a question someone might know - rather than ship to hong kong if I ship to a middle person company (DGX) as per request from the buyer, where does my responsibility begin and end? If its successfully delivered to DGX in the US, can the guy make a claim via paylpal if there's an issue subsequently via the 3rd party? (e.g. damage or lost)
I am doing this for all my posters. I use a third party forwarder in the US that ships to me in Singapore when I've consolidated enough and pay the forwarding charge.
Typically, I'd say your responsibility ends once it reaches the warehouse of the forwarding company. That is the address stipulated in the terms of service. Anything that happens after that should be the buyer's problem. That is the risk of using a third party shipper that they have to bear.
Having said that, it is going to be your responsibility if the poster tube gets damaged on the way to the forwarder (rare case). The forwarder usually alerts me on that. I sometimes get my posters and the edge wear is terrible because of poor packaging. I know it's not very fair to go to the seller to ask for a refund/partial, because it could have possibly arrived flawless at the warehouse, but I usually pin it down to poor packaging and do it anyway. Truth is, edge wear is completely avoidable, and I've always messaged sellers telling them that the ultimate destination is outside of the US so please pack securely (hard tube, bubble wrap at edges etc) or I WILL raise a case if it comes heavily damaged.
I once had two mint copies of posters in a tube open and inspected by the forwarding company (they do it by random, so they claim, for security reasons), and WOW, they actually tore my poster! Then they sent an email telling me "We're sorry, we tore your poster, etc etc." I was furious, but there is little I can do. The seller has assumed all his responsibility, and my grievance is with the forwarding company.
Sad to say they offered either a 10% shipping discount on my next order (lol!) or a refund on the posters. I wouldn't have been that mad if not for the fact that the declared amount of the posters is $10 (which is the price I won them at), but their actual commercial value is certainly >$50.