Regular mail in Spain and the lack of protection for sellers on eBay
The thing is this simple: for small shipments, in Spain there are only two rates. ordinary mail and registered letter. In our neighboring countries, like Portugal and even more so in France, for example, you can choose the shipping method that best suits your needs, depending on urgency, security, and even the ecological footprint: priority and standard shipments, with or without tracking number, with proof of delivery, green letter (more eco-friendly), etc.
And all that, of course, with appropriate rates. Here, if you sell small, cheap things (stamps, stickers...) and offer registered shipping, you simply don't sell them. Nobody buys a €1 item and pays almost €6 in total with shipping. I, at least, don't.
So then you also offer ordinary shipping. But it turns out that in Spain there is no tracking number option with this type of mail. In Portugal there is "registered mail"; in France, "envoi suivi" (for only 50 cents more). So the customer chooses this shipping method and you send it and cross your fingers...
And here comes ebay's perverse protection. It is enough for a buyer to say they haven't received the letter for the amount of their purchase to be automatically refunded (within three days), shipping included. Because without a tracking number the seller can't do anything. So if a buyer avoids paying for registered mail, they make you responsible for the workings of Spain's postal service in all its glory and get insured shipping for less than a euro! Why pay for a certificate?
The seller loses, then, the item sold, the sale money, the shipping costs (including envelope, paper, and stamp), and the ad listing fee. And they also pay the commission for the sale made. And the time invested and lost in the whole process and in politely replying to the buyer's messages and refund requests...
I sincerely think that ebay should adapt its protection to the Spanish case. Here you can only choose between the unprotected ordinary letter or the very expensive registered letter with the recipient's signature upon delivery! (more suitable for a notary's office than for selling postcards on ebay). Correos does not have reasonable shipping options that offer a simple tracking number.
I would like to know what solutions occur to you (buyers and sellers), but even more I would like to know whether ebay is considering offering a protection that does not leave one side completely unprotected.
PS: I don't do this, I'm not a professional seller. And I think that if I dedicated myself to selling things without sending them, it would be obvious right away. You only have to check the ratings to realize that 99.99% of sales arrive safely at their destination. But none of that matters in this community.
redoxoniano
·2 years agoIt was quite a few years ago that I read in eBay’s Terms and Conditions, applicable to sellers, that they should take this kind of "incidents" into account when calculating the price of what they sell.
Before, you could decide whether to refund the money, but now eBay has your money, you ship without having received it and therefore the refund in case of a buyer claim is immediate.
It even happens that they return your money and charge it to your account without you having yet received payment for the sale.
otrogalloxxi
OP2 years agoThis has happened to me again. It’s true it hardly ever happens, but when it does... one can’t help feeling like a sucker.
This time the buyer didn’t even bother to reply to any of my messages. I told him to check whether the address I wrote was correct (I make mistakes too!). I also reminded him politely that he could have chosen registered mail. I asked him, in short, whether there was any way to close the case, whether he could think of any alternative solution. Nothing. What’s strange is that if I hadn’t received an item and the seller asked me, I would have preferred, for example, for them to send another one to me (almost better not to, so I don’t lose two items, two shipping costs and more time).
I’ve also realized something: when the buyer is really concerned about the shipment, or wants to make sure I did it correctly, they don’t file a claim on ebay straight away; in that case they send me a private message. If they’re not convinced by what I say (and if I keep the photo of their shipment I send it to them), then they open the claim. But it’s just my luck: the two buyers who open the case directly, without any prior communication, are the two buyers who don’t reply to me. ebay refunds both of them and I’m left high and dry.
I have both of them blocked, of course. Patience!