Real Life MMD: Should I refund the postage cost?

julioc86

I bought 52 books from a series from ebay, and paid £3.75 for postage. As the seller lived in Yorkshire and I'm in Portsmouth I wasn't expecting him to show up on my doorstep, but he did saying he was visiting a friend in my area! He handed over my books, and promptly gave me the exact postage back. I think you should refund the postage, it's what most people would expect.

trukdiver

julioc86 wrote: »

I bought 52 books from a series from ebay, and paid £3.75 for postage. As the seller lived in Yorkshire and I'm in Portsmouth I wasn't expecting him to show up on my doorstep, but he did saying he was visiting a friend in my area! He handed over my books, and promptly gave me the exact postage back. I think you should refund the postage, it's what most people would expect.

It was probably going to cost him more than £3.75 to post 52 books, so you both benefitted.

dufflady

The buyer was obviously prepared to pay the cost of the item plus £5 to have his item delivered. It was delivered for the total price he had agreed to pay. Why should he expect a refund based on HOW it was delivered? I think the OP should keep the money and not worry about the bad feedback which will still be there whether or not a refund is made.

TokSik

Depending on what you stated in the offer - i.e. did you state that the delivery for £5 would be via Royal Mail or some other specific service? That you you "packaged" it ready for posting (which nowadays is a generic term as most parcel "post" is done by courier firms, not by the privatised "Royal" mail service, so there's Bu*ger all wrong with using your own parcel "Postal delivery " service)

If you did not mention any specific delivery service, then the buyer has got exactly what was offered and ordered / accepted (delivery at £5 - i.e. it WAS delivered, and he was only charged £5 for it as stated in the offer and a bloody good service too, as no courier firm will do a same day delivery at that speed at that cost).

If the offer did not contain an offer to use any specific delivery service then I'd take up the comment with Ebay as it would appear to be Libelous and they are compounding that Libel and committing Libel themselves by broadcasting it !!

suebachorski

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!

I agree - I've just been caught out this way & have had no option but to refund £50 to a buyer who I suspect did receive an item but isn't happy with it for some reason, so is saying it didn't arrive & demanding a refund. I have no way of knowing if what she says is true & hadn't realised that as the seller I would be obliged to refund a Royal Mail error (if that's what it is). The buyer didn't request recorded or special delivery, or insurance, although I'd have gladly provided this at the appropriate charge. She paid the flat postal fee quoted on the listing & I got proof of postage, but that means nothing. I have no recourse via Ebay or Paypal & feel cheated. Should I insist on insurance/special delivery on my listings in future & price accordingly? It puts me off the whole thing really, as in addition to refunding the buyer, Ebay & PayPal have already taken their fees, so it's a complete waste of time & loss for me - I'm worse off financially & don't have a nice jacket either!

jgriggle

Some eBay buyers will look for any 'loophole' to try and get some money back, and then use feedback blackmail if they don't get their own way.

The buyer can see the location of the item before he bids, and would have known that the seller was in the same town, but went ahead and placed a bid anyway knowing about the £5 charge.

Any normal buyer would see it as a mutually beneficial situation - the buyer pays what he expected to pay and gets his item a day or two early, and the seller gets an extra couple of pounds. Everyone's a winner.

In this case the buyer is clearly trying it on.

Approach the buyer and offer to go and collect the item, and then post it back to him, therefore getting the exact service he thought he was getting. That way he would have no reason to not withdraw the negative feedback.

If the buyer is not agreeable, report him to eBay for feedback blackmail.

DaveAshton

suebachorski wrote: »

Should I insist on insurance/special delivery on my listings in future & price accordingly? It puts me off the whole thing really, as in addition to refunding the buyer, Ebay & PayPal have already taken their fees, so it's a complete waste of time & loss for me - I'm worse off financially & don't have a nice jacket either!

As long as you keep your receipt from Royal Mail, you'll be able to claim up to £41 if an item gets lost. If the item sells for more than £41.01, you'll need to use a different service though.

rabb5it

You were correct in you activity. Don't refund him. You haven't said what the item was to give an idea of the packing involved or how the buyer paid.

Some people get all hung up about postage charges. As a buyer If I look at an item on ebay I add my max bid to the postage asked & if I'm happy I bid & if I'm not I don't. It's as simple as that, there's no reason to dissect the amounts.

The postage & packing charge is not the price of the stamp. It's the time taken & materials used to wrap the item, print a label take to the PO etc. In this case your time driving & fuel used. In a City Centre vicinity this could have taken an hour.

I once packed a tilley lamp having a fragile glass mantle which was going to Thailand. I ended up spending 2-3 hours locating materials & attempting to construct a box the right size. My time cost me more than what I made selling the lamp but I didn't ask for an extra packing fee.

People are so subjective & with a slow faceless administrative system such as ebay has, it is weighted in favour of the buyer.

onlineo

Definitely do not give a refund.

I would be delighted by the personal speedy service, and when bidding on Ebay you understand that postage is part of the price of the item.

I have often messaged the buyer and collected from the buyer myself if they are nearby to avoid postage costs. If they have emailed and asked to collect and you said no, then turned up with the goods, then I would feel cheated.

Im sure this was not the case hear so I would put a good response on your feedback board explaining the extra service you provided and leave the customer negative feedback too, whilst putting in a complaint to ebay about the buyer.

chog24

This is tricky, because you're in the right in my opinion (you incurred expenses in the form of petrol and wear-and-tear etc: if you worked for a company who allowed you to claim mileage for business travel, the chances are high that you'd have reclaimed more for that 2 mile journey than you would have paid to post the item).

However, eBay works on recommendations and feedback. Getting bad feedback, even if it's unjustified, will impact your rating and make other sellers less likely to buy from you.

If you feel that the bad feedback might adversely affect your ability to sell in the future, you might choose to refund the postage "as a gesture of good will", in the hope (or at the agreement of the customer) that they will retract the bad feedback.