Discogs and the mysterious vanishing shipments ..

I don't know about any of you but on my Discogs shop I state quite categorically that I don't ship abroad without the parcel being tracked and signed for having been stung one too many times by people who said their records didn't turn up.

Well, foolishly I agreed to let it go a month ago and posted one 12" single to a guy in Poland using the bog-standard delivery service from Royal Mail.
I think the record cost £3.50 and the postage was about six quid so it was a tenner all in.
I figured what are the chances ..

:doh:

Sure enough, he contacted me earlier this week saying he'd never known it happen before and what did I think I should do about it because he really wasn't sure ..

I know that if he wants to, he can contact PayPal and they'll find in his favour and I'll be out of pocket, but I'd had enough and replied - very politely - reminding him that he wanted to risk it and that though I knew what PayPal would do I thought he had some responsibility too as it was his choice to post the item this way.
I scanned the receipt that quite clearly shows the date, the cost and his post-code in glorious black and white.

I haven't heard a word back.
Not from him, not from PayPal.

It's been three days now.


I'm betting one of two things will happen :
- PayPal will do what PayPal does
- He'll email me and claim the damn thing "just arrived"

Alternatively, he may just keep schtumm if he was trying it on, but that risks me giving bad feedback.

I don't know if I'm being too cynical but as I'm usually too trusting I really don't care at this point ..


And this is not a dig at eastern Europeans, or any particular country's citizens, just the way these things pan out.
I'd been warned off Italy by some Subbuteo dealers, but that's only because most of their business goes there, while I myself have had it happen once in France, once in Spain and once in the far east.

Anyone else had any problems ?
Am I being a knob not just refunding him ?? :scratch:

I’m with you, he wanted cheaper shipping, so he shares the responsibility. If he stays quiet, perhaps the record showed up? Or he took full responsibility for the loss? And if you hear from him again, offer to pay half. Or better yet, refund the cost, but not the shipping. Most American eBay’ers state that they do not refund shipping, no matter what. Ebay May not see it that way, but it doesn’t stop them from claiming it.

And I read a letter from an eBay seller who was selling $3 items, and thought it silly to charge $6 to ship, so he didn’t use tracking. He had a full 50% of his packages getting lost in the mail. So, he stopped doing that and charged extra for tracking, and the package loss virtually disappeared. The world is just full of crooks. Apparently half of us.

Russell

Thanks.
You made me feel better and it's a good idea about not refunding the shipping costs, given that's his choice.

I'll use that if he comes back to me but he hasn't ..

I usually ask sellers to post small items without tracking, not because it’s cheaper, but because our postman leaves untracked packages in my mailbox. If the package is tracked, I have to go and get it from the delivery office myself.

Also, in my experience, untracked items usually arrive faster! But sometimes they don’t arrive at all.