foreign buyers- advice please

[DebiTheScot]

I've just had a nightmare with someone buying some stuff from me and then telling me I had to post it to Italy. I had listed it as UK postage only but hadn't mentioned anything in my blurb about it so added a bit to postage and sent it normal airmail.

After 10 days he emailed saying it didn't arrive, I asked him to give it a few days as PO had told me things were taking longer due to ash cloud. He was ok with that. So few days later emailed again asking for refund but came acros sounding quite rude about it (but could be translation issue).

He had suggested that the postage I was charging was too much so I didn't send it by a service with tracking so asked if he would accept refund minus postage as it was his fault it wasn't tracked (was that naughty of me?). He agreed but when I went to do refund through paypal it wouldn't let me as I didn't have enough funds. So emailed him again saying it'd take up to 10 days and explained why. He then was very rude and said if I didn't pay straight away he'd demand full refund and give negative feedback. I then discovered I could just send the funds rather than doing it as refund and did that (the same day he emailed me) but he emailed back next day saying that wasn't good enough and said he wanted the postage too.
As I know I can't refuse to give the postage and he's stressed me out enough and I don't want a negative I've given him it but am still annoyed that he was rude and shouldn't have bid in the 1st place.

So after that rambling moan what I wanted to know is- was I being bad/wrong at all? And what can I do to stop this happening again? If someone wins who is abroad and they haven't asked if it's ok to post it to them is there anything you can do? I really don't think this buyer would have paid the extra to send it tracked as it's quite a bit more and he moaned at it going from £6- £8 (which was what it cost)

dp sends alot abroad so will ask him later but we have had lots of problems selling to italy

you have to get it signed for airsure i think it's called.

i would have made he waited a bit too before refunding, what it an expensive thing?

It was all of dh's subbuteo stuff that he had when he was a kid. He paid £27 for it which was a fair price going by what other similar things go for. At least we haven't lost money apart from the postage but it's a shame it's got lost somewhere.

I've posted abroad successfully. I also state its standard 1st class airmail. But usually the person e-mails me first to check its ok to post abroad. There are no rules that it must be tracked. I would tell them this and if they dont accept then go for second chance offer. It also depends on the value of the goods. Usually mine is just cheapest clothing so the postage needs to be low.

Yes I would of given it 3 weeks at least before refunding. Cos he could still get it.

I know how stressed out e-baying can be and wonder if its worth it sometimes.

doesn't surprise me, we've had lots of trouble with italian buyers with record and football items

asked dp, he said best send airsure and tell buyer it will cost extra before you post.

we have had people receive the item later on and send money again though saying that

what was their feedback like?

Airsure is not signed for .

oh sorry gives you tracking number and compensation

You can state in the item description that you will not send abroad. Or ask foreign bidders to contact you first to check postal arrangements.

If you do get a foreign bidder, write to him/her offering options which include bog standard airmail and signed for/trackable. No matter what, you can get a Proof of Posting.

I have sold a number of things to foreign buyers, and it has worked out well for me, mostly because they were pleased to have something (children's things) that they couldn't get hold of at home.

I live abroad and have often bought on ebay.co.uk for the reason that WingedVictory mentioned. It is sometimes impossible to get the item here, or much more expensive.

If you don't want to ship abroad, you can put a block on the item for overseas bidders. That way they cannot bid, but can contact you to ask if you would post abroad.

I never pay extra for insurance/tracking, unless it is worth over £200.

Hope you get it sorted out.

If you do not want to send items outside the UK you should set your preferences to block bids from countries you don't post to.
If you are happy to post outside the UK then you should set the P&P in the listing as you do for UK. Set the p&P for whatever the cost is (airsure for eg) then they know upfront what it is going to cost. makes life easier.

I think I'll do what sixlostmonkeys says. Then that way they know the costs and won't bid if they don't want it. It's not that I don't want to send things abroad but that if it does get lost then I lose out on more money as it cost more to send. And it can be harder to explain the issue if the buyer doesn't speak English. This buyer is obviously putting his text into a online tranlastor and sending it as it has some odd words in it.