Russia - Moscow - shipping by FedEx

[JAC]

Buyer wants me to ship over £400 GBP worth of stuff by FedEX, marked low value for customs. ( FedEx does not accept high value - over 180USD items into Mosocow)

Bought through eBay and paid on Paypal, so if the items dont arrive or get stolen, I will be out of pocket by several hundred GBP.

Any suggestions? I dont want to lose the items and I dont want to be ripped off, I just want the buyer to get his stuff and I keep the money he has paid. Right now I am so frustrated with this shit I am about to refund him all his money because I dont want to be ripped off.

I know Moscow FedEx is a BIG PROBLEM, as in my job one of our customers actually gets on an airplane and flies into London to pick up his stuff, then returns to Moscow. Sadly he is not doing this for a while again otherwise I would ship it with him.

By the way if any of you are wondering where I have been for the past few moneths, I have been super busy with some personal stuff. Dont worry, my unique wit and repartee lurks within, and I am sure it will be coming to a forum post soon.

[magictom]

Can you split it into 2 shipments, and declare each of them at the max? That way, you maximum loss would be pretty small.

[Chiefish]

I would be very careful about sending in this way, Because if you are planning on insuring the package for the amount its worth , you have to claim the correct amount on the customs papers , at least from the states I do. I recently sent a very expensive piece of porcelain to someone in the UK and agreed to ship it at a low value for them and got it right in my ass for it, when it arrived broken to them I had no insurance and bsically lost my shirt on it. If they truly want it bad enough they will pay the taxes and whatever they are responsable for on it. I now make a point to have that in my listings whenever I am selling somthing internationally. I will not decalre a value less than what it actually is, unless its like a $20 chip or somthing small.

[smithy]

This sounds super dodgy to me. Sounds like many of the scams...the "I can pay by credit card and you ship by Fedex". I think you are in line for getting ripped off. Personally I'd walk away or give them the line "I only ship and insure at full value". If they really want the stuff they will accept. Or use Thomas's suggestion.

Is the paypal account really theirs and is it verified?

[JAC]

Ya thanks guys.. I am not super keen on this transaction ( this buyer drove up a lot of prices on the recent sales. )

I'll see what I can work out with the buyer.

I do fully understand the problems with shipping into Russia.. mainly the TAX the buyer gets raped for .. often exceeding the value of the item purchased by several times, so many items go undelivered because people dont pay the fees. Also it seems there is a great deal of paperwork. This is assuming the parcel actually gets handled properly and not stolen in transit.