At 12:37 PM 19/11/2001 -0800, Peter Klein wrote:
>I just made my first Ebay sale, and already there's a problem. My ad clearly
>specified, "U.S. and Canada bidders only, please," cashier's check or money
>order, U.S. priority mail shipping. So of course the winning bidder has a .fr
>at the end of his email address, indicating he is in France.
Not necessarily. I have .COM, .NET and .CA e-mail addresses. Where do I live?
Even if it's France, read on...
> He has not contacted me yet. He has good feedback. There is a U.S bidder
> one dollar lower who the French bidder "sniped" at the last minute.
>
>So what do I do now? Do I have a right to refuse to sell to him?
Yes, you have the right to refuse to sell to him.
> I couldn't find anything about this situation on the Ebay help. Or should I
> just live with it?
>
>I really didn't want to deal with the hassle of bank wire transfers and
>international shipping on a $56.00 item--a Zuiko 50/1.4.
International shipping to any Western democracy's usually a cake-walk -- I
wouldn't sweat that. And in France, the potential buyer can get
U.S.-denominated money orders at the local La Poste; it's bureaucratic and
expensive, but that's the buyer's problem, not yours.
> I don't plan to be a big-time seller, so I really don't want to open the
> door to middlemen with a PayPal seller's account or Ebay Checkout.
Then don't. As I noted above, you don't have to sell to this person since you
specified who you would and would not sell to in advance, and the potential
buyer never got in touch with you prior to end of auction to ask if you'd make
an exception. Nevertheless, my point holds -- transactions to people in
Western democracies are usually no problem, and you can specify the terms of
exchange to your satisfaction (buyer pays shipping and insurance, blah blah
blah...).
Garth
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