Selling to the USA, a cautionary tale...
Discussion
So, bit of advice needed on how to proceed with a watch I've sold on Chrono24....
Sold a watch for over £8000 on C24, buyer was from the US and asked if id ship there, no problem, a deal was struck and I duly posted it off fully insured, then it became painful! UPS/US import form had to be submitted via an online form, they wanted my NI number, the buyers social security number and a breakdown of the watch value in 3 components 1) case value 2) mechanism value 3) strap value. I supplied all the info apart from the buyers SSC as understandably he was cautious about sharing that with some random UK resident. Ar this point he got arsey and told me to cancel the transaction, I then figured out he could have his own UPS login and do it himself so I set that up and he relented and filled the form in. The problem was though is that there were 2 forms and although mine had my NI number on it his SSC wasn't, it was on a form only he could see so they kept badgering me for the missing info!
After about 10 emails I finally got them to contact him directly as all his contact info was visible on both forms.
Brilliant, parcel starts moving and as of yesterday it is ready for delivery pending payment of the import fees, which are $4000!
Buyers now decides he doesn't want to pay that and sends me a shi**y message that reads like he's blaming me for the tariffs! Demanding i refund him.
Now obviously the payment is held in escrow by C24 and I've contacted them to see what happens next? Who pays for the return postage and extra insurance as im guessing the policy i took out wont cover the return.
In short don't send anything to the US of any value, not worth the hassle.
Sold a watch for over £8000 on C24, buyer was from the US and asked if id ship there, no problem, a deal was struck and I duly posted it off fully insured, then it became painful! UPS/US import form had to be submitted via an online form, they wanted my NI number, the buyers social security number and a breakdown of the watch value in 3 components 1) case value 2) mechanism value 3) strap value. I supplied all the info apart from the buyers SSC as understandably he was cautious about sharing that with some random UK resident. Ar this point he got arsey and told me to cancel the transaction, I then figured out he could have his own UPS login and do it himself so I set that up and he relented and filled the form in. The problem was though is that there were 2 forms and although mine had my NI number on it his SSC wasn't, it was on a form only he could see so they kept badgering me for the missing info!
After about 10 emails I finally got them to contact him directly as all his contact info was visible on both forms.
Brilliant, parcel starts moving and as of yesterday it is ready for delivery pending payment of the import fees, which are $4000!
Buyers now decides he doesn't want to pay that and sends me a shi**y message that reads like he's blaming me for the tariffs! Demanding i refund him.
Now obviously the payment is held in escrow by C24 and I've contacted them to see what happens next? Who pays for the return postage and extra insurance as im guessing the policy i took out wont cover the return.
In short don't send anything to the US of any value, not worth the hassle.
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