Ebay item arrives.. with postage due!

[Sideshow Spock]

Well, this is a first for me.. a few weeks ago I hit a BIN for a (non mego) toy that featured free shipping. I received a notification from Paypal the next day that the seller had printed a shipping label, and it should be expected to ship soon.

Couple weeks pass and the toy still hadn't shown up, but I wasn't worried about it. Maybe the seller used mule rate shipping.. I didn't really care.

So I get home yesterday in the late afternoon, and I find a slip from the postman.. attempted delivery on item with postage due.. can be picked up at post office or delivery attempt will be made again, yada yada.

I had some errands to do, so I stop by the post office. The clerk fetches the package and explains that the seller printed out a shipping label that said the package weighed 8oz, when in fact it weighed over a pound. Someone in the facility noticed before delivery that the weight and postage seemed "off", so they weighed it themselves and determined the extra postage due.

Cost was an extra $2.55, which I paid with no complaint. Still.. so much for my "free shipping"..

I emailed the seller and explained what had happened, and politely recommended that he weigh packages a little more carefully. I wasn't looking for a refund or anything, just wanted him to know for FYI purposes. I have no idea if he "underweighed" it on purpose, but I suppose if it wasn't for a perceptive postal worker noticing, it would've come through fine.

The seller didn't respond. Oh well.. that's ebay for ya..

[kryptosmaster]

Yeah they notice that but they can't deliver mail to the right addresses sometimes? LOL
Rich

[vulcan2074]

Yeah they notice that but they can't deliver mail to the right addresses sometimes? LOL
Rich

You Said it.

[toys2cool]

I'd neg him for sure,I'm pretty sure he knew what he was doing and was trying to get away with it.If not he would've atleast written back and apologize or offered to refund the $

[Adam West]

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. It's possible the seller didn't feel like going to the post office but had no scale to calculate postage.

Maybe he/she guestimated and was wrong. I still think he/she should reimburse you for the mistake.

[Sideshow Spock]

Even with the postage due, the entire cost to me was just over $10, so I'm not gonna sweat it. The seller did respond back to me today, saying sometimes he makes mistakes, and thanks for being cool about it.

[rche]

hiya folks,

I've had this happen several times to me recently. Perhaps the post is tightening up on folks who guestimate weight and do the click and ship or paypal shipping.

Two times, the shipper placed a 1 lb on an item that was obviously over a pound and sent it.

I am wondering - if this is happening with the automatic home shipping folks, shouldn't the post office bill their click and ship account and freeze that until the overage is taken care of? Or if it is paypal shipping, deduct the overage from the pp account?
When I use my FedEx account, if I am off on a weight or box size, they will just charge my account. No problems there. Something to take up with the USPS, really. The consumer should not have to take the slack from the irrisponsible shipper.

rche

[EmergencyIan]

Well put, rche.


- Ian

[cjefferys]

Or if it is paypal shipping, deduct the overage from the pp account?

If they used Paypal to pay for shipping, I don't think USPS would be allowed to withdraw the extra needed money out of someone's Paypal account.

And really, if someone wants to save time and pay for shipping online, they should invest in a scale. Or maybe some people just try to scam the post office.

[rche]

There is another option.

You can refuse the item; it gets sent back to the sender. They then have to pay the balance to have the item shipped. Not a quick solution, and sketchy if the item is fragile and you are not sure how it was packed.

cj, you are correct that if someone is trying to 'ship at home' they should get a scale. It makes things amazingly easy. But, there are a lot of nickel and dime folks who work all ends of the system and scamming the USPS is not to far fetched.

rche