Ebay returns and shipping

[boomtown]

I believe the seller is told they have to pay for return shipping & forced to.

Just the opposite, actually. If the buyer files a claim they have to ship the item back on their dime with tracking, and when the item is confirmed to be delivered then the seller refunds.

 

Peace,

 

Chip

 

Sorry, but that was not my experience about a month ago. I shipped out the wrong book to a customer & rather than contacting me, he filed through the ebay system. My options were 1) to let the customer keep the book & to refund the purchase price or 2) ebay would send them a return shipping label on my dime & I would have both shipping & purchase price removed from my paypal account.

 

I'm sure I could have argued or filed a claim with ebay to have my side heard, but sinceI did ship the wrong book I just let the system play out.

 

Just out of curiosity what would "your side" have been? You sent out the wrong book to the customer - it's up to you to make it right (which definitely includes eating the return shipping) :shrug:

 

Poorly worded on my part. I was just trying to get the point across that a seller could probably argue & try to get ebay to see his side if he were inclined. I didn't do that because I had sent the wrong book (as stated in the same sentence), so I don't know how far a seller could drag the process out.

 

As far as my argument, customer said it was not the same book as in scan & sent back a copy with some damage on the back. As I had multiple copies of book I was not 100% sure I didn't send him a lower grade copy, although that was the only book in my stack that had that type of obvious damage. I was shocked when I got it back that I could have missed it. Didn't want to argue it if I was not 100% sure that I hadn't sent that book.

[wombat]

Being totally honest your reply did seem a bit condescending. But as a seller one should strive for good customer service and he probably should have worded his response to you differently.

[InvstmntComcSuply]

I was a little confused with why he was charging me full rate for the padded flat rate envelope and it made me also wonder if he knew how to ship a book at all (no blurb about it in any of their sales threads) so I replied:

YOU:

I would hope you know how to pack comic books properly so they do not get damaged in shipping. You appear to sell mostly coins. Proper shipping includes bagging and boarding the comics, sandwiching them (both sides) in sturdy cardboard so they cannot be bent, and then as much packing material as you can manage to add more protection inside what envelope you are sending them in. A padded mailer alone is NOT adequate protection-- though it can be used if you do the sandwiching etc.

 

Real costs for most experienced eBay shippers for a flat rate padded envelope is $5.35. I send out twenty of them a month- so I should know it isn't $6.10

 

That would be my preferred method but I would ask you to charge the actual shipping cost (5.35) and not the pre-discount ebay shipping price (6.10).

 

he fires back almost immediately with this customer service gem:

Well, it is 6.10. I'm not shipping them in a flat hard envelope, I'm shipping them padded. Look, I didn't advertise as combined shipping anyway, so consider it a favor.

I don't much appreciate being talked down to either. I've been in the comic book biz for 50 years, and I know what I'm doing. Coins I was just getting rid of. You evidently didn't know me when I was doing my massive comic collection.

Well, I will hang onto them until I get the postage I requested, but for right now I am off to the post office with everyone else's books.

 

 

The time to detail your shipping requirements was when you asked for combined shipping.

 

Also, no reason to argue over the price he quoted for alternate methods. Either take it or not. Pick your battles.

[InvstmntComcSuply]

 

part of me starts thinking I must be dealing with that 1950swarcomics guy or something.

 

[fastballspecial]

I was a little confused with why he was charging me full rate for the padded flat rate envelope and it made me also wonder if he knew how to ship a book at all (no blurb about it in any of their sales threads) so I replied:

YOU:

I would hope you know how to pack comic books properly so they do not get damaged in shipping. You appear to sell mostly coins. Proper shipping includes bagging and boarding the comics, sandwiching them (both sides) in sturdy cardboard so they cannot be bent, and then as much packing material as you can manage to add more protection inside what envelope you are sending them in. A padded mailer alone is NOT adequate protection-- though it can be used if you do the sandwiching etc.

 

Real costs for most experienced eBay shippers for a flat rate padded envelope is $5.35. I send out twenty of them a month- so I should know it isn't $6.10

 

That would be my preferred method but I would ask you to charge the actual shipping cost (5.35) and not the pre-discount ebay shipping price (6.10).

 

he fires back almost immediately with this customer service gem:

Well, it is 6.10. I'm not shipping them in a flat hard envelope, I'm shipping them padded. Look, I didn't advertise as combined shipping anyway, so consider it a favor.

I don't much appreciate being talked down to either. I've been in the comic book biz for 50 years, and I know what I'm doing. Coins I was just getting rid of. You evidently didn't know me when I was doing my massive comic collection.

Well, I will hang onto them until I get the postage I requested, but for right now I am off to the post office with everyone else's books.

 

 

The time to detail your shipping requirements was when you asked for combined shipping.

 

Also, no reason to argue over the price he quoted for alternate methods. Either take it or not. Pick your battles.

 

I agree