[TOTALLYRC]

I am looking for your opinions on my latest Ebay problem.

I sold an item for 9.99 + 9.99 shipping. It was listed as being sent via usps flat rate box. When I went to ship it I found out that they had a new box for 4.95 that the item fit into.

I recieved a note form the buyer that the item was recieved in good condition and that he was pleased with the item. Then he put a however in and said that since the actual shipping cost was 4.95 and he paid $9.99 shipping, he was charged a "beyond reasonable" shipping cost. He also stated that I should have only charged him $5.00 to ship it.

I then replied that the $9.99 was for shipping and handling and that if he had had a problem with the shipping cost that he should have asked a question prior to bidding on the item.
I also reminded him that since he bid on the item, he agreed to pay the shipping and handling costs per the Ebay user agreement.

His response was to state that "I now have a better idea of how to give the appropriate feedback."

Notice that he never actually asked me anything. Both of his emails were all statements.

In my final response I was a little testy and told him that if the shipping costs bothered him that he should think of it as a $20 item with free shipping.

My opinion was that if you didn't like the shipping costs, which you are aware of up front, why did you bid in the first place?

I mean that is how I do it. If I think that the shipping costs are more than I want to pay, I will either not bid, or send the seller a question asking them to reduce the shipping costs.

What do you all think? Was I unreasonable? Was I dishonest? The shipping costs were listed up front. I shipped it within hours of recieving his payment. I recieved the payment on Saturday morning and made a special trip to the post office before they closed so he could have it asap.

Should I refund some of the shipping costs, even though he has not yet asked for a refund?

I am waiting to see what the feedback is.

I don't think I even owe him the time to write this out but it for some reason this has really pissed me off.


Remember, Chatty Cathy says :nono:"your shipping is beyond reasonable" :nono:

Mike

[ImanCarrot]

No, you should not refund. You are in the right.

You stated the shipping costs up front and he essentially agreed to them when he bid. Contract made.

I had the same problem some time ago and found that a polite e-mail clarified the buyer's concerns. I can't remember exactly, but this is roughly what I say in these situations:

"While we try to keep postage costs to a minimum, many buyers are unaware that this includes time to pack the item, the cost of packing material and the time taken to get the package to the post office.

In addition, it can take as long to work out how much to charge for postage as to actualy pack the item- is it air mail? land mail? over a certain weight? over a certain size? does it need insurace? is it fragile? does it comply with import regulations? the list is endless.

Regularly our slight margin (profit) is eaten up by unforseen extra postage costs which we have to absorb since no customer would accept additional postage costs not detailed on the item description page.

The postage cost quoted on the item description is not what Royal Mail charged me to ship the item, but a combination of this and other factors as detailed above. It is the cost I charge to the customer and is clearly stated on the item description.

To this end I have a sliding scale of average prices which quickly estimates the postage costs. There will inevitably be some packages that I have overestimated the costs on. Likewise there are (many more) that I have underestimated on. We do not make a profit on postage- the costs average out as "break even" over the year. This is why the postage is clearly detailed on the item description and is a true representation of our average costs incurred."

You are being polite but firm. If the postage company charged you 30 dollars instead of the 5 you quoted would your customer happily pay the extra 25? I think not!

They usually give up after that

[acidcustom]

I have found it easier to add the postage cost to the item and sell as includes shipping and handling, that way there are no hassles with shipping too much

[port_huon]

I agree, you're in the right.
If you specified a cost for shipping and handling and the purchaser agreed, it doesn't matter how much the actual shipping charge is. It's not as if you tried to hit him with an additional charge.
I've just won an oscilloscope on eBay. Free shipping from China. I'm sure the seller has factored in the actual cost to get the item to me, the important thing is that I ,as the buyer, am happy with the total price.

[ImanCarrot]

Trouble with that is- you have to pay E-Bay a percentage of what your selling price is, but you do not pay E-Bay a percentage of the shipping costs you charge.

That's why you see all them Chinese sales at 1 dollar and 75 dollars shipping- they don't pay the commission on the postage, so they're only paying commission on 1 dollar. If they'd sold it for 76 dollars inc shipping, they'd have to pay commission on the full 76 dollars.

[Kipper]

I just bought a ballscrew on ebay for £62 and £25 postage 24hr next day delivery.... I just received 7 days later and after it got lost and was sent Parcelforce 48hr originally......Only difference is that you didn't specify a time-scale....I was happy to pay the 24hr rate and entered into the agreement on that basis.....Tell your seller to "go forth and multiply" ebay will remove any bad feedback after they are shown that the buyer is a blackmailer..

I'll be leaving positive feedback for my seller as the packaging and product were first class!

Good luck matey

[Al_The_Man]

I recently ended up being gypped in one recent sale (long story).
But the thing that bugs me is that now eBay do not allow negs against buyers, only sellers, as though there are not PITA buyers?
Al.

[Bloy2004]

Maybe this relates....maybe not...just a story..
Recently I won a exterior hard drive (ndas 160GB w/proprietary power supply, usb cable and cd...$30). I was expecting normal shipping for such a device and the amount for shipping was $8.50. The item packaging arrived torn open and without the main drive and enclosure.
Why? The sellor put the stuff into a cheap thin bubble lined manila envelope with ony the bare paper flap holding the bag closed. He sent it "media mail" and cost him only $2.50. No Reinforcing tape, no extra internal protection.

Paypal got my money back, but I disclosed that the CD and wires did indeed arrive... So it cost me $12.00 to send back the remains (trackable) before paypal would credit my account. I probably could have sent the useless stuff back at less, but by then I just wanted the headache over with.

I did send several emails to the seller "admonishing" him for the cheap way he handled the transaction.

-----
Mike, you did nothing wrong....the buyer got what he paid for and probably more.

[TOTALLYRC]

Since I posted this the buyer has not gotten back to me or left feedback.

No guts no glory or something like that.

Keep your insights coming. It is good to see that I am not the only one who has had to deal with people with unrealistic expectations.

Mike

[mactec54]

Hi TOTALLYRC

A lesson learned I hope never allow the price of the shipping to be posted on the package another way I do it is free shipping & you add the shipping into the posted sell price Ebay has a thing now that over charging for shipping is not allowed & the seller can be removed for doing this

If I'm buying somthing I send a email to the seller if the Item is damaged through bad packaging it will be returned at there cost this works very well

[TOTALLYRC]

I will keep that in mind, but I didn't think that the shipping chages were unrealistic. Since the package was sent ups flat rate box, all one has to do is call the post office or go online and see what it cost to ship.

I just bought something off of ebay and before I purchased it I questioned the possibility of combined shipping, since I was getting 2 different items and I thought the way the shipping was originally worded was too expensive. The seller in question got right back to me and gave me a fair price since all of the items would easilly fit inside one box. That is how it is done, not after the fact.

Mike

[Dualkit]

Guy is a total jackass, but there are plenty of them out there. Like $5 was not
a reasonable mark up for shipping. It takes time to put something in a box, and either print a shipping label and or take it to the post office. Boxes and tape are
not free either. You also charged what was stated in your ad, so he is just an a-hole, I would have been really tempted to send him a very nasty response.

[diycnc]

hes lucky he didnt buy from me.. i would have to add 10$ to pay for the gas my truck would use driving it to the post office..

5$ handling is completely reasonable. and if he didnt question it before hand its to late now.

i see all the time sellers charging 100-200$ to ship something to canada.. now thats completely unreasonable, so guess what... i dont buy it...

[tobyaxis]

TotallyRC (Mike),

Your being played with by the buyer. 80% of the buyers on ebay are usually regulars and try to haggle money back by BS'ing.

LOL, you were polite and the ebay bid is a legitimate contract agreement made by the seller and the bidder.

LOL, I get customers filling out RFQ's that are a joke. They understand business practices and costs, but don't want to pay them. So they try to haggle you down to nothing.

My reply is usually a polite brush-off like, "If your interested in serious negotiations feel free to contact us". Have a nice day Usually after seing what others charge they call/email back.

LOL $5.00 is not even a legitimate complaint, he/she is obviously trying to haggle and get $$ back.

[TOTALLYRC]

Here is one for the cheap skates out there.

I recently sold my Taig mill to a guy in indiana.

Here is a breakdown of the costs to ship.

Take the machine a part to fit into usps sized boxes.
1hr
Put stuff into boxes and find boxes that fit. Luckilly I get boxes from work for free and I save boxes when I get stuff from eBay.
1hr.

Use 1 entire roll of packing tape so the boxes stayed together during shipping
$3

load boxes into truck, go to post office, get packages weighed, and postage put on 1hr

I told him that it would be actual shipping costs plus $25.


Then as I was boxing it I found that the spindle belt was bad and the z axis drive coupler pins were worn, so I refunded the $25 in good faith.




Making room for my new monarch C 11" lathe,

Priceless.

[tobyaxis]

Honesty is the best policy

[TOTALLYRC]

Honesty is the best policy

I have found that being up front and honest works and helps make friends out of an otherwise bad situation.

Mike

[MrWild]

I won't be shipping to Australia anymore. I say on all my auctions lower 48 states only. A nice guy from Oz inquired and as he was polite and I was naive, I told him sure, I'd ship it to Oz. Oh boy, the online shipping quote was 1/4 the reality. I lost my butt on that one. I hate making negative bucks especially when there are all the other problems with packing and getting to the PO. It was not the buyers fault, and we both left good feedback, but needing to get paid beforehand then finding out reality at the PO makes it pretty much impossible to go and ask for more. contract is a contract. It goes both ways.

[TOTALLYRC]

I won't be shipping to Australia anymore. I say on all my auctions lower 48 states only. A nice guy from Oz inquired and as he was polite and I was naive, I told him sure, I'd ship it to Oz. Oh boy, the online shipping quote was 1/4 the reality. I lost my butt on that one. I hate making negative bucks especially when there are all the other problems with packing and getting to the PO. It was not the buyers fault, and we both left good feedback, but needing to get paid beforehand then finding out reality at the PO makes it pretty much impossible to go and ask for more. contract is a contract. It goes both ways.

I did the same thing to Canada.
Wouldn't you know it got lost in the mail. Luckily the post office said that it was delivered, but I felt real bad for the customer. I know I would have been pissed if I paid good money and the part never showed up.

Mike

[ger21]

Any time you try to accommodate the buyer, things don't go well.

Several years ago, I sold some golf clubs and requested a certified check or money order. The guy sends me a personal check. I cashed it, and waited a week til it cleared. In his feedback, he complained that it took a long time to get them. It was HIS fault!!

Like Mr Wild, I ship lower 48 only. A guy in Canada wanted me to ship some linear rails to his company, and gave me his UPS account # to cover the shipping. So I drive to the UPS store, and of course, they say I can't ship with his account. So I have to pay. He was cool about it and sent me the money right away, but things just don't seem to go well when you go out of your way to help someone out.