What dollar amount should I refund?

[rosscd57]

I sent an  item to the US and send it by Expedited Post with tracking and insurance for $36.00 USD. He just sent it back using USPS and claims the cheapest he could send it was $58.00 USD.

Does that sound right?

Am I obligated to give him $58.00 or should I refund  him what I spent to get it to him?

[femmefan1946]

Did you agree to pay his return shipping?

 If not, all you own him is the original payment.

Even if you did, the most he can get if he disputes the transaction through Paypal is his original payment.

If you agreed, however, this is an ethical question.

Since you doubt the buyer's $58 claim, go to the USPS website and enter the dimensions , weight, zipcode of the seller and your own location as destination. You should get a list of services and can check if one of them is the one he used (it's probably First Class International Parcel if it was Delivery Confirmed).

Then do a match on postal fees.

There is never any reason to believe that the postal services in any given country will match those of any other given country. On top of that, there is currently a wide difference in the value of the US and Canadian dollars.

[pjcdn2005]

The maximum weight for first class international is 4 lbs so if it was higher than that he would have had to use Priority which very well could cost that much. Before you make a decision you should check the USPS calculator as suggested.

I've only had to pay return shipping once but I did specify which service I would pay for so you might want to do that in the future.

[maximus7001]

I think the problem here is that when getting a quote from USPS there is a dropdown menu for cheaper services. He did not click the dropdown and most americans will not either, they are just not smart enough to know about the result of a single mouse click. That is where all these crazy shipping to Canada prices are coming from. I know this from being told by US sellers that there is only one option when clearly there are more.

Without clicking the dropdown the only price shown is for the super dooper express which in this case was $58.