Ebay Restricted item?

[Michael Schreiber]

Paypal is wonderful-- for the customer. Not so much for the seller. There really isn't any protection for the seller. Especially overseas (from the U.S.). I wish it would have been different, I used to sell overseas but that was so time consuming compared to sending something state-to-state. Love Germany by the way. I was stationed in Baumholder, went to K-town and Idar Oberstein a lot! Loved Frankfurt! Army time.

Ah, I see. I have no experience as a seller, just read that PayPal also offered seller protection. Yet, I don't now, how that works in reality and how reliable it might be.

Haha, cool! I also was in Baumholder and Idar Oberstein with our L.A.R.S. (light rocket artillery system) platoon
Greetings to Alaska! \m/
Must be great. I only know it from Bob Ross (don't laugh, please, I like his shows ^^), but since then I decided, I'd like to see the beautiful landscape one day!

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Ah, I see. I have no experience as a seller, just read that PayPal also offered seller protection. Yet, I don't now, how that works in reality and how reliable it might be.

Haha, cool! I also was in Baumholder and Idar Oberstein with our L.A.R.S. (light rocket artillery system) platoon
Greetings to Alaska! \m/
Must be great. I only know it from Bob Ross (don't laugh, please, I like his shows ^^), but since then I decided, I'd like to see the beautiful landscape one day!

Greetings my friend! Glad to know another serviceman who served their country! I salute you!

Baumholder Germany off to field maneuvers!

 

[Jeff Scott]

...I also was in Baumholder and Idar Oberstein with our L.A.R.S. (light rocket artillery system) platoon ...

Imagine, if you will, that it was called the Light Infantry Artillery Rocket System.......................

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Imagine, if you will, that it was called the Light Infantry Artillery Rocket System.......................

The military likes to make up odd titles @Jeff Scott LOL. One I remember from Basic Training was..... nomenclature? I mean, who really uses that word after they outprocess?

Hooah.

 

[Michael Schreiber]

Greetings my friend! Glad to know another serviceman who served their country! I salute you!

Thank you! I salute you, too!

Imagine, if you will, that it was called the Light Infantry Artillery Rocket System.......................

Good to know! In German it's just Leichtes Artillerie-Raketen-System. Or rather it was - since we don't have them, anymore. Sold them to Turkey, as far as I remember
You've also been there? EDIT: In Baumholder, I mean, not in Turkey ^^

At OP: Sorry, if that was too much off-topic.

 

[Iridescentone]

That's the smart way to do it-- if you're up for shipping internationally. I've found overseas shipping, customs, irate customers wanting refunds, etc. not equal to the effort. There are more than enough people in the U.S. who are willing to buy. I even quit selling to Canada because of a customer issue. He complained a pristine perfect item was "not as described" and demanded a refund and reimbursement for shipping. The shipping refund and shipping costs to both directions absolutely KILLED any value of the auction. And dealing with customs in BOTH DIRECTIONS. Anywhere but U.S.? No thanks .

My experiences with buying from Canada have gone smoothly.

But on the two occasions I tried shipping from USA to Canada (a bass, then an amp head) it turned into a nightmarish headache because Canada Customs held the items several weeks each time. The ripple effect had me jumping through unexpected hoops trying to locate the whereabouts of the packages.

I figure since I'm not going to be compensated for the potential extra work/hassles, and there are more than enough domestic buyers in the biggest market already......why bother? It's just business to me so that's where I come out on the issue. If/when the situation changes I'll re-evaluate.

 

[StayLow]

This should be titled the Grand Conjecture Thread.

I've received items marked "Fragile" in various countries via eBay's Global Shipping Program, and have a pet peeve with people making stuff up out of the blue then slagging companies and posting proclamations on what people should or shouldn't do based on said unfounded conjecture.

So I spent two minutes out of curiosity to call eBay's quite excellent Customer Service Dept. to confirm: There's NO restriction on boxes marked "Fragile" or "Glass" nor are there any restrictions based on the manufacturer.

In cases of non-shipping, both sides are made whole and it varies whether the seller gets to keep the money from the sale OR the item is returned. NOT both.

There ARE restrictions in some countries on certain woods which are commonly used in furniture items, musical instruments, etc..

Info here: Link Removed

 

[Iridescentone]

The military likes to make up odd titles @Jeff Scott LOL. One I remember from Basic Training was..... nomenclature? I mean, who really uses that word after they outprocess?

Hooah.

Nomenclature? I did my stint in the US Navy, where walls are "bulkheads"....stairs are "ladders"....left is "port"....right is "starboard"....and hundreds of other peculiar terms.

My personal fave is "gedunk", which meant candy, junk food, cigs, etc. And "the gedunk" was the place that sold the gedunk. I still use gedunk today just for laughs.

I also learned in boot camp how not to "step on my crank". lol

 

[Michael Schreiber]

My experiences with buying from Canada have gone smoothly.

But on the two occasions I tried shipping from USA to Canada (a bass, then an amp head) it turned into a nightmarish headache because Canada Customs held the items several weeks each time. The ripple effect had me jumping through unexpected hoops trying to locate the whereabouts of the packages.

I figure since I'm not going to be compensated for the potential extra work/hassles, and there are more than enough domestic buyers in the biggest market already......why bother? It's just business to me so that's where I come out on the issue. If/when the situation changes I'll re-evaluate.

Funny enough, I only had twice a problem - both with parcel services here in Germany...
Once, GLS didn't leave a note that they placed the parcel in a store, so it was there, waiting to be fetched, yet I didn't know. There was no tracking info for that parcel. While I was waiting, it returned to the seller... Fortunately, he was kind to ship it again. Still, I had to pay shipping, twice, and the seller had to send it twice...

The other time, the seller gave me the tracking ID, and sent a photo of the recipe, but the tracking wouldn't change. Then we decided to contact DHL, and since two months they're investigating...

So, I can advise anyone of you who is selling to:
a) ship with a tracking ID, so both parties can see what happens to the parcel, and where it is;
b) check the tracking status, regularly - and remind your customer to do so, as well.

 

[Iridescentone]

This should be titled the Grand Conjecture Thread.

I've received items marked "Fragile" in various countries via eBay's Global Shipping Program, and have a pet peeve with people making stuff up out of the blue then slagging companies and posting proclamations on what people should or shouldn't do based on said unfounded conjecture.

So I spent two minutes out of curiosity to call eBay's quite excellent Customer Service Dept. to confirm: There's NO restriction on boxes marked "Fragile" or "Glass" nor are there any restrictions based on the manufacturer.

In cases of non-shipping, both sides are made whole and it varies whether the seller gets to keep the money from the sale OR the item is returned. NOT both.

There ARE restrictions in some countries on certain woods which are commonly used in furniture items, musical instruments, etc..

Info here: Link Removed

Yes but without all the wild conjecture....where's the fun?

 

[gln1955]

This should be titled the Grand Conjecture Thread.

I've received items marked "Fragile" in various countries via eBay's Global Shipping Program, and have a pet peeve with people making stuff up out of the blue then slagging companies and posting proclamations on what people should or shouldn't do based on said unfounded conjecture.

So I spent two minutes out of curiosity to call eBay's quite excellent Customer Service Dept. to confirm: There's NO restriction on boxes marked "Fragile" or "Glass" nor are there any restrictions based on the manufacturer.

In cases of non-shipping, both sides are made whole and it varies whether the seller gets to keep the money from the sale OR the item is returned. NOT both.

There ARE restrictions in some countries on certain woods which are commonly used in furniture items, musical instruments, etc..

Info here: Link Removed

eBAY CS told the OP about the "fragile issue", so it's not conjecture. More like a big company with lots of people handling shipping and customer service who are not all on the same page.

 

[TL23NC]

If this is how it works ebay has quite the scam going. If the item can'y be shipped out why doesn't ebay just return the item to the seller?

If the seller followed all of the applicable eBay rules through a transaction it would be difficult for eBay to void the transaction and send the instrument back to him. If the seller was aware of some sort of restriction then that would be a different story.

 

[Michael Schreiber]

it would be difficult for eBay to void the transaction and send the instrument back to him.

Couldn't they let the seller decide what's better for him?
I think I see your point, as some sellers might be more happy to get the money and not wanting to go through the trouble selling the same item, again. Yet, in other cases like with this bass, it might be better to let the seller decide, me thinks.
Then again, life is not a pony farm... (I guess, in English it goes: life's no bowl of cherries )

 

[The Bass Clef]

no need to use it, I just sold a bass on eBay to a guy in Germany and sent it good old USPS international , no issues what so ever

I just ran into a big problem with shipping a 1970s vintage Jazz Bass pickguard to Chile with a Priority Mail International flat rate label that I purchased and printed through Paypal. The problem was, up until the last year or so, Priority Int. flat rate envelopes and small boxes did not get the normal features that regular Priority Int. packages got (no tracking, no automatic $200 insurance, and no way to search for missing mail). USPS has now changed this and the flat rate stuff gets all the same features as regular Priority Int.

After more than a month went by and my buyer never recieved the item (and there were no tracking updates after it left the US), I called USPS and they said that because Paypal hasn’t updated their system to print flat rate labels correctly, there was nothing they could do because it essentially went as a 1st class parcel, and they couldn’t even do a search on it becasue the label # started with a 1st class designation letter. USPS even told me it was an issue that has been happening lately and they even gave me a postal bulletin # explaining the new process that retailers like Paypal were supposed to start using over a year ago.

I was on the hook to give the buyer a refund AND lose my item, so I tried several times to explain this to different people at Paypal... that it was their mistake and I should have been covered with the USPS insurance, but due to their mistake in issuing this type of label, I had no insurance on the package. After spending several hours on the phone over multiple phone calls, I finally got thru to someone in the “claims and disputes” dept. who had actually dealt with the issue before, and he agreed that I did everything right as a seller, and he issued me a full credit to my Paypal account for the cost of the item + the cost of the original shipping label, so I could refund the buyer without taking a hit myself (the item was almost $200).

So beware... if you are shipping smaller items internationally with USPS small flate rate boxes or padded envleopes, purchase your postage at the post office counter!!! I was told by Paypal that ebay has not updated their International labels either because ebay and Paypal both use Pitney Bowes, which is the “middle man” who is not following USPS protocol.

This was a huge hassle that cost me a lot of time, but both the buyer and I got compensated in the end, so I guess “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”.

 

[Michael Schreiber]

After spending several hours on the phone over multiple phone calls, I finally got thru to someone in the “claims and disputes” dept.

Oh yeah, that's what I also like about big companies... makes me always feel like in a Kafka story or an Orwell novel, where no one's really in charge, and people would have to make excuses like "I'm afraid, that cannot be done in our (computer) system" or "I'm here in a call center, all I can do is writing a note so someone in charge can handle that."
Sometimes I wonder if there actually are some humans in charge, and who these might be, if not even the support knows them

P.S.: Glad that it turned out well, in the end, in your case!

 

[Ric5]

Well no progress today but even in the worst case scenario nobody loses money ...

 

[Michael Schreiber]

Well no progress today but even in the worst case scenario nobody loses money ...

Still, I cross my fingers - would be a shame, you put so much work into it.
In any case, I hope the bass at least gets played, by whoever, so that your work was not in vain.

 

[Iridescentone]

Think I'll bookmark this thread for the next time someone badgers me about why I don't ship outside CONUS.

(not that there's anything wrong with needlessly badgering people)

 

[Jeff Scott]

The world has become a smaller place, except when it comes to shipping, apparently.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Still, I cross my fingers - would be a shame, you put so much work into it.
In any case, I hope the bass at least gets played, by whoever, so that your work was not in vain.

Think I'll bookmark this thread for the next time someone badgers me about why I don't ship outside CONUS.

(not that there's anything wrong with needlessly badgering people)

Thank you both for your service to your country!