Discogs

wimobl wrote:

December 14th i received an order from a Spanish buyer.
This order was shipped (Economy!!) on december 18th.

Yesterday i received the following email from the buyer:

the record not arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!poor

Well....that's a very patient buyer,does he even think about the christmas/holiday times at the postal services,what about all the snow everywhere that's holding things up?!?!

I don't mind a buyer saying a record still did not arrive,but it just seems Spanish people just don't know how to communicate in a normal way.
Because this is not the first time i get such emails from spanish buyers,and they all choose the cheapest shippingoption and later complain because it takes too long.

I'm really thinking about it to choose not to send to Spain anymore.





Merry Christmas !

VinylDeals wrote:

I refuse to ship to Italy, Im thinking about not shipping to Spain also. I have also had trouble with Hong Kong.

jimiphil wrote:

ive never had a problem shipping to spain
you can get a disgruntled impatient customer from anywhere
i have had a few problems shipping to italy but i dont think the customer or I were to blame but their postal system there

PabloPlato wrote:

never had a problem with spain. have had a few people contact me worried when items dont arrive after 4 weeks or 6 weeks (international surface from canada is estimated as gtaking between 4-6 weeks) but i tell them to wait and in all cases it arrived after a couple days, but never from spain - usually from greece, japan, or poland. mind you not all buyers from those countries have behaved in the same manner.

please do not make such assumptions about all buyers from a country just because a few successive experiences. if you find that it takes longer to ship to them with economy, let them know before they choose the shipping option that their item will on average take a bit more time - or dont ship economy there at all.

the only fair assumptions to be made are on how a countries postal service works, and those trends are usually visible from your experiences shipping to such countries and from other sellers experiences (search marketplace forum with keywords to find out if a country generally has poor postal service)

sjcee wrote:

sorry mate, but here maybe you are making the wrong assumptions.
The most stressy buyers are defo. people from italy or spain. IMO all incidents (wether based on pers. experiences or read in forum threads) are based on language problems, sometimes in combination with lazyness (reading sales conditions...)
As I can speak spanish, it's not a problem for me to solve any problems or misunderstandings quite easily - so I can't say, that I had a big issue so far. But if I hadn't been able to speak spanish - it would have ended in disaster several times already...

wimobl wrote:

I did,and my experience is that shipping to Spain can take 4 days,but it can also take 5-6 weeks!!!

But the problem is,they just don't communicate in a normal way.
Either i get messages like :where my record!!?!?!!!!????
Or: messages writtin in Spanish wich i have to translate to know what they mean.

Jayfive wrote:

Tell him hes been waiting all of 4 working days during the busiest time for the post office and therefore should get a grip.

wimobl wrote:

I did ;)

gagamusic wrote:

Ship registered airmail only ;)

seek wrote:

Italy, Poland and Russia.
Shady postal systems, apparently.

It's an additional $11.50 for Registered service on 1st Class Airmail packages from the US.

gagamusic wrote:

hi seek,

I ship registered airmail only (international).
ok my shipping fees are sometimes higher than other sellers do,
but all buyers usually accept them.

seek wrote:

From the US to most countries, have had no problems, however problems with shipments to
Italy, Russia and Poland convinced me to require Registration on shipments to those locations.


A nice person from Poland contacted me last week, inquiring about Registered shipping fee to his country.
He decided against purchase as the shipping fee was too high.
He also mentioned, he knows there are problems with customs in Poland.

Also last week, another buyer, from Italy, went ahead and placed a 6-item order before inquiring regarding Registered shipping fee,
then asked to cancel the Order after getting the shipping total, as they found it too high.
Following the cancellation request, they paid the invoice anyway.
Waiting before shipping to hear back to see if they'd prefer cancellation and refund.
If they'd rather cancel, I'd file it (Per Buyer's Request), and refund in full, of course; no harm, no foul.



edit: Ha! Just got a response from the buyer in Italy, 30 seconds after the above post.
"Hi,order ok. Thanks"

Narraback wrote:

I wouldn't discriminate because of nationality.

Believe me, where you are born, or where you are raised and live, has no bearing on whether you turn into a complete tosspot or not.

I've had some very strange correspondence from all corners of the world.

Just put it down to experience, and keep your chin up.

seek wrote:

Nor I, never ever.
The problems with shipment to some locations isn't an issue of nationality; it's simply an issue of
dishonest people at work somewhere in the postal systems of some locations,
a culture of dishonesty that is localized within a system: no bearing on race nor nationality.

In the US, some local governments are totally dishonest, while others in the same state are completely above board.

Good people and bad people can be found anywhere.

punxtr wrote:

There is no scientific truth in using the word 'race' as we are all of the human race. What you refer to is culture and nationality. So just say 'no bearing on nationality' :P

One of my pet peeves :P

consort wrote:

Don't know how many are mail-ordering records to India, but same thing, even for letters: mail 3 identical and one might make it.

Is it allowed to deny sales to certain countries? Should that be stated outright in details of selling terms?

Narraback wrote:

I used to restrict sales to certain parts of Africa, after a couple of bad transactions. I've since had no problems with Africa, after my self imposed restrictions were ignored, so I now sell to everywhere.

If you analyse your sales data, you will find a country which causes you the most "problems". There has to be one, it has to be top of your "problem" list. If a another seller does the same analysis, he will find a another "problem" country, but it will probably be a different country.

It's not the country that's your problem, but humans.

seek wrote:

it's their postal system.

Narraback wrote:

Honestly mate, I've had just as many problems withn the UK postal services as I've had with Eastern Europe, Africa etc....

seek wrote:

Only one problem ever with a UK shipment, in a couple of 1000 (at least) shipments to that locale.
Ironically, it was a registered shipment that never arrived.
Original copy of the JAMMs '1987'; sent this same time of year, years ago; maybe nicked at customs.
Got the refund from the US postal system, though it took over 6 months to receive reimbursement.

Italy, Poland and Russia: consistent with problems.
As stated above, a potential buyer in Poland agreed, their postal customs are shady.

Some problems with shipments coming from Thailand; no problems going that way, though.


afaik, yes it is ok to limit your sales by location: just state it in your terms.
I've seen sellers' pages that state, they'll only ship within their own country, and 1 that stated they'll only allow pick-up.

Freedom_Sounds wrote:

I have recently received negative feedback from a buyer in Italy because he hasn't received the records (posted just before Christmas), even though he hasn't even contacted me to tell me that he hasn't received them. If he had, I would have told him to wait a few more days and if they still haven't arrived I would refund him in full because I have proof of posting and can get compensation from the post office.
How can I get this completely unjustified feedback removed? It doesn't really meet the criteria Discogs insist on for their automated feedback removal at the bottom of the feedback page.

ahlbomper wrote:

i think the only chance is through the buyer.
try to politely explain why it could take longer (christmas, custom), & ask that buyer contacts you when/if it turns up.
the buyer can get the feedback removed if they wish by contacting discogs through the help link.

tunes4u wrote:

recently, had a order shipped std airmail,been returned to sender.

i contacted customer then he said will not pay again as it should of got to him.

looking at details, he has two addresses one on discogs and one on paypal listed, i didnt notice this at first to be honest otherwise i would of checked.

now here lies the question - do sellers worry about there feedback ?

paypal has to verify address, so payment must come from address for claim
also to refund seller,

i do not want a negative feedback as i cant see ive done anything to do deserve this. as i have offered to resend on this occassion at my cost to send vinyl only noticing address diffrer after doing so.

Jayfive wrote:

Send the item to the correct address and cut your losses.

It probably is the buyers fault for not telling you that the address is different but I doubt the cost of posting it again is worth the extended hassle.

Wait til the buyer has left feddback so you know the item has arrived and reflect the issue with the different addresses and his lack of co-operation in your feedback.

jimiphil wrote:

Ive had so many customers that have two different shipping addresses one listed here the other in paypal is different
as a matter of fact i hae a customer from italy with this very thing i never ship till i can get confirmation from them which is the correct shipping address
wouldnt you know this person hasnt replied in over 2 weeks
i still wont ship till i have heard from him

tunes4u wrote:

[quote=Jayfive][/quote]


yes jay i just cut my loses as you say its not worth it, trying to keep my feedback good and customers in good order thats why £6 isnt worth the hassle,
but its the attitude of i shouldnt pay again not his fault and now he hasnt responded to my reply regarding diffrent address as i didnt notice to prior

ROBDOLPHIN66 wrote:

I come across this all of the time.
Why do people have 2 addresses and why do they think that they are doing you a favour by bothering to reply to an email asking which address is correct?
It is bad enough them having the 2 addresses (do they not know where they live?) but the vast majority of the time they don't even seem to realise!

pinkychukkles wrote:

Too true - it's surely the responsibility of the buyer when ordering to clearly indicate where they want their order shipped to. As a seller, unless you want to go down the tedious route of asking them to confirm which address they want it shipped to, is to put something in your selling profile or in your communication with the buyer that protects you, e.g. since I use PayPal to frank my mail, it's stated in my profile that any orders will go to the address on PayPal unless advised otherwise by the buyer.

One way round this would be for the buyers to confirm their shipping address each time they checkout, with perhaps the facility to add additional shipping addresses so you could choose between them - like when you checkout on Amazon.

TechElec wrote:

Something needs doing, that's for sure. I've twice suffered negs from buyers who left old address on paypal accounts. I print postage from paypal, same as you, and clearly state that I will only send to the address on the paypal account.

Am I seriously expected to verify every buyers address on each order?