I'm not sure if most of you sell on eBay or not, but I do. And the one constant pain in the butt for me is international shipping. I accept paypal and love the way it helps the transactions, but won't accept it for international purchases. I stopped accepting international paypal payments a few months ago after getting burned by their chargeback policy...again.

You see paypal requires proof of delivery. Not proof of mailing. Delivery. Within the United States, you can just put delivery confirmation on it and send it and that's enough (unless it's more than $250, then they want signature confirmation). The post office here is pretty reliable and I've almost never had a package with delivery or signature confirmation on it not get scanned with tracking available on the web site.

International shipments are a whole different deal. I've shipped via global priority, global express, FedEx and even registered mail and the tracking is very unreliable. With paypal, this would usually lead to a chargeback since international customers seem to be aware of how well paypal protects them. If the online tracking doesn't work, you lose. I've had arguments with paypal through email and over the phone, where I can produce a registered mail receipt, with the post office stamp and employee signature on it and I still lose the case.

No more international payments for this eBayer. I've changed my policy to money orders only so I don't have to worry about it. Proof of sending the package should be enough. How is it my fault that the postal employee in France or Canada didn't scan the tracking number correctly. Still, at least one out of two international buyers email after the auction and say, "I tried to pay you through paypal, but it wouldn't let me." I just stick to my guns and tell them it's clearly stated in the auction that I don't accept international paypal payments.

If you've had similar experiences or have found a way around this, post a comment and maybe we'll figure something out and help some readers along the way.