Real Life MMD: Should I refund the postage cost?

Happygreen

Never deliver yourself without written agreement after bidding is closed if they paid postage. Only then hand over the item personally and get a signed receipt. You can't trust ebayers to be good natured about anything out of the ordinary, sadly. Now it's a bit late to refund but you can offer a partial refund just to look better in your reply to the negative feedback...You can involve the resolution centre but the outcome may not be to your liking although you provided a better service than RM. Risky.

sillydilly

Don't offer a refund if i bid on an item i always look at the postage and consider this when i working out what i want to pay, also if the item was 2 miles up the road i would have pm to ask if i could collect before i bid

alfacat

I won an ebay auction for a kidorable raincoat for my daughter listed "as good as new" for about £10-£12 including postage which retail at circa £30. The seller was in Chesterfield and we live in Nottingham. After I'd won the seller contacted me to say her husband had to drive past the end of our road on his commute, would I mind if he dropped it off. We arranged a mutually convenient time, and when he arrived he brought with him a matching backpack which they had found - absolute bonus!
It didn't occur to me to ask for a refund - the Royal Mail, however good their service is, don't arrange to deliver at a convenient time, and if you are out and the goods need signing for, you then have to wait 24 hours and make your own way to the depot to collect.
I really appreciated the personal gesture, and felt (with or without the bonus backpack) that I was getting a bargain. Whenever I buy from ebay I simply consider the p&p as part of the cost. If I don't consider the p&p fair, I dont buy - end of!

JayD

Of course you should refund!
Once you noticed he was that close, you should ahve offered him the options of either coming and collecting it, having it posted as your contract with him said you would do, or you delivering it personally for the same price as originally charged.

You can't just change the terms of your sale like that and I seriously doubt that a 4mile round trip would have cost you £5! The increased official rate is now 45p per mile - to cover petrol, insurance, Road Tax and maintenance costs i.e. the running cost. So that would be £1.80p

If it were me, and I had paid £5 postage only to find it had been put my through my door, I would be pretty cross myself.

I think you should give him back his money, apologise and take the bad feedback on the chin.

NatFeerick

I think the buyer is being unfair - it is generally accepted that postage includes packing & time spent getting it ready for posting, so why should it not be accepted that it includes time spent delivering it quicker than the post would have got it there plus petrol cost & wear & tear on your car?
On the other hand, what price your feedback? Depends what means more to you I guess. I had negative feedback once from someone who hadn't had the courtesy to contact me first, and you can put a response under the feedback comment, so I did. It doesn't change the feedback score but anyone reading your feedback will see the negative comment was unreasonable.

rve1023

Dont you dare give this ignoramus a refund or I shall personally come round and kick your backside!! Once they have left feedback, it cannot be retracted, so the deed is done.

I have just complained to a seller about being charged £15.50 shipping costs when the package which was a shoe box with a few bits of bubblewrap cost £5.24 to post recorded delivery, now THAT is being ripped off.

patraine

I use Ebay to sell all the time and negative feedback CAN be reversed by the buyer if you come to an agreeable solution.You would request a reversal then it is up to the buyer to accept,then your feedback from him will be amended.I think that a reasonable solution would be to refund half of the cost ( £2.50),but if that is not acceptable to the buyer then refund the whole amount if your feedback score falls below 95%,as buyers do take note of feedback percentages.It could be worth it for your future sales to "suck it up" as they say.Hope this is a solution for you.

Hezzy

I think collection should have been offered to the buyer to save on the postage costs. But I would be more than happy if an item I bought was hand delivered to my door. Did the seller contact the buyer first or just turn up? Most people would have contacted, at the risk of the buyer not being in. They should have discussed the postage costs and any refunds at this stage BEFORE the item was delivered.

Collection can be a pain, I recently waited over a week for an item to be collected, despite every night being told they would come round. When I sent a txt or called I got no response. I had to cancel things and then wait around for them not to even turn up. It turned out the guy was ill (got a message from his partner eventually), but then why keep telling me that he would come over?! In the end he came to collect and paid me extra money for the inconvenience, which was nice as I wasn't expecting it, but it was still a very annoying week. Unfortunately I couldn't afford for a desk to be sent in the post

Communication is Key!

MrsVS

I once sold a lovely pair of 'Office' shoes on ebay. The buyer got a good bargain & I had highlighted P&P as £5 but when I got to the post office, the P&P ended up being just under £2. As soon as I got home, I contacted the buyer & explained that the P&P was a lot less than I thought & refunded her £2.50, purely because I have recieved items Ive bought before where the P&P is only a fraction of what I'd paid & although Im happy to pay it when Im bidding, I dont think its fair to rip people off with the P&P costs.
We all look at it differently but thats just my opinion. Hey maybe Im too soft! lol.

Jackz

Hiya there are two sides to everything and I buy and sell on ebay.

ebay allow buyers to mark you on your p&p (as well as other points) and if you get 3 or 4 low ratings in 12 months you lose your sellers status.
If you do not use ebay regularily I guess if won't matter but you do not get free listings days if you go below standard.

Ebay can remove negative feedback by the way - it just depends on if they see it as unfair or abusive etc.

If the buyer threatened to leave negative if you did not refund some money then send that email to ebay.

If it was a bulky or heavy item then £5 may be fair for posting, if not then yes, perhaps it is not fair.

Just by buying something it does not mean you agree with the seller's charges beforehand.

As others have said, I weigh up p&p in the price and always ask for combined postage and I always combine if someone buys two or more things from me even without asking, as well as I believe what goes around comes around.

You could ask the buyer to review their feedback and ask what would be mutually acceptable?

If you sell regularily - is it really worth the upset etc over say £2-3???


(as for delivering / pick up once they have left feedback though it would be hard to say they hadn't got the item wouldn't it? so sellers beware if you don't get feedback quickly and you have no proof of delivery then I would email and ask if they are okay and please leave feedback - pick up is as bad to prove unless you have witnesses by the way)

Good luck with your ebaying.
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