Proxy Service Ettiquette

[fcgamer | 4,730]

So here's the situation: a guy contacted me wanting to purchase a few games I was selling online in Taiwan, and asked if I could accept a lower price, and I agreed. He then said that I'd be contacted by another guy to handle the business aspect, okay that's never a good sign, but as long as the money is in my account I couldn't care less. Ultimately it turns out that guy A is a mainlander Chinese who somehow could create an account for a Taiwanese site, and that guy B would handle the shipping and payment as a middleman proxy. I know, I know, it might sound a bit fishy but this happens all the time over here, due to the weird romance between the two countries.

The customer's agent purchased one game on a Sunday, paid for it on Monday, I prepared to send it Tuesday but then the customer started inquiring about a second item, so I waited. By the time the second item was paid for, it was Friday, so I mailed the two items out together on the following Monday. The customer complained a bit why I was slow at shipping, I told him because of the inquiry I held off on shipping the first item, I mean this isn't my day job, I'm just straightening up my apartment. 

Come this past Monday or Tuesday, the customer refunded his agent, then told me that he didn't trust his agent, as the agent was being funny about shipping the item out. Flashforward to tonight, the customer said that the agent wants to return the items, and that the customer then wants to find a new agent to purchase the items from me.

I told the customer to grow up, any problems between him and his agent are his problems not mine, I mean I doubt agents on auction sites even follow the Terms and Services. Furthermore, I don't feel as though I should have to refund one guy (pay a bank transfer fee to boot) money, then wait until another guy pays me, then waste another half an hour in line at the post office etc etc etc to reship the items just because customer and agent had a dispute, something that doesn't involve me at all. 

Thoughts?

 

[TDIRunner | 2,744]

32 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Thoughts?

 

The best I've got is that I probably wouldn't have done it in the first place.  I know hat doesn't help you at all, but it all just sounds like a big headache to me.  That type of transaction might be commonplace there, but I would leave those transactions to the people who resell for a living.  If you are doing it on the side to clean stuff out, I would stick with the easy sales.  Hope it works out for you in the end.  

[a3quit4s | 4,106]

2 hours ago, TDIRunner said:

The best I've got is that I probably wouldn't have done it in the first place.  I know hat doesn't help you at all, but it all just sounds like a big headache to me.  That type of transaction might be commonplace there, but I would leave those transactions to the people who resell for a living.  If you are doing it on the side to clean stuff out, I would stick with the easy sales.  Hope it works out for you in the end.  

This but also get out of this situation asap. As soon as a saw how long this post was I knew it wasn’t gonna be good business.  

[Ankos | 445]

The customer paid for goods and they were sent out as instructed. I don't think it is wrong for them to request a refund, but if the seller declines, then no refund should occur and that is the end of the story. That is how it works in most businesses anyways, unless the seller claims otherwise beforehand. In my experiences with proxy services I've always expected things to go wrong once in awhile and just factored that in to the cost of buying stuff. As for the whole shipping time thing, in general I prefer to have slower shipping times when buying with agents, because that gives me more time to add stuff to an order. It isn't like you made them wait three weeks or anything like that. I wish the best of luck to you with dealing with this

[TDIRunner | 2,744]

35 minutes ago, Ankos said:

I've always expected things to go wrong once in awhile and just factored that in to the cost of buying stuff

I don't believe I've every seen anyone refer to it that way before.  I believe that the vast majority of people will say that when a problem occurs, it falls to the seller to take the burden as a "cost of doing business."  Hopefully that won't happen to the OP here.

[Ankos | 445]

There are some situations where I think the burden is a little more on the seller, but if you go out and hire a sketchy agent and get screwed over, then that really isn't the seller's problem. It's not like the stuff got lost in the mail or something, the issue is on the buyer's end

[TDIRunner | 2,744]

20 minutes ago, Ankos said:

There are some situations where I think the burden is a little more on the seller, but if you go out and hire a sketchy agent and get screwed over, then that really isn't the seller's problem. It's not like the stuff got lost in the mail or something, the issue is on the buyer's end

I completely agree with that.  I only responded earlier because I got a little bit of a chuckle from the line "cost of buying stuff."  

[The Count | 528]

I'm not familiar with this type of thing as an American, but if faced with this proposition I would walk. It sounds like a hassle with too many opportunities for bullshit.

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

I've acted as a proxy for international peeps before, but it was on NA where the buyer and seller both knew me.

Or I would buy for them myself on ebay and they'd pay me back, and then I'd send the package along once it built up to a certain amount of items.

But yeah, faced with what you did I would walk at the first sign of shenanigans.

[fcgamer | 4,730]

11 hours ago, captmorgandrinker said:

I've acted as a proxy for international peeps before, but it was on NA where the buyer and seller both knew me.

Or I would buy for them myself on ebay and they'd pay me back, and then I'd send the package along once it built up to a certain amount of items.

But yeah, faced with what you did I would walk at the first sign of shenanigans.

Yeah, it's quite common in these parts, actually a lot of western people buying games from Japan will do this too.

As I understand, typical conduct is that the interested party will contact the proxy, who then buys the item (after receiving money from the buyer), and then they buy the item, pay the seller. In reality, the seller shouldn't even know that a guy is a proxy, I just know because the buyer messaged me (I guess he somehow made an account, but can't actually buy items since his address isn't in Taiwan? I know a few mainland collectors in that situation, ones who I trust, so I don't think it's inherently shady).

The issue arose though as apparently the buyer now has some issues with his proxy buyer, maybe even got a refund from that agent. 

I'm holding firm though on my stance, as far as I'm concerned, business is business, if the issue is between the proxy and the buyer they just both need to sort it out themselves and grow up a bit. If it was a problem on my end, it would be different, but I have nothing to do with their issues.