking.
Anyone have any comments?
nikki n

[Sakura-chan]

When I list auctions, there's always an "auction term" box where I detail shipping options for each category (USA, international). However, since the only payment options I accept are Paypal, IPMOs and Bipday, whether my bidder is US or international won't affect which payment option is available.

I don't ask for international bidders to contact me prior to bidding. That's mostly because I'm not in the USA myself. I only ask buyers with negative feedback to contact me or I will cancel their bid.

So far I never had problems with international buyers. Actually, being in Canada, I always ship outside my country, so I've kinda gotten used to it by now . And actually, some bidders in USA gave me more trouble than my international bidders ^_^;;.

Dunno if that helps . Maybe you could share some of the content of the email so we can help you better ^__^.

[In_Gabriel_We_Trust]

As a buyer, I usually find it very easy if the seller already knows how much international shipping will cost.
It makes the item that easier to buy as the buyer doesn't need to go through a contact ritual.

[Sugarflower]

Hi. I never ship internationally and have blocked all international bidders. BUT I recently sold a cel to a fellow beta member who lives internationally and this will be my first time shipping out of the US. It's not as bad as I thought it would be, so now I'm seriously reconcidering allowing international bidders for my upcoming ebay auctions. In the past I was willing to ship internationally and stated in my auctions to please email me for shipping quotes, etc. and pplz did inquire, but it became a hassle since they didn't want to pay so much for shipping so that's why I turned against it. I was told if they don't like it then thats just tough.
Have I gotten off subject? *brain hurts* lol!

I usually state the same info you do for the auctions. I've had to make some changes to the setup of the auction page though since pplz tend to bid before reading the info at the bottom. So I now place a 'please read before bidding...' statement at the top of each auction page so they will know my rules.

Would you mind tell us your problem? You can PM me if you need to and I'll try to help. If you would rather not then I undestand. ^_^ Did I even help with my rambling? LOL!

[midnightdance]

In the past I would ship to any country regardless. I used to think it was just another bid so what could it hurt, I would even list shipping costs to international bidders.

But then I started having problems with people getting their items and blaming me for never shipping them! Mostly with Canada (sorry guys that is just how it went ). One guy I must have mailed his package 4 times and each time it came back "Address doesn't exist". FOUR TIMES!!! And he still left me negative feedback saying that I never sent the items and was a bad seller and rude. I had asked him at one point if he wanted me to scan the package that came back to show that it was getting returned and he said no. So i didn't but man I wish I did.

So now I still let international bidder bid on auction, esp. cel auctions since I know how I would feel if someone wouldn;t let me bid (Looks at Yahoo Jp! ) they just need to contact me before bidding so I can tell them I only accept paypal.com for payment (just WAY easier!@) and that shipping will be XX on this item. oh, and that I accept NO responsiblity if the item is lost in the mail, and will not offer a refund. They accept the risk. I usually try to send it the best mail possible (like Global priority).

I got an international bidders request to bid though and after stating above mentioned things, wrote back saying :
They would only leave bad feedback, and would mark the item as not received.

Now, maybe I am just still a little on the paranoid sided because of the problems i have had, but that does seem like i would be assuming responsiblity since now my feedback would go down and ebay would probably look into why they never received their item. I also realize that this is a small chance of this happening, but do I want to take that chance? Most of the feedback I have that is negative is from international bidders so should I assume the risk or cancel their bids?

Or am I just WAY over reacting???

Thanks everyone for listening to my vent!
nikki n

[Sakura-chan]

Well, your problem is not really with international bidders, but with bidders in general. A US bidder could easily do the same. True it's possible it may happen more often with international bidders. Oh and don't feel bad about Canada , I'm sure there has to be bad bidders there too .

I know some people decided to add tracking and signature on delivery to all their international shipments to avoid any thing of the sort. Some only ship EMS to international destinations. This gives some protection if you feel unsafe.

If your international buyers complain that your shipping is too high or your rules too strict, then I think they don't deserve to bid.

Being in Canada, I've had to deal with all sorts of rules from US sellers, and I have never blamed one of them. It's normal to want to protect ourselves against bad bidders. Yes, sometimes I'm angry that shipping is too high, yes sometimes I rant when I have to go sign it personally at the PO. But that won't stop me from having the item I want.

So, I think you should stick to your rules and if they don't like it, they don't have to bid. And well if you're afraid about the whole neg thing, just charge EMS with signature on delivery to all your international bidders.

[kittens]

I bought sevral items from Canada and it takes really loooooooooooooooooooooooooong time to get here for some reason.... (I thought it would be easy b/c so close to each other....).

So I have some trouble for shipping etc etc. First I used to be worried but now I am kind of used it....

I am so sorry for having problems

[Sakura-chan]

XD

*starts to feel unloved*

Just kidding . But really, it takes so long to get to the US ? I know most of the cels I send take about a week to get to most US destinations. Of course that always depends on where you are in the US. Since I'm in the Eastern Canada, it will take way longer to ship to say CA than to ship to NY.

[kittens]

I was talking to my hubby but sometimes shipping from Japan takes about 4 days to get here even though Japan is farther than Canada??? It does not make so much sense.....

[Sugarflower]

Midnightdance, did the bidder already bid on your auction or just inquire about bidding on it? Sorry but I'm a little confused.
If they are planning to bid and already have decided to neg you then don't let them bid at all. I can't believe the nerve of some pplz. >.<

[Sakura-chan]

I was talking to my hubby but sometimes shipping from Japan takes about 4 days to get here even though Japan is farther than Canada??? It does not make so much sense.....

Well... it depends on the shipping method.. Japanese sellers usually ship EMS.. I ship airmail. Very rarely Xpress.

[cutiebunny]

My experience has been that sending items to Italy can be a nightmare. The postal system in Italy absolutely blows because many postal employees are corrupt and will take the item(or money) for themselves. If you don't send an item registered or EMS, the chances are that it will never get there. The last time I sent EMS to Italy(about 3 months ago) it took over 2 weeks to arrive at the location. 2 weeks for EMS....

Postal system wise, I haven't had any problems with the rest of Europe. Canada always seems to take about a week, but, that's understandable when dealing with foriegn customs agencies. Some contries, like France, are really lax on their Customs inspections and pretty much let everything go through.

Which explains why we've gotten No-docs from France...but, that's another story entirely.

Anywho, I let foriegn bidders bid without contacting me. I haven't had too many problems with bidders in the past(other than the ones that email you every other day to ask you where their item is). My general rule is that I will not, as a seller, leave feedback prior to that person receiving and leaving feedback themselves. Every time I've not abided by this rule, I've had horrible results and people leave neutral feedback if their item doesn't arrive within the week(Hello - I do have another job!!!).

Location can't compensate for stupidity.

[Bevhippy]

I very rarely auction things on ebay but when I do I only have a few rules, like paypal only for all you guys outside the UK (but I will absorb the paypal fee rather than pass it on to the buyer like your allowed to here).

I only ask to be contacted if someone has zero or an overall negative feedback I just like to be on the safe side there that people arn't bidding for a laugh rather than really wanting the item.

I try to state the international shipping price in the auction (usually 7GBP) so everyone knows where they stand before hand.
Though once I decided at the last minute to change the way I packed the cels as I was selling a job lot of Tenchi cels and it ended up costing me 14GBP to ship cos of the extra weight but as I stated 7GBP on the auction (and also cos I had sold some cels to the same seller a couple of weeks earlier) I decided it was wrong of me to ask for more money.

Oh and I always try to ship the day after recieving payment cos I hate waiting for cels to arrive and I'm sure everyone else does.

[Nene]

I ship to mostly anywhere.

In my auctions, I state payment methods accepted for both UK and international bidders since they differ slightly. I also work out shipping in advance using the PO's website and a set of scales. I then list the postage cost for each region (UK, Europe, other international).

I enforce insurance and tracking in the postage price for UK bidders since it only costs an extra 66p and protects me on Paypal. For international bidders, it can cost around £5 just for insurance so I don't enforce it. But so far, touch wood, all international bidders have been honest and left positive feedback when they've received their item.

I always leave feedback for buyers after they have left it for me. And as a buyer myself, I always leave feedback for sellers first. Just the way it goes on ebay.

Speaking personally, I much prefer if an international seller has listed the postage cost to my country since it makes me feel more welcome to bid and I don't have to email for a quote. That's one reason I list postage costs and payment methods for each region on each of my auction listings. It just makes it easier for all buyers, since they can read what they're expected to pay in advance.

[klet]

I used to let international bidders bid on my auctions, but then within the course of two days two international bidders won my auctions and went against my payment rules. One of them immeadiately corrected his mistake, but the other fought me as to why I couldn't do this or that and practically accused me of scaming him. I didn't say it, but quite frankly he couldn't pay me the way he wanted to because it was against the auction rules. Period.

So now I'm a little wary of international bidders . . . but reading some of these posts is starting to make me feel bad.

Anyway . . . to answer the original question, yes I do have rules for my auctions, but I tend to be very flexible on them--as long as I get my money in a reasonable amount of time, I'll be happy.