Shipment To India..i Had A Funny Feeling !

Back in December I listed a India registered letter on ebay..there was several bids and a fellow in India won for about 15 dollars...i had a funny feeling about shipping to India..but what can you do?..he won the item and paid for it...today I received the dreaded message from ebay that he has not received the cover yet....i replied I shipped it on 12/14/11 and it has not come back this way yet to my return address....Why am I not surprised ???

Tell him to wait if he can - end of the month maybe. India's postal system can be slow as can be at times and other times it works fine. Usually when I mail something to India I'll include a custom's form, call it an "used envelope" and give it a value of $1. Doubt there's too much demand for that to be stolen.I also have the customs stub to show that I did indeed mail it.

Stamp collecting is very popular in India and Internet use is increasing very rapidly so expect more buyers from there.

I recently mailed an item to the UK on November 29th and it was received the first week in January so go figure. Delays and misdirected mail can happen anywhere at anytime.

Strange, I had some gutter blocks of the 1921 9pies over 1 Anna and they sold like hot cakes for 2-3 times over catalog value and each buyer was from India. I was tentative but all paid quickly and left feedback and when I checked other sellers they all had no problems with shipments there.

If the guy isn't tryin to scam you then drag out the process as long as you can and it will likely arrive. Even between Canada and US I've seen things take 5 days and others take 5 weeks. A small envelope like yours should have gone with airpost but may have gotten tossed in with the slow boat option.

I am sorry I didnt know about the customs slip..the slow boat is definitely an option...when I brought the 6x9 envelope to the post office the girl put a 98 cent stamp..which works for a normal envelope..i questioned her about it but she seemed to think it was alright..i will work with the guy but I figure I did what I had to do !! In 40 years of swapping stamps in the USA I never had a envelope lost !!

It was shipped airmail from here as the U.s. doesn't do surface mail (slow boat) anymore. If you used cardboard inside the 6"x9" envelope it should have been at the 2 oz rate which is more than 98 cents, but if you didn't it could still be at the 1 oz. rate. It could have been shipped airmail from here, but once it got to India it is now going the slow route. I always mark my mail First Class / Airmail to let postal services in other countries to not downgrade the service to a lower class mail.

In dealing with the Stamp Trader List, ebay and Delcampe since the 1990's, items that are late tend to be held up in customs or misdirected. I had a box sent to Thailand one time that was three months late since the postal folks decided it needed a stop over in Vietnam. I had another to Macao take six months with no explaination and another that was late to New Zealand as it decided to go via Czech Republic and hang up for awhile. Either autosorters or human handlers goof and send them in the wrong direction like the airlines like to do with our luggage.

Battlestamps, thanks for the help..it was probably under one ounce..i was concerned because I usually pay more with the larger envelope...i am not going to beat the subject to death...if he persists I am going to ask him one gentleman to another to wait until the end of the month !

Phil, I sent home a packet around the 20th of December and it is yet to reach. Takes time but usually gets there.

Ram

Thanks ramanadn..perhaps he was just inquiring...i imagine some leeway should be allowed...i am just a worry wort...never had any problems with internet transactions...the guy in Belgium my wife buys from ..gets complaints from customers in Eastern Europe ..they give him a neg and he says tough luck he is not going to make good on supposed lost shipments to Eastern Europe....

Yep. Quite a few sellers on ebay tell you upfront that they will not ship to certain countries.

Ram

By the end of this month in the description area of my listings will be a statement saying that mailing to certain countries will be by international registered mail. The cost is about $13.50 if I remember right. I feel this is a better option than excluding buyers from certain countries. But who will pay the $13.50?

Read a question in the ebay community area from a person from Nigeria complaining that nobody wanted their bids. As most people block this country and what could they do about this. They did not receive an answer.

Since 1998 I believe I paid for the registered mail 3 times ..since the people bid so much higher than I expected..i wanted to make certain they received it !!

I purchased an item from UK that took almost 2 months to arrive here. Shipping time can really vary overseas

Monday I received a Christmas card that was mailed on Dec 21st. It was mailed by a church friend who lives not quite two miles from me.

i wonder if internet buyers can be as patient ?

I like Puzzler's way of treating a lost item in the mail. He adds 20c or so to the mailing cost of sold items and puts the extra money in a pickle jar. Every time he has got into a pickle from a lost item he reaches into the pickle jar. Not a bad way at all to look at the situation.

philb I hope your buyer is patient. As a bit of extra time for the mail to arrive has been good to me. After 6 weeks I say no more, it is lost and do what I have to do.

But that is only for outside Australia mailings. All items mailed by us in Aussie are by registered mail, and that is that. But I must say that giving out good bonus stamps to all buyers helps them to have a positive attitude to this cost. We are basically giving stamps to the cost of the registered mail. That is our way. It works for us.