eBay

mpit7628 · ‎06-09-2016

Hello everyone. I have just recently became a seller on eBay after years of buying. I am finding out all the trials and tribulations of selling and I am already having second thoughts about continuing selling. I have sold about 9 items so far and my fee's have been over $70.00. There goes the profit in it! Last night I got my laptop out and found that a buyer had sent me an offer on a listing of two Berenguer dolls. I had them listed at $38.00 Can. with $40.00 shipping. I have had no luck with eBay's shipping calculator which always seem to calculate on the low side and so I try to estimate my shipping. If I sell in Canada then, most times I will consider refunding some of the shipping. This buyer's offer was $22.00, $16.00 less than my asking price. I don't think so!! Because my shipping was higher than the actual shipping which is $28.00 I thought I would counter offer with $26.00. Just $4.00 more than their offer. I would have offered a shipping refund had they paid full price but I thought a $12.00 discount on the dolls was pretty good. Packaging isn't free, neither is the gas for running to the post office multiple times a week plus there's is my time. It's very time consuming listing items on eBay. After the buyer accepted my counter offer they messaged me. This buyer proceeded to inform me of what they thought the shipping charges should be and asked for me to send a revised invoice with the actual shipping. How would this buyer know how much the package weights to be able to decide for them selves how much shipping I should be charging. She also reminded me that I could get a less than favorable seller rating for over charging for shipping. In all the years of buying on eBay I have been over charged on shipping most of the time. If the shipping shows on the listing a buyer should know what they are getting into and not expect a seller to lower the shipping and especially after the item has been purchased. I feel that my 100% rating is in jeopardy now. I discounted the doll by $12.00 and also discounted the shipping $10.00 and sent along this revised invoice. I haven't heard back and the dolls have not been paid for. I lost money on this transaction. Live and learn. It 's just too bad that this transaction has left a bad taste in my mouth and comes from a fellow Canadian eh!!

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-11-2016

@maggiebvintage2010 wrote:
It used to be the case that the eBay calculator charged the non-discounted amount for Expedited service. I don't use calculated Expedited service often, maybe a dozen times a year, but I have not had a difference to "pocket" for a few years now - it charges the discounted amount for me, anyway. Are you still receiving the non-discounted amount for shipping Expedited?

I don't use calculated shipping that often either but yes, it does seem to charge the expedited retail rate, not the Paypal discounted rate.

It used to give me a discounted rate because I had set up my site/shipping preferences to give a 15 % discount off of retail but I took that off a while ago. Are you sure that you don't have it set up to give a specific percentage for a discount.

I would guess that 99.99% of the time when someone complains the calculator is wrong it is because the wrong info has been entered. Granted..there would be less user errors if the calculator was set up to tell someone that the information entered was incorrect.

mpit7628 · ‎06-11-2016

HI there. I have no intentions of contacting this buyer. I will just wait and see what happens. It's the disregard shown to me and my listing when I state to pay with in 24 hours that is frustrating. This buyer will only makes things more difficult for themselves in the end. As a new seller it's all part of the learning experience. Not all transactions will be perfect!!

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-11-2016

No, not all transactions will be perfect. That's true on eBay and in any business.

It's pointless to have some 'policy' written in your listing that isn't enforceable so if I were you, I would take it out. If you want payment right away, you can check off the option to require immediate payment on your listings. If you do that, buyers can't make a BIN purchase until they pay.

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎06-11-2016

pjcdn2005 - I have never set up my shipping preferences to give a discount, and just checked - no discounts. I used to receive the retail rate, and refunded the difference to the buyer. This hasn't happened for a long time, possibly as far back as when eBay began charging FVF on shipping. My listings with calculated Expedited service have shown the PayPal discounted cost, and that is what has been charged to buyers. It was usually very accurate, even for USD listings. I don't have any listings with calculated shipping right now, so can't give a current example.

What about other sellers?

hlmacdon · ‎06-11-2016

@mpit7628 wrote:
HI there. I have no intentions of contacting this buyer. I will just wait and see what happens. It's the disregard shown to me and my listing when I state to pay with in 24 hours that is frustrating. This buyer will only makes things more difficult for themselves in the end. As a new seller it's all part of the learning experience. Not all transactions will be perfect!!

Per ebay, buyers aren't required to pay within 24 hours. This is why there is a delay before you can open an unpaid item case.

hlmacdon · ‎06-11-2016

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
No, not all transactions will be perfect. That's true on eBay and in any business.
It's pointless to have some 'policy' written in your listing that isn't enforceable so if I were you, I would take it out. If you want payment right away, you can check off the option to require immediate payment on your listings. If you do that, buyers can't make a BIN purchase until they pay.

Excellent point and can't stress this enough for sellers. Throwing up barriers to a buyer, and in particular ones that contravene or are against ebay stated policies, is incredibly counterproductive and mark you as a questionable seller, regardless of whatever feedback record you may have. As a buyer it isn't an enjoyable experience to deal with a seller using the "get off my lawn" approach to sales.

zee-chan-jpn-books · ‎06-11-2016

@mpit7628 wrote:
HI there. I have no intentions of contacting this buyer. I will just wait and see what happens. It's the disregard shown to me and my listing when I state to pay with in 24 hours that is frustrating. This buyer will only makes things more difficult for themselves in the end. As a new seller it's all part of the learning experience. Not all transactions will be perfect!!

Again, eBay's policy overrides yours. eBay allows buyers 96 hours to pay, as noted by other members in this thread. If you cannot put up with that eBay policy then maybe you need to reconsider selling on eBay. By selling on eBay you agreed to its terms and conditions.

Personally, I give my buyers 7 days to pay. I don't start messaging buyers about payment until day 4 after sale, and then after that I just let the UID does its own work on day 8. I haven't had any buyer who doesn't pay within a week over the past 2 years. 95% of them pay immediately and the other 5% pay within a week. ~~Cancellation requests are a different story.~~

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-12-2016

maggiebvintage2010 I hope that you didn't take it personally when I mentioned that what causes many of the problems with the shipping calculator as I honestly wasn't thinking that you would ever do that.

Earlier today I looked at one of my listings with calculated shipping to see what it would cost to send it to and from my own postal code. Then I checked the Canada Post site calculator which showed that the regular parcel rate was just a few cents more than my listing was showing for expedited shipping. That seems right but I wanted to check it again just now but the CP site is down for maintenance. If the ebay calculator was charging the same as Paypal shipping, then the CP site amount would have been a couple of dollars higher than the amount showing here.

If you want to compare it to your postal code versus the cost on the CP site it is item 272252176547. (Flames hat)

Weight and dimensions - 450 grams 30cm x 20cm x 10cm

I don't remember when the Paypal discount rate changed...2 years ago?? But when the discount did get lowered, the difference between what buyers paid and what Paypal shipping charged got noticeably smaller.

sylviebee · ‎06-12-2016

When I have a buyer who is slower to pay, a high shipping cost is usually involved.

It doesn't matter if the amount charged is accurate or even lower than my cost. What does matter is that the buyer perceives the cost as higher than it should be.

Look at the time and stress you're investing in completing this transaction.

If the buyer does pay as billed then you've cast the experience in a negative light for the buyer before it's even off the ground and that buyer will be much less forgiving if there is any minor detail to pick at.

The buyer may not be able to hold you to task for the cost of shipping, but your energy and time could be better spent.

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎06-12-2016

pj - no worries - don't even think about it - that's not the way I react.

I checked your example using Calgary PO postal code to my postal code, and your eBay listing showed just about 45¢ difference to the regular parcel rate. I have a batch of calculated shipping stuff that I'm delaying listing until the CP strike situation is clear, and I will test all those. Perhaps it's just another senior memory moment? But I ~~think~~ hope I would remember if I made some extra $ from shipping.

i.am.vivian · ‎06-14-2016

@mpit7628 wrote:
The actual shipping was very close to $28.00 and that was taken from Canada Posts find a shipping rate website. My shipping was $12.00 over that which isn't a crazy amount.

It's a mark up of 30%. That much would annoy just about any buyer.