[Jewelry making - Article 00577] - Re: [Orchid] Ebay Stones again

[Rasesh Chasmawala]

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    I was hoping to hear more views on some aspects of this post and,
    hence, held off until now. 

>     ....If you get a parcel of stones that you have been charged
>     international postage rates/ high costs for stones supposedly being
>     mailed to you from overseas, and the parcel you receive was
>     cancelled at a post office in Iowa, I urge you to contact the
>     seller and request a refund of other than actual postage and report
>     this to ebay. this is an emerging scam; the buyer agrees to pay
>     let's say 15.00 for postage and handling and insurance from Jaipur
>     India and you receive an an envelope with a small zip lock bag,
>     unpadded, and without insurance on the package which was posted
>     from Chicago..that equals misrepresentation at least and more
>     likely fraud...so the seller makes over thirteen bucks mailing you
>     a stone or stones weighing less than an ounce in addition to the
>     price paid for your win/purchase.

    I'd like to give our background as diamond and gemstone jewelry
    manufacturers based in Mumbai, India. This is relevant since we know
    a little bit about international shipping costs. 

    First of all, I have no problems with the packing and packaging
    materials mentioned above. Yes, I agree that for international
    shipments the packing and the packaging materials have to be good. 

    However, I would like to mention the actual costs if one is shipping
    from India after following the relevant legalities. If one is
    shipping gemstones and declaring them as glass pieces on the relevant
    postal forms, then I guess USD15 is ok. But, if one follows the
    rules, clears Customs and declares the items as gemstones and does
    the subsequent post-shipment paperwork, then the actual cost would be
    at least USD75! 

    In fact, many potential partners abroad familiar with the gemstone
    trade have asked us to ship our products without declaring them to
    the authorities. However, we have always told them that gold would be
    caught in the post-office's X-ray machines and, hence, we cannot do
    that. Apart from being dishonest, we would not want to take such a
    chance since there are heavy penalties and our export license would
    be cancelled if we were caught shipping gold out of the country
    illegally. 

    Next, why would USD15 be a high cost of shipping if the parcel is
    shipped from within the US? May be, the seller has shipped multiple
    items in bulk to a known person in the US who, subsequently,
    dismantled the shipment and forwarded the items individually to the
    winning bidders! Thus, the shipping and handling cost of USD75 would
    be split among the individual winning bidders and the total shipping
    cost would be part of this USD75 plus the shipping within the US. 

    In fact, from our personal experience, we can say that the high cost
    of logistics has prevented us from offering our products on
    international online auctions. We know that we offer excellent prices
    and can certainly help if someone wanted to sell on online auctions
    but, on our own, we cannot sell without logistics' support in the
    relevant foreign country. 

Just my 2 cents!

Regards,

Rasesh Chasmawala.
Mumbai, India.
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