Lost international shipments and YOU are the seller!?

[Man with the Golden Arm]

in the midst of a harangue with an international buyer who bought two very nice discs and paid market value for them. the items were shipped nearly a couple months back and sent via air mail, packed perfectly etc.

no priority docs were filed other than my customs mini form. buyer is pissed and so i am .... BUT ... with all international transactions that i even do i know i take the chance that this big ass world might just gobble something up.

i've never, ever lost a package i have sent and have also waited extremely long for items from holland and italy etc...

not certain of what recourse the international buyer has via paypal. my feedback is of no importance to me.

so... what are your experiences, has ever happened to you?

[king ubu]

A small little package (actually just a letter containing one CDR) has taken over a month to get from Switzerland to bluerein in the Netherlands... can happen, I was relieved when it finally did arrived, since I have never lost anything, neither to me, not from me.

I'm sure your buyer is pissed, but maybe he should call up the custom folks and ask if someone has forgotten to let him know about some package hanging in there for him? I've heard that this happens sometimes... (never to me, so far... once I got a letter when they held up a Mosaic package, took about three months to get to me, in the end... one month due to the custom guys, at least...)

[JohnS]

I've had one overseas item go astray. I refunded the money (not a large amount) and made a claim on the UK postal service. They paid up. Another package was returned to me after two months as undeliverable despite the fact that the address was exactly as provided by the buyer. Both these items were going to eastern Europe!

Two months seems a long time to me though but if the package was, say missent to another country or maybe directed to a surface route then it's not all that long. Of course as Flurin says it may be languishing somewhere.

If you buyer has recourse through Paypal that's fine but if not, if it were me, I think I'd have to pay up after a reasonable amount of time.

[47 West 63rd N.Y.C.]

Have him contact Customs in his country and see if they are holding it.

[marcoliv]

so far i've only lost a single package with Nathan Davis' Two Originals shipped to Bright Moments.

MCO

[king ubu]

so far i've only lost a single package with Nathan Davis' Two Originals shipped to Bright Moments.

MCO

Sad to lose that great disc!

[Dan Gould]

MWTGA,

I'm confused on one point: did you ship from the US overseas or vice versa?

Because the US doesn't have the customs charges that Old Europe (and new Europe does) so packages are never held for any length of time. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but like I said, I'm confused.

Since it seems as though some countries take especially long on delivery, I'd first consider encouraging the buyer to sit tight and keep hoping. Beyond that I'd definitely offer a refund, and without a doubt, I would add a notice to all future auctions that insurance is required for overseas shipments, or that you cannot be responsible for packages that are lost in the mail unless insurance or tracking is purchased by the buyer.

[Rooster_Ties]

so far i've only lost a single package with Nathan Davis' Two Originals shipped to Bright Moments.

MCO

Sad to lose that great disc!

My thought as well -- a great disc, and a touch hard to find as well.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

MWTGA,

I'm confused on one point: did you ship from the US overseas or vice versa?

Because the US doesn't have the customs charges that Old Europe (and new Europe does) so packages are never held for any length of time. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but like I said, I'm confused.

Since it seems as though some countries take especially long on delivery, I'd first consider encouraging the buyer to sit tight and keep hoping. Beyond that I'd definitely offer a refund, and without a doubt, I would add a notice to all future auctions that insurance is required for overseas shipments, or that you cannot be responsible for packages that are lost in the mail unless insurance or tracking is purchased by the buyer.

Dan...

I'm in the States and the buyer is in southern EU. Providing tracking was to be nearly $30 for this rather than air letter post and was offered as an expensive alternative.

Other international shipments were made on the same day and a pack to northern EU just arrived last week ... nearly two months! for Air?

Hopefully I've got the buyer to sit tight and since I have several hundred transactions in the past seven years I'm looking like I know what I'm doing. OTOH you never know when you're being taken for a ride.

Edited August 30, 2006 by Man with the Golden Arm

[Stefan Wood]

MWTGA,

I'm confused on one point: did you ship from the US overseas or vice versa?

Because the US doesn't have the customs charges that Old Europe (and new Europe does) so packages are never held for any length of time. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but like I said, I'm confused.

Since it seems as though some countries take especially long on delivery, I'd first consider encouraging the buyer to sit tight and keep hoping. Beyond that I'd definitely offer a refund, and without a doubt, I would add a notice to all future auctions that insurance is required for overseas shipments, or that you cannot be responsible for packages that are lost in the mail unless insurance or tracking is purchased by the buyer.

I agree. I usually insist on airmail deliveries because I've found them to be quicker and have never lost an item. Surface mail takes 4-6 weeks, and items get damaged even if you've double boxed and padded the item.

[king ubu]

MWTGA,

I'm confused on one point: did you ship from the US overseas or vice versa?

Because the US doesn't have the customs charges that Old Europe (and new Europe does) so packages are never held for any length of time. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but like I said, I'm confused.

Since it seems as though some countries take especially long on delivery, I'd first consider encouraging the buyer to sit tight and keep hoping. Beyond that I'd definitely offer a refund, and without a doubt, I would add a notice to all future auctions that insurance is required for overseas shipments, or that you cannot be responsible for packages that are lost in the mail unless insurance or tracking is purchased by the buyer.

I agree. I usually insist on airmail deliveries because I've found them to be quicker and have never lost an item. Surface mail takes 4-6 weeks, and items get damaged even if you've double boxed and padded the item.

With Mosaic/Trueblue I had the contrary experience. Once they "forgot" that I already sent in my payment (I had to provide and mail a photocopy of my money order - that was before I got the dreadful credit card) and then all they offered was shipping by air mail instead of overseas (which I had opted for). This resulted in me getting 50 discs with maybe 3 or 4 jewel cases that were not broken to pieces... lucky enough none of the big boxes ever arrived damaged... (I was worrying a bit after they started not to offer surface any longer).

[Dan Gould]

MWTGA,

I'm confused on one point: did you ship from the US overseas or vice versa?

Because the US doesn't have the customs charges that Old Europe (and new Europe does) so packages are never held for any length of time. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but like I said, I'm confused.

Since it seems as though some countries take especially long on delivery, I'd first consider encouraging the buyer to sit tight and keep hoping. Beyond that I'd definitely offer a refund, and without a doubt, I would add a notice to all future auctions that insurance is required for overseas shipments, or that you cannot be responsible for packages that are lost in the mail unless insurance or tracking is purchased by the buyer.

Dan...

I'm in the States and the buyer is in southern EU. Providing tracking was to be nearly $30 for this rather than air letter post and was offered as an expensive alternative.

Other international shipments were made on the same day and a pack to northern EU just arrived last week ... nearly two months! for Air?

Hopefully I've got the buyer to sit tight and since I have several hundred transactions in the past seven years I'm looking like I know what I'm doing. OTOH you never know when you're being taken for a ride.

That's definitely true, the guy could just be screwing with you to try to get his money back. If tracking costs that much, I'd definitely require insurance on all international shipments.

[sjarrell]

After losing a few shipments over the course of four or five years, I've started telling overseas winners that they need to insure their stuff because I can't be liable for lost items. Usually nobody wants to insure, but that's not my problem so long as I state upfront that it's on them if it goes awol.

The losses to date I've either refunded in full or refunded purchase price + half of postage, just to spread the pain around a bit.

The only missing packages that come to mind were one to Greece and very recently one to Italy. Bothe were LPs.

Parcel post automatically insures up to $40, I think. USPS may have recently upped coverage. But parcel post ain't cheap.