Charged shipping fees.

[coldhardyseeds]

Hi, I  just recently won 4 auctions from one seller and they sent me an invoice which I paid. I rechecked my purchases the next day and realized they had added in shipping fees on the invoice. All 4 purchases were listed as Free Shipping, I  only bid on auctions with free shipping. Sent a message but they have not responded. What do I  do? How do I complain to eBay?

[reallynicestamps]

While I think of it.

When buying multiple items that have 'free' shipping, before bidding, ask the seller if he combines and discounts for multiple purchases.

Remember that $15 with Free Shipping item?

If you bought four, you would pay the $5 shipping cost four times.

But shipping four might only cost the seller $7.50. 

Ask about shipping discounts.

Obviously this won't work on dollar auctions, but if you are  making a substantial purchase, most sellers will be happy to cooperate.

[pjcdn2005]

There really isn't anything that ebay can do about it. If this is an Asian seller, I think that many of them are away right now for Chinese New Year so that could be why they are not replying to your message.  Check the top of their listings to see if there is an away message.

If they don't refund you the shipping that they overcharged, you could take that into account when you leave feedback. Or, there used to be a function on Paypal that you could make a claim for overcharged shipping but I have no idea if that function still exists...you might want to give PP a call.

[reallynicestamps]

Sellers who are offering Free Shipping (and have icons plastered all over their listings) are usually only offering it domestically.

The Free Shipping option is only offered to them for domestic shipping.

In order to offer Free Shipping to other countries, they have to enter a value of $0.00 as the cost of shipping.

If you use Highest /Lowest Price plus Shipping as your default Search, you will see the true cost of buying from that seller.

There is also a Free Shipping choice in the Search column on the left of the page, but it may only look for that domestic free shipping option, so don't trust it.

Use it-- but don't trust it.

Always look in the Shipping tab of the listing that interests you.

Often a seller has more than one option for your location that will give faster (and more expensive) or different choices (postal or courier, perhaps).

By the way.

"Free" shipping isn't.

It means the cost of shipping is included in the price of the item.

Which is cheaper?

A $10 item with $5 shipping?

A $15 item with Free Shipping?

[marnotom!]

Are the items being shipped from Canada or outside of the country?

If they're coming from elsewhere, what is the shipping method being used? Is "free shipping" stated in the "shipping" portion of the listing or did this come up only in your search results?

[momcqueen]

Ask to cancel your order, and leave appropriate feedback. If the seller hasn’t been honest about postage, I’m going to suggest it won’t improve from here.

[reallynicestamps]

@coldhardyseeds 

Ok, this is a seller from China, all auctions had Free Economy Shipping to Worldwide (which takes longer It appears that they changed the shipping method when they sent the invoice which cost money. That is not fair that they did that

Thank you. That makes the problem easier to understand.

Were there several different items at different prices clumped together in the listing?

As in- you find a listing that appears to be a mobile phone for one cent, but when you open it, the penny item is a piece of plastic to go over the screen and the phone is $250.00? And yes, there are listings like that, and I am baffled by why they are allowed.

[marnotom!]

Economy shipping from China to Canada takes quite a while, even at the best of times. Once the seller found out you were in Canada, they may have decided to upgrade the shipping method, although that should have been done on their own Yuan.

Another possible reason for the change of shipping method may be that four items shipped together in one package makes that package too heavy to send as a cheap oversize letter.

[15westcoast]

I agree with "reallynicestamps".  US sellers that offer free shipping offer it for US buyers only.

If you are from Canada you will have to contact them for the shipping costs before bidding.

[coldhardyseeds]

Ok, this is a seller from China, all auctions had Free s

[coldhardyseeds]

Ok, this is a seller from China, all auctions had Free Economy Shipping to Worldwide (which takes longer It appears that they changed the shipping method when they sent the invoice which cost money. That is not fair that they did that