Doug Williams wrote:Take responsibility for your own choices.

Its a matter of honesty for me.  The small example you explain is not what international buyers deal with.  The realistic scenario is more like this:  Seller lists a flat rate shipping price of $50 and says he will send it small packet.  For $50 this is the price of Airmail Small Packet.  However the selling decides he wants to make an extra $25-$30 and sends it Surface Small Packet.  As a buyer you find out 12 weeks later when the package arrives and shipping was only $25.  This seller is a piece of crap and will get a neg and Paypal dispute from me every time.

Its not about the buyer taking responsibility its about a seller try to deceive.

We could have this debate again how charging a handling fee of $100+ is fine as long as it is listed but that is still a piece of crap seller in my book too.

If eBay changed their resolution policy so that they would reimburse the difference between what was paid for postage by the buyer and what was paid for postage on the shipment, it would solve some problems.  For one thing, it would lower shipping costs and increase their profits as a higher percentage of the payment for items would be for the item.  It would also create problems.  There would have to be a bar code/receipt number system on all postal receipts or postal transactions.  Hmmm...interesting idea.  I wonder why the Post Office doesn't do that now?  But I digress.  

Doug Williams wrote:because he lied.

The point of my example is that No he didn't lie but he definitely mislead.  He said he was going to ship it by Small Packet and he did.  But from his price common sense would dictate that the price was for Airmail instead the price really includes an obscenely large handling fee.

Ah, I didn't realize there were two kinds of "small packet", since I rarely bid on or sell internationally. I see your point.

Here's the thing.  If you are on Ebay for long enough you will run into people who try and get away with everything.  You can take steps to protect yourself from 99.9% of the bad sellers out there but eventually you are still going to run into someone that's going to be a problem - I have almost 1000 feedback now and have run into about 5 such people over the years so maybe its really 99.5%



In general, I always ask how much shipping and handling to Canada is going to be (so I know before I bid).  Often, if I am interested in more than 1 auction, I will ask how much their handling fee is going to be.  However, if the seller is going to try and scam you, they won't actually tell you this.



The last one for me was this seller:



http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d ... llFeedback



2 days or so before the auctions end, I asked the seller how much combined shipping would be and specifically how much the handling fee is going to be.  The seller responds about an hour before the end of the auction and says, yes he will combine shipping and we can work it out after the auction.  So I bid and win.  The seller then comes back with: the sum of shipping listed in all the auctions is $165 so he'll deduct the shipping for one auction so down to $125.  Actual shipping here is $20-$25 so his handling fee is $100.  I complain and say I'm not going to pay so he then drops it down to $65 which is still a handling fee of $40.  



Its always interesting when dealing with sellers like this - they come up with all kinds of excuses.  In this auction, I was told that they are in a remote location so the cost of shipping is so much higher, then it was they weren't going to lose money on shipping, then it was because Ebay fees are too high and finally because their auctions didn't end high enough.



According to your theory I have no right to complain because the seller has posted his outrageous shipping charges in the auction.

Mars wrote:Here's the thing.  If you are on Ebay for long enough you will run into people who try and get away with everything.

I've been on eBay since 6/17/98.

In general, I always ask how much shipping and handling to Canada is going to be (so I know before I bid).

2 days or so before the auctions end, I asked the seller how much combined shipping would be and specifically how much the handling fee is going to be.  The seller responds about an hour before the end of the auction and says, yes he will combine shipping and we can work it out after the auction. So I bid and win. According to your theory I have no right to complain because the seller has posted his outrageous shipping charges in the auction.

Pretty much. Sorry, but I would not have bid without first knowing what the exact combined shipping charges would be. Caveat Emptor. Not everyone is as honest as you are, or I am. I'm glad you got him talked down though.

Since 1998 I have only left one neg...for an item I never received and had to go through Paypal to get a refund. But, I probably don't use eBay nearly as much as a lot of you, and I almost never deal internationally.

Hi,

thats sad.

I met him once, when I was a yoof.

I didn't know who he was at the time.

He asked me when the bar was opening in the student union

Cheers,
malc

gvaughn1 wrote:But still, the Ozzie-sabbath was always a bit better IMO!

Ozzy is Ozzy.  He's a character and has a unique voice.  Ozzy-Sabbath is classic Sabbath.

Dio had lungs of steel.  I think that he was a better vocalist, period.  But that's just my personal taste.  I only saw him in concert twice or three times, but he always lived up to my expectations.

I received feedback "Arrived in time and in good condition" from an 11 feedback buyer, and he gave me a Neutral! WTF? It (the Eberron adventure) was NM!