Ebay Issues - Shipping Cost Problems.

[tropical_smiles]

So, I need some of your feedback on what to do. I had this one guy buy a book off me on e-bay. In my listing, I had given the dimensions and the weight of the package and advised buyers to go on the website to check the cost of shipping. (This is because canada post is retarded and depending on the postal code, shipping cost varies and i want to be honest about the cost of shipping and not over charge). Anyways..with the dimensions and the weight, the item would cost about $10.95 plus applicable taxes. Well before I could even send the invoice, the buyer update and sent me a payment for the cost of the item plus $5 to ship which doesn't even cover half of the shipping cost. What would you guys do? I've already sent him a message asking him to pay the rest to me via paypal. But what would you do if he doesn't?

 

[MiCHiE]

Where did he get $5 from? If the site you referred the bidders to stated that, then I would bite the bullet and honor it. If not, no book until all shipping is paid.

 

[Dawn]

Tough call here. A few ideas...
Refund his payment (choosing refund option as this will show the item is not paid then), and then sending him an invoice with the shipping costs. He could of course argue about the costs if they weren't specified in the auction and cause you a big pain in the a$$. If you feel you were very clear about the shipping, I would not ship it and take the loss. If you weren't real clear about it, then you might have to eat the loss. If you want to PM me privately with the auction info, I'd be happy to advise you further. Good Luck! Dawn

PS..For future auctions, make sure and use the calculated shipping options, you can enter the weight, size, and how you will ship and they should be able to put in their shipping postal code/zip code info to get an exact figure. You can also add a handling cost if you want to charge them for packing/mailers etc. I personally add $1.18 to all of my shipping costs to cover mailer, tape, printer cart., and delivery confirmation (in the US), which I think is very fair.

 

[MACATTAK]

I agree with Holstrom4...refund the payment & send a new invoice. He can't just make up a shipping cost, but I think you need to see if the shipping site says something like that.

 

[labellavita7]

Check the website to see where he got that amount. If it says it on the site there really isn't much you can do. However, if it says nothing and he just sent that random about, you should email him, tell him what happened, and give him the option to either pay the difference or refund the entire purchase. As long as you give the option you're safe, and keep all the emails just in case.

 

[captodometer]

If you can't replicate the shipping cost he came up with, refund everything and send a new invoice. And if he doesn't pay, report him to Ebay as a non-paying bidder.

If you didn't have an exact shipping price listed in the auction, it is the buyer's responsibility to confirm before bidding. And since he didn't, too bad for him. He doesn't get to make up a number that he thinks is appropriate.

However, if you plug in the weight and dimensions given and get $5, you should honor it.

It sounds like your buyer is just trying to get over. I'm capt_odometer on Ebay and I've sold lots of stuff to people in the US and elsewhere. Never had the shipping calculator mess up before.

 

[tropical_smiles]

yah, it sucks when honest people try to get played by people. If it was for a dollar or two..I wouldn't care. But when in the end since the item sold for so cheap, and really I was just trying to get rid of my clutter at home. and the additional shipping cost is now more than what I'm getting back. It doesn't seem like it was worth it for me to ship. I even went to the post office to double check to see if the canadapost.ca was listing it incorrectly. My brother noticed how into ebay I got, he even bought me a digital scale so that I didn't have to waste my time going to the post office and back and can weigh everything out to post on ebay.