Excessive shipping cost...

[osborn_fr]

I bought 2 cgc books from a seller on Ebay.

He charged me $21 for global priority mail (to France).

I promptly paid with Paypal.

I received the 2 cgc books in time, in a very well protected package...

But the shipping cost was in fact $16.90 (i think he used air mail, instead of global priority mail).

I know that $4.10 is not a lot of money, but what will you do ?

Ask for a refund ?

I still not have gave him a feedback on Ebay...

[Bugaboo-migration]

If he said he was going to ship global priority and then didn't......I would definitely ask for a refund.

 

If he doesn't give one.....a negative would be appropriate in that case if he can't give you a reasonable excuse.

[thecomicsheet]

Give the seller a little bit of the benefit of the doubt here. The figure he quoted you for shipping was probably an estimate and it was fairly close to the actual postage charge. A difference of just a few ounces for a 3 pound package makes $2 to $4 difference in shipping either global priority or airmail. If it was well packed as you said, it might even have exceeded the 4 pound letter limit on global priority letter. Global priority and global airmail are actually shipped the same way by the USPS. And the costs are very similar. If your package was insured it is actually easier to do this with airmail shipping than it is with global priority - don't know why, but that is the way it is at my post office.

 

Allow the seller $1 or $2 for a box and packing. If you want to make a polite request for $2 to $3 refund I don't see anything wrong with that, but a negative might be a bit much.

 

While you're reading here, could you answer me a question regarding customs fees when you receive a shipment from the U.S. Do you have to pay any fees if the declared value is in excess of a certain amount? And does it make a difference if it is checked as a 'gift'? My Canadian customers have asked me to check 'gift' and declare a low value in order to save them some customs fees. I was wondering if it was the same in France.

 

[chromium]

Can't answer for France... but this is my experience

 

Recipient ALWAYS pays the custom charge

 

Any package coming in to Belgium from outside the EC, is submitted to

a 12% duty charge on the value of the item + the shipping cost. Then

they ad 21% VAT on top of that.

an item bought for $70 and shipped for $30 end up costing me

$135.52,or almost double the purchasing price.

Any item sent without a customs note or an invoice automatically falls

into some very confusing price-bracket which I can't make heads or

tails of, but it has always been higher than the actual price.

 

Packages below $35 value (shipping included) are exempt to this.

Labelling the package 'gift', 'sample' or 'happy birthday uncle

Chromium' don't stand a chance in hell, they are taxed just as well.

 

This has always been the case, but ever since the European Community

stopped taxing each other, about 5 years ago, the customes officers

now have so much time on their hands that they can stop and

investigate most packages coming in from outside the EC.

 

So it's very important that there is an actual invoice included with

the package, this can be a handwritten piece of paper, a full-blown

computer invoice printout, or the green customs slip you get at the

postoffice. You can be 'creative' with the amount,but do not go

overboard, customs officials take personal offence when someone tries

to ship 15 brand-new DVDs and declares a value of $10.00. Once you get

them going they *WILL* make you go to customs hell.

 

The weird part is that there shouldn't be ANY duty due on used books according to law,but comic books are not considered books for some strange reason.

 

[osborn_fr]

Hello and first, thanks for your answer.

I think too that i will not give him a negative feedback, it's excessive.

 

Concerning the customs fees, i can say that it is a lottery...

Yes, i really appreciate when a seller send me a package with "Gift" checked, and i appreciate a low value on it too (my experience says that it's the best way for the package to pass through the custom without problem).

It's better to describe the package contents as "used books" or "printed matter" instead of "Comics books".

Customs-officer here know that comics books have a value...

I think there is a risk on all the package with a value over $30, but i still have received package with $100 wrote on it, with no problem...

It's another story when the package is insured... Generally, all my insured package were stopped by the customs agents...

 

Customs fees are around 20% of the value of the package...

 

Sometimes sellers wrote the exact contents and value of the package, because they are afraid... But there is no risk because old comics books are not all new manufactured goods, with a standard price on it

[thecomicsheet]

Thanks for the info. I did not know they added in the postage to the stated value.

 

I slide an invoice inside the box and also fill in the value on the customs sticker on the outside. I guess I should make sure the two values agree with each other , or just leave out the inside invoice if I'm being a little 'creative'.

 

When shipping to Canada I think it makes a difference if you put a check mark in the 'gift' box on the customs form. Someone in another thread commented on it, I just can't find the reference. Seems to me you could ship up to about C $60 duty free if was a gift or C $35 if it wasn't a gift. (Amounts are just to the best of my recollection and are probably wrong.) If anyone knows the Canadian situation for sure, and if they also add the postage to the value, please let us know.

 

[ArAich]

o_f....I think you should not neg this person...:

 

I received the 2 cgc books in time, in a very well protected package...

 

sounds like you are pleased with the packaging and the speed and which they were shipped.

 

But the shipping cost was in fact $16.90 (i think he used air mail, instead of global priority mail).

 

This person packed your items securly, filled out the added paperwork, sent it to you in a timely manner.

To me this adds up to $4.10 worth of service in a heart beat. Are you prepared to neg a person for completing a transaction while charging slightly extra for "handling". What if he "overcharged" you by $2.10? Would you then be so agitated.

If you have a Paypal account and feel that you need a refund that desperatly, from someone that gave you exemplary service, then ask him for the $4.10 that you seem to feel was excessive.

 

To me this is much ado about nothing and just gives more ammunition to those who prefer not to ship overseas...

 

 

[PovertyRow]

I know that $4.10 is not a lot of money, but what will you do ?

 

Whenever I buy something on ebay and there is a problem like this (only happened a few times - for innacurate grading) the first thing I do is write a very polite email stating my thoughts. However, I don't immediately offer a solution - I just close with something like "What do you think?" - putting the solution on them. The reply and what (if any) solution they come up with will give you more insight into what kind of seller they are, which will be valuable if you plan any future transactions with them.

[Mushroom]

In OZ you have to pay sales tax of 25% for any item in excess of $250 aus ($115 US). In general I ask the sellers to only decalre $50 US on the customs dec regardless of the amount of the book. I have little interest in insurance as the only experience I have had around losing a book in the post was that I couldn't claim because US post said that it had left the country and therefore was an aussie post issue and aussie post said that I couldn't claim anything because it was sent from the US so it was a US post issue. I have just learnt to take my chances. I must say that I do get some heart palpitations around the more expensive shippings (I just had one the other day with a value of $5250 US but fortunately it has arrived intact).

[aardvark88]

I don't know of any exemptions on items mailed to Canada. Customs will usually assess 7% tax on comics or 14.5 % tax on portfolios/artwork/t-shirts/bisques/statues mailed to BC. Plus an extra $5 labor charge to stop your parcel & assess the taxes.

UPS must be the worst way to ship to Canada as they charge a $25 mysterious brokerage fee for most small or large parcels entering Canada. If u aren't home when they knock, u may have to drive down to the airport to pick up the parcel. Insult to injury.

50/50 chance that u will be taxed on goods if shipped to Canada by fed ex.

[chrisco37]

Give the seller a little bit of the benefit of the doubt here. The figure he quoted you for shipping was probably an estimate and it was fairly close to the actual postage charge. A difference of just a few ounces for a 3 pound package makes $2 to $4

 

Agreed. And you said it was packed well. #4.00 What is that? If you can't afford to take a $4 hit here or there, this ain't the right hobby for you. (Not saying that you should get out, by any means).

 

If you feel way burned, just don't bid w/ this seller again. He lost a potentuial return buyer.

 

Chris

[comicartfan]

I had an Australian customer who bought a book from me and I charged him 25.00 for shipping/insurance based on USPS web site. It came to 15.00 , and he emailed me and asked if I would refund the difference. I said "of course" and I sent it Paypal. I had allready left him postive feedback and was expecting the same. - So, I look at my account and see that he left me neutral feedback. - Long story short, his rational was 1.) I over charged him on shipping- negative, 2.) I refunded his money - a postive and they cancel themselves out to make a neutral.......all I could say was WTF ??!!!

[hammer-migration]

I guess that's just an example of Aborigini logic.

 

Your customer?

[scottish]

Would you care to share the buyer ID? I wouldn't mind putting this yahoo on my blocked bidders list. What a frickin' !

[Joanna]

In a case like that -- and it's very easy to make mistakes on overseas shipping when you go by the website -- I always offer the refund before the person even gets the package. That way it's easy to tell it's just an error. "Hey, good news. Although my research told me it would be $25, it turned out to be only $15. Would you like your refund via Paypal?" By waiting until he asked, you might have soured his mood. I had the same thing happen (I looked on the website and charged around $25 but it was really around $15) and because I wrote immediately offering the refund, the guy was absolutely thrilled.

 

That said, I agree with you that it was very unreasonable for him to neutral you when you willingly and quickly refunded the difference. I was just trying to figure out why he would do that.

 

-- Joanna

[chromium]

Just noticed I got shafted on shipping costs bigtime

 

Seller had a few lots for sale, about 20 comics each, he stated $8.00 for shipping but also stated he was willing to combine lots to save on shipping..

So I bought two lots and he told me he was able to ship the lots together for $12.00. I was pretty happy that I managed to save $4.00, until my contact (whom I had the comics shipped to in Boston) told me that they were shipped in

a sketchers shoebox for $5.31 ....

So what now ?

[Bugaboo-migration]

I still disagree with just about everyone in here.

 

A vast number of people came down on JLA_all_the_way a few days ago because he wasn't satisfied with the condition of a "nice" book that he received. A lot of people said that the guys STATED auction terms were very plain and that JLA couldn't really complain about it.

 

Well......what's the difference here???

 

The guy said he was going to ship global priority in his auction......A CONTRACT as pointed out by so many in the other thread.

 

He shipped by air mail instead and overcharged osborne_france by $4.10

 

Like I said in my original post......if this guy can't provide a REASONABLE excuse for this.....then I think he deserves a negative.

 

Reasonable would be what some others have mentioned above........such as.....package was too heavy for global priority......etc.

 

If the guy had stated $21.00 for shipping and handling with air mail, then that would be a different story. As it is, he shipped by a different method than stated in his auction. The guy needs to give a good excuse or offer to refund the price difference.

 

Or......maybe I'm wrong......it's happened once before.

[14 of spades]

i once had some buyer do the opposite.

 

i had some auctions ending about a week apart. on the first auction he won, he never contacted me and i thought he was going to be a NPB. i emailed him, then he replied he was waiting on some of my other auctions ending in a week's time before he was going to pay. i replied that was fine - and that i would combine shiping *IF* the objects were combine-able (i was selling juggling equipment - which comes in all sorts of sizes). i told him that if the stuff was combine-able (e.g. juggling balls with juggling balls, or juggling clubs with juggling clubs, that sort of thing), he would pay full shipping on the 1st item + half shipping on the 2nd item.

 

he ended up winning an auction on the 2nd week. two things, totally un-combineable (something like an oversized juggling book and some small juggling balls). i sent him an email specifying that the two objects were not-combineable and would have to be shipped separately - and would he please pay the full amount of shipping on both items (for the record, i DID combine shipping for other buyers of mutiple lots - this was the one exception). he replied back with his paypal payment - in the note, he stated: "i've paid for the items, and took off half the shipping for the 2nd item, as per your email". what the...

 

anyways - i sent him back a very poignant message, saying that i had EXPLICITLY stated that i would combine shipping if it was appropriate, but in this case, it was not. but i ended up sending the items anyways (shipped SEPARATELY) cause it was a matter of only a few bucks...

 

he also took 2 1/2 weeks after auction end to pay for the auctions - he had already received NPB alerts on both items.

 

he left me positives for the transaction. but i felt justified in not leaving him feedback. maybe i was too soft. but i haven't left anyone negs yet.

[JLA_ALL_THE_WAY]

 

a sketchers shoebox for $5.31 ....so what now?

 

Well Chromium,

 

Ask one of the forum members here who feel that the printed word is "everything."

 

According to your communication with him, he said "he was able to ship the lots together for $12.00." That doesn't mean he WOULD ship using that much money, only that he was ABLE to. Just like my example of paying $6 but only $1.75 was used. There were waay too many forumites who thought that was acceptable.

 

I'm sorry (and I feel for you), but looking for sympathy or help here will result in naught.

 

Rick

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

He shipped by air mail instead and overcharged osborne_france by $4.10.

 

...and damnit that would be enough to order a Big Mac with "freedom" fries!