eBay Woes

[mizarkgram]

Ok, I need to rant.... I had a buttload of stuff up on eBay not too long ago, and when the dust settled, this item:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8122223378 was won. Now I look at his feedback, and think "Alright, this is gonna be a smooth deal, he has lots of feedback and things should go nicely". Now, the tiem ended while I was at work on night shift. By the time i got home in the moring, the guy had already sent paypal payment for his total bid (but no shipping) so i emailed him back asking for the shipping costs to be sent to me via paypal. He said he would do it, and I never thought any more of it. Next day, when I went to check on the paypal payments, I still had not recived payment, so I emailed him again to see if he forgot or sumthing (since we had had such good communication so far).

No response..... I figure he might have gone for a vacation or something, so I decide to let it wait for a little bit. Later on, I sent out a payment reminder (via paypal) for the shipping costs. Today, I get home from work, and the guy has emailed me asking where his item is and that he wants his money back if I am not sending it. I emailed hm back to say that I had asked multiple times for the shipping payment, and said that once I recive that I will send the item out, and I told him that the item is packed, and is ready to go.

I dont know what is going to happen, but this just burns me when someone with such high feedback doesnt know about shipping costs and then doesnt respond to emails or anything. I had an easier time getting around the same money that I sold my NES Top Loader for, and the buyer there was a newbie eBayer..... :angry:

[-hellvin-]

Jeez....what an ass. If he negs you after all this this, I would hunt him down.

[suppafly]

Just ask him if he wants to pay shipping, otherwise you will refund the money immediately...

[mizarkgram]

Just ask him if he wants to pay shipping, otherwise you will refund the money immediately...

Been there, done that, the guy seems to not read his emails, cause I did recive an email from him saying he would pay, but never did, and now wont reply to my emails. If I dont have the rest of the cash by Friday (thats like almost 3 weeks after the auction was done) then i am gonna refund his other cash and move along my way

[suppafly]

Why dont u call him by phone? :D

[Azazel]

at least the person hasn't filed a Paypal claim on you yet.

[captain nintendo]

Why dont u call him by phone? :D


Suppafly is = to Suppasmart :P

[Lifebringeroftorv]

If i pay the shipping, will you send it to me? :)

[Cmosfm]

You'd be surprised how many total idiots are on eBay....and how much feedback they can rack up.

His feedback isn't that great recently either.

[Azazel]

I don't know if people still do it today but I remember a few years ago when people abused those penny auctions to build up a good feedback rating.

[scorch56]

Cr*p.. I've been looking for a Jaguar CD unit forever and remember this auction. I put it in my watched list and forgot to bid. Please let me know if you decide to relist it.

[farfel]

Send him the Jaguar minus the games. Include handwritten note: "You asked where's my Jaguar? Here it is. When you pay me the $20 I spent to ship it to you, I will send the games."

He probably won't cough up $20 so sell the games next month to recoup your cash.

Or not. But I'd do that

[mizarkgram]

He finally paid the shipping costs, after the 5th email reminder

Oh well.. it is all behind me now...

[gamergary]

There is no shipping cost in the auction so technically it is your fault since he paid right after sans the shipping you are supposed to give him at auctions end. Just put a fair value based on weight and you shouldn't have this problem again.

[DStriemer]

To mizarkgram's defense....in Canada shipping prices vary like the rainbow. It is next to impossible to gauge the approximate cost to any general area unless you have already shipped there before. And even then Canada is a lot more strict on parcel weight and dimensions than the USPS is. So basically, as a Canadian seller you have to be forcefully clear that no payments are to be made or accepted until a final shipping quote has been rendered.

[SoulBlazer]

Are you talking about shipping out of Canada? We can very clearly see in the USA how much it will cost to send something to any part of the world through the USPS website. You guys don't have anything like that?

[DStriemer]

Yes, shipping out of Canada. Our postal rates are an equation-of-mystery even Stephen Hawking would be boggled by. :hmm:

Last time i shipped something, I has given a shipping quote for approx. dimensions and weight. The weight was dead on....but the dimensions were off by a little in the final packing......that little difference was 3.50 US. I don't know if that seems like a lot to you or not but thats a big margin of error to have to put into a ebay auction; And that is just for variation in size....and trust me the size difference was maybe two centimetres in length and height(not even an inch). That kind of cost variation for a weight difference of decent proportions I could understand...but damn!!! And the original quote was for a full address, not just an approximate region.

Our postal system also doesn't stick by their delivery guarantees like the USPS. Our postal insurance also does not cover damage, only loss. So you can't ever truly guarantee someone that something will not be DOA. Unless you mark the box like it is a pylon or radioactive material.

[DStriemer]

Sorry, had to add this: even shipping within our own country you can get COMPLETELY different shipping charges for the exact same item going in exact opposite directions and distance(area code). Even away from the world of ebay or selling stuff this can be very frustrating. :angry: :angry: :angry:

[mizarkgram]

What everyone said about the Canadian Postal system is completely right, and is also the reason I do not include shipping quotes in my auctions, I used to do this, and then I would either get emails saying my quotes were exorberantly high, or when it came down to shipping, I would need to drop another coule bucks just to ship.

I basically lost any profit I made cause of that

Now, I know I said in my auction I would give shipping quotes at auctions end, but I recieved his payment an hour after the auctions end (just checked it), which was when i was still at work. He did not even give me any time to calculate shipping

[mizarkgram]

"Our postal rates are an equation-of-mystery even Stephen Hawking would be boggled by. :hmm:


The people at my post office tried to explain part of it to me, and they have this stupid little equation that they use when your item is heavier than x kilograms. It takes the volume of the package, and gives it a weight equivalnet. They then take this weight equivalent and have to factor in the routing of the package (ie, for me, it has to go from my town to Thunder Bay to get routed). So you basically got to pay for shippig to the nearest routing center and then from that routing center to wherever you want to go... this is why it gets expensive to ship dsome places within Canada, cause you can have multiple routing centers that your item has to go to.

I sent an item to my mother in New Brunswick, and the item had to go West to Thunder Bay by car (3 hour drive) and then from TB to NB.

Needless to say, I hate shipping within Canada for small items, but I really dont mind for larger items, cause it seems to not be so goddamn stupid.

Here is an example: I sent out at Donkey Kong Game in my last set of auctions to Yellowknife, NWT (which, although kinda remote, is not a very far distance away), and the cheapest I could send the item was 7.51 CAD. It was stupid. Sometimes you can get single games shipped out as oversized envelopes (costs like a buck to ship). But this one was boxed, and the box made the width to large...


Anywho, this is long enough and I dont feel like writing anymore....

[End Rant]

[farfel]

How does U.S. shipping work?

[Dr. Morbis]

I can concur with all of the aforementioned shipping woes using Canadapost. One time I sent out a package for $15. Two days later I sent out the EXACT same package (weights, dimensions, etc) and it cost $4.85. Another time, they measured the box and no shipping quote would come up on the computer. 3 staff were huddling around the monitor trying to figure it out. Finally they had to get the postmaster who explained to them that it wouldn't accept the measurements because one of them was too small!?!?! So they typed in a larger (and inaccurate) dimension to make it work. Shouldn't their program accept *ALL* shapes and sizes?

I can also routinely ship to Florida for cheaper than I can to Quebec (in my own country).

Canadpost is bizarre.