Help with Ebay Shipping Problem - RESOLVED

[Catlein]

Hello everyone,

I made a mistake in judgement the other night, and bid on a lot from France that didn't have exact shipping rates up. Unfortunately, I had found the auction at the last minute, so there was no time for the seller to get back to me. I assumed, however, that since I was dealing with tiny Ponyvilles that the shipping could not be worse than the full ponies that I have had shipped before.

Well, I woke up this morning (since the auction ended overnight) to a 23 euro shipping charge on a 5 euro lot... The seller says that this is because they will track them and require a signature upon arrival (but no insurance). I've emailed them to ask if there is a cheaper shipping option (that isn't worth 4X the price of the ponies), but is there anything else I can do?

Important lesson learned about Ebay.... D:

[zzzova]

Wow.. that was quit a bit for the shipping 
Hope that you can get a cheaper option! 

[ponylady]

I do hope they can offer a lower shipping rate for you.  But to be fair ebay has made it really hard on sellers if a package is sent International First Class. There is no protection, bottom line.  It is recommended that it is sent International Priority that way it is covered if a buyer claims it has not arrived or goes missing and that is the only way one is protected.  So your seller is not out of line she is probably just going by what is safe and recommended.
 
I know the temptation of bidding on a lot that is ending soon and is still low is tempting but I always make sure I know what my final costs are going to be.
 
 I guess in the long run if she don't want to ship any other way then you can ask her to cancel the transaction and go from there.

[Catlein]

I do hope they can offer a lower shipping rate for you.  But to be fair ebay has made it really hard on sellers if a package is sent International First Class. There is no protection, bottom line.  It is recommended that it is sent International Priority that way it is covered if a buyer claims it has not arrived or goes missing and that is the only way one is protected.  So your seller is not out of line she is probably just going by what is safe and recommended.
 
I know the temptation of bidding on a lot that is ending soon and is still low is tempting but I always make sure I know what my final costs are going to be.
 
 I guess in the long run if she don't want to ship any other way then you can ask her to cancel the transaction and go from there.

Thanks for the comments! I made a rather newbie to Ebay mistake, and I don't want to put this seller through any undue suffering. I figured since they offered both cheap shipping and tracked shipping to some areas, that they would do so everywhere. Totally my bad. Too bad Ebay has gotten to this point of unsafety for sellers...

Hopefully I can get the shipping downgraded. Fingers crossed!

[NoDivision]

I do hope they can offer a lower shipping rate for you.  But to be fair ebay has made it really hard on sellers if a package is sent International First Class. There is no protection, bottom line.  It is recommended that it is sent International Priority that way it is covered if a buyer claims it has not arrived or goes missing and that is the only way one is protected.  So your seller is not out of line she is probably just going by what is safe and recommended.
 
I know the temptation of bidding on a lot that is ending soon and is still low is tempting but I always make sure I know what my final costs are going to be.
 
 I guess in the long run if she don't want to ship any other way then you can ask her to cancel the transaction and go from there.

This.

I honestly charge absurd international shipping prices on ebay, but it's the ONLY way to protect myself at all, so I have to do it. And I tell people that I will not lower them.

[Maniah]

I put an auction up recently, and when I set my worldwide shipping options, first class wasn't even on the drop down list. It was priority only, or UPS or FedEx. Maybe it's because it was over 1 lb?

But yeah.. On ebay auctions, I wouldn't ship any way other than priority when going worldwide, because Ebay coddles buyers too much. I have to protect myself.

Best of luck. I hope you don't wind up with an unpaid item strike because of all this.

[Megans_Cousin]

I agree with everything that's been said here. It's sad but true that eBay forces the seller to take responsibility for missing/damaged packages even if the buyer chose the cheaper International shipping. It happened to me with a $50 something pony and I was very sad. Ebay basically blamed me for not forcing the buyer to take Priority International. Now, I make Priority mandatory for all buyers out of the US. It's quite costly, but it has tracking and a loss coverage, so it's totally worth it. That said, I hope you are able to work something out.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

But to be fair ebay has made it really hard on sellers if a package is sent International First Class. There is no protection, bottom line.  It is recommended that it is sent International Priority that way it is covered if a buyer claims it has not arrived or goes missing and that is the only way one is protected.  So your seller is not out of line she is probably just going by what is safe and recommended.
 

This...  Would it be cheaper for you to buy an airline ticket to France and pick it up in person?  No... I bet the shipping is much cheaper than that! 

[ponylady]

But to be fair ebay has made it really hard on sellers if a package is sent International First Class. There is no protection, bottom line.  It is recommended that it is sent International Priority that way it is covered if a buyer claims it has not arrived or goes missing and that is the only way one is protected.  So your seller is not out of line she is probably just going by what is safe and recommended.
 

This...  Would it be cheaper for you to buy an airline ticket to France and pick it up in person?  No... I bet the shipping is much cheaper than that! 

My point is the seller is probably charging her for Priority with tracking so she is covered by ebay    
 
I am sure it can be shipped First Class cheaper but as far as I know from my experience International Priority is extremely expensive. 

[Catlein]

But to be fair ebay has made it really hard on sellers if a package is sent International First Class. There is no protection, bottom line.  It is recommended that it is sent International Priority that way it is covered if a buyer claims it has not arrived or goes missing and that is the only way one is protected.  So your seller is not out of line she is probably just going by what is safe and recommended.
 

This...  Would it be cheaper for you to buy an airline ticket to France and pick it up in person?  No... I bet the shipping is much cheaper than that! 

If only this was happening one month from now... then I could have someone pick them up! My timing obviously is not so great...

In any case, I have learned an important lessons on Ebay: Don't make assumptions! I completely understand why the seller would want to protect themselves. The next time I run into ambiguous shipping, I will clarify or not bid. Now I can only hope to either convince them to go with Laposte or cancel the transaction.

[Ringlets]

Wouldnt flying to France and picking it up yourself be much more fun though?!   
  On a more serious note- I think quite a lot of us have been tempted with last minute bidding and hoped for the best on shipping charges     Unfortunately shipping rates vary a lot from country to country (some European countries have much higher shipping rates than others - for example France is higher than the UK at the moment) , then add to that the fact that ebay doesnt protect the seller unless they have tracking, and you run the risk of paying high .
 Maybe the seller will understand and work with you on this since the value of the items is not too much,  or perhaps they will cancel the transaction.  In futute though it is always best to check shipping rates first even though an auction might be very tempting 

[RockinPrettyBeats]

Are you going to go through with the transaction or cancel?

[Catlein]

Are you going to go through with the transaction or cancel?

Seller and I are talking it out I didn't want to be one of the infamous NPB that get featured on this board!

[RockinPrettyBeats]

lol, I wasn't accusing you of that. Best of luck though :-)

[Catlein]

lol, I wasn't accusing you of that. Best of luck though :-)

Oh, I didn't think you were at all! Everyone has been so nice in the thread considering my noob mistake