Obscene shipping costs

[Mike]

Guys, like with any kind of contract... get it in writing before you make the deal. I would never pay for something without a written estimate of the cost. If the details aren't disclosed up front, don't proceed with the deal. If you do it anyway (or make a mistake by forgetting this tidbit of information) then it's your fault.

FYI on the shipping costs... UPS/Fedex seem to be everly increasing their costs. UPS gave me a cost of $8.00 to ship one of our hats from Oregon to Texas!! Talk about a high price margin! Ugh. The good-ol' postal service charges us $5.00 for the exact same item.

So, keep in mind that shipping isn't as cheap as it was 5-10 years ago.

-- Mike

[V8-240Z]

Can you simply pay the guy $1 for the part and tell him to

repost it? Then in the feed back state that you paid the

$1 but feel the shipping was a bit high at $23? You paid

for the part at the price it closed at.

[sblake01]

Not really because when you bid you're accepting the terms and conditions set by the seller.

[Go240Zags]

Sorry to keep flogging a dead horse -- but when the seller says actual shipping costs plus $3 handling charge in a "no reserve" auction, then he shouldn't hide his reserve in his final shipping cost. This is a dishonest practice and was only emphasized by the fact he is listing the same type item (size, weight) at "no reserve" with a higher start price and lower shipping price. Sure I believe in Caveat Emptor -- I guess I was just blowing off some steam.

Update: I just checked his auction and see he has ended it early due to an error in his listing. Maybe he just entered the wrong shipping weight in his calculator (I'd like to think it was an honest error). Personally I like the US Postal Service Calculator I use because it tells the shipping weight I've listed to the potential buyer so s/he can decide whether I'm giving an honest shipping weight. By using the calculator I have to shuffle most of the stuff down to the post office to get it weighed (unless it's under 5 lbs), but then there are no questions about what final ship cost should be.

After admonishing him for the high price of shipping and saying he should be ashamed of himself he displayed this answer in the auction he has now closed:

A: I just plug the numbers into the the machine, I dont make the prices. I will check to make sure I have the weight listed right. Thanks For the heads up.

Now I kind of feel bad, especially if it was an honest mistake.

Gary

[zhead240]

i paid for an item on ebay by money order and the seller told me the bank wanted to charge him $8, but he got his shipping co. to cash it instead.(no extra charge) i asked about this at the post office and they said they never heard such a thing before. is someone lying?

[Z Kid]

Banks charge me to do a money order, post office its free though. I think I get slugged 10 bucks per money order by the bank, even though it says not to charge for them and treat them like cash on the money order.

Chris

[Go240Zags]

Yes, I've had people try to charge me for using PayPal when the money is drawn on a credit card. However, according to eBay, this kind of charge is not allowed. Either you take PayPal or you don't, you don't get to charge people more just because they charge a very small fee for funds drawn on a credit card.

[dkd021]

Actually Gary, I haven't noticed anywhere where Ebay says you can't charge any type of fee. If you could provide a link to it I'd be interested in seeing it. And you may call it a "small fee" but those small fees can add up to a lot. If seller doesn't want to pay the fee, & it's disclosed before you agree to purchase the item, what's the problem with that? Either you agree to pay the already disclosed fees or you don't. If they're trying to get you to pay the "small fee" & it wasn't disclosed, then that's a different matter. But if it's such a "small fee", why would you care? Just go on & pay it.