Today's Ebay Package.....What Should I Do?

Today I received a winning ebay lot of 5 coins. "FREE SHIPPING"! I only bid on it for 2 of the 5 coins. There was an old 1890's something Mexican Centavo and a 1925 Philippines Centavo. I won with a $1.54 bid. Again "FREE SHIPPING"!.

Well the doorbell rings with the post-lady not too pleased with me (she had to get out of her truck). It seems this seller decided to put ONE forever stamp on a 6×9 bubble mailer. Postage of just shy of $2 was due. Pictures tomorrow!

What would do.....what SHOULD I do?

 

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PM seller ask him to credit your Paypal account for whatever you paid in postage. Do not threaten him with a negative. When he pays you decide what feedback to leave.

 

Might be an honest mistake on his part... why did his mailman/post office even accept it like that? Pay if you want the coins. Ask for him to credit it back to you. I would leave negative if he doesn't if I were you, but do not threaten it, or ebay will remove it.

 

Unless you want to bother with matters of principle, I'd just let it go. Is less than $2 worth even the tiniest of headaches? Doubt the seller wanted to make you pay the postage on purpose, probably just a case of ignorance.

 

This has happened to me once before. A guy sent a 15 dollar coin in small priority box, but put a label first class on it. When I got the box, the PO carrier said I owed an extra couple of bucks. I paid, and wondered at the mixup. I sent him a polite message, and let him know of the situation. He never responded. A part of me wanted to neg him because the auction stated free shipping AND the fact the guy didn't even bother to apologize. But after a day or two I let it go. Hopefully, I'll have karma on my side if I ever make a similar error.

 

I'd ask the guy to buy me a lucky lottery ticket with the money and mail it to me.

 

Hmmm. This almost sounds like a trend since I read some time ago that the USPS no longer returns items that have insufficient postage to the sender. Instead, they simply collect from the recipient.

Now, an unethical seller could use this to his/her advantage in that listing an item with "free shipping" is a plus as far as eBay is concerned and most buyers don't really get too upset at having to pay a small amount for postage upon receiving the package.

BUT, the fellow with the Priority Mail Box with only a 1st Class Postage ?

Now I expect that a lot of the reason behind the USPS's position is that a lot of folks just package them up and drop them in a mail box which, I'm fairly sure, is what happened with aubade21's package.

 

This is one of the reasons why eBay has so many rules, if the seller was smart enough to make the auction then he should be smart enough to apply correct postage to the package. He deserves a big F for failure to comply and a big negative on the feedback, I vie for piece of mind

 

I agree. Letting it go is for your benefit, not the seller. Life is too short to get in a snit over a couple of bucks. The seller lost a known buyer over the issue, that is his punishment. Pay the little bit of money, (seriously, its the price of a coke at a gas station), forgive and forget, and move on with life. Oh, and remove that seller from your saved seller list.

 

Okay, it's tomorrow, now where are the pics?

 

I guess I am cruel. I would neg him and contact eBay to see about recovering the money from him.

 

Maybe its because of my job. I have to be the nasty SOB at work, so at home I try to tone it down, hold hands, and sing koombaya.

 

What does the US Post office do if you say no to paying the postage? Just curious.

Me - I would let it go for a couple of bucks but I would let the seller know. If the seller righted on their own - no negative. Other than that I would probably let it go - not really sure what I would do until it happens.

 

I would believe that if you refused delivery they would return it.

I also agree that I would let them know politely and see what they do. If the seller does not step up, then I would likely give a neutral and explain as a way of documenting for others to see.

 

If you did not pay, the post office would return the package, which I find odd. It seems like there should be a place at the post office where they store it, instead of having to do more work to return it. If it isn't paid in a certain time, it gets tossed. I wonder if anyone tries rigging the system, by putting the address they want something to go to as the RETURN address, then not putting enough postage (if any at all) on it. Once the post office sees it has no postage, they "return" it to the "senders" address. Wonder if that would actually work? It would be an interesting experiment.

 

Its a game that can work, along with some others. How it wouldn't work would be if the PO knew where it was mailed from, and someone in the PO cared enough to stop it, turn it over to the Postal Inspectors, or added postage due in order to "return it".

 

I would imagine that the package would be held at the post office and you would have to pay the postage to get it back.

 

Yeah, it's small money, but it's also more than doubling the price you paid. Maybe I'm petty, but if the seller doesn't refund the money double-quick, I'd open a case -- to me, charging someone extra money after the transaction is completed is a BIG no-no.

If I were the seller, I'd probably refund the entire purchase price in this instance in hopes of preserving customer goodwill.

If the seller apologizes and makes good, I'm not sure I'd even ding him on the detailed feedback. If he doesn't -- if he ignores you, or rejects you -- I'd certainly one-star him on shipping costs and communication, and I'd have a hard time talking myself out of leaving negative feedback.

 

I do not disagree but in this case the buyer cannot leave feedback for shipping because it was free. They would have to leave the 1 star in one of the other areas like description or communication like you also indicated.

 

I'd pay it. Send a note to the seller about the issue. If he did not refund you, I'd leave neutral feedback explaining so others might not incur the same problem.

I would not buy from them again.

If they did refund the money, I'd leave positive and possibly buy from them again, depending on what they were selling.