I have received my first 2 international orders and have been reading up on chargebacks, scams, started to get nervous, and wanted to ask what steps I can take to prevent myself?
I am shipping from the U.S. and am using pay pal standard and google checkout to process payments.
I rec’d an order from France today from what seems to be a legit customer from my interactions with him on email and google chat, but who can tell for sure right?
He tried paying for an order twice this morning, but my shipping settings were not configured properly so he notified me not enough shipping was being charged and asked if that was an error. It was, I fixed it, and he successfuly paid via google checkout.
ok so, i notice each attempted transaction was from 3 different ip adresses logged in the admin action on each ‘order’, but not sure what the significance of this might be. I run the ip’s in an ip lookup and the one that is associated with the successful order is:
Registry = ARIN
Date Assigned = 1/12/2006
Country of origin is = UNITED STATES
the first IP logged when he tried checking out when shipping settings were wrong was:
Registry = RIPE
Date Assigned = 10/17/2006
Country of origin is = UNITED KINGDOM
and the second one was:
Registry = ARIN
Date Assigned = 1/14/2004
Country of origin is = UNITED STATES
Shouldn’t it come up for France if the customer is in France?
So should I be concerned? What else can I do to protect myself prior to shipping?
Also, I get this message: Payment processor response: AVS: AVS not supported by issuer, CVN: CVN match
what additional steps if any may i take to make sure this is a legit sale?
thanks
I am from Lithuania, CS-cart understands my IP as I would be from Germany, shows German flag.
I would advice you better to worry about not sending to PO boxes, send with signature requiring shipping method, tracking number and insurance.
There is many ways to trick you if someones is after this, so better avoid some countries. When buyer raises dispute in paypal 99% that he will win it. Have lots of experience in ebay sales.
I send google invoices to most of my international customers and then let them pay the invoice. I have never been burned this way as of yet. On 2 occasions, google red-flagged 2 orders as suspicious and would not let the payment be processed. Turns out the cards being used were stolen. How big are the order or what value are they?
Also, I met lots of my international customers on ebay and by using their feedback help me feel a little safer in the beginning.
[quote name=‘taylorsnutriton’]I send google invoices to most of my international customers and then let them pay the invoice. I have never been burned this way as of yet. On 2 occasions, google red-flagged 2 orders as suspicious and would not let the payment be processed. Turns out the cards being used were stolen. How big are the order or what value are they?
Also, I met lots of my international customers on ebay and by using their feedback help me feel a little safer in the beginning.[/QUOTE]
New ebay policy, sellers are no longer able leave negative feedback to buyer, so there is no point in checking their feedback as it will be 100% always from now on.
ok so I rec’d one order from Spain, another from France
google checkout was used to process both orders and is showing:
Covered by Payment Guarantee
AVS: Unavailable
CVV: Pass
The items are worth approx $100 (my cost) + $60 shipping so I’d be out $160 on each. Each customer opened up dialougue with me prior to ordering, asking about such things as price, color options, asking how the items would be packaged, shipped, how long it would take, etc. all legit kinds of questions. They could have also ordered more items but only ordered single items.
I have communicated to both customers prior to the sale and have no reason to believe they are fraudulent, but who knows.
I am shipping USPS because the items are rather large, oversized boxes and USPS Priority International is much cheaper, but I don not believe there is an option to require signature or tracking # info? From my understanding, they must be marked as GIFT since this will avoid stepp customs charges and I believe USPS insures them up to $85 or $75
The one to france, billing and shipping info are the same, the spain order the shipping address is different but still in the same area of the country (girlfriend is purchasing a birthday present for her boyfriend and having it sent to his house, again, all conversations with customer seems to confrim this and seems legit).
Taking a closer look, it appears that the IP address being logged in the ORDER INFO section of my admin panel, under CUSTOMER INFORMATION is logging a google IP address and not the customer’s IP address. When I look back at the statistics and run the IP adresses logged there in a whois, both the one from spain and france show :
OrgName: RIPE Network Coordination Centre
OrgID: RIPE
Address: P.O. Box 10096
City: Amsterdam
StateProv:
PostalCode: 1001EB
Country: NL
the one from Spain: 10.239.77.74 / 195.55.222.101
the one from France: 77.96.152.137 (shows french as language, great britain as country)
I think both orders are legit, but if there’s anything that jumps out at anyone here, or any advice you can give on additional steps I can take, I am all ears…thanks
[quote name=‘Darius’]New ebay policy, sellers are no longer able leave negative feedback to buyer, so there is no point in checking their feedback as it will be 100% always from now on.[/QUOTE]
You will have to make sure it’s relatively new feedback and positive. You can still write a negative comment if you like.
what always draws the red flag for me is when they email me and ask if we fedex express items and take credit cards.
then another would be when they want 50-100 items of a certain product.
big no no. I would make them wire you the funds and then take the money out asap…I still don’t even do that unless that’s what it comes down to.
[quote name=‘taylorsnutriton’]You will have to make sure it’s relatively new feedback and positive. You can still write a negative comment if you like.[/QUOTE]
Don’t know about you but I never read more then first page. Overall its 100% positive. I would like option were buyers with 2 negatives a month would be blocked from my listings.
If your in doubt either make verbal contact with customer or require a check. I actually have just shut off all CC processing outside of US and Canada and require customers to send checks for International. And only after the check is cleared and funds safely in my bank account do I process the order.
In the US I also highly recommend using AVS and CVV checking. If either fails contact the customer over the phone for verbal confirmation. Just emailing someone doesn’t mean jack these days with free email accounts.
If you take payment thru’ Paypal, it is advisable to use the courier service with online tracking like UPS, EMS or FedEX. Any non-tracking service like USPS Priority International will put you in the lossing position should the customer raises the dispute with Paypal for non-delivery. Using the registered mail or force the customer to agree to the Terms of Sales does not put you in a better position. Consider asking you customer to pay more for shipping.
Our experience with shipping international has not been the best, but we are going to do it again.
Here is what we have learned in the past…
- We have learned the hard way that you cannot ship certain items to certain countries. Since we sell playing cards, some countries either make playing cards illegal or just make it illegal to “import” playing cards. The other thing is if it is “illigal” for a country, customs may take the item(s) out of the box before they arrive to your customer.
- Watch out for those who will refuse a shipment because they don’t want to pay “duty fees.” Our worst experience with this is from folks in the UK and Canada. We get customers all the time who want us to put that the cards were a “gift” or not tell the truth.
- Make sure you check what you ship very carefully. We triple check ALL international orders before they ship. The last thing you want to do is make a mistake and not ship something or ship something worng. It will cost way too much to try to correct the issue. The other issue again is if someone from customs takes something out of your package.
- Write down an ACTUAL weight of what you ship. This can be used for verification with the credit card company.
- ONLY used a shipping method that is able to be traced…or you may get burned.
- Beware of large orders. If an international order is over $100 for us we usually hold the order for a few days while we verify information with banks.
- We NEVER ship to a “drop” ship location. We want the “bill to” and “ship to” to be the same.
I know these may seem annoying, but it has now been several years since we have had a fraud issue. Before that, we got burned serveral times from the some of the issues listed above.
Here is what I have learned…international experience was quite confusing, interesting and a loss…so not planning to do much overseas again. Customs and shipping rules are different for each region / country…so do your homework!
Definfinatly need to track, whether what merchant provider you use. Only way to prove disputes.
Insure GROSS cost of items & shiping materials (limited for some countries)
USE custom forms for every package. Checkmark merchandise, otherwise your liable for fraud or duty fees. (must inform buyer that they are responsible for all custom duties / tax)
If using USPS, pay for Registered Mail + Return Reciept
(would agree with previous comments on high priced or high quanity orders)
In most cases, shipping for $20 items under 4lbs costed over $45… A deal breaker for most people…especially the way the enconomy has been lately.
Hope this helps.
ecb1,
I ship internationally every day and have never had a fraud problem.
I think that you are worrying too much I never look at the IP address etc.
- What are you selling? Electronics and things that can be easily stolen and resold? If so either stop or start using insurance for the full value as well as tracking.
- Marking an item as a gift is fine if you are told that it is a gift. However, if you do not put the full value for customs you may have a problem with your insurance claim and you are doing something that is simply wrong.
- I would not consider asking for funds to be wired if you are in the USA as wire costs are high.