Got a bit of a tricky one I'm trying to figure out and I was hoping some knowledgeable, cultured folk around these parts could help me. Over the weekend I sold a few TFs on eBay. A couple of them were bought by a buyer in China, who had a feedback score of 2. Happily the guy paid almost immediately. So far, so good! I go to ship his package out yesterday, but when I call up his address through the order details on eBay, it is written in Traditional Chinese text, which I cannot read. I checked his details on Paypal, and it is the same on there. I have messaged the buyer asking if he is able to send me his postal address in English but that was about 24 hours ago and no reply as yet. My question is, what the spotted heck do I do now? I don't even know if this guy can read English so might not understand my message to reply to it. Or what happens if he doesn't reply? I can't send the parcel until I have his shipping details and he might not use eBay very much (judging by his low feedback) and wouldn't log on to find my message. I don't want him to think I'm a bad seller and haven't sent his item for no good reason. I am tempted to contact eBay for advice, as I have never come across this before. I have shipped to China a few times but the buyers' addresses are always listed in English text (ie ABC etc). Anyone dealt with this kind of thing before? Anyone translate traditional Chinese???
So long as it's got "China" written on it you shouldn't have an issue, as that's the only part Royal Mail need to read. Unless you're sending it signed-for/airsure, as they'll need to log the address. One thing about sending to China which may or may not be relevant is anything over £95 has to be marked as commercial or it won't be allowed through customs. It can get confusing when shipping through companies like FedEx that give you 10 options for the nature of the contents, 3 of which apply, but ticking the wrong one can cost you £120 in shipping it there and back..
you could always call the ebay customer support number & have them advise you what to do. perhaps you can run the guys address thru a universal on-line translater from chinese to english.
It may take a spell for the fella to reply. I would recommend that you send the package via EMS so its signed for with insurance, else they may try to run a scam on you.
I have indeed, and it came back with something very strange indeed. Not saying Chinese is strange at all, I think that the translator didn't understand a couple of words.
Definitely send emails to eBay and Paypal asking them for recommendations, at least they will then have a record of you trying to do the right thing. I'd ask Paypal if they can provide an English language address, pointing out that you only want to comply with their policies. The Post Office's system here won't accept a foreign language address, meaning you won't be able to send it Int. Signed For. The eBay message you sent him should be sent to his regular email address also. Is it RB and/or Whirl, if so I'd be extra cautious man.
Don't worry bro you're not at loss here, help is just around the corner. You can always approach the guys on the S'pore/M'sian toy discussion thread. we have quite a number of ppl who are able to speak mandarin & understand chinese characters. Spore-Malaysian toy discussion thread
Thanks for the advice everyone. @ Ninety: It's Runabout and Runamuck. Either the guy can read/understand English since he actually bid in the first place, or he just liked the look of the pictures! I will e-mail eBay if I haven't heard back from him by first thing tomorrow, although I have had some help from a fellow board member in translating the address.
well its a bit of an odd one this babelfish or google translater should work? or failing that just for giggles print it in chinese and see what the look on the post office worker is like haha
Went for Chinese copy and paste on one half of the box and an English translation I got from xterry on the other half. Hopefully one of those will make it ok. Actually just after I sent it I got a message back from the buyer giving me his address in English!!! Luckily it was almost exactly the same as the one xterry gave me, so just want to say thanks to him for his expert multilingual assistance. A true gent.
You'd probably want to include the Chinese version even if you get a translation. I normally copy and paste the address into Word to print out a label then apply it to the box.
That's what I did, so I'm crossing my fingers whoever picks up the package someone should be able to read it! Also, never e-mail eBay if you have a problem with anything, they are RUBBISH! They just said I should keep messaging the buyer until he replies. If he doesn't, I should refund him and cancel the sale. And I thought eBay were supposed to be supporting the buyers these days!
I'm a ebay usa based buyer/seller. I got to a section on the ebay site where I block & prevent international bidders from bidding on my auctions that I sell. because it's too much of a hassel to fill out the extra customs/hazmat papers at the post office. also it's hard to personally guess/calculate the international shipping fees.
I'm amazed it took a whole 19 posts for someone to spout out the tried and tested 'International shipping is a pain' reply.