Thread: AUSTRALIA POST SETS UP WAREHOUSE IN USA

In my experience a lot of those ebay claims are just toothless tigers. Admittedly I've only ever made 2 returns, one was for a Nikon centring microscope, and we'll see how that pans out, so far so good. That came from Seoul. The other was a W20 die from a seller in China, the die was rubbish and I returned it just in principle. To cut a long story short he just dicked around until the time period to resolve it had expired and then said "tough!". I had no leg to stand on. The end result was it cost me the die, the postage to Aus, and the return postage, for absolutely nothing except a bunch of angst and a determination never to do business with him again.

When things go wrong negotiation is the key. As a seller and as a buyer. I bought a set of Hofi hammers from Big Blue in the US. The first shipment was lost in transit. When I sent an email had no reply I started a paypal dispute. Paypal disputes are not "toothless tigers" but a very useful tool, providing you watch the date and don't let it lapse, just like any legal action. So Big Bluereplied to the Payapl dispute and told me he did not realize I had not received the tools and so sent me a second shipment. I got that in record time yet when I took it out of the box, the tools where defective beyond repair. The hammers are hand forged and unfortunately this were out of square rather badly. Probably an oversight by the person doing the packing. Another email via paypal, prompted the seller to call me on my mobile phone during my business hours. He asked me to return the items and he would refund me the cost of returning them and send me another set. I went to the post office and Australia Post wanted $75. I said no way and called the guy back. Now incidentally, the US is a PHONE business culture. We are an email business culture. If you want something from a US company ring them up. Anyway ... long story shorter sort of ... I told the supplier that paying $75 was outrageous, and to write off the set of hammers I had with me, to send me a new set and I would buy one extra hammer to complete the set for an additional $100. Happy days, Big Blue was happy and I had a good ending to a potentially bad situation...........How many sellers are willing to operate that way? Not many.