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having issues. the guy is saying he hasnt recieved and is now asking for my name/address/some other info so he can clear up the problem and collect the package.

i havnt replied because i dont like giving out any personal info if i dont have to. also the info he wants is right on the package return address anyway. why is spain customs such a pain in the ass?

PS never agree to ship anything to spain. and i hear no italy, france or russia either FYI.

One way to look at it- if the information is on the package return label he'll have your information when he gets the package in hand anyway, so why not send it to him and be seen as being as helpful as possible?

Also- yep some European countries customs services are renowned for being shocking, Italian and Spanish customs seem to crop up as the worst though, with everything from outright theft of packages to destruction and delays- good luck, I hope you manage to get it sorted.

update:
pretty sure he's running everything through a translator but what he seems to be saying is:
that spain customs has no record of anything coming from Canada to him.

and that he now needs to sort it out with the "agency" i took the package to.

im not understanding his thought process at all. what does my info have to do with any of it?

Seems to me he's claiming the local postal service has no record of the package and they referred to your country's postal service (agency?) for complaints.

In both cases the postal services should have records have having handed over/received the package.

yep sounds like customs are claiming it never arrived, not entirely unheard of in that part of the world tbh.

He's probably looking for the information to complete a form so that the post office in Spain will begin the process of looking for it, normally it's a case of tracking it back until it was "lost" from the system and then starting there- did you ship it using a tracking service?

I've been through the process in the UK before with a package coming in from the USA, it turned out to be at my local sorting office and had just been scanned out for deleivery and returned to the shelf in a storage area, ended well though- I got my package (a little late) and a £25 apology

Spain is the only country that i have had trouble with in ten years of shipping minis...
recieved stuff from, and shipped to, France and Italy with no problem...

Customs can be tough...
it takes twice as long to ship from Mexico to California as it does to go to Australia or Singapore, thanks to US Customs...

when i ship from Mexico, i always use registered mail, so that the recipient has to sign for the package...
that guarantees that it will at least get out of the country...
non-registered is a crap-shoot, and i lost minis that way on my first attempt...
lesson learned, the hard way...

i would not freak out too much about giving a customer your name and address...
this is a guy you are doing business with, not some random Nigerian "prince"...
i know it's a pain in the neck, but doing your little bit from your end is your obligation until the customer recieves his package...

good luck...

cheers
jah

Ever thought of the possibility that Spanish customs actually never did receive the package?

 TBD wrote:
Ever thought of the possibility that Spanish customs actually never did receive the package?

Absolutely possible, thats why the inevitable forms need to be completed so that all possible avenues are explored.

 TBD wrote:
Ever thought of the possibility that Spanish customs actually never did receive the package?

ya its possible. on the other hand iv never had this problem before.

it was shipped airmail, no track. i heard once it crosses over to the other country they dont track anything anyways.

will this form he's filling out do anything? should i call canada post?

kb305 wrote:

 TBD wrote:
Ever thought of the possibility that Spanish customs actually never did receive the package?

ya its possible. on the other hand iv never had this problem before.

it was shipped airmail, no track. i heard once it crosses over to the other country they dont track anything anyways.

will this form he's filling out do anything? should i call canada post?

To be honest if it's untracked the chances of it turning up are better than you'd think, generally speaking airmail is so variable in transit time it's almost laughable, so it may just be taking longer than usual. There are also some real anomolies with international mail, for example UK to Australia is generally much faster than UK to Switzerland take a look at a map and tell me how that works!

The form will just be a formalised way of asking the post office to look for it, nothing more and nothing less, I suspect that if you called Canada Post they'd be unable to help but it may be worth a try.

Royal Mail (UK postal service) will only compensate you for normal mail within the UK up to the value of 100 first class stamps, and only then if you have proof of posting- they will not compensate at all for items which go missing after leaving the country unless you use a tracked service- I guess Canada Post will be similar?

It's generally worth sending items tracked, so that you can at least have a chance at finding out where it went astray, Royal mail do continue with tracking/signatures from most countries of origin, I think most eurpopean countries do too.

Speaking form experience and knowing many others who have this problem Spain is notorious for fraud when it comes to mail. It is a "trick" where they think it's ok as they believe not many others are doing it.. i had literally 70% my shipments go "missing" in customs even when i had trackerz on them that showed delivery. He may be honest but i think it's more likely they're scamming you.

 Empchild wrote:
Speaking form experience and knowing many others who have this problem Spain is notorious for fraud when it comes to mail. It is a "trick" where they think it's ok as they believe not many others are doing it.. i had literally 70% my shipments go "missing" in customs even when i had trackerz on them that showed delivery. He may be honest but i think it's more likely they're scamming you.

its been 3 months. the paypal protection is long gone. or is there something im missing?

Credit cards are up to 185 days.

 Empchild wrote:
Credit cards are up to 185 days.

what should i do then?

today i went to the post office to see if the package was shipped back for some reason because i was reading and after 30 days it's supposed to be sent back to seller if it's not delivered. they didnt have anything for me of course.

i told him to give me his email address and i will send him the info he's asking for. what did you do in these situations?

Your call but i have the rule no product no refund. If it. doesn't show up then sorry.

Did you get insurance from Canada Post? Often it is auto included in the price.

 Empchild wrote:
Your call but i have the rule no product no refund. If it. doesn't show up then sorry.

I know you're from outside Europe but this is against the law in most European countries (I can't comment on Spain specifically though) as delivery is considered the responsibility of the vendor and the contract is not complete until the customer has taken delivery. As I said I know you're from outside Europe so make your own call on whether you feel this affects you or not. I'm mostly letting you know so that you can get an idea of what a customers expectations are likely to be in Europe.

I am fairly easy going as i have had issues to all over and as long as its not a constant i place the customer above the product but Spain in my bane and i have no leeway with it. I do 75% of my business as international and honestly i only have about 1-3% of shipping issues to other countries. With Spanish shipments i averaged 60% issues so i stopped all shipping to their anf won't ship to Spain.

i sent pictures of the reciepts to his email since he asked for proof of postage.

the whole thing has been a PITA and waste of time. what's next?

Give him a refund and put in a claim with Canada Post. Win or lose, consider it a lesson learned. Don't be a cheapass with postage.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Give him a refund and put in a claim with Canada Post. Win or lose, consider it a lesson learned. Don't be a cheapass with postage.

after reading up on it UPS or FedEX are probably the most secure ways to go in these situations. make the buyer pay for the extra shipping charge (will probably be ALOT).

it's just a general PITA though since no one will ever want to pay extra and most of these people dont speak english.

the real lesson learned is never ship to countries with third world customs italy, russia, spain, france.