E-Bay

[hifi_dave]

I've just sold an Ortofon cartridge on E-Bay and it appears that they have arranged things so that I am not able to post the item myself but have to send it to their centre for onward delivery. They do not send me the buyers details.

Anyone know how this works and is it safe and effective ?

[myles]

I don't like the idea of it at all; have you sold the item to an overseas buyer?

I was told I had been tied into this, but there is a way to extricate yourself from it. Have a look on the eBay help centre. I'd be concerned about having to pay extra to retrieve an item that has been sent back from the buyer. Also, you are expcting a certain standard from their 'centre' one which probably won't be forthcoming. Did you see the documentary about one of the cheaper courier services, and how their employees treated the packages?

[hifi_dave]

Hi and thank you.

I have driven myself mad for an hour now on Pay Pal and E-Bay in an attempt to cancel the postage scam. I couldn't find any way of cancelling except by cancelling the E-Bay link with Pay Pal, which would be a disaster.

With this scam, the buyer appears to be paying around £10 extra over the small packet charge to Europe. I also don't like the loss of control this imposes on me. I'd far rather just pop down the PO with my packet and be sure it's insured and sent.

[The Barbarian]

tbh id cancel the sale

[struth]

as far as I know you only pay the post to their centre, and vise versa. they extract the cash out of the buyer for the rest of the journey either direction, or thats what they told me. You can opt out if you wish.
It does open up a bigger market and they insure it for the international trip.

[Effem]

Hi and thank you.

I have driven myself mad for an hour now on Pay Pal and E-Bay in an attempt to cancel the postage scam. I couldn't find any way of cancelling except by cancelling the E-Bay link with Pay Pal, which would be a disaster.

With this scam, the buyer appears to be paying around £10 extra over the small packet charge to Europe. I also don't like the loss of control this imposes on me. I'd far rather just pop down the PO with my packet and be sure it's insured and sent.


The other way to look at it is it absolves you of responsibility when dealing with the iffy countries like Italy and Russia where items "get lost in the post". So provided you have a tracked and signed for service to Ebay's despatch centre, so thereafter if the transaction goes tits up then you are not responsible and ebay cough up for the loss, not you.

[DSJR]

I've just sold an Ortofon cartridge on E-Bay and it appears that they have arranged things so that I am not able to post the item myself but have to send it to their centre for onward delivery. They do not send me the buyers details.

Anyone know how this works and is it safe and effective ?

It went for a very good price too. I bet you could have got more selling it here...

[hifi_dave]

I would have loved to sell it here but nothing seems to sell here..:scratch:

[hifi_dave]

as far as I know you only pay the post to their centre, and vise versa. they extract the cash out of the buyer for the rest of the journey either direction, or thats what they told me. You can opt out if you wish.
It does open up a bigger market and they insure it for the international trip.

Hoe do you opt out then ? I've spent more than an hour trying to do that.

[struth]

To opt out of the Global Shipping Programme at an account level:
Go to My eBay > Account > Site Preferences.
Click the Show link to the right of the Postage Preferences section.
Click the Edit link to the right of Offer the Global Shipping Programme.
Click Opt Out.
Review the information. If you still wish to opt out, click Continue to opt out.
To remove a single active listing from the Global Shipping Programme:
Go to My eBay > Activity > Sell > Active.
Select the listing you'd like to change.
In the Edit drop-down menu, select Edit selected.
In the Add postage details section, click the Edit selected policy link.
In the International postage section of the Edit postage policy dialogue box, clear the Send it to the UK Shipping Centre, and the rest will be taken care of for you box.
Save and confirm your changes.
To remove all active listings from the Global Shipping Programme:
Go to My eBay > Activity > Sell > Active.
In the Edit drop-down menu, select Edit all listings.
In Edit listings, select all of your listings by checking the box at the top of the left column.
In the Edit drop-down menu, select Postage policy.
In the Edit business policies dialogue box, select Change to from the Postage policy drop-down menu, and then click the edit link next to the postage policy name.
In the International postage area of the Edit postage policy dialogue box, clear the Send it to the UK Shipping Centre, and the rest will be taken care of for you box.
Save, confirm, and submit your changes.

[walpurgis]

That looks nicely worked out Grant.

I haven't looked into it myself because I don't ship overseas and I'm not selling much lately anyway.

[struth]

That looks nicely worked out Grant.

I haven't looked into it myself because I don't ship overseas and I'm not selling much lately anyway.

The point is that you will ship overseas if someone overseas buys it unless you opt out. Not sure but I think you may be able to do it on the fly in an item to item basis as well but if you have no intent to sell abroad then it would be best to do it while you can Geoff, as your stuff gets automatically available on foreign ebays and postage is automatically set.

By the way returns are not as simple as sending and this is a definite drawback to the scheme for sellers especially, and looks like it could be wide open to scams.

PS: I have opted out. it takes 2 minutes

[hifi_dave]

To opt out of the Global Shipping Programme at an account level:
Go to My eBay > Account > Site Preferences.
Click the Show link to the right of the Postage Preferences section.
Click the Edit link to the right of Offer the Global Shipping Programme.
Click Opt Out.
Review the information. If you still wish to opt out, click Continue to opt out.
To remove a single active listing from the Global Shipping Programme:
Go to My eBay > Activity > Sell > Active.
Select the listing you'd like to change.
In the Edit drop-down menu, select Edit selected.
In the Add postage details section, click the Edit selected policy link.
In the International postage section of the Edit postage policy dialogue box, clear the Send it to the UK Shipping Centre, and the rest will be taken care of for you box.
Save and confirm your changes.
To remove all active listings from the Global Shipping Programme:
Go to My eBay > Activity > Sell > Active.
In the Edit drop-down menu, select Edit all listings.
In Edit listings, select all of your listings by checking the box at the top of the left column.
In the Edit drop-down menu, select Postage policy.
In the Edit business policies dialogue box, select Change to from the Postage policy drop-down menu, and then click the edit link next to the postage policy name.
In the International postage area of the Edit postage policy dialogue box, clear the Send it to the UK Shipping Centre, and the rest will be taken care of for you box.
Save, confirm, and submit your changes.

Thanks for that, very useful. I will have a look later.

If I do opt out, does that revert back to the normal way of doing things, with nothing else changed ?

I still don't understand what the benefit might be to the seller (me) and what I have to do. Is it that I click on the print label section and stick that on the packet ? Then, I am debited with the fee for doing this ?

[struth]

As far as i know you will revert to the norm. Depending in what you sell it may be an advantage by i!creasing your market substancially. Down side is EBay is kinda washing its hands on the returns part. They return the buyers international postage but it is your responsiblity to arrange the return of the goods. The main reason i opted out . not that i sell much now but knowing ebay if you dont opt out within an unspecified time you will be locked in to it.

[jandl100]

Just checked my settings and I'm not in the scheme anyway.

Is it only the default for 'business sellers'?

[brian2957]

Don't think so Jerry because I was in it . I've just opted out ( thanks Grant ) . I very seldom buy or sell outside of the UK anyway .

[hifi_dave]

It's not just for business users as most of my dealings have been private. I believe it kicks in when you have a certain number of good feedback.

[hifi_dave]

Well, I have opted out using the instructions kindly supplied by Grant but nothing appears to have changed on 'my E-bay'. I have asked the buyer to send me his address, so that I can send direct, raather than through the E-Bay scheme.

Just hope I don't get fined or struck off..:scratch:

[struth]

i guess that one has already been done and youll be stuck with it. id be inclined to just send it to the centre. a!y new listings should not have the international stuff though.

[hifi_dave]

If I can get his address, I will send direct as usual. I'd prefer that.

Many thanks for your help and advice.

[worrasf]

I opted out of this the minute this new service went live. To be fair to eBay they gave plenty of info ahead of it going live and also supplied details of how to opt out (as detailed by Grant) - pretty convoluted but it does work

[User211]

It is a tax trap.

Buyer sends seller a message: "I will buy the item if you send it to me valued at XXX" trying to reduce his country's presumably punitive tax regime on imports. OK sez the seller. Only under GPS he can't do that.