Hi guys. I was just wondering what the opinion was on eBay forwarding addresses to international locations.
Specifically, as an eBay seller, I opt out of the global shipping program. An Australian buyer bought a card from me and wants me to ship to a bogus US address which looks like a forwarding center location for “comGateway”:
9455 NE Alderwood Rd c/o (random letters)
Portland, OR 97252
My concern is that, once the item reaches this forwarding address, the buyer can open a case for ‘item not as described’ and demand a refund. ebay sides with the buyer as always and I’m out the money and the item, etc. It seems like a way for scammers to get around international buyer blocks. Yet it also seems like an avenue for legit buyers to avoid GSP costs and provides them with greater variety.
Does anyone have experience shipping to international forwarding services, specifically ‘comGateway’? If so how did it go, etc? If it is legitimate, is there anything unusual about the transaction that you had to deal with?
A lot of people in Australia have now been forced into using these forward shipping addresses to avoid the bullshit taxes that eBay has imposed on us.
They changed the laws here in July and eBay is charging us the extra “10%” as they are supposed to, only they seem completely incapable of adding 10% to just the purchase price (not legal to charge tax on international postage here). See what I mean right here;
Well, I’m only speaking as a buyer who uses comGateway. Similarly to ozenigma, its the only way for me to avoid getting taxed and paying a stupid high international mailing fee
So far I’ve released 3 batches of mail and they ship to Singapore by DHL.
I can say I’m currently satisfied with their service. Not sure about the future though. I don’t think you should be too worried unless you’re mail out a big ticket item.
It is tricky when it comes to middleman services. Previously, I was using a middleman called Borderlinx and something went wrong. They completely froze all of their warehouses from UK, HK, US etc. I had a carddass prism charizard and a ho-ho promo pending shipment. Their support was terrible and nothing was done. I’ve accepted that I’ll never get reimbursed, so that was a nightmare. $300 bucks down the drain.
I’ve had a buyer in Europe use something like this because I have US shipping only on my auctions. I shipped it and I never heard from them. I imagine ebay would side with me on any issues because 1. He circumvented my US only shipping option and 2. It was obviously a forwarding company he listed and not his address.
Yeah, eBay would likely side with you if you pointed it out. The issue is Paypal though, as I’m not sure that using a forwarding service is against their terms.
