Real Life MMD: Should I refund the postage cost?

jenblackrod

I wouldnt refund the postage after your customer jumped in and posted negative feedback. He used his one bargaining chip far too quickly. Whats in it for you now? You can't take negatives back once they're posted.

judwenson

you obviously gave it no thought, you should have given him £3 as well as item, keeping £2 for your travel. maybe try comunicating next time you have a 'local' buyer

MadMom

emidee wrote: »

Aside from whether you should have kept the £5 for postage or not, you've now left yourself wide open to the buyer claiming that he never recieved the item.

If he decided to pursue an 'item not recieved' claim through eBay then you wouldn't have a leg to stand on, as you have no proof of delivery.

Paypal (if he used that) would give him ALL his cash back no matter what you have to say, leaving you with no item and no money.

I lost £300 that way once! :mad:

ALWAYS get proof of delivery, through Royal Mail or a courier - or have the buyer pay cash on collection; it's the only way to protect yourself!

Interesting point I wouldn't have initially thought of. I'll certainly never forget the principle now. (although if this chap did try that you could use his feedback as proof that he did receive the goods!)

But as far as all the people suggesting you should offer a refund, I don't agree. The buyer AGREED to the price as well as the postage before bidding. To me, the fact that he had the goods delivered by you is irrelevant. Or come to think of it - should have cost more as a "personal courier service" :rotfl: (does he know it was YOU who did the delivery and not a courier?)

Gadgetmaster

If your ad stated a fee of £5 for delivery charges, then no, the buyer should not expect a refund. If they were that bothered, they could easily have seen how close they were to you, and asked if collection would be possible to save the fee. It is no good them moaning AFTER the event. Besides, you have the negative feedback now, so do you really want to bend over backwards to save them a few quid? I do hope that you got a receipt from them though, or you could leave yourself open to a chargeback for item not received...although you could point out the buyers comment clearly indicating that you delivered the item.

LadyCarol

Legally no, you would not have to pay up. The express terms and conditions of your contractual relationship with the buyer clearly stated that you were making a charge of £5 for postage and packing. Unless you specifically stipulated a particular delivery service that you intended to use then there is an implied term that you have the right to choose any method of safe delivery albeit your own personal use of your car to deliver the item. The contractual terms relate specifically to the charge for "a delivery service" and do not mention a specific postal service or method of delivery. As far as the moral issue is concerned, you should not feel obliged to refund the £5, as you have undoubtedly incurred some cost to yourself, i.e. your petrol cost, wear and tear of your car and not to forget the most important commodity of all your time spent on this matter, all of which is of some value and £5 is not an excessive amount to request. It is rather ignorant of the buyer to think that your time and effort is worth nothing at all.

paul.jacobs

The government allows you to claim 40p per mile for self employed people and so do most companies if you use your own car. So the maximum charged should have been £1.70 (10p to cover paypal fees).

Personally I recently hand delivered and didn't charge anything, only a 3 mile round trip. Quicker than driving a 2 mile round trip and queuing in the Post Office.

I always charge cost price for postage + 80p to cover car use to post office and add 3.4% on top to cover paypal fees. Had 100's of buyers and have 100% feedback. Sending a partial refund is good customer service.

Then again I'd probably collect the item myself if it was a 3 mile round trip and pay cash.

majorca2010

I would not refund the postage, as you have used your petrol plus it was a quicker service.

I sell a lot of stuff on ebay and postage can include petrol to post office, packaging etc.

zipman23

If they only lived a few miles away, why didn't they just ask to collect it in person and that way they wouldn't have had to pay the £5 in the first place? Some people just moan about anything!

*EDIT*
Saying that, negative feedback is eventually removed so I wouldnt worry too much about it. I was canny disappointed when I got a negative feedback on eBay for something that wasn't my fault....then I just said f*** it and moved on!

gillyrah

If he paid the postage then he agreed to that amount of postage. He received it so where's the problem? An alternative might have been to offer the buyer the option to pick up the item for free postage. If they don't then I see no reason not to deliver it yourself for the price agreed.

I've had an item delivered by a local person before. I couldn't get to theirs to collect it, the postage was reasonable and they were coming past my house anyway so it saved them money, I paid an amount I was happy with. Everyone was happy.

Some people will argue with the most reasonable offer!

dave2

I don't even use eBay and even I know that the postage is just part of the price.

It used to be (previous boss was an ebay nut) standard practice to set the price low and up the postage, to get around ebay fees.

He agreed to the price including that of P&P and received nothing short of the goods and delivery expected.

That said, yeah it can be worth just posting it anyway for the proof of delivery.