Another eBay transaction gone sour :(

[CosmicBob]

. I've been gyped on shipping, asked about it calmly and received refunds or free shipping on a subsequent transaction.

 

I just sent out a book, Priority Mail Insured, Delivery Confirmation and charged the guy $17.70 for it. The meter strip was $20.50. Plus bubble wrap and cardboard (cheap, I know). I would never even think of asking for more money. Would anyone send the seller any more money if they saw this situation?

 

And I was afraid that I was going to have way overcharged him. But it was all based on my stated shipping costs. It seems to vary so much that it's hard to use a flat rate, but that makes it easier for buyers to figure their payments. I hope that things average out in the end, but so far I'm behind on shipping from what I've paid out. Not that big a deal though.

[GP_]

dangit donut my comics collection is bigger than my coin collection! cant we all just get along

[Rickdogg]

"I just shipped a CGC book via Priority mail with delivery confirmation for just under $5. It was wrapped in bubble wrap and stuffed with peanuts. The only way it could have been damaged was if someone jumped up and down on it. Because I buy way more then I sell I'm able to reuse packing material that comes in auction winnings so I don't have an expense there, but shipping cost was less then $5.00"

 

Exactly. I just paid a guy $8 for s/h within the same state. I'll ask him for a partial refund once it arrives, since I do not know how he plans to package it, so we'll see

[FlyingDonut]

please note the at the end of my post.

 

You should get an icon of Uncle Scrooge throwing money up and having it hit him on the head!

[GP_]

oops sowwy with all of a certain posters coin forum attacks I guess I got a little gun shy!

 

 

I like the scrooge idea!! time to go a-googlin!

[joe_collector]

>>Would anyone send the seller any more money if they saw this situation?

 

I do regularly, though most think I'm a nut and refuse to even hear of it.

 

I recently got into a bit of a wrangle with one seller, who sent the package Express Post rather than the regular mail and spent $5 more than I paid. There was no way he was taking the extra money, now way whatsoever.

 

I finally just Paypal'ed him the five bucks and ran.

[Joanna]

Mos,

 

Awhile back I sold some action figures and one guy bought a bunch of them. The space involved in packing action figures well is enormous, and it uses a lot of bubble wrap, peanuts, etc.. I had to build my own box to hold them all and it was a monster -- it exceeded PO regulations for "normal" shipping rates and went into the oversized category. If you were across the country, and it was going priority mail, the shipping charge could easily have been $20, if you bought a lot of figures. I didn't charge for handling, but it did use up a great deal of my time (it took me hours to package that monster) and a lot of my supplies.

 

When it was all done, and I was able to give him a shipping price, he tried to haggle on the cost of the figures (only some were purchased on ebay, the others were an offline deal). With each step, he wanted to pay less and less, and when I tried to compromise, he decided to get only his ebay sales. So I had to tear down the whole box, package his ebay purchases and give him a new price. At that point, he stopped communicating and ended up being an NPB.

 

The one good thing I can say about him is that he never got nasty in his emails, as you did. This could have been because he was an illiterate (explitive deleted), or maybe this was how he got his jollies -- making sellers jump through hoops so that he could have his laughs. I've run into this sort more than once on ebay.

 

In your seller's auction, he didn't offer to combine shipping. Most likely this was because the items were bulky and he didn't have the shipping materials. More importantly, you were confrontational from the outset, while he remained polite and eager to help. He had every right to relist when things went sour, and you shouldn't have negged him.

 

On a positive note, this is an excellent life lesson, and you can learn from it. Turn the other cheek, and in future transactions, approach your communication not as if you're being ripped off, but as someone willing to work on a mutually satisfying compromise.

 

-- Joanna

[joe_collector]

Yo Joanna, I hope you learned to never, ever package anything before the money is in hand. Even making an estimate throgh www.usps.com and losing a few bucks is better than wasting all that time on a NPB.

[murph0]

Wow, I guess I'm lucky to live in the Midwest. I can ship CGC books just about anywhere, except for the coastal states, for around 4-5 dollars.

 

Brian

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

More importantly, you were confrontational from the outset, while he remained polite and eager to help. He had every right to relist when things went sour, and you shouldn't have negged him.

 

I would have expected no less. Now I'm the one being painted a bad man. I should have sugar-coated my words.

 

Nobody seems to have noticed what a POOR job the seller did, in communicating to me. In one of his emails, the seller said he would get back to me with S&H costs, and never did. He tried to make it sound like I should have responed to him, when if fact he said he would get back with me. I was waiting for him to get back with me, instead he re-listed, and sent me a hateful email response, and then negged me. And I'm the one that's "out of line". Oh well, I expected as much, even here where people know me a little better.

 

Next time a seller tries to fleece you with S&H charges, I'll remember everyone's comments, I have good SELECTIVE memory.

[Joanna]

Joe,

 

Pre-packaging is the downside to always asking for exact postage only. In fact, I find that service valuable enough that I still pre-package. OTOH, I sold all the action figures eventually, so that's not a problem anymore. Other than those, and some action figure accessories (also sold), everything else I sell is fairly easy to package. Right now, I'm selling things like trading cards, comics, 8x10 photos, and computer games. All require 'normal' packaging and aren't a big deal.

 

-- Joanna

[Rickdogg]

MOS,

 

I don't agree with the seller's selling practices at all. I was just letting you know that it doesn't help the situation when you attack him after his first email. (ROFL ). Sometimes sugar coating is what you have to do to get what you want. Think of ebay as a woman. You have to be NICE and persuasive to get what you want!

[FlyingDonut]

Or have a really really big wallet!

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

I didn't disagree with your comments at all.

 

I should have kept the tone down , and I'm trying not to be defensive about that aspect. However, I'm not sure that others have paid close attention and read everything said between the seller and myself, because "two wrongs don't make no right".

[Rickdogg]

"Or have a really really big wallet! "

 

ROFL!!! I was speaking for us comic guys The only thing keeping our wallets big our receipts and withdrawal slips from buying too many comics!

[Joanna]

Nobody seems to have noticed what a POOR job the seller did, in communicating to me. In his next to last email, the seller said he would get back to me with S&H costs, and never did. He tried to make it sound like I should have responed to him, when if fact he said he would get back with me.

 

Oh, well that's different. You didn't include that email in the post, though, so it was impossible for us to know that. In the last post from him I saw, he made it sound like his original shipping price stood. But if he later told you he'd get back to you and then he just relisted them, that wasn't fair.

 

I'll ask you this: do you feel you handled the situation well? If you do, then it doesn't matter what any of us think. You have to live by your own code, and when you do, second thoughts are unnecessary.

 

As for you being "the bad guy", I think it's very clear you aren't. But even the best of us can act wrongly on occasion. We can lose our tempers, or have a bad day, etc. I tend to have a very slow fuse, but I've blown up like the best of them. Usually, I felt I had good reasons. If you feel you had good reasons to react as you did, then no more need be said.

 

-- Joanna

[ArAich]

This post is for anybody that happens to read it:

 

If you are shipping multiple items and prefer USPS priority mail (as I do) then I find it is possible to insert one square box into another thus creating a larger box. This larger box can then be sealed securely using the free priority tape.

 

If sending more than 3 CGC books it is possible to package using two or more rectangular boxes and then taping them together using ample amounts of free tape.

 

 

[joe_collector]

I'm gonna order 27 CGC books from you, just to see what the eventual package looks like.

[ArAich]

I'm gonna order 27 CGC books from you, just to see what the eventual package looks like.

 

I'm going to hold you to that....

[Illiterati-migration]

As for you being "the bad guy", I think it's very clear you aren't. But even the best of us can act wrongly on occasion. We can lose our tempers, or have a bad day, etc. I tend to have a very slow fuse, but I've blown up like the best of them. Usually, I felt I had good reasons. If you feel you had good reasons to react as you did, then no more need be said.

 

She's right, MOS. You're not a bad guy. A total , but certainly not a bad guy.