Auction seller pitfalls

blacknblack

Hi, any ‘watch outs’ or ‘beware of this’. experiences anyone had as a seller on auctions sites that I should be wary of?  I’ve sold plenty of stuff over the years without any serious problems.  A courier once dumped a small amp in a garden nowhere near the delivery address but a kind person found it and delivered it.  Other than that no bad experiences.  Somehow I expect my luck to run out at some point.  

blacknblack

Forgot to say ... I nearly always advertise on here first.  And if nobody wants then ...

Dan_Halen

If you can't afford to write the cost of it off, don't post it. Assume the worst.

blacknblack

Well I will still be able to feed the kids if it went wrong ... but it would properly piss me off

Arktik83

Haven't had any buyers do this but if someone says they will "arrange their own courier" take that as a red flag because if the transaction goes through PayPal they can just flag the item as not received and as you wouldn't have proof because you don't have access to the courier then you don't have a leg to stand on.

Also if someone offers to collect the item from you if you've advertised it as a courier only job because without a signed docket then PayPal are probably gonna side with the buyer.

Some people like to try it on and say an item has damage that wasn't described and try to wrangle some compensation from the seller.  I've only had this once and I told the guy to send it back to me for a refund minus the initial shipping costs that I had incurred.  Kept on asking for smaller and smaller amounts of compensation but I just said "Send it back, I'll refund you".  He never did send it back and as a result never received a refund.  

I would just take pics of damage if any on your item prior to shipping and if you can, photos of the item in it's packaging and box so you can show a courier company how it was packed if you have to have any dealings with them.

I mean you'll probably encounter foreign buyers who sign up to UK auction sites, win the bid then say "can you ship to Portugal" or wherever even though it says they're based in the UK but there's not much you can do about that apart from tell them No and cancel the transaction.

Hope this helps a little.

blacknblack

@Arktik83 that does help - thanks

imalrightjack

All good advice from @Arktik83 ;; The PayPal stuff is most important. Just don’t accept PayPal for collections. 

I would suggest a video with a newspaper shown for the date. Go around the guitar in great detail. At least you will then be sure of any dings or knocks you mate didn’t notice. I recently sold an Ibanez for over £1.5k and didn’t notice a few marks that I could have sworn weren’t there - but I believe they were, as the buyer wasn’t a total dickhead and was very fair. So I ended up annoyed at myself for not checking it over more thoroughly. 

Overland Express are very reliable and insure fully. 

Wazmeister

If possible size and weight wise, ALWAYS ALWAYS use Special Delivery.

Insured up to £500, next day by 1pm. 

Bulletproof.

This applies to this forum as well

chrisj1602

The only issue I’ve had is some prick trying to get a partial refund claiming signs of use on a brand new item. I’ve seen this being mentioned quite a bit.

I knew he was trying it on so refused the partial refund and told him to send the item back.

Post a lot of photos so the condition can’t be disputed,
and like @Wazmeister says, use Special Delivery. It’s a couple of £ more but a much better service.

Adey

Why is Special Delivery better?

I'd have thought it was more likely to get damaged.

All the same people & machinery in the depots are used to sort it surely, but they are in more of a rush to get it out, so it is more likely to thrown the last 10 feet into the back of the truck, as "time is of the essence".

Or do they have a Special Delivery team who swaddle packages with extra cushioning whilst they gently place your parcel in the back of a freshly valetted 7.5t truck,

And then forklift a pallet of non-desript heavy pointy things on top of it.

chrisj1602

Adey said:

Why is Special Delivery better?

I'd have thought it was more likely to get damaged.

All the same people & machinery in the depots are used to sort it surely, but they are in more of a rush to get it out, so it is more likely to thrown the last 10 feet into the back of the truck, as "time is of the essence".

Or do they have a Special Delivery team who swaddle packages with extra cushioning whilst they gently place your parcel in the back of a freshly valetted 7.5t truck,

And then forklift a pallet of non-desript heavy pointy things on top of it.

No, it’s quicker and has a higher insurance value included.