This is why I won't ship overseas.

[spacecadet]

ARGH.

 

This is semi-OT but I need to vent. I posted an auction for a broken laptop that I'm selling - it's a fairly recent laptop and I figured I'd still get around $300 for it. I specifically stated I only ship to the US and I only put US shipping options on the auction.

 

Sure enough, it got bid up to around $325 with a couple hours to go, and the high bidder had good feedback. I was confident and happy. Next thing you know, two bidders get into a bidding war and the guy who wins hits $500. Trouble is, the winner's from Italy. I figured what the heck, for that price I'll give it a shot. I emailed him and said basically "I don't know if you realize this was a US-only auction, but since it hit $500 I'll ship it to you anyway". (Hey, everybody's got their price, right?) I asked him his postal code so I could figure shipping; he emailed back in broken English but I managed to extract the code. I gave him two shipping options and asked him which he preferred; I also asked him whether he understood that this was a broken item needing repair. This was his reply:

 

"they are still I Angel.we wait for little to the end of these auctions if I will be the new purchaser you beacon an only mandate ok ciaoooo"

 

wtf??

 

I told him to forget it. I'm not dealing with this; he clearly can't speak English and I'm sure he doesn't realize the item he just bought was busted. So now my only recourse is to try to go to the next highest bidder and hope he hasn't bought something else in the meantime.

 

FWIW, this is the auction itself - you can see that I was pretty explicit both in the item description and the shipping terms: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=6866232975

[Mindfield]

You ought to go into your preferences and check off the box that states you will not accept bids from anyone outside your accepted shipping regions. That way even if they wanted to your listings will reject their attempts to bid. (It's located in the same place in your preferences where you also deny bids from anyone with less than 0 feedback or more than 2 bid retractions in the past month)

[spacecadet]

You ought to go into your preferences and check off the box that states you will not accept bids from anyone outside your accepted shipping regions. That way even if they wanted to your listings will reject their attempts to bid. (It's located in the same place in your preferences where you also deny bids from anyone with less than 0 feedback or more than 2 bid retractions in the past month)

 

Yeah I did that about mid-way through the auction, which was apparently too late because it didn't take. That wasn't an option the last time I tried to sell something there, so I didn't know about it. Stupid me, I guess.

[Mindfield]

Yeah I did that about mid-way through the auction, which was apparently too late because it didn't take. That wasn't an option the last time I tried to sell something there, so I didn't know about it. Stupid me, I guess.

 

Well, hopefully the second highest bidder will take the deal -- or one of them will anyway, so it won't be a total loss. Fortunately I haven't gotten anyone whom I thought was completely clueless about what I was selling, but just to be on the safe side I repeatedly, explicitly, lay out in simple English anything I feel is an important point to make so that it is abundantly clear and there can be no arguments when the item arrives. I do this more for my own sake so I have written records in case there are problems -- then I have something to show PayPal as proof that the buyer's a dumbass. (I realize you did, too -- but some people just don't undestand basic concepts or the language they're written in, so there's really no help for it but to try and salvage what you can)

Edited April 9, 2006 by Mindfield

[holygrailvideogames.com]

I am pretty sure that it is illegal to send a computer to a lot of foreign countries. There is no way that I would ship a laptop overseas. You really have to be careful selling laptops on eBay. There is a lot of fraud involving laptops on eBay.

[guitarmas]

I am pretty sure that it is illegal to send a computer to a lot of foreign countries. There is no way that I would ship a laptop overseas. You really have to be careful selling laptops on eBay. There is a lot of fraud involving laptops on eBay.

 

I apologize for being blonde but, what do you mean by fraud?

[RickHarrisMaine]

I put a laptop on there once, and immediately I got e-mails from all sorts of people in foreign countries, all sounding like former Nigerian princes from their use of the language. Gave me a real funny feeling, and not in a good way!

[Almost Rice]

I apologize for being blonde but, what do you mean by fraud?

 

Like RHM said, Nigerian scam artists. You will get checks for $10,000 for an item worth only $1,000. They want the remainder Western Unioned to them while you get stuck with a bouncing check and no item. There are many more scams. Just list a laptop on eBay and you will see. You will see lots of foreign bidders for it.

[SimonTemplar]

I apologize for being blonde but, what do you mean by fraud?

 

Like RHM said, Nigerian scam artists. You will get checks for $10,000 for an item worth only $1,000. They want the remainder Western Unioned to them while you get stuck with a bouncing check and no item. There are many more scams. Just list a laptop on eBay and you will see. You will see lots of foreign bidders for it.

 

 

The "nigerian" thieves also use valid, freshly-stolen credit cards to purchase laptops and have them delivered to them... then the merchant gets a charge-back from the credit card company two weeks later.

[Almost Rice]

The "nigerian" thieves also use valid, freshly-stolen credit cards to purchase laptops and have them delivered to them... then the merchant gets a charge-back from the credit card company two weeks later.

 

These items attract scammers in droves. I would never ship a laptop overseas. Also, not even use paypal.

Edited February 19, 2008 by Almost Rice