Selling on Amazon postage blunder

Pig Cat

Pig Cat

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Suffolk
I put a DVD box set on Amazon a few weeks ago. I was contacted by a guy from America asking if I'd consider international shipping as he was interested. I thought why not, so amended my listing and he promptly bought it. My first blunder was not realising that Amazon only allow about £3 shipping for DVDs regardless of weight or destination, so my profit was going to take a beating. Took it to the post office and asked for the cheapest way to post it. Was charge over £12 to do this so profit now quite low but I obviously had to honour the buyer by sending it now. Two weeks have gone by and the buyer has issued a 'claim' against me through Amazon as the parcel hasn't arrived. Only now do I realise that the woman behind the PO counter sent it surface mail which could take up to six weeks!!! I am annoyed with her because I think it was pretty clear I was clueless about posting to USA and I think she should have told me the time it could take.

Anyway, has anyone experience of this sort of thing? Should I just refund this guy's money, knowing that his parcel will no doubt turn up soon and he'll get some free DVDs? Is there a middle way of compromise here? If nothing else can someone just agree that the woman in the post office was bloody shit seeing as Mrs PC isn't acting too sympathetic with me??
 
Sounds a bit sucky of your PO tbh - mine always tells the airmail price first as "that'll be £lots to send it airmail" with surface as second choice... "or it'll be £less to send it surface, but it will take 3 years to arrive" (which I understand is exactly as per script in the PO counter manual).

Wait the appropriate length of time and bung in a lost mail claim form, it's limited to 100xfirst class stamps, but better to get that limited amount back than chuff all.

Right - sympathy section over... what an arse you've been - do your homework man, it's all there in whatever-two-contrasting-colours-your-browser-shows on the Royal Mail website - even ask here, some of us have posted stuff beyond Suffolk before ;) . Hopefully you are now "once bitten, twice shy" and will learn from the error :roll: (If not, please post details of the next foreign mail faux pas so I can have a laugh :lol: )
 
hunnymonster said:
Sounds a bit sucky of your PO tbh - mine always tells the airmail price first as "that'll be £lots to send it airmail" with surface as second choice... "or it'll be £less to send it surface, but it will take 3 years to arrive" (which I understand is exactly as per script in the PO counter manual).

Wait the appropriate length of time and bung in a lost mail claim form, it's limited to 100xfirst class stamps, but better to get that limited amount back than chuff all.
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Thanks HM, yes I'm sure they should have told me the time it would take. I am sure it will arrive eventually but that doesn't help the bloke who bought it and had expected it to have turned up by now.
 
I have had stuff sent priority air mail from the states and take two weeks. And all orders so far from fragrancex have taken 5 weeks so might be worth contacting him and exsplaning what is going on and see if he will withdraw complaint for couple of weeks as no one else will post to him and thats why he went with you.
 
Just a bit of a tangent but would a UK box set be OK in the US?

I thought there were region settings on DVD players which were supposed to tally with the region on the disc?
 
Jeltz said:
Just a bit of a tangent but would a UK box set be OK in the US?

I thought there were region settings on DVD players which were supposed to tally with the region on the disc?
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Yeah he said that would be fine. Oh god, now I'm worried that when they do finally get there they won't bloody work!
 
pedro083 said:
I have had stuff sent priority air mail from the states and take two weeks. And all orders so far from fragrancex have taken 5 weeks so might be worth contacting him and exsplaning what is going on and see if he will withdraw complaint for couple of weeks as no one else will post to him and thats why he went with you.
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Thanks Pedro, I'll bear that in mind. I have emailed him explaining that I went with the cheapest option without being told the time it would take. I just looked at the airmail cost and, for the weight of the parcel, I would have ended up making about a quid. Also it looks like Amazon only allow £3.50 for the postage regardless of where you are sending it so he did get a bit of a bargain. Hopefully he'll agree to wait longer.
 
Pig Cat said:
If nothing else can someone just agree that the woman in the post office was bloody shit seeing as Mrs PC isn't acting too sympathetic with me??
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:lol:

Can't help thinking of the 'woman' in Little Britain: "Computer says no..."

Did Joe Schmo contact you before lodging a complaint? Perhaps you could PIF him half-a-dozen Palmolive sticks to make up for the confusion. Alternatively, just tell him you were heavily sedated at the time as a result of ongoing flashbacks of your incarceration at Guantanamo bay.

What was the box-set, BTW?
 
Ha ha, we actually had exchanged some emails. I asked him about why his house number was in the ten thousands and we got chatting after that. He seems OK, so perhaps he'll change his mind.

The box set was Frost series 1-5. David Jason's take on Columbo.
 
Have a look at the Royal Mail website...I use it to pay and print for 90% of all my postage, means I don't have to queue and I know the correct amount of postage to be paid.

Air mail small packets would have been fine. (500g)

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinderResults?pageId=pc_sltc_rm_results&keyname=rmPriceFinderResults&catId=23500532" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/Price ... d=23500532</a><!-- m -->


Edit: Just realised HM has suggested the same.
 
Thanks chaps. I contacted the buyer to apologise about my blunder and explain that the parcel should arrive within six weeks and thankfully he was fine about it. Now I just have to wait...
 
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