Hi folks,
I am not one for complaining but a rash of problems recently with French buyers on ebay is making me think of blocking all sales to that noble country. In the last couple of months I have had more non payers, late payers and claims for items going missing than in my entire selling history on ebay. Is anyone else experiencing similar problems to France? Have any of the outstanding French members any insight into why their postal service seems to have gone downhill so suddenly?  Sorry if it sounds like I am moaning but it would be interesting to find if its just me, or if there is much more of a problem. Thanks for your time, Matt (shaggymatt36).

For the most part French buyers have been great for my auctions.  They pay quickly and respond to messages.   I've had one that didn't pay and another that had a habit of canceling bids which is much more annoying to me than non-payers.   Never have I had a package go 'missing'.

Thanks for the replies guys, perhaps its just me having a bad run. As for the guy who had problems with the Acaeum or vice versa, he`s no problem to me (bids on stuff, pays promtly, almost too enthusiastic at times but hey ho). I know from personal experience how great and helpful the French Acaeum members are. Cheers Matt.

Matt,

Sorry to hear about those issues.

I concur with Loki. Never had serious problems with French postal service, received or sent parcels. After many (too many?) transactions from France but mainly from around the world, I consider the service in France very reliable and generally prompt, apart from Christmas holidays of course.
If your parcels were sent during a short period of time, is it possible the problem comes from the dispatch point rather than delivery? Lost parcels from several different delivery points in France surely give you a clue it does not come each time from the local service.
I have noticed that parcels coming from UK are delivered to me in a very variable delay: two days at best, up to two weeks, with the same UK postal service. I have often heard of UK sellers complaining themselves about Royal Air Mail. However, I have never had a lost parcel from UK, but I have had many of my delayed parcels coning from the UK. Is the channel a so strong barrier to cross? UK is in Europe, then UK sellers do not need to fill a customs form to France, it is unnecessary and even potentially risky, as you mention the value. When shipping inside UE, UK sellers should not fill a CN22 form. I have noticed that many UK sellers are not aware of that. It seems that many British are still feeling they are not included in Europe. So when I purchase a pricy item from UK, I always inform the seller to avoid filling a CN22 form.

However, in your situation, several facts may have happened: mischance for one parcel, lying buyer for another one, wrong address giving by a buyer, etc.
Keep us informed about the conclusions. If you come to the conclusion you've dealt with a shady buyer, do not hesitate to give us his Ebay identity in the thread related to the subject. We need to be aware of such behavior.
I regret than more and more sellers do not want anymore to ship to France and more generally overseas, not only for those reasons of course, Ebay policies being surely the first one.
Having already dealt with you in the past and knowing your top notch service, I sincerely hope you will not lose money on those issues.

I don't sell very much to our French cousins but my experiences were all very good  

dwarf wrote:I have noticed that parcels coming from UK are delivered to me in a very variable delay: two days at best, up to two weeks, with the same UK postal service.

I am sorry to (perhaps) derail this thread, but I have to +1 on this one - Royal Mail, besides from being cheap compared to Danish postal services, is very variable in delivery delay. Often two parcels, from the same seller, sent the same day, can arrive with 7 days apart. I have not experienced this with any other EU country (with either parcel coming in or out of Denmark)

Sorry for that Matt, (and mbassoc)

I have never had any problems with Royal Mail, and usually the french service is all right... sometimes, french ebayers are the problem.

I hope that you won't lose money.

I m french e-bayer myself.
I recommend to maybe warn your buyers that with a low cost shipping, the delivery can take a month... sometimes more... I experienced it myself.
As said upper, the Poste services can be slower when Xmas is approaching... So feel free to add recommendations in your delivery section details.
Also if possible, limit your bidder to those with a minimum of positive feedbacks to limit fraud risks.

Wish you best luck for future sales.

Well it certainly got ten times better after we were allowed to keep the value and description of the contents undisclosed. Now, that might not be postal staff. Maybe it was aircraft pilots going through the mail in transit, or maybe the mafia were diverting lorries from the airport and selecting their stock before letting the rest of the consignment go on to the sorting offices. Who known. All I know is removing the value indicator from the packages drastically reduced the amount of theft and unexplained loss from the system. But you're right. There is no evidence that postal workers are to blame per se, just that the system in it's entirity was rife with theft and administrative coverup (corruption) somewhere on route. Maybe I have just been particularly unfortunate with that particular country.