Russian eBayer bought my laptop - advice

cojobt

Hi,

A few days ago a Russian eBayer bought a used laptop I had on sale on eBay. He paid immediately via PayPal. I accepted the payment, but have not withdrawn or spent it.

Has anyone else done something like this (sell a laptop to a Russian buyer who paid via PayPal), and if so, was your experience positive? I only ask because I have since been advised that there could be a scam somewhere down the line.

At first I was delighted to have sold it, but chose to be cautious and made email contact with the buyer, confirmed his address, checked his feedback (78 positive), and held onto the cash.

However, shipping is in excess of what the guy paid. Also, An Post advised me that I should remove the battery as Russian customs will hold the parcel, scan it, and probably return it to me...or not.

Considering the hassle and potential scam, I have considered contacting the seller and offering a refund.

Anyway, any advice? If the advice is positive (unpack,remove the battery, refund the cost of the battery, ship), who should I ship with?

BengaLover

If you are wary of selling and shipping abroad then you need to make sure next time that you dont accept bids from overseas.
You also need to protect YOURSELF by sending this via registered post. If it doesnt reach the buyer then you will have the money taken from your account if you cannot prove the buyer recieved the item - proof of postage doesnt count, if needs to have a tracking number.
As regards the battery issue, I think thats a new thing with An Post, and I dont know much about it.

allthedoyles

It might be best to explain to buyer , that you have been advised by the Shipping Company , that delivery cannot be guaranteed , as the electrical storage battery is classified as a corrosive substance and will not pass through his countries Customs .

Tell him you have no option but to withdraw from the deal , and refund him .

With this item , there is a possibility fo damage in transit anyway , and you could end with a dispute , either way , whether it is successfully delivered or not .

As you know , a genuine laptop will sell quickly anyway , so you could re-list and exclude Eastern European countries along with Italy , Germany , Spain , Canada .

When you are posting this laptop , make sure you remove battery and pack separately beside the laptop .

You also need to place some cardboard between the screen and keyboard and wrap in many , many times in strong bubble-wrap , inside a strong cardboard box , surrounded by balls of newspaper .

cojobt

I sent the buyer an email to that effect earlier today. He got a bit prickly about it. To be honest, I also said I would consider the sale if he agreed to a number of conditions, such as a higher shipping charge (I foolishly only considered Europe when I put in my one-size-fits-all worldwide shipping charge), no battery, etc., in the hope that he would agree that I should just refund him.

He replied saying that everything I said in my email was 'a fantasy' (slightly broken English) as he never had any problems before with shipping of various items, including laptops and batteries (he claims - no evidence of this in his feedback) from the UK. He now wants a refund but he also insists he will add negative feedback about the transaction.

Personally I think this is rather unfair as I spent an hour packing the laptop today, then drove to an An Post office to get their side of the story, then to a Royal Mail/Parcelforce post office (they said expect it to take 8 weeks), then phoning An Post customer service to be told about the battery issue, and finally trying UPS to be told they won't ship non-documents to residential addresses in Russia. In addition, I originally intended to carry the extra cost of the shipping as I had simply made a mistake in the listing.

If the guy is trying to scam me by saying the laptop is damaged when he receives it, then he could probably have simply paid the extra cash to get it shipped.

I don't know. I suppose one negative comment is better than being EUR 250 down.

TroutMask

Just back out of the transaction. Refund the buyer the money - apologise etc.
File a cancelled sale with ebay using some plausible excuse (they give you a list on the form). No big deal, as you're only doing this once.

jor el

cojobt wrote: »

he also insists he will add negative feedback about the transaction.

That's to be expected, to be honest with you. You didn't check what it would cost to post, nor did you restrict to only countries that you could track the delivery all the way with. None of this is his fault, and assuming he's not a scammer, he has every right to feel that this was a negative experience.

CL7

I have shipped a good few items to Russian customers and I've never had a problem. Not sure why you were advised otherwise. The buyer will feel like you are messing him about so negative feedback is to be expected.

allthedoyles

SnoogyDoogy wrote: »

I have shipped a good few items to Russian customers and I've never had a problem. Not sure why you were advised otherwise. The buyer will feel like you are messing him about so negative feedback is to be expected.

If An Post advise you to ship a Laptop to Russia , without a battery ..........What would you do ?

If you are advised by An post that you are shipping to a country with strict Customs ,............what would you do ?

If you are selling an item that is listed in the No.2 category of most popular items sold on eBay , and you receive above advice from An Post .............what would you do ?

You may shipped many items to Russia , and so have we , but how many of them had a value in excess of € 250 containing a part that is classified as hazardous and probhibited ?

Judgement Day

Restrict your buyers to exclude all former Soviet block countries, the Third World and those Western European countries with Third World postal systems (Italy, Spain etc), the Far East, South America, Africa and you're in with a fighting chance of uneventful trading on eBay.

BengaLover

You probably have more chance getting scammed by someone in Ireland than you do a block country!
What IS one supposed to do with this new An Post rule though?
I imagine companies that sell laptops, phones, ipods etc will have a way of getting around it?

zenno

Just cancel the dispatch with the guy and refund him and then sell it on gumtree, saves all the hastle.

CL7

allthedoyles wrote: »

If An Post advise you to ship a Laptop to Russia , without a battery ..........What would you do ?

If you are advised by An post that you are shipping to a country with strict Customs ,............what would you do ?

If you are selling an item that is listed in the No.2 category of most popular items sold on eBay , and you receive above advice from An Post .............what would you do ?

You may shipped many items to Russia , and so have we , but how many of them had a value in excess of € 250 containing a part that is classified as hazardous and probhibited ?

If I was selling an item on ebay and I wasn't sure about shipping to a certain country I would make sure it was on my exclusion list.
The op made a mistake, that's understandable but negative feedback is still to be expected.

Anyway to answer your questions:

You've asked the same question three times. I would't trust An Post's advice on anything. I would do my own research. If I found that sending a Laptop with it's battery (I sincerely doubt it) was prohibited I would explain the situation to the buyer, send the laptop and the battery separately by registered post and insure both of them.

I have shipped many items around the €180 mark and above to Russia and other block countries and my experience has always been positive.

cojobt

The buyer has agreed to cancel the transaction,, accept a refund and not post negative feedback.

I agree he had every right to feel the experience was negative. I promised to sell him a product which I could not deliver. I listed the shipping costs incorrectly (I was going the bear the cost myself - I preferred to pay an extra 30EUR than receive negative feedback or lose a EUR250 sale).

My main concern was that if I sent him a laptop with a battery, it would be returned to me, possibly at my expense. I originally had every intention of following through with the transaction.

I had no reason to imagine that the buyer was any sort of scammer. As usual, I made sure we exchanged a few emails with the buyer and got the feeling that he was an honest trader.

It's closed now anyway.