I just had a very negative experience using EBay’s global shipping service (Asendia). I sold a coin via auction to a buyer in Kazakhstan and shipped it to the US address from which the international courier takes over. Approximately one month after I shipped it I got a refund request from the buyer for item not received. The tracking said it cleared customs a couple weeks before but nothing after that. I contacted eBay who walked me through the claims process with the shipping service. In the end I got charged the entire amount of the return (around $280) and only got $100 back from the shipping service. For those of you who ship worldwide, how do you manage those risks? It seems that a lot of countries carry a risk of items being delayed for long periods even if they aren’t stolen, and then the seller has to do a refund even if the item finally arrives later. Is there an option to purchase insurance for these shipments? I know that some insurers may exclude numismatic items. I was under the impression that EBay was liable after my shipment arrived at the US distribution center but I guess I thought wrong. I found the function in my eBay account to restrict buyers from specific countries and changed it to exclude non first world countries. But there is a lot of demand from the Eastern Bloc and I would be happy to sell to people there if I could protect myself from the risks.
I too was under the impression that EBay was liable after my shipment arrived at the US distribution center but I guess I thought wrong. How can eBay not be responsible?? You fulfilled your obligation to ship it to the eBay address...they then took possession and then the liability. I'd definitely be calling up a live person at eBay and throw a fit.
The best you'll do calling-up eBay is someone in an overseas call center who will suspend your account while blaming you for the problem. Or at least that's what happened to me after I got ripped-off on eBay by a seller. The only real option is to discuss the problem in person with an eBay representative at a show that they have set-up at. At one time in the early oughts', I was an active seller on eBay. All of the changes and bureaucracy that has been added since then (not to mention rapacious fees) - has led me to ditch eBay altogether, at least as a seller. I now make consignments to Stack's Bowers instead, and the results are satisfactory (world record price realized on a couple pieces!) along with being so much less of a hassle.
I also thought if you used eBay's shipping that you were protected because I swear it says that in their terms. I've only used it a few times and never had it get lost. One time a few years ago I had shipped to Canada using their service and it was really slow. The buyer opened a request and eBay said it was still moving so they delayed a resolution. It arrived eventually and the buyer left me a bunch of negative feedbacks, and eBay removed them because they were about shipping time, so that was nice. This might have been a previous shipping service than the one they have now though. When I had to contact them, I have used a message to the eBay Business Facebook account. I got a quick response and I didn't have to call anyone.
This is the second negative experience I have seen; the previous one was in this thread: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ebays-really-getting-under-my-skin.415206/page-2#post-26224989 And I looked up the policy, which appears to say you should be protected from having to refund as long as the item makes it to the US based facility (first item on the list; the highlighted item was about negative feedback from the other thread). It might be worthwhile to call again and see if you can get another representative. https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/s...s/ebay-international-shipping-program?id=5348
The few times (around 10) I sold internationally on eBay, I did everything myself. Customs forms and all of that stuff. I only had an issue with one package and it was returned after being intercepted by customs in Colombia en route to Brazil.I have also done a dozen or so numista swaps. I've sent packages to North Macedonia, Spain, France, England, Canada, Israel and New Zealand without a problem. I declined the eBay international service because I heard too many horror stories and bad reviews. Normally the only hiccup by doing it yourself is getting it out of the US! It has to bounce around to 3 or 4 places before it leaves the country.
