Shipping Overcharger eBay User aaa41583

[babystarz]

After her initial response, I asked if she could explain how the money was spent. She hasn't said anything. I'm not really sure what to do at this point.

[fingerpaints]

Ebay does allow sellers to charge a handling fee, however, it has to be reasonable. Even for local pick ups, there may be a handling fee involved. This however should be reasonable, and not ridiculous.

I do hope that the seller tries to do the right thing for you!

[babystarz]

Just wanted to update and say that it has now been 5 days with no reply from the seller so I've escalated the case for a final decision from eBay. I know I probably won't get anything but I figured it was worth a shot.

[ponylady]

Good Luck babystarz and I do hope they side in your favor. 
I am just curious though when you opened the case, where you able to open a case for the excessive shipping charges? Or did you have to file an item not as described case?   

[babystarz]

I had to file an "item not as described" case. Since the shipping price was not as described, that seemed like the closest option. I will definitely look into filing a report for excessive shipping costs too. I can't believe the seller has stopped responding again, what a nightmare to deal with. You would think she'd care more about defending herself now that eBay is involved, to say nothing of her reputation being on the line.

[hokuspokus]

Good luck, babystarz!

[banditpony]

http://reviews.ebay.com/Report-excessive-shipping-step-by-step-guide?ugid=10000000001894527

Here is a link to the step by step to report excessive shipping. Seems outdated though (even though it says it was updated this month).


I tried to poke around to get at a menu that was similar. And this is what it says in the customer support for the search 'excessive shipping' :


"Also, keep in mind that sellers aren't allowed to charge a separate fee for things like insurance, mileage, time spent at a shipping carrier, employee wages, or eBay and PayPal fees. See the shipping and handling costs section of our selling practices policy for more information. [/size][/color]
If a seller is breaking the rules, report it to us."[/font]
[/color][/size][/color][/size]report it to us, is a link, that sends it to a form to email them. What happens beyond that....... who knows. [/color]


I am curious to know if a not as described case would work in your favor . Mostly because not as described is not your issue. (And it never seems like they believe in partial refunds, only full refunds with returns).

[cloud_weaver]

I tried to poke around to get at a menu that was similar. And this is what it says in the customer support for the search 'excessive shipping' :


"Also, keep in mind that sellers aren't allowed to charge a separate fee for things like insurance, mileage, time spent at a shipping carrier, employee wages, or eBay and PayPal fees. See the shipping and handling costs section of our selling practices policy for more information. [/size][/color]
If a seller is breaking the rules, report it to us."[/font]
[/color][/size][/color][/size]report it to us, is a link, that sends it to a form to email them. What happens beyond that....... who knows. [/color]

Thank you!  A good link to have on hand.    My biggest complaint with ebay recently though is that we sellers are not allowed to charge for insurance.  It's either included in the shipping cost, or it's not.  I wish it was an option - I understand why they've changed that (to protect the buyer), but honestly it's very off-putting to a lot of bidders seeing that the shipping cost is nearly $2 more to cover insurance.  I liked it better when it was an option.

I mean, I ensure packages $50 and over, but I'm not going to spend $2 extra on insurance when the pony I sold was $4, and shipping itself was $2. 

[ashlyne]

ARGH!   I'm so fed up with sellers overcharging for shipping. This seems to be a growing trend.  Sellers claim that by offering you a combined shipping total, they can give you a few bucks back and expect you to be happy about it.  I've had two major cases recently and have posted here about them.

ajbgames - I bought a BUNCH of single auctions after getting confirmation she combined shipping.   In the end, I paid $60+ for about $30 worth in shipping.  Old boxes were used and the only packing materials were the zip lock baggies the ponies were in.
 
klicic1986 - International seller. I bought a handful of single pony items and was given a discounted combined shipping rate of 20GBP. I figured the high cost was for it being sent insured or registered, but no.  The items arrived dirty, loose in in one of those thin plastic mailer baggies with a postage stamp of 6.50GBP. 
 
Both sellers defended their overcharging and were extremely difficult to work out a solution.
 
Leaving a low rating and reporting excessive shipping charges to ebay sounds good, but I have a hard time doing that before letting the seller know I have an issue with them.  But it's been my experience, no matter how nice you are about it, they will probably get defensive. Just a warning.

[babystarz]

So eBay decided in the seller's favor, no surprise there. I'm still hesitant to leave feedback because she hasn't left my second feedback. I will file a report on the shipping overcharge though.

I'm going to update the thread title to include her username as well so people are aware from a glance who I'm talking about.

[ClosetAvalanche]

Sellers cant leave buyers negative feedback, so you're fine.

What irks me as a seller is that follow the rules and yet I'm charged fees on shipping! and the wakos get away with profiting from it. I usually charge $3.00 for an adult and $2.50 for a baby, yet someone actually left me a 1 star for shipping costs so I'm just switching all my auctions over to free shipping.

My best advice is leave negative feedback and ding her stars. When she finds out she cant sell anymore because of low ratings, maybe she'll get it.

[ponylady]

I would leave honest feedback at this point.     
 
Also she can not leave a false positive on your account, ebay will remove it at your request if she does.

[Ringlets]

Sorry they didnt find in your favor *sigh*   its not fair that she got away with this. Thanks for updating the title of the thread as well

My best advice is leave negative feedback and ding her stars. When she finds out she cant sell anymore because of low ratings, maybe she'll get it.

This is what I would advise too. ^^

[babystarz]

Ok, I'm going to go ahead and leave the negative feedback, but I'm trying to figure out how to fit everything I want to say in the space allotted. It's difficult! Edit: I just complained about the shipping overcharge and not the poor communication, I figured the star rating I left would say enough about that.

[FantasticFirefly]

I'm glad you stuck to your guns babystars. As a collector, with the overcharge she should seriously know better to use (some of) the excess money to pad your ponies. over $160 worth- it makes me cringe! If I was paying that invoice, I would have assumed they had protection in that box. I'm glad to see you're reporting the overcharge.

ashlyne, I have found the opposite since the stars were introduced. Maybe it's because I'm in Canada and before us international peoples tended to get overcharged more before? I know some places that additional fees not seen on the postal sticker are applied to that shipping purchase. (mailing within Canada there is tax applied after).

Anyway, before I had complained a couple times about shipping. If it's a few dollars I didn't care. I did care if there was no padding, or otherwise packed in a way that should have caused damage. when it was $20 and I was charged $40 (and sometimes on top of it they counted that $40 towards the customs declaration so I was paying 15% on that converted too). I would complain. and get nothing from it.

Now a few times I had had an issue with being overcharged, so I'd write and ask what's up. something like "Hi, I getting ready to leave you some feedback and I notice I was charged $15 on my invoice for shipping, the label on the package said $7.88 I did notice you used a sturdy box, and packing materials inside. I don't mind the additional to cover that, and didn't want to leave any ratings yet if this wasn't intentional, or there were additional charges from the post office the label doesn't reflect. Other then that, everything was perfect. Awaiting your response. " and normally, before a response I'd get a partial. and then a response with something like it's easier for them to overcharge and refund after, which they forgot to do before hand for me, then make an error that favors the buyer and eat the difference in shipping.