Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

Okay,

 

So, I have items listed, and I stick to the same general shipping policy for all my sales.  From time to time, when some things don't sell, I combine them in one listing (re scan photos to include all three items), but it costs more to ship these items when combined.  So, I make the appropriate adjustment to shipping.  Someone wins an auction for $1.09, and my shipping charges, as listed are $12.99.  I had thought it would cost much more to ship than it actually did.  And only ended up costing me about $5.00.  However, I still have eBay taking out 10% of my total sale price, pay for the envelopes, protection for the items (hockey card cases).

 

I want customers to be happy.  But, I also don't want them to walk all over me.  They tell me they think my shipping is unreasonable after receiving the item, and saying it arrived fine.  I feel that people tend to complain about shipping to get money back.  The shipping I listed was a flat rate, and the price was also clearly listed.

 

This is the second incident where this has happened in the past four months.  All other buyers have given me positive feedback saying my shipping was fast, reasonable and items arrived as per the auction.  I, personally, have never complained as a buyer about shipping costs.  If it says a price I think is unfair for the items I am buying, I will simply not bid on that item.  Makes sense?

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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

There are going to be many different kinds of buyers, often the most difficult are the ".99c" buyers.... one option you do have is that generally your stuff looks like it is relatively cheap to ship, you might be better served to start the same card at $1.99 or $2.99 or whatever it has to be with free shipping. That way you don't have to explain your shipping regardless how many items you sell or ship.
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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

I agree about after the fact .

 

They should complain before bidding.

 

Single card in plain white envelope for $4.50 means you are making

about $3.00 on the shipping.

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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

I shop at a higher priced grocery store. The quality of goods is better. Staff is better. Customers are better.

 

When I go to a "Guaranteed lowest prices" store, the ambiance is poor, grocery quality is poor, staff are unhappy, bottom of the barrel customers.

 

Customers at the expensive store are happy. Customers at the cheap store are unhappy. Same economic group of people. Two completely different levels of expectation.

 

Had a bottom feeder contact me and TELL me how much parcel rate was to Vancouver. Told me it was $2 (two). Sent them the CP link with rates.

 

I agree with Ric. Free shipping is a better model for cheap stuff. Those buyers actually believe that sort of thing. Kinda like "Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat".

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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

Yeah, well, that's what I'm getting at.  I do charge $4.50.  Most of my items cost about $1.80 to $2.30 to ship.  Closer to $3.30 for U.S.  If I were to charge $2.00 and sold an item for $0.99, it'd basically not be worth my time.  Plus, I've got overhead (envelopes, printer ink, packing tape, hockey card holders for my cards, gas to go to post office, my time to drive there etc).  I think my customers are happy with my shipping rates.  It's just the small few.  But, I don't like that they are contacting me after the fact looking for money back.  It's something I've never done as a buyer.

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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

I like this analogy.  It makes a lot of sense to me.  Is this to say that I should do a partial refund of the shipping?  Keep the customer happy?  ultimately that's what I want.  But, at the same time, I've got to get more than $0.99 cents for my item.

 

often see sellers posting items (hockey cards, coins, paper money) with exorbitant shipping charges (in excess of hundreds of dollars).  I always assume it was to deter lowball bidders trying to get the item for $0.99 instead of putting a reserve or starting with a high bid.  I don't think I'm taking it to that level, but there has to be something said for the time it takes me to list these items, and provide them for such a great price.

 

I, too, shop at the higher priced grocery store.  They charge a premium.  I ship my items almost immediately after they are paid, and they arrive super fast.  No hassle, no messing around.  Hence my shipping rates (which I don't think are that high to begin with)... Hrmmm

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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

Another aspect is that some people do not like "additional" charges. You are charging for the cards and charging AGAIN for the shipping.

There are a group of buyers who truly believe, that by having the seller tick a box, shipping is free for everyone.

There are a lot of sellers that still do not know that they are being charged FVF on shipping, thus, the high shipping.

Whatever ya do, do not get into a discussion with these people. Either ignore them, or, respond with "Thank you for shopping with us. Hope to see you again". Give them nothing to hang on to.
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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

I have had situations (when I used to auction a lot of stuff) when an item that should sell for about $10 sold for $10 and the same item at a different time for the opening 99c bid. I got rave reviews from the $10 buyer (high end grocery buyer) and complaints from the 99c buyer (low end grocery buyer) for the exact same item.....

 

Understanding your costs etc and time investment in what you are selling is very important. I personally try to avoid selling stuff for under $10, my general lowest is $11.99, and I normally aim for $15 to $20 for the "low end" priced items because it takes a lot of time and energy to sell stuff and there are a lot of associated costs....

 

It may make sense for you to find ways to combine material into usable groups (has been more than 10 years since I sold sports cards so I don't know how it works these days) like teams, certain people, certain insert cards etc to get your general price up to an economical level in terms of time and $$$ cost.

 

I normally only use auctions as "advertising" and I usually run them at 99c with free shipping. I treat whatever I get as a bonus and the overall cost as "advertising" to bring people to my store. In my world (stamps) my experience has been that something that would sell as a buy it now of $10 would usually bring about $5 at auction, so patience is a virtue.

 

For reference, if it helps at all, I did up a thread a while ago about how long it takes me to sell one item.... http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/My-experience-so-how-long-does-it-take-me-to-sell-1-ebay-...  

 

I don't know about the other posters here, but much of what I learned in the olden days was through experiments, trying different styles etc. Most of that I did years ago before I frequented these boards - experimenting costs time and $$$ so whatever you can pick up here for "free" is very worthwhile.....but for every question you will get a wide variety of "right" answers..... you'll have to pick the one(s) that work best for you!

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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

Free Shipping is very popular with buyers. Of course, even the buyers (most of them anyway) realize that it really means 'shipping is included in the asking price'.

But buyers still like it.

For small inexpensive items that ship for more than the asking price, Free Shipping is definitely the way to go.

Which is the best deal?

$1 item with $5 shipping

$5 item with $1 shipping

$6 item with Free Shipping?

Which gives you 5 Star shipping DSR automatically? Which makes the customer happiest? Which attracts the bottom feeding grouchies?

 

And yes, do refund over payment of postage. Just remember to adjust the refund to reflect your costs. So if you collected $5 for shipping and it turned out you only used $2 postage, refund NOT $3 but $2 (or whatever) to reflect the cost of packaging, fuel surcharge, taxes and the FVF that will not be refunded. The buyer will be happier for the refund and probably won't compare the refund to the stamps on the envelope.

 

 I always assume it was to deter lowball bidders trying to get the item for $0.99 instead of putting a reserve or starting with a high bid.

I assume they fall into the 50% of the population that is below the average IQ of 100. They are either greedy, blindly following some other, equally dumb, seller's practice, or think their customers are stupid and won't notice the high shipping. But I may be a little bit judgemental.

 

The day of the 99 cent auction has passed. And did some years ago. The sellers who are still selling at that price and making money are those who make multiple sales. They may have 99 cent listings, but are making $20 sales.

 

In my opinion, any item that won't sell for $10 is a money loser, after you count in your labour (minimum wage in ON is 17 cents a minute), procurement cost, packaging, and fees to eBay and Paypal. But I have lots of opinions.

 

Message 9 of 13
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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

How can they complain before shipping when after they receive it they find out it cost you $5, not $12 to ship the item?

Message 10 of 13
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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

You are missing the point. You are charging for something that, in their mind, is free. The amount has nothing to do with it.
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Message 11 of 13
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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

I figure that if the buyer purchases an item with flat rate shipping - they know the price prior to purchase and should not be able to grip about it later.

 

Like free shipping it sould be an automatic DSR.

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Old enough to know better. Young enough to do it again. Crazy enough to try
Message 12 of 13
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Buyers Who Argue About Shipping AFTER The Fact

How do you know the amount has nothing to do with it? Yes, the buyer agreed to pay $12.99 for shipping and likely expected the OP to be using a method such as expedited parcel that actually cost close to that amount. It sounds as if the postage on the envelope was showing at less than half of that so I can see how the buyer would be upset.  Personally, I wouldn't have paid that much to ship a $1.09 package but I'm probably more aware than a buyer of actual postage costs.

 

 

Bottom line..the buyer agreed to the shipping price so the seller isn't obligated to refund any money but imo it would have been in their best interests to have refunded part of it once they realized that shipping was going to cost less. There is nothing wrong with making some money on shipping..I'm sure that many people do it but if you are that blatant about it, expect that some buyers are going to be upset...bottom feeders or not.

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