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Complete tossers on ebay

Started by 23 Daves, August 22, 2011, 10:49:56 PM

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Eis Nein

"Will usually dispatch within 5 working days of receiving cleared payment."

Clearly has problems meeting demand.

REVEEN!

Quote from: 23 Daves on November 14, 2011, 11:39:39 PM
This has nothing to do with the subject in hand (so far as I know), but I'm baffled by this person's items for sale.  I mean what?  And why?  Why would you pay ebay money to do this?  Is there an obvious trick I'm missing here, or have I caught his page just before it was due to be updated?:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/lord-anthony/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686
It was a free listings weekend on ebay. I've seen people (usually traders) do this before, they set up a bunch of listings with a default template and then go back later (when they presumably have more time) and fill in the details.

weekender

Hi

Can I ask an eBay question please?  I've never sold items before so I'm not sure of the etiquette.

Item 1

I guessed a delivery charge of £5, which has been paid.  I've no idea what it will actually cost but I've just had some speakers delivered and with a bit of padding the item I'm sending handily fits in the speaker box, so I'm going to use that.  I reckon the actual postage might end up being £3-£4.

Should I offer to refund the difference between the postage they've paid for and the postage I've actually paid?  It just seems a shame not to use packaging which I would otherwise be throwing away.  Recycling and all that.

Item 2

Same sort of question.  I bunged £3 postage at a guess, but if I steal the envelope from work I reckon the actual postage might come to maybe £2.

Summary

I don't want to be a tosser on eBay, but at the same time the buyers have paid for the items, paid the quoted postage costs and presumably if the items turn up ASAP and in perfect condition they will be happy?  I'm genuinely not trying to Jew anyone, but is it a step too far the other way to offer to refund a small amount of postage?  I don't check the stamps when I get stuff I've bought to be honest, so I'm veering along the lines that I'll be OK and not a tosser.  Please tell me I'm not a tosser.

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: weekender on November 22, 2011, 07:49:44 PM
Hi

Can I ask an eBay question please?  I've never sold items before so I'm not sure of the etiquette.

Item 1

I guessed a delivery charge of £5, which has been paid.  I've no idea what it will actually cost but I've just had some speakers delivered and with a bit of padding the item I'm sending handily fits in the speaker box, so I'm going to use that.  I reckon the actual postage might end up being £3-£4.

Should I offer to refund the difference between the postage they've paid for and the postage I've actually paid?  It just seems a shame not to use packaging which I would otherwise be throwing away.  Recycling and all that.

Item 2

Same sort of question.  I bunged £3 postage at a guess, but if I steal the envelope from work I reckon the actual postage might come to maybe £2.

Summary

I don't want to be a tosser on eBay, but at the same time the buyers have paid for the items, paid the quoted postage costs and presumably if the items turn up ASAP and in perfect condition they will be happy?  I'm genuinely not trying to Jew anyone, but is it a step too far the other way to offer to refund a small amount of postage?  I don't check the stamps when I get stuff I've bought to be honest, so I'm veering along the lines that I'll be OK and not a tosser.  Please tell me I'm not a tosser.

No, I don't think you should offer to repay at all. It's common practice to add a little on to the P+P to cover the ebay charges; I certainly expect people that I buy from to do this. You could always decide to send the items 'signed for'; that makes you look a bit professional and will cost an extra 70p or so, covering a bit of the 'overcharge'.


Winjer

I usually subtract the listed postage from what I'm willing to pay before placing a bid.

Any other sane bidders should be doing this too, so no I don't think you should refund any of the postage. If there's a spare pound left over you should consider that a premium for walking or driving to the post office to get them their stuff on time.

I always endeavour to get stuff sent the day after they pay me if I'm selling. It's shite when you're looking forward to receiving something and you've no idea when you're going to get it. Especially when the sender abuses the 'mark as dispatched' flag on eBay, which I reckon has happened to me a couple of times.

Melodichaze

Quote from: Eis Nein on November 12, 2011, 10:27:36 PM
Got a live one. Guy in Austria buys an album for £19.99, with signed-for postage set at £7.49. He asks to change to regular air mail, I refuse politely. He receives the item but it "has a wave" on track one, despite it only being played a couple of times, once before mailing it to check condition. "it is unsellable, what do I want to do? postage is expensive."

He's been polite throughout. I agreed to refund if he'd send it back. Today he opens a case "just to be safe" and says he's sent it back, at a cost of 13 euros. Thing is, the figure he requests in the case is £23.48.

Is this some dodge? I expected to have to refund £27.48, when the disc arrives. Looking at his feedback, he has form for refusing to return disputed items.

How did this work out Eis Nein? Did he actually send it back to you international signed for? That's the only way he could legitimately receive a refund from paypal, otherwise you could just maintain you haven't received the returned item.
Thankfully in my case the guy was too stingy to return the instrument "intl signed for" so his refund claim was rejected (thank heavens...)

weekender

Quote from: Winjer on November 22, 2011, 08:40:15 PMI always endeavour to get stuff sent the day after they pay me if I'm selling. It's shite when you're looking forward to receiving something and you've no idea when you're going to get it. Especially when the sender abuses the 'mark as dispatched' flag on eBay, which I reckon has happened to me a couple of times.

Thanks, I didn't know there was such a flag.  I intend to post the stuff first class tomorrow, should I go and mark that flag tomorrow evening once I have done so?

I have sent the two buyers an email saying I will send their items first class tomorrow, which I will.

Winjer

If I send the stuff in my lunch hour and have time to get to a computer or piss about with eBay on my phone I would mark it as dispatched as soon as I'd posted it. If I was too busy then doing it after work is fine.

From memory you just log in and look at 'My eBay > selling/sold' list and next to each item there's a drop down menu where you can mark it as dispatched.

Eis Nein

Quote from: Winjer on November 22, 2011, 08:40:15 PM
I usually subtract the listed postage from what I'm willing to pay before placing a bid.

Any other sane bidders should be doing this too, so no I don't think you should refund any of the postage.

Agreed. The buyer has agreed the postage price quoted; so long as the item is well-packed and the mail service you specified is used, the materials aren't important. Some try to game the system with postage charges as ebay don't get a slice, which makes people wary, but with your low feedback total this probably won't be assumed. When I started selling I overcharged a few people, and quickly took to sending a covering email. In the first instance a lad in Spain bought a couple of 12" singles and asked for a discount from 2x£5: I quoted £7.50. The postage ended up being less than a fiver. Got positive feedback but the text was simply "OK", which in ebay terms qualifies as a bully-ramming. Still, he paid £1.98 for 2 mint '80s EPs, so andate a la mierda, Grumpy.

Quote from: Melodichaze on November 22, 2011, 09:09:08 PM
How did this work out Eis Nein? Did he actually send it back to you international signed for? That's the only way he could legitimately receive a refund from paypal, otherwise you could just maintain you haven't received the returned item.
Thankfully in my case the guy was too stingy to return the instrument "intl signed for" so his refund claim was rejected (thank heavens...)
Congrats. Mine is still ongoing. I'm waiting for the record to arrive, and in the meantime he has left effusive positive feedback, removing to some extent my main worry. In the back of my mind I'm still concerned about the difference in the amount he's asking for and the amount he's laid out, and whether that could be used in a claim. Can positive feedback be rescinded? If this Austrian pulls summat...

First Hitler, now this.

Small Man Big Horse

I received two negative feedback's this week, when in both cases the person claimed the item hadn't arrived, and I'd given them a full refund. I really need to stop selling abroad, and send everything recorded delivery to the UK, as this keeps happening to me recently and it's fucking me off no end.

Jobey

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on November 23, 2011, 02:24:06 AM
I received two negative feedback's this week, when in both cases the person claimed the item hadn't arrived, and I'd given them a full refund. I really need to stop selling abroad, and send everything recorded delivery to the UK, as this keeps happening to me recently and it's fucking me off no end.

Ebay rule #1: Never buy or sell abroad. Ever.

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: Jobey on November 23, 2011, 11:56:50 AM
Ebay rule #1: Never buy or sell abroad. Ever.

That's a bit over the top, isn't it? I've sold loads of items abroad and only ever had 2 issues, one where it wasn't sent recorded and the (American) buyer stated it hadn't arrived and another time when a (Russian) customer said that their record had arrived snapped. If you're selling certain things (records spring to mind), refusing to post abroad is going to significantly lower any price you can expect.

Jobey

It depends what's being sold or bought. Anything worth any serious dough is just a ballache so I don't bother anymore.
To many bad experiences.

23 Daves

Somebody living in The Netherlands recently spent £122 on one of my records, so naturally there is this worry in my mind that it won't get to him now (though I have sent it tracked/ recorded delivery at no extra cost, just to buy myself peace of mind if nothing else).

It's a weird feeling.  I really, really needed that money, but by the same token I won't be able to stop checking my ebay account until I know the bloody thing gets to him safely.

Oh, and that's my other (personal) postage rule.  If somebody bids an insane amount of money for something, best to send it recorded delivery out of your own pocket provided it isn't prohibitively expensive to do so.  An extra £4-£5 on an item you sold for more than £100 won't break the bank, and at least it calms the nerves a little.  Mind you, you could argue that if somebody bids £100+ for a record that's their own choice, I suppose. 

weekender

Turns out the postage cost me £6.50 when I'd quoted £4.99, so there's fucking karma for you.

SetToStun

Have you ever wondered why it's always you, weekender? I mean, seriously - did you renounce your faith in public at some point? Was your dad a real git and now his sins are being visited on you, perhaps? Have you worshipped graven idols recently? There has to be a reason, surely.

23 Daves

I find I'm getting a lot of people from Australia, New Zealand and America asking if they'll get something by Christmas if I ship the item as soon as the bidding finishes.  As if I can offer a guarantee on that!  The Australian postal service is even more hopeless than the British one, so between the two of them that's not something anyone can give a sensible answer on. When I lived there, items usually took anything from 1-7 weeks to arrive, with no apparent rhyme or reason. 

Think I'll bail out of any further sales once my present batch (which end in ten days) goes, just to avoid any "WAH! I got this record for my brother/ sister/ boyfriend/ girlfriend/ Mum/ Dad and it hasn't come and now everyone's disappointed!" emails.  More trouble than it's worth.

Don_Preston

Quote from: 23 Daves on November 24, 2011, 02:07:50 PM
"WAH! I got this record for my brother/ sister/ boyfriend/ girlfriend/ Mum/ Dad and it hasn't come and now everyone's disappointed!" emails.  More trouble than it's worth.

Well Pete Wylie is highly regarded in New Zealand!

dekko

1. Postage to Australia / US varies because Royal Mail doesn't consider that due to the size of these countries, you can't simply send it to any port in that country and expect it to be delivered swiftly to any random town. RM has dispatched ex-UK airmail to Perth in order for it to reach me on the east coast.

2. Don't ever offer to refund the difference between the postage you pay and the postage charge you quoted. As a buyer I have no problem accepting that the seller may have costs additional to that shown on the stamps (i.e. in regional Australia / US / Scottish highlands the drive to the post office, for one)


23 Daves

I agree with that - I don't really care about the postage, and if I think it's too high I won't bid above a certain level anyway.  I have additional costs myself in the form of the packing materials, since I order professional record mailers to send things out in. Whilst there doesn't appear to be much to them, they're difficult to obtain cheap unless you buy in bulk (and as I don't run a warehouse, what would be the point in doing that?  I could sell the unused ones on, I suppose...)  The 12" mailers end up coming to about £1 each. 

I have seen a few negative or neutral feedback ratings on ebay about "unreasonable postage costs" though, and it's as a result of those that I've stripped back the P&P price to as low a level as I can.

Eis Nein

The claim made by that Austrian tyke expired, freeing up the payment. Guy was unable to provide tracking info for the supposedly returned package, no surprise there. Little git. Must have had some success with that ploy with someone less wary.

Half my records are going to Europe/US with him the only troublesome deal so far. That said, I still prefer it when people bid on Discogs.

23 Daves

Oh dear, I've no doubt my name is mud with one seller.  Turns out he sent a refund to me by mistake instead of another buyer he was in dispute with.  He'd been emailing me for weeks on end trying to get the money back.

Trouble is, my Paypal account is aligned to a secondary email account I don't check frequently (I use this account for all online orders so I don't get bombarded with spam and "Special Offer" messages) and I've had so much money leaving and entering my account recently that his error just didn't get noticed on the PayPal account itself.  I'm sure he's spent ages thinking I'm a complete fucker who thought "Ha ha!  You're not seeing this money back, mate".  I refunded him a few days ago and sent him an email with my apologies, but he hasn't replied so he's clearly in a huff.

He's obviously Mr Fuck Up Central, though.  In my one dealing with him he sent me the wrong record, which I then had to send on to the correct customer (he refunded me for the postage costs).  Then when he was supposed to be refunding someone else for a completely different record, he accidentally pressed the wrong button and refunded me.  So then, not a tosser, but certainly a man who has been the source of a lot of needless hassle. 

holyzombiejesus

Argh!! Bloody tight arsed fuckwits!!

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on March 07, 2012, 08:57:14 PM
Argh!! Bloody tight arsed fuckwits!!

Not you lot, the pricks on ebay who whinge and moan and leave neutral feedback because the actual postage cost is less than they had to pay. Some guy won a copy of the first Sparklehorse album on vinyl; I said it'd be £4 P+P plus an extra quid for recorded if it sold over a certain price (which it did). I always say £4 for albums as they're around 500g with the mailers/ stiffeners/ whatever. Anyway, I check my feedback today and the wee prick has marked me as neutral and said 'shipping cost was a lot higher than actual cost'. It was 2 pounds more. Two fucking quid! I can't even leave a bitchy remark on his feedback, can't even not say thankyou when I get off the bus. Grrr. Then, just noticed that some German guy did the same a week ago because his estimated recorded postage to Germany was £2.50 more than the actual cost. I've never complained about P+P; it's a given that when you bid for an item, you're accepting the charges.

Rant over.

chocky909

I always find it's tremendously satisfying to send these people a 'bonus' item such as a dog turd in a jiffy bag. One of the perks of having their address.

23 Daves

It's always a pisser, this situation - I tried to get around it by making P&P free for albums (which end up weighing and costing a lot) but starting the bid about £2.50 higher than I ordinarily would.  It didn't work.  The stuff that went ended up going for exactly the same price as it usually would minus the P&P, and I suspect the stuff nobody bid on went unloved purely because the opening bid seemed a bit high. 

I always ask to see the returned search results in order of cost INCLUDING P&P, it's a bit beyond me why nobody else does. 

olliebean

It's amazing how many people don't realise that you've had to buy the jiffy bag (and stiffening cardboard in the case of an LP) as well as the stamp to put on it. Plus it's not unreasonable to include a small consideration for your time (plus possible fares/petrol) spent taking it to the Post Office, especially now that so many of the local ones have closed.

Lee Van Cleef

As I say in my listings:

QuoteP&P: In the UK items are sent via first class postage in a padded envelope, overseas items are sent via airmail.  I do combine postage on multiple items and I DO NOT ship without jewel cases, the extra materials (which are needed to ensure items arrive in good condition) and subsequent minor difference in weight make very little difference in terms of P&P costs (bear in mind P&P is Postage AND Packing).

Oops! Wrong Planet

Just had a good one in an old music magazine auction of mine:
QuoteAbout that feature inside with Spiggy Topes and The Turds - please scan the pages and send it to my email so I can decide if I want to buy the magazine
Will do, mate, I can't see any problem with that.