overcharge on shipping -- your take?

Anyone here ever got overcharged?

Like they asked for $5 shipping and they ended up sending it $1.98 media mail or so? Especially if you don't use paypal.

Have any of you ever ask for a refund? I mean, think about getting $3 back everytime someone overcharged you... do it a few times and you got almost $10 back. It seems like lately more and more eBay sellers are overcharging on shipping. Imagine if you got all those dollars back... in due time it would easily equate up towards $20...

Or do you not really care, saying "eh, it's only 2 or 3 bucks." Or do you really believe the sellers who claim it's to cover time, trip to post office, etc.? In my experience, the drive ain't far, and I make time. Box is free. I charge 4.00 usually, and send the thing for 3.85 priority -- now that's fair IMO. Not this $5 send it for $1.70 crap.

In the past month actually, I've gotten back $6 on shipping via request... and believe me, when I used it on a meal I ate the damn thing with a big frugal grin.

I do agree to an EXTENT

Time / travel / and supplies to ship all costs money.
I don't know about you guys, but shipping at my local post office is tedious..

lots of those mass ebay sellers do it, they charge you 6-8 for shipping and it comes like 2.98 media mail.

i've emailed some and asked WTF was up, they said the cost covers packing material as well...

i always ship shit priotiry mail with DC, and it's still only 5 bucks per game...

I feel the same way, over charging shipping has become an annoying burden lately.

DashK, "Covers the packing material" was their excuse? Lame

I think what I hate most is when they say in an auction that they're charging $5, but don't say how they're shipping it. When you email them, you ask and they say something like "oh, we are shipping it UPS or Postal Service," but you've already paid so you don't press further to ask what method they went with.

Then you get it in a reversed priority box (small ones) that only shows the brown parts that was shipped for $1.25. So not only did they save on a box, but they saved on it going media mail. When I ask them about it, they usually say something like "oh, it's handling expenses." This is where I fly off the handle because I feel your handling expenses should never be 400% of the actual cost of shipping. Maybe 25 - 50% at best.

Then again, there are some things I've gotten big in the mail that I was okay with. I paid $40 to have a guitar shipped and the price on it only said $20. It was packed inside a box though, with tons of packing peanuts, and the guitar was in it's case which was surrounded by a thick layer of bubble wrap, and inside the strings were loose and there was a bit of styrafoam to protect it.

I have no problems paying for the time it took for somebody to do that. I understand the cost of packing peanuts and bubble wrap as well, and the guy used a shitload of both. I just can't stand paying $5 - $7 for $1 shipping when all they do is shove it in a box and push it out of there. Ugh...

I've never been overcharged. I've been undercharged on more than one occasion, like 50 cents or something like that.

I haven't been overcharged but a lot of people add paypal fees, ebay fees, materials and the actual shipping in the shipping cost. They add the extra fees in shipping because thats something you can change after the auctions been won already. I don;t personally approve of this practice. There were many times I would have bid on something but was turned away by the shipping fees especially when coming from overseas.

the reason all those guys use media mail, is cause they don't hafta get off their fat asses to mail them, you can drop those in your mailbox. unless it's a collector all those guys use media mail now.

Man, I've had to pay 10$ for S/H before, and it was just simple Priority shipping in the states.


Priority = around 4$ (what I typically ask for), sucks when Ebayers do that though. Not like you can really argue with them after the auction is done...

yeah overcharging doesn't sound very fun, but it really should be a must.

like today i charged someone $4.00 shipping on a record they wanted. ended up costing $4.40 to ship...

so $0.40 i had to put into it + the cost of the packaging supplies + the gas i used to drive to the damn place & ofcourse the time i spent waiting in line.

i should have charged $10.00 for shipping.

It's a two way street here
How wiould you feel if I quoted you a shipping price of 10.00 USD and the item cost me 16.00 USD to ship it to you and I asked you to pay the difference?? Would you complain or PAY IT?
It's called The cost of doing business and it works both ways.
-BB

I see examples of shipping overcharges all the time. Just yesterday, I was looking at a DVD set and found one cheap however the guy wanted $18 s&h for a 3 disc set?!!

I thought at first "Okay...must be from Japan or Hong Kong." Nope...TEXAS!!!

I don't selll many things on eBay but I set a shipping cost based on what I feel a fair cost would be. The last three times it did cost me more to ship than I had quoted but that's okay...as long as the buyers got themselves a good deal and were satisfied that works for me

I've was ripped off when I bought my laseractive (LD player, heavy). I paid for EMS and he sent it by surface mail, what I exspected would come within 2-3 days took 3 months. Seems like I've come across a fair deal of Americans that think they can just ripp of Europeans. I must either look like a little lamb or be a horrid judge of character.

I've been over charged a few time...no big deal...I just hate it when they charge you a lot (say $40) and the shipping price was $12...

I say the small difference like $3.00 is not worth arguing, but if they are asking like smegging $15 or $20 for priority then that gets ridiculous. But then again, most buyers have enough sense to steer clear of those retarded auctions. I make it a point to estimate all of the auctions I have to the best of my ability, extending to bidders $2.50 or $3.00 for media mail or $4.50 to $5.50 for priority mail so that no one feels obligated to pay high tariffs.

I didn't know you could drop off media mail in a regular on-the-curb mailbox. I always take my shit to the post office for delivery.

it's the price of doing business online i suppose.
I really don't have problems with it, like mr pyro said
it is a trip to the post office.
I know it's either do it between 8-12 on saturday or make
a trip to the airport post office since I work all during the week.
either way it's a hassle.
and when I do send out things I usually send it priority.
priority is probably one of the best services out there.

Steve said:

Anyone here ever got overcharged?

Like they asked for $5 shipping and they ended up sending it $1.98 media mail or so? Especially if you don't use paypal.


Or do you not really care, saying "eh, it's only 2 or 3 bucks." Or do you really believe the sellers who claim it's to cover time, trip to post office, etc.? In my experience, the drive ain't far, and I make time. Box is free. I charge 4.00 usually, and send the thing for 3.85 priority -- now that's fair IMO. Not this $5 send it for $1.70 crap.

In the past month actually, I've gotten back $6 on shipping via request... and believe me, when I used it on a meal I ate the damn thing with a big frugal grin.

Click to expand...

Well you see this is the thing I HATE about being a seller when doing business with people. I generally try to make the product at a reasonable price, but then never know exactly what to charge people for shipping because the variables involved are weight, what it's packaged with, and where it's going. Thus I generally ask for $6.00 S&H charges on anything I sell, but if more often than not the people I sell to will see that I ended up spending $7.50 or even $10 something on the parcel they recieve because it ended up being heavier than expected, or where it was going ended up costing me more. So on that note, I generally think $6.00 is fair and I'll cover the rest of the S&H out my own pocket... unless of course it's a HUGE bulk of stuff going out then I have to charge a bit more for S&H, but still generous guy that I am, I still end up paying several dollars out my pocket (that I'm not turning a profit on) to send the buyer their parcel. So when you see a game I'm selling that's kind of rare (soon to be a HUGE sell in Everything Else) and it's selling at $51.00 it's actually $45.00 for the product and $6.00 for shipping, but when I ship it, it's probably going to cost me in reality $8.00 overall, meaning I'm still fronting part of the payment.

I sold a SUPER NOVA once to NG.com-er The Chief w. some PCBs boards and two giant six button controllers and asked for I believe $50.00 S&H. I had figured the whole darned thing would be packaged nicely at my MAIL CENTER USA in one giant box... instead it took two huge boxes and the S&H came out a hell of a lot more than what I expected. So in the end I ended up paying an additonal $35.00 out of my own money to send it to him. I didn't ask him for more S&H money because it was my fault... and a reputable seller will shell out their own money if such a problem arises. But after that time, I generally don't know how to price range S&H charges Steve. If I ask for $6.00, I end up spending $7.50... if I ask for $8.00 S&H I end up spending $10.50? Thus what I'm trying to say bro, is not everyone tries to rip people off, I actually try to save people money and don't mind spending some of my own on shipping their product safe and sound providing it's not more than three or four dollars. But then I'm a Horse-Trader/Wheeler Dealer, not a shrewd business man.

MERCENARY X99

Never happaned to me yet, I always ask before bidding what the costs are. But often people charge way to much, most of the times when you think its a good deal on the game, the shipping costs are skyhigh to make up for it.

I understand people do it on ebay to avoid ebay fees.

That shit happends all the time on ebay...
Specially when you buy computer parts not only do they want like
20-30 for shipping, but they also wan't 8.25 sales tax here in California...
That's BS..
So here's what i do, First of all, i don't care how much i need it or how cheap it's, i just don't buy it, if the shipping sucks, then it's a no deal, so i look for the lowest shipping and final price, as for Tax, hell no, i'll just get it from someone in another state, i mean WTF, when you email them and ask them to pick it up, since it's only like 20 miles away the always say "NO PICK UPS"
so i'm like fine it'll cost you $2 max to send it arround the corner and i should have it in one day, they say, "NOPE" it's $25 shipping and 1-3 days....WTF...
So how do i get a little back at them....
I always Do free shipping on my auctions, so people don't have to worried about adding more shit to there item, even here i always do free shipping....
But i do agree that what most people are doing now is adding the Paypal and Egay fees to there item either on there price or the shipping.........

I was thinking about this last night. I was looking at a couple GC imports and on all the game that I was interested in they were charging $8 to ship + $5 for insurance. I thought about e-mailing them but figured I would get a lame excuse. The other thing that was really annoying on Ebay was a high start price for a game followed by a BIN for a 1-2 dollars more. When I look for games on Ebay I don't really want to see a start price of $39.99 with a BIN at $42.00.

Sorry for the off topic rant,

djdelly

When I ship stuff, I guess on the costs. Sometimes I might make a buck or two... sometimes I might lose a buck or two... but when you factor in eBay fees an Paypal fees (a convenience to the buyer, no less!), I think it's fair. I don't make a profit, but some people do get better deals than others.

If someone did complain, I'd give them the money back, though. 2 bucks isn't worth pissing someone off.

I once bought a cable on Ebay for $2.50. Shipping for $5.00! I'm thinking ok, must be for priority mail right? WRONG! took almost 2 weeks to get to me! I SERIOUSLY thought about leaving negative feedback. Now I won't even bid on an item if the shipping is more than the item.

Most times when i'm selling something i'm not looking to make a profit, just trying to move stuff to make space and such. I don't make a big deal about shipping, just as long as the buyer gets their stuff. If somebody wanted to ask for money when they were shipping something because it was $10 more than what I was charged I wouldn't mind paying it...HOWEVER, I'd wait until I got the package and see just how far the charges were over before I sent anything.

I've seen some eBay seller asking $10 to ship a CD

I dunno, when I sell on ebay I usually just charge 5 if its a small item and then ship it priority.

If its big I just wait so I can actually go and get it weighed before hand and then round it up to the nearest dollar.

I just bought a game on ebay from a powerseller, it was only $10 for a sealed copy. The shipping was listed at $7, which I thought was a little excessive, but the game was a great deal so I went for it.

The game shows up wrapped only in brown paper with no padding or anything and a media mail sticker for $1.52 on it. That kind of stuff is not cool, if it was a dollar or two I wouldn't sweat it. Getting overcharged $5+ is bullshit though.