Ryk. I entered the search as I said, and I looked at almost 30 (mostly non-consecutive) pages of stamps to view old (low catalog numbers) and new (higher catalog numbers) stamps listed. All I saw were stamps from Australia, and some AAT. Nothing else. Of course, if sellers mis-categorize items that they list, that will give a false result. That would not be the system's fault. I'm not saying that you or anyone else didn't see what you reported. I just didn't get those results.
I too have a desire to block some sellers. Comments from earlier posts are very valid in my estimation. Why do I want to block specific sellers @ various times? 1. Bad experiences with seller. 2. Too many of one or more stamps. 3. Pricing consistently not competitive / not appropriate 4. Items in incorrect catagory or format, or totally inaccurate 5. Form of payment not accepted. 6. Too many missing images or so blurry they tell you nothing about what stamp it is or its condition 7. Shipping charges not competitive or inappropriate for the material purchased 8. I do not want to purchase from a seller from that far away location. (like 7 - large ship charges)
There's a seller I want to block who is a member of the same sellers association as me. You can count the pixels in his images. Why would I want to see what he's selling?
There was also a few hundred new listings for Togo in the British Commonwealth listings yesterday. Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
Dave, maybe you could advise that seller with the many new listings for Togo, that there is a specific site for their material. It's called Stamps2go....;-)
All of a sudden my search listings now came up with 18 consecutive pages of Australian Stamps as listed by my field selections. (I stopped at 18) with no commonwealth territories, no pre federation (state stamps) and no ring in's such as samoa, NewZealand etc. Wish I now took some screenshots of my prior problems as related to in my posting 22 nov.
Gobsmacked, Pete
ps Still reckon (my opinion) buyers and sellers should have the ability to block the unscrupulous though.
I found a .25 stamp that I needed to complete a set. I then spent an hour and a half trying to find other stamps I could use from the seller. Finally, I had 8 items with a total cost of $10.80. Checking out I was shocked to see the shipping cost was $7.50 -- the minimum for this LOCAL dealer. This was a total waste of my time. This is not the first time I've come across such disproportionate shipping costs. I'd love to block these dealers.
George, out of curiosity could you share what that 25c stamp is? Maybe a viewer here can accommodate your need. That would be a satisfying end to your experience.
George, I've had this shooting problem too. The response for our Admin is you can always look this up which is true. Admin even went so far as to DELETE my neutral feedback and comment, which was totally inappropriate. We shouldn't have to dig every time to find excessive shipping. Vast majority of sellers have very reasonable policies.
I often wonder how much business sellers have lost through increased postal charges. I queried the increase with a few of my regular sellers when the increases were introduced (all but a couple are no longer on my favourites list) and was advised that, as businesses, they were obliged to post under new rules introduced by USPS for international sales. I didn't realise it affected national post as well.
Those couple of sellers still on my list are happy to negotiate a reduced rate if they have something I am after which is time consuming but can be very useful if you find an item you have been chasing for up to years. You never know what bargains you could miss unless you keep them on your radar.
Those sellers charging $14 to ship to Aus are gone, unless they have a sale with 50-70% off. Chances of a snowball in hell?
Another search option that would make Hipstamp so much better is "Display only items with scans" Now I know some sellers display a logo when they don't scan the actual stamp, but this could be disallowed. There are many reasons why a buyer may wish to block a specific seller. I for one would make use of it to block sellers with outrageous (by my definition) shipping charges, such as adding 25c per item, etc..etc..
I buy from sellers who don't scan the lower valued stamps, and I do so usually with sellers I have bought from before. I understand the economics of time and money, and if pricing is consistently low and quality has not been an issue, I will trust to buy from them. But only if their pricing is consistently on the low side.
I wish seller who relist stamps would have them NOT be relisted as "new items" so that when I sort on most recently listed items they would be keyed in with their original listing date. That could eliminate the recurrent problem of seing the same item again and again.
I've read this and find a lot of value in most of this. Here is the question David & I have concerning a blocking feature. While we do not list 100's of the same stamp ( no problems here with those who do, free country & all) , our desire for the blocking option is this : What if you have a rude customer, and you don't feel like dealing with them again? Listen, a few dollars lost blocking some clown with an attitude is not going to make or break me any day of the week. we are full time philatelists that pay the bills selling stamps,
How about the fun one who leaves you negative feedback after stating in their feedback that you sold them nice material, packaged it well and here's the chaser " but $2.25 for a .50 letter is to high". and that's why you got the neutral/negative feedback. I'm sorry, I assume everyone is carrying the level of education I am, or at least expect them to be a savvy enough buyer to read the shipping costs. I ask them why did you leave me a neutral or negative feedback when you knew what the costs were? Clearly stated costs? (which I make no apologies for). Like I said above, I (we) are busy, really busy. To be able to block this person so they no longer have to endure such outrageous shipping would spare me a lot of wasted emailing time, if you don't like it buy elsewhere, period.
How about this one? The foreign buyer who 3 times has not received his stamps? Paypal buyer protection is an even bigger joke than getting as sensible answer from the staff here, Gibbons had their issues but they at least gave us the option to just plain block the foreign scammer. this year we have had 26 buyers oversea's email for refunds or free stamps because they "Did not receive their stamps" Several hundred dollars lost and the best I got from Justin was a sort of " Take it on the chin champ, make it up on the next sale, seriously? That is a very avoidable unthought through response that could easily be resolved with a block buyer option. Two of these we had blocked on Bid Start & Gibbons, who all of a sudden when this morphed into it's latest incarnation bought from us and you guessed it, we got burned, and they know how to play the game, just tell pay pal you didn't get what you ordered and they will reach into your bank account and give away your money. Now if you are trying to be all things to everyone, then the block option will not suit your good business paradigm. The "your just a guest here" paradigm falls apart quickly as well because without the seller, you get no fees, you make no money and then you go away.
These are really good reasons to have a block option, I know (from experience on these forum discussions) that while my comments will draw ire from most if not all, and that the thread wasn't exactly related to the reasons for blocking buyer I suggested I do think administration, if it ever see's itself realistically competing in the big Ebay league it might want to consider these if for no other reason craps & giggles..............just thinking
And Carol, If your still following, we most certainly agree that many love to try to dictate to other dealers how they should run their business, and when they have 40 plus years in professional philately they can tell me how to run mine and I will tell them a few other things they probably won't like, as a female dealer from mother Russia that actually happens quite a lot lol. Our Christmas isn't until 1/6/2019 but Merry Christmas to all of you out there in cyber space!
For what its worth, Mark's directive to my earlier-posted concern with this issue, was to send via the HipStamp messaging system, a request to the troublesome buyer to refrain from making additional purchases from me. He indicated that upon notification of buyer's non-compliance, would negate the sale and administrative follow-up action would occur. Of course this may require a seller's PayPal refusal or return of payment. Also any related negative feedback would be erased. Hopefully I've rendered an accurate understanding of Mark's response. Personally, I've exercised this method once with no subsequent problems.
Still following and thank you for bringing this issue to the top again. . I can't think of one logical reason not to allow either a buyer or seller to block someone they choose not to do business with. When buying at shows I can avoid dealers who I elect not to buy from, when selling at shows I can discourage customers who are difficult or who are known to pilfer. It should be the same online. Beating a dead horse I fear but if you say something enough times it begins to ring true...
Well, from where we're sitting it's worth a lot. try to understand this, not speaking English as a first language for either David or I and using dragon speech recognition sometimes to type quicker our comments sometimes makes us sound harsh, there is the problem with electronic speaking! Anyway, Hip stamp has many many more good features than negatives, as did Stamp wants, Bid start, and gibbons. We closed a very successful Ebay store in October 2007 to come here, sales not as strong but that wasn't the point. We use this platform to test market various countries stamps to see what the sales response will be. it is also fun reading the posts of others and their opinions, each valuable as they represent the person.
I personally believe Hip Stamp has the potential to be the largest most successful philatelic platform on the web, period. however, to get there they must take into account the requests of their sellers especially when it comes to problems like we expressed (and others as well). By doing the things no one else was doing or by listening, this platform has survived when by all rights it shouldn't have with all the ownership and name changes. They will be the best when they do what others are not, however that looks and however that needs to happen, we believe or we would have left long ago.
I appreciate all of you posting your opinion, each is equally valuable as it represents the common humanity in all of us, I am glad to see your still following this, I fell across it tonight, lol. but if the dead horse still needs a beating, then beat it we shall. We don't do the show circuit, we do appraisal, behind the scenes lotting for major auction houses and our bread and butter private treaty. I think David & I kind of moved away from the shows around 1982 when the great MNH U.S. bubble burst. the shows seemed to lose that electricity in the air so to speak, does that make sense? But I digress, you are absolutely right, if it's philately we are doing then the rules should apply across the board. has anyone noticed that the stamp world seems to be getting a ruder cruder element to it the last few years? Seems not so long ago philately was shielded from that sort of thing, now rude obnoxious customers seem to be more the rule than the exception, and while I won't take much nonsense, there is still a way to act, hopefully this is just a passing thing in our great hobby. In our own ways we are all professionals whether we just collect, or whether we just sell, we do both, it's still fun after all these years.
How about this one? The foreign buyer who 3 times has not received his stamps? Paypal buyer protection is an even bigger joke than getting as sensible answer from the staff here, Gibbons had their issues but they at least gave us the option to just plain block the foreign scammer. this year we have had 26 buyers oversea's email for refunds or free stamps because they "Did not receive their stamps" Several hundred dollars lost and the best I got from Justin was a sort of " Take it on the chin champ, make it up on the next sale, seriously? That is a very avoidable unthought through response that could easily be resolved with a block buyer option. Two of these we had blocked on Bid Start & Gibbons, who all of a sudden when this morphed into it's latest incarnation bought from us and you guessed it, we got burned, and they know how to play the game, just tell pay pal you didn't get what you ordered and they will reach into your bank account and give away your money. Now if you are trying to be all things to everyone, then the block option will not suit your good business paradigm. The "your just a guest here" paradigm falls apart quickly as well because without the seller, you get no fees, you make no money and then you go away.
After checking your international shipping rates I would assume that you are still shipping your international orders via first class mail. You do understand that the scammers are going to figure out with the new UPU regulations that they have a work around with those type of not receiving there orders. First class letter rate mail will NEVER be tracked unless you add extra services. (Back in January all merchandise is suppose to be shipped via first class parcel which will be able to be tracked. Not all of the countries are set up yet but it is going that way) If you send anything via first class letter rate under Paypal buyer protection rules rules you have NO PROOF of mailing and a buyer that files a claim against you will win EVERY time if you ship via first class letter rate. Not so if you send it via fist class parcel as all parcels are coded with the customs form and they will all have a tracking number.
Again today I quit shopping this site because the first several pages are common crap from a seller named RETIRED who sells common commems that sell below face for a dollar at least. Reported as abuse to admins who do nothing.
Just another thing for you to think about the buyer also may not actually be scamming you. If you ship merchandise into another country without a customs form,by law they can confiscate any merchandise that is not declared. They do classify it as smuggling goods into the country. Do you have any proof that the mail was NOT confiscated by his customs?
Okay, maybe some clarification needs to happen here. Not being an American but an Eastern European I do understand a tad bit about international shipping, I do, we do a lot of it. We also always fill out the customs forms at our post office, they know us, and they require it because they ( the postal workers there) know what we are shipping. We belong to 39 philatelic organizations including MEPSI, the China clipper, APS, ONEPS Etc and so on. Several of these people (Scammers) have shown up in our journals on the "Naughty list" as playing these kinds of games, didn't get my stamps etc, selling forgeries etc, you get picture.
When the internet did not exist, we ran a very large mail order operation (since ceased) along with our two brick and mortar locations. You just did not see this kind of nonsense until a few years ago, say around 2015-16?. We never lost in 20 years a shipment oversea's on Ebay, or on Stamps2go, never. And many of these folks have very small feedback numbers, the funny thing is, we (I) being the mouth piece of the business don't often get on the forums but I do communicate with many of the store owners on this site especially when we see a " Never got my item" in our feedback. We look at their previous feedback from others and guess what? There is almost always the same pattern. They will make a few legitimate purchases, then a run of not received from multiple sellers, seriously? Are you suggesting none of us understand anything about shipping? That's sort of funny in a cosmic kind of way I suppose. And your talking to Kitty, (Viktoria) the wife. Nice to meet you by the way Mikhail. David set up this account years ago but he does even worse with the English than me.! One of our daughters usually types for us.
It also should be stated that we are not just randomly accusing "good" people of theft. Like I said, been on Ebay a long time, several of these fine folks are banned by Ebay and now they are now on here, not delcampe though, not stamps2go, not Ebay. They have found a home here, many of the other store owners have told me they feel the same way but not worth the time to squawk as you would say? about it. I'm not being snarky, we fill out the form, we watch it attached to the mailing, we declare what it is, find it a little hard to believe that the same person did not receive their 3 separate items over a 45 day period, We come from a countries where it is notorious for letter theft and even shipping packages home to the Russian federation or Serbia we don't have a theft problem any more. The biggest offenders are the PRC, Brazil & Australia, but there are others, the UK seems to be catching up. We even paid for a return receipt not long ago, July to be exact, got receipt confirmation, then 2 weeks later a Pay pal complaint for non receipt was lodged against us by the same person! Fortunately we won that one, after three months of fighting with pay pal over it. Who has the time to do that? Now I guess if the stamp fairy is delivering stamps to ones front door for free for you to sell then hey, no loss. We actually pay for our merchandise and expect to be paid when we sell it. Foolish I know. That must not be a Western concept. A block option would have ended that dead right there.
And this could go round and round for perpetuity. My point is this, I run a business, a large and very successful business, it is for profit, when it runs smoothly, it sounds like Mozart, when it doesn't, well then it sounds not so sweetly. We also own and operate the 2nd largest Bio hazard cleaning company on the eastern seaboard specializing in Murder, suicide & human expiration sanitation cleaning so I am well aware of the seedy ? side of people and that in business things are not a perfect world, blocking the clowns would go a long way though and there are many many silent sellers on here that agree. Wish they'd speak up.
And am I to understand that from an earlier post that somehow this particular site is above allowing stamps from Togo to be sold? Fortunately TogoBill who buys all of my Togo still looks at my listings for new independent Africa including Togo and not on stamps2go where he would not find my Togo listtings. How Comical.
I needed a good laugh today, thanks to him for providing it.
The fact that this issue of blocking capability has stubbornly persisted, suggests it is more than a minor inconvenience, or a particular pet peeve of a few, but one impacting a fair number of dealer's decisions regarding their potential customer base, their tolerance of "difficult" buyers, or their willingness to risk listing costlier items. The bias of PayPal in dispute resolution and the less-than-secure (accountability) nature of some international postal travels are well understood by seasoned dealers; either by direct experience or by the common laments that echo in discussion groups. Personally, I find fatalistic responses such as "that's just the cost of doing business" or "maybe you should find another venue" particularly cavalier and disgusting because they project their mindset upon others and presume their attitude should prevail. That withstanding, to the point of blocking, that capability has been demonstrated in past and present internet sites. Further, HipStamp administration has been made aware of this ongoing desire and has chosen against instituting the function at this time for whatever reasons, which is their prerogative. Additionally, they have offered a less-direct mechanism for buyer control; one articulated in earlier posts. We can hope for relief in this area, however this matter ultimately isn't subject to a democratic mandate of the participants. Caveat venditor.
I never said you didn't understand about international shipping. The thing is I can only go bay how it has worked for me. Since the UPU and USPS have changed the method by which all merchandise must be sent I have not had a SINGLE package go missing. Not one. Yet you say that you have had 26 buyers that you have had to refund. I find it hard that IF you had the tracking number the USPS gives you that you would have had that many go missing. Something doesn't seem to add up quite right. I find it very hard to believe that if you are using a customs form and getting the tracking number that somehow you would have lost that many disputes with Paypal if you are disputing those with Paypal. Paypal doesn't want the scammers either as it costs them time and money also. If Paypal can see that those buyers are pulling scams they will remove them from Paypal. Paypal will only do so IF they see a continued pattern of abuse.
I can only go by what you charge for international shipping which at $3.50 doesn't cover the first class parcel rate. Which tells me one of 3 things first you may not be sending your international shipments via parcel rate. (The USPS will NOT accept first class letter rate with a customs form. Once a customs form is added it MUST go by first class parcel rate.) Second you may be using one of the shipping services that do discount the rate or 3rd you are losing a whole lot of money by sending everything via first class parcel and only charging $3.50 internationally. The first class parcel rate through the USPS window is $10 to Canada,$14 to most places in Europe and $14.25 to most of the Pacific rim.
They are shipping from Russia, which probably at this point in time does not yet have to be in compliance as I believe that the dates were staggered - I also believe that the impact was different for all countries based on the amount of reimbursement they provided to other countries.
I'm not as sure as you are that the Rueppels are shipping from Russia. I don't believe she ever said that -- she has mentioned being from Russia, but also said she runs a 'body disposal business' on the East Coast, which I take to mean our US Atlantic states (unless she is in Kamchatka on Russia's East Coast!)
Maybe she will tell us. In the meantime, I tend to agree with Michael Duehr's notion that something seems fishy.
Comments
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/koalastamps-quality-stamps/?show=store&volume_id=27&volume_name=australia&parent_id=105&item_specifics_04_condition[]=mint-nh-
Why do I want to block specific sellers @ various times?
1. Bad experiences with seller.
2. Too many of one or more stamps.
3. Pricing consistently not competitive / not appropriate
4. Items in incorrect catagory or format, or totally inaccurate
5. Form of payment not accepted.
6. Too many missing images or so blurry they tell you nothing about what stamp it is or its condition
7. Shipping charges not competitive or inappropriate for the material purchased
8. I do not want to purchase from a seller from that far away location. (like 7 - large ship charges)
There was also a few hundred new listings for Togo in the British Commonwealth listings yesterday. Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
All of a sudden my search listings now came up with 18 consecutive pages of Australian Stamps as listed by my field selections. (I stopped at 18) with no commonwealth territories, no pre federation (state stamps) and no ring in's such as samoa, NewZealand etc. Wish I now took some screenshots of my prior problems as related to in my posting 22 nov.
Gobsmacked, Pete
ps Still reckon (my opinion) buyers and sellers should have the ability to block the unscrupulous though.
Those couple of sellers still on my list are happy to negotiate a reduced rate if they have something I am after which is time consuming but can be very useful if you find an item you have been chasing for up to years. You never know what bargains you could miss unless you keep them on your radar.
Those sellers charging $14 to ship to Aus are gone, unless they have a sale with 50-70% off. Chances of a snowball in hell?
Now I know some sellers display a logo when they don't scan the actual stamp, but this could be disallowed.
There are many reasons why a buyer may wish to block a specific seller. I for one would make use of it to block sellers with outrageous (by my definition) shipping charges, such as adding 25c per item, etc..etc..
I buy from sellers who don't scan the lower valued stamps, and I do so usually with sellers I have bought from before. I understand the economics of time and money, and if pricing is consistently low and quality has not been an issue, I will trust to buy from them. But only if their pricing is consistently on the low side.
I wish seller who relist stamps would have them NOT be relisted as "new items" so that when I sort on most recently listed items they would be keyed in with their original listing date. That could eliminate the recurrent problem of seing the same item again and again.
I've read this and find a lot of value in most of this. Here is the question David & I have concerning a blocking feature. While we do not list 100's of the same stamp ( no problems here with those who do, free country & all) , our desire for the blocking option is this : What if you have a rude customer, and you don't feel like dealing with them again? Listen, a few dollars lost blocking some clown with an attitude is not going to make or break me any day of the week. we are full time philatelists that pay the bills selling stamps,
How about the fun one who leaves you negative feedback after stating in their feedback that you sold them nice material, packaged it well and here's the chaser " but $2.25 for a .50 letter is to high". and that's why you got the neutral/negative feedback. I'm sorry, I assume everyone is carrying the level of education I am, or at least expect them to be a savvy enough buyer to read the shipping costs. I ask them why did you leave me a neutral or negative feedback when you knew what the costs were? Clearly stated costs? (which I make no apologies for). Like I said above, I (we) are busy, really busy. To be able to block this person so they no longer have to endure such outrageous shipping would spare me a lot of wasted emailing time, if you don't like it buy elsewhere, period.
How about this one? The foreign buyer who 3 times has not received his stamps? Paypal buyer protection is an even bigger joke than getting as sensible answer from the staff here, Gibbons had their issues but they at least gave us the option to just plain block the foreign scammer. this year we have had 26 buyers oversea's email for refunds or free stamps because they "Did not receive their stamps" Several hundred dollars lost and the best I got from Justin was a sort of " Take it on the chin champ, make it up on the next sale, seriously? That is a very avoidable unthought through response that could easily be resolved with a block buyer option. Two of these we had blocked on Bid Start & Gibbons, who all of a sudden when this morphed into it's latest incarnation bought from us and you guessed it, we got burned, and they know how to play the game, just tell pay pal you didn't get what you ordered and they will reach into your bank account and give away your money. Now if you are trying to be all things to everyone, then the block option will not suit your good business paradigm. The "your just a guest here" paradigm falls apart quickly as well because without the seller, you get no fees, you make no money and then you go away.
These are really good reasons to have a block option, I know (from experience on these forum discussions) that while my comments will draw ire from most if not all, and that the thread wasn't exactly related to the reasons for blocking buyer I suggested I do think administration, if it ever see's itself realistically competing in the big Ebay league it might want to consider these if for no other reason craps & giggles..............just thinking
Kitty Rueppel APS #317258
Well, from where we're sitting it's worth a lot. try to understand this, not speaking English as a first language for either David or I and using dragon speech recognition sometimes to type quicker our comments sometimes makes us sound harsh, there is the problem with electronic speaking! Anyway, Hip stamp has many many more good features than negatives, as did Stamp wants, Bid start, and gibbons. We closed a very successful Ebay store in October 2007 to come here, sales not as strong but that wasn't the point. We use this platform to test market various countries stamps to see what the sales response will be. it is also fun reading the posts of others and their opinions, each valuable as they represent the person.
I personally believe Hip Stamp has the potential to be the largest most successful philatelic platform on the web, period. however, to get there they must take into account the requests of their sellers especially when it comes to problems like we expressed (and others as well). By doing the things no one else was doing or by listening, this platform has survived when by all rights it shouldn't have with all the ownership and name changes. They will be the best when they do what others are not, however that looks and however that needs to happen, we believe or we would have left long ago.
K.
How about this one? The foreign buyer who 3 times has not received his stamps? Paypal buyer protection is an even bigger joke than getting as sensible answer from the staff here, Gibbons had their issues but they at least gave us the option to just plain block the foreign scammer. this year we have had 26 buyers oversea's email for refunds or free stamps because they "Did not receive their stamps" Several hundred dollars lost and the best I got from Justin was a sort of " Take it on the chin champ, make it up on the next sale, seriously? That is a very avoidable unthought through response that could easily be resolved with a block buyer option. Two of these we had blocked on Bid Start & Gibbons, who all of a sudden when this morphed into it's latest incarnation bought from us and you guessed it, we got burned, and they know how to play the game, just tell pay pal you didn't get what you ordered and they will reach into your bank account and give away your money. Now if you are trying to be all things to everyone, then the block option will not suit your good business paradigm. The "your just a guest here" paradigm falls apart quickly as well because without the seller, you get no fees, you make no money and then you go away.
After checking your international shipping rates I would assume that you are still shipping your international orders via first class mail. You do understand that the scammers are going to figure out with the new UPU regulations that they have a work around with those type of not receiving there orders. First class letter rate mail will NEVER be tracked unless you add extra services. (Back in January all merchandise is suppose to be shipped via first class parcel which will be able to be tracked. Not all of the countries are set up yet but it is going that way) If you send anything via first class letter rate under Paypal buyer protection rules rules you have NO PROOF of mailing and a buyer that files a claim against you will win EVERY time if you ship via first class letter rate. Not so if you send it via fist class parcel as all parcels are coded with the customs form and they will all have a tracking number.
Just another thing for you to think about the buyer also may not actually be scamming you. If you ship merchandise into another country without a customs form,by law they can confiscate any merchandise that is not declared. They do classify it as smuggling goods into the country. Do you have any proof that the mail was NOT confiscated by his customs?
When the internet did not exist, we ran a very large mail order operation (since ceased) along with our two brick and mortar locations. You just did not see this kind of nonsense until a few years ago, say around 2015-16?. We never lost in 20 years a shipment oversea's on Ebay, or on Stamps2go, never. And many of these folks have very small feedback numbers, the funny thing is, we (I) being the mouth piece of the business don't often get on the forums but I do communicate with many of the store owners on this site especially when we see a " Never got my item" in our feedback. We look at their previous feedback from others and guess what? There is almost always the same pattern. They will make a few legitimate purchases, then a run of not received from multiple sellers, seriously? Are you suggesting none of us understand anything about shipping? That's sort of funny in a cosmic kind of way I suppose. And your talking to Kitty, (Viktoria) the wife. Nice to meet you by the way Mikhail. David set up this account years ago but he does even worse with the English than me.! One of our daughters usually types for us.
It also should be stated that we are not just randomly accusing "good" people of theft. Like I said, been on Ebay a long time, several of these fine folks are banned by Ebay and now they are now on here, not delcampe though, not stamps2go, not Ebay. They have found a home here, many of the other store owners have told me they feel the same way but not worth the time to squawk as you would say? about it. I'm not being snarky, we fill out the form, we watch it attached to the mailing, we declare what it is, find it a little hard to believe that the same person did not receive their 3 separate items over a 45 day period, We come from a countries where it is notorious for letter theft and even shipping packages home to the Russian federation or Serbia we don't have a theft problem any more. The biggest offenders are the PRC, Brazil & Australia, but there are others, the UK seems to be catching up. We even paid for a return receipt not long ago, July to be exact, got receipt confirmation, then 2 weeks later a Pay pal complaint for non receipt was lodged against us by the same person! Fortunately we won that one, after three months of fighting with pay pal over it. Who has the time to do that? Now I guess if the stamp fairy is delivering stamps to ones front door for free for you to sell then hey, no loss. We actually pay for our merchandise and expect to be paid when we sell it. Foolish I know. That must not be a Western concept. A block option would have ended that dead right there.
And this could go round and round for perpetuity. My point is this, I run a business, a large and very successful business, it is for profit, when it runs smoothly, it sounds like Mozart, when it doesn't, well then it sounds not so sweetly. We also own and operate the 2nd largest Bio hazard cleaning company on the eastern seaboard specializing in Murder, suicide & human expiration sanitation cleaning so I am well aware of the seedy ? side of people and that in business things are not a perfect world, blocking the clowns would go a long way though and there are many many silent sellers on here that agree. Wish they'd speak up.
Kitty
I needed a good laugh today, thanks to him for providing it.
I never said you didn't understand about international shipping. The thing is I can only go bay how it has worked for me.
Since the UPU and USPS have changed the method by which all merchandise must be sent I have not had a SINGLE package go missing. Not one. Yet you say that you have had 26 buyers that you have had to refund. I find it hard that IF you had the tracking number the USPS gives you that you would have had that many go missing. Something doesn't seem to add up quite right. I find it very hard to believe that if you are using a customs form and getting the tracking number that somehow you would have lost that many disputes with Paypal if you are disputing those with Paypal.
Paypal doesn't want the scammers either as it costs them time and money also. If Paypal can see that those buyers are pulling scams they will remove them from Paypal. Paypal will only do so IF they see a continued pattern of abuse.
I can only go by what you charge for international shipping which at $3.50 doesn't cover the first class parcel rate. Which tells me one of 3 things first you may not be sending your international shipments via parcel rate. (The USPS will NOT accept first class letter rate with a customs form. Once a customs form is added it MUST go by first class parcel rate.) Second you may be using one of the shipping services that do discount the rate or 3rd you are losing a whole lot of money by sending everything via first class parcel and only charging $3.50 internationally. The first class parcel rate through the USPS window is $10 to Canada,$14 to most places in Europe and $14.25 to most of the Pacific rim.
They are shipping from Russia, which probably at this point in time does not yet have to be in compliance as I believe that the dates were staggered - I also believe that the impact was different for all countries based on the amount of reimbursement they provided to other countries.
I'm not as sure as you are that the Rueppels are shipping from Russia. I don't believe she ever said that -- she has mentioned being from Russia, but also said she runs a 'body disposal business' on the East Coast, which I take to mean our US Atlantic states (unless she is in Kamchatka on Russia's East Coast!)
Maybe she will tell us. In the meantime, I tend to agree with Michael Duehr's notion that something seems fishy.