Darn! you are having a poor time of it! Wire's always cost about $25 (nyc, chase bank), and speaking from fairly good (25+ wires internationally) experience, i can say that the recieving bank charges pretty much the same in 'handling' charges.
Always make sure that the recipient knows that if you send $100 to them , and they receive $80 that their bank is the scalper, not yours! ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 3:30 PM Subject: OT: eBay tale of woe > I think I outsmarted myself here. > > I found a lens on German eBay. > The price was good, > but the seller would ship to Germany only. > > So I contacted him. > My German is no good (thru Babblefish translations), > but on previous bids, many Germans spoke English. > He did not, but allowed me to bid. > > So I won the auction. > And now I asked to arrange payment. > The seller sent me his account # and bank #, > looking for a wire transfer(?). > > So I contacted my bank. > After 36 hours of fooling around, > I found my 'personal banker'. > I sent her FAX instructions to wire him Euros. > > So she sent him Dollars, > and charged me $35 for the transaction. > When the wire arrived at his bank, > it was $20 short (some mystery charge). > And, they charged him another 13 Euros in fees. > > So I was 30 Euros short. > I went to the American Express office. > For another $31.27, I got 30 Euros to mail him. > After postage, paying for this lens is going to cost me another $70 over my winning bid. > > So I will keep reminding myself, > Don't bid unless it is a really good deal! > > Regards, Bob S. > - > This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, > go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to > visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org . - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
