Tag Archives: USPS

Chargeback and Fraud.

With Paypal users, all they need to do is pretend the item hasn’t arrived – and they get free cash as Paypal will gleefully refund them from your account. Simple as that. No ifs or buts.

Proofs of posting are meaningless.

The seller will always always always be in the wrong with Paypal.

This is called item not received fraud. Yes, its certainly fraud. But, its almost impossible to prove. So many of them get away with it time and time again. Its a hobby for some of them. Free shopping!

If sending untracked, buy some fake tracked barcode stickers online and stick on the envelope (yes, they exist). That will fool some and dissuade some fraud.

Americans can also charge a credit card transaction back (reverse the payment) on a whim, and on a single phone call with no burden of proof of any wrongdoing at all.

They have no grasp of Sofort, IBAN numbers or other international bank transfer systems, and will think anything other than a credit card or Paypal is a scam. So you won’t get them to pay by any secure, irreversible means.

Accept that you will be giving some stuff away and write it into your pricing.

Fear of Other Currencies.

Americans understand American dollars (Canadians grasp CAD and USD but they are pretty much the same value). And that is about all they understand. Trying to have them shop in Australian dollars, Pounds or Euros will confuse them.

They only understand dollars and will happily shop in dollars. A shopping cart in anything but dollars will result in a ton of emails asking about currency conversions, “How much does this work out to in dollars?” type questions, how to use a credit card in another currency and other silly stuff.

If it isn’t in dollars, its out of the comfort zone of most.

Charge them only in dollars to avoid that complication. If that means mirror sites or different landing pages, so be it. If eBay, list on the .com site in dollars. Don’t use the pay option on eBay of “US and Canada visibility” from the UK site.

Remember, if using Paypal, Paypal will shaft you on the exchange rate, so take that into account.

Customer Service Issues.

Another problem with selling to Americans: Americans use chargeback instead of customer service.

They have no concept of time zones outside of the US so cannot grasp why you haven’t replied their email in three minutes at 4am your time.

They will not make international phone calls, so forget that.

As demanding consumers, they expect bells and whistles, including free returns and exchanges (thank Amazon for that). Most sellers want to sell to other continents on a ‘no returns’ basis. Or at best, buyer pays return postage.

That doesn’t go down well there. You will get screamers because of that.

Remember, the first sniff of something that doesn’t suit them or is outside of their normal sphere of experience, you will get the chargeback.

If they are unhappy, and you are an eBay seller, they will gladly one star and/or negative feedback you. Bad DSR’s mean you lose your Power Seller discounts. Continue reading →