YAEST

[Zolty]

Recently I auctioned a copy of Final Fantasy 1 on ebay for $10, in the auction I stated that I have a flat shipping fee of $10 dollars.

The bidder bid on the item with 6 days until the end and wond up winning the item. The low price is probably due to my crappy feedback due to some problems I had in the past (its a 7.5 year old account). I am trying to turn that around.

Below are the emails that were sent and recieved from the seller and to me, how do you guys think I handled this?

Link to the auction

After the auction ended I sent him an invoice

He replied

Dear slashinburn,
I have purchased the following item on eBay from you. Please send me the total amount I owe you.
I'm only from Illinois and shipping shouldn't be more than $6.00. Priority Mail is $4.05-5.80. Madison, WI is like 2 hours from me.

My reply

$20 is the total as per the invoice I sent you, I will not negotiate shipping & handling when it is explicitly stated in the auction. If you wanted to negotiate shipping terms you should have asked before the auction closed. If you would like to drive to Madison I will waive the shipping fee if you want to pick up the item.

His Reply

I am not able to drive to Madison and would rather have it shipped. Can you
ship the game Media Mail or Parcel Post for $5.00? You'd still be making
about $2.00-2.50 off shipping. Charging $10.00 for a game is a bit excessive
don't you think? I know what it costs to ship and I will not pay $10.00,
sorry. I charge my people exact ammount on my games/comics when I sell on my
Ebay store account. This game is for my personal collection

My reply

By bidding you agreed to my shipping terms, my shipping terms are "flat fee", I don't care how much it costs to ship the game because that is what I am charging. If I wanted to charge actual shipping I would have specified that in the auction.

His reply

I don't see what the big deal is and why you won't be fair on shipping.
According to Ebay policy it's called "excessive shipping" and a violation in
thier terms. I've been on Ebay 6+ years and don't appreciate other people
profiting more than double the actual shipping cost. I'll go ahead and pay,
but I'm not leaving good feedback pertaining shipping cost. No offense.

Oh noes I am going to get a negative feedback
My reply

I just shipped out your product, it cost $6.77. I feel that my time + the box and packaging materials including as a handling fee easily makes up the additional $3.23. I have been on ebay nearly 8 years and I don't think that my shipping and handling fee falls under the category of "excessive shipping".

Ebay specifically state in their policies the following "Handling Fee: Actual packaging materials costs may be charged. A handling fee in addition to actual shipping cost may be charged if it is not excessive." I have done some research and a leading manufacture of packaging supplies charges nearly $3.00 for the box I used to ship your item. If this has done nothing to sway your opinion I suggest you report me to ebay for charging an excessive handling fee, and have some legitimate grounds for it rather than what it cost you to ship a similar item at some indiscernible point in your past.

The breakdown of my shipping & handling charge aside, you knew full well that you would be charged this fee when you bid on my auction (which had 6 days to go). I didn't try and hide it, I didn't conceal it, truth be told if you had approached me before they auction had ended I may have even lowered it, but you didn't. You waited until you had won the auction to bring up my "excessive shipping" violation and then proceeded to attempt to haggle down my price and threaten me with negative feedback for doing exactly what I stated when I began the auction. I am upholding my end of our initial agreement, your item was shipped for the agreed upon price, your item can be tracked via fedex.com with tracking number ***************

How did I do ATOT?

Cliffs
I sold a game on ebay
Buyer emailed me afterwards saying that I am charging to much for shipping
I told buyer I don't care he agreed to it
buyer pays and is threatening a neg
I explain to the buyer that I did not violate any policy

 

[rivan]

a) cliffs?
b) I thought you misspelled yeast in your title.

 

[AbsolutDealage]

I would have handled it the same way.

 

[DivideBYZero]

YEAST

 

[fatpat268]

While the shipping is a little excessive, I agree with you. I hate those assholes who try to negotiate with you after they bid on the auction and when it's over. They new the terms, if they don't like it, they shouldn't have bid in the first place.

 

[Al Neri]

G F Y is how I would have responded.

 

[purbeast0]

charging $10 to ship a video game is fvcking ridiculous. I've shipped them first class accross the country and its like $1. so you were an asshole for charging $10 to ship a game and i would never have bid on your auction.

that said, the guy is a moron to bid and then complain about it. he knew the price before he bid and should have either not bid, or talked to you before he bid. in this case, you are both being assholes, but you are technically the "correct" asshole.

 

[Aikouka]

Dang, you should've just came to me first... I would've paid you $20 for it without complaining 😛.

Also, I think you're best off just using USPS for most things if it's not out of your way. The boxes are always free and it's not hard to stuff the box with old shopping bags from Wal-Mart. Heck, they'll even tape the box up for you (so does the UPS place that I go to, but that's beside the point).

I'd say that for $7 shipping and you charging $10... that seems alright, it's not really profiting in any way if you include the price of a box (probably about $1-2). What I have a problem with is people charging +80% or more on their shipping price. That's just ridiculous.