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Overseas Shipping Fear
I ran into an awkward situation yesterday when a BTB user bailed out on me halfway through a swap when finding out I was not in the US, as "not comfortable with overseas shipping". At first I was taken aback, feeling kinda humiliated by this, but then started thinking - well I really don't have much experience on transactions with only one successful bra transfer on this site and that some users may have had problems, so that the "overseas fear" could be legit. On the other hand, I regularly ship and receive packages, documents, laptops, uniforms, paperwork between Croatia and the UK, US, Japan and elsewhere and haven't had a single signed package lost in the last 15years. By all means, it is every person's right and free will to decide what they are comfortable or not doing, and I also understand caution, but do you think it would be fair then stating these preferances clearly, checking things upfront and avoid a situation that ends up really uncomfortable for someone else? Also, what can be done to make transactions safer if there is some kind of an issue here? As a newbie I have little to rely on, so would very much like to hear your experiences and thoughts on this.
Filed under Bras ups and downs
12 comments
Hi! I'm sorry it was a humiliating experience for you. But to be fair, on sites like this and braswap, I think it's pretty common for someone to express interest in a bra and then change their mind for whatever reason. Expressing interest is not a binding contract like bidding is on ebay, so its nothing personal. Also, forgive me if I'm wrong, but I didn't see the shipping country on the listing. It's my fault for assuming US, I sometimes forget this is an international community. I've received packages from overseas, but never sent them. I'm a little wary of high shipping charges/hidden fees, although people have told me it isn't something to worry about too much. I also have had bad experiences with USPS delivering domestically, so I know if there was a problem with my package going overseas it'd be a lot harder to resolve and of course I'd want to provide a refund, so I'd be losing the bra and the cost of it. Overall just a personal preference, and not something I meant to make into an awkward situation for you
P.S.- I wouldn't really label it a 'fear', either. Fear is a strong word, and overseas shipping is not something I'm afraid of haha, more just something I
don't care to hassle with :)
Thank you Ol for contibuting to this topic. As I said it was kinda humiliating for a moment, I was feeling second class and shut out, but i did not think it was personal - more like bad etiquette. The whole situation started a thinking process and opened a broader perspective. I would like to understand whether I need to prepare myself for such situtions in the future and also whether some users generally think that a national transaction is safer than an overseas one and if so why. I'd like to hear users experiences both positive and negative in order get a clearer picture, raise awareness about the possible dangers, but also to eliminate unnecessary fears that can discriminate users from fully participating. I really would not like to make any comparisons to e-bay or any other profit oriented sale site, as it is neither user built nor created to be a community that is helping its members. My post is not about whining about somebody changing their mind about something, but about wishing to understand why these things happen and how we can help each other instead of shutting each other out.
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