Question
Over $200 to Germany. Auction closed on 2-7, 6 days ago. The buyer contacted quickly, saying he's send a M.O. Fine & dandy. A short while later he wants routing #s so he can send a balance transfer to our bank. I didn't want to do that. Wife said it was OK (we've allowed it once or twice before with no problems) and she emailed the routing #.
But now, no balance transfer and no further contact. The guy marked the auction as "paid" on 2-7. No way he could have paid that quickly, since the routing # wasn't sent until the 8th. The 9th would have been the soonest he could have paid, most likely.
I sent him a firm email yesterday, asking what was up and to contact me ASAP. No reply as of yet.
I'm getting P.O.'d.
His fb score is 28 with 1 neg, something about an item already being sold or something (i translated it, but it wasn't a clear translation).
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At least Friday.
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Originally Posted by busker
Over $200 to Germany. Auction closed on 2-7, 6 days ago. The buyer contacted quickly, saying he's send a M.O. Fine & dandy. A short while later he wants routing #s so he can send a balance transfer to our bank. I didn't want to do that. Wife said it was OK (we've allowed it once or twice before with no problems) and she emailed the routing #.
But now, no balance transfer and no further contact. The guy marked the auction as "paid" on 2-7. No way he could have paid that quickly, since the routing # wasn't sent until the 8th. The 9th would have been the soonest he could have paid, most likely.
I sent him a firm email yesterday, asking what was up and to contact me ASAP. No reply as of yet.
I'm getting P.O.'d.
Okay you need to calm down as it's most likely all down to a few misunderstandings. I've dealt with many, many German, Austrian and Swiss buyers over the years and have had very few problems once I got the "how to get paid" part sorted out.
Europeans routinely pay via bank transfers (or 'wires' to use the archaic US term), and when your German discover that paper money orders aren't available in Germany (or most of Europe for that matter) they asked for your bank details to do a simple bank transfer. You gave them your domestic US routing number and account number, but as your German buyer will by now have discovered, they don't work for international transfers. You should have sent your bank's SWIFT or BIC details plus whatever other details your banks says are necessary for incoming international transfers. Most international transfers to the USA have to go through intermediary banks as few US banks are members of SWIFT. From the intermediary bank they get routed through the domestic US banking system until they end up in your bank account - this can often take a few days.
It's a simple misunderstanding, and if your buyer has attempted to send the transfer (as they said) then it's likely bounced back to him when it couldn't be delivered due to incomplete information.
By the way - make sure to request that the transfer is in USD otherwise most US banks will give you a poor exchange rate and charge additional fees. Hope this clears things up.
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All good points. I just received a wire transfer from Italy that took 6 days to post to my account via a bank in NYC. That was after several emails back and forth firming up the details and calling my bank to get the Swift #.
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Thanks for the info.
In any event, he hasn't communicated in 5 days or so. He seems to have ignored my email sent to him on Monday. Yeah, I know, some people don't check their emails all the time, blah blah, but this guy has business to take care of, namely, me. I think he's going to blow off the transaction.
I offered Paypal. Why didn't he just do that I wonder?
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I find European transfers into the bank account a PITA - however every request has been honoured, even though the last one took 12 or 14 days to get into my account after the deposit/transfer was made (Germany to Australia). While I don't accept the request anymore on International transactions, I would certainly allow longer for both the money to show up.
Yeah, I know, some people don't check their emails all the time, blah blah, but this guy has business to take care of, namely, me.
And if he made the deposit last week, he may believe that he has finalised that business.
I hope that it works out fine, the quick communication in the first place is usually a sign of a genuine buyer.
Cheers, Kevin
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Originally Posted by Kevin_T
And if he made the deposit last week, he may believe that he has finalised that business.
Maybe so. But according to the above post, the money could not be routed to me with the numbers given anyway.
Hey, it's not on me. I didn't offer this service, he asked (after the auction was over) and I reluctantly agreed. I knew I should have put my foot down and said NO. I certainly will from now on. He had other options, namely Paypal, if he wanted a fast transaction. He could have used Western Union too.
Now I have to go to my bank and see about some SWIFT number I don't even want, which wastes my time.
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Originally Posted by busker
Thanks for the info.
Happy to be of some help. I had similar problems until I sorted out the "how to" part of intrnational payments and now it's easy as pie (to us an American expression).
Originally Posted by busker
I offered Paypal. Why didn't he just do that I wonder?
Very few Germans have, use or need PayPal. Why? Well, they can do domestic and international bank transfers for free, versus having to pay for PayPal which often takes longer. Also those few that did use PayPal (during the fee free trial period in Germany) dropped it like a hot potato when PayPal started charging fees.
In most countries bank transfers are the preferred method of payment, except the U.S.A.
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They're the preferred payment method with me too. No fees, no chargebacks.
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Hmmm. I have never had an international buyer ask for
a wire transfer.
About 95% pay promptly with paypal, even the Germans.