Over the past few years I have purchased a number of small items from
overseas Internet suppliers, including eBay vendors, in US, Canada and
UK.  I would consider dealing with other civilised countries, but I draw
the line at Nigeria!

I have a PayPal account which debits my credit card when I submit
details of the transaction and forwards the money to the vendor's
account..

I had a problem when one eBay vendor would not accept overseas buyers
using PayPal because, "Overseas transactions are not indemnified by
PayPal."  I couldn't understand that because the vendor gets the money
before he sends the goods.

In that case I used Bidpay, whereby a postal order is sent to the
vendor.  My credit card is debited, with an additional fee for the
postal order, about US $2.50 I seem to recall.

Using a credit card and PayPal or Bidpay is far cheaper than obtaining
cash in the overseas currency, because Australian banks charge up to US
$20 to swap cash notes over the counter.  If I ask my local bank for a
bank cheque in an overseas currency the charge is only (only!) US $15.

Bidpay only handles US transactions, although I understand Western
Union can provide postal notes or transfers in other currencies, to
other countries.

Where vendors can accept credit cards but don't have a secure site,
I either fax the details to them or send the credit card number in two
parts in separate emails.  As a precaution I use a different subject
line just in case someone is looking for the same headers.

I had a problem recently after winning a technical book on eBay for
US $30, where the vendor then quoted me US $40 for seamail postage.
I knew the postage should be less than that and felt he was trying to
make up for not getting his expected auction price.  I told him that
I would not proceed with purchase but a week later he asked if I was
still interested with postage of US $20.  This was acceptable and we
came to an agreement.

The other recent problem that I can relate involved a Canadian military
disposals company that advertised a scarce radio on eBay.  Their
reserve was quite high but they did state "not tested, sold as is".
When the successful bidder (in USA) received the radio and opened it
up, the case was virtually empty inside.  The new owner felt that for
the high reserve indicated and the price he paid he should have at
least received a radio with all contents.

The emails back and forward between himself and the vendor became more
strident with the disposals company basically saying tough luck and
posting negative feedback against the buyer.  The buyer pleaded his
case with eBay and got no satisfaction, they seemed less than
interested.  I understand the buyer has approached a US government
watchdog agency (perhaps the Better Business Bureau? - I don't
remember), but there is a difficulty getting Canada to listen to a US
agency.

Now through all of this, the problem was aired on an Internet military
radio list with the result that around 300 members (of a total membership
of over 600) sent emails to the Canadian company, remonstrating at its
actions and suggesting the proper thing to do would be to refund the
money and take the radio case back -- all to no avail.

The Canadian company was less than polite in its response.  It has now
been blacklisted on several Internet lists and the adverse publicity
seems to grow daily.  The power of the Internet at work!

I guess the point of this is buyer beware!

Colin MacKinnon (Australia)