International Trading Practicesin International Trading Many sellers on Ebay and other online selling venues never have done any selling before, not to speak of international selling - they are amateurs. These are private people whom the Internet suddenly has given the opportunity to do small scale (private) trading, and they often do have no knowledge of the basics of trading. Some have statements on their product pages that claim: Note: According to customary trading practices AND logic, they cannot claim being not responsible in case your items arrive broken or in damaged condition. Their irresponsible claims only show that they do not have the intention to resolve any such problem in any way, and that they are unprofessional! They do not know the basics of customer service either and are ignorant of trading practices. International trading practices and legal issues In international trade seller and buyer responsibilities are regulated by international trade agreements and respective country laws. Some countries' laws can render sales conditions or clauses that do not correspond to local consumer protection laws "invalid". In a sale (whether it is a straight purchase or via auction bidding), if the merchandise does not pass directly from the seller into the buyer's hands, there is always an "intermediary", namely the shipping service (shipper) taking the responsibility to bring the items safely to the buyer. This could be the postal service, or any sort of shipping service. The merchandise is passed from Seller to Shipper, and then from Shipper to Buyer. Seller and shipper both have certain responsibilities to ensure the item lands safely in the buyer's hands. Basically, the seller cannot legally refuse his/her responsibility with a statement like the above. That is because proper packaging and dispatching is solely his/her responsibility. Shippers, on the other hand, hardly ever will refuse responsibility for their part, if a breakage happened during shipping, unless the seller was negligent. They are professonals and know the responsibility coming with their part of the work. They have insurance for accidental damage, etc. But how does the seller prove her/his packaging was NOT negligent? ...normally he can't! Poor trading attitudes and a lack of basic customer service are bad for the reputation of a seller too. The seller's responsibility is to pack the sold item(s) safely and hand it(them) either directly to the buyer or to the shipper. When ceramic items arrive broken, without any signs of external force or other shipping accidents visible, the responsibility is ALWAYS with the seller. Her/his packaging was undeniably negligent if a ceramic item got broken but the external box shows no signs of force applied to the exterior. The shipper never opens the package and if the outer box shows no signs of damage and seems sturdy enough, they will accept it. A package may be opened the first time by customs when it arrives at the port of entry (airport) in the buyer's country, or your General Post Office, where customs may be located for post parcels. Any seller refusing to resolve breakage is basically a candidate for insuffcient, negligent packaging. Professional sellers will resolve the problem without a problem, often they will have insurance for such cases. Unfortunately, many Ebay sellers apparently don't! They are just amateurs with a disregard of responsibility towards their customers. Many are probably unaware of the fact that Ebay rules, etc. may be invalidated by existing trading laws, and that they may even be legally liable. Go from International Trading to Antique Chinese Porcelain Home Page |