New Ebay Experience (At Least for Me)

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Posted By: Kevin Andrews

Had a new ebay experience this week, at least for me. I bought a lot of cards (newer '70s stuff) and the package arrived postage due! The seller asked for $3.00 postage, the package had postage of $2.11 on it (from the post office) and got to me marked postage due of $0.68.

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Posted By: Laura

Here's the thing, different postal employees handle things differently.

You say the seller asked for $3.00 postage. Perhaps you mean he charged you $3.00 for shipping? There is a difference, shipping includes materials and possibly handling.

I ran into this problem when I switched to a different mailer last year. I started using a rigid cardboard mailer to send out things in toploaders, in an effort to reduce costs and improve over the bubble mailers I had been using.

My local PO guy, who is a great person, made a mistake about how much to charge. I went in with a number of cards all ready to go in the new mailer. He charged me 59 cents, despite me trying to tell him that I thought there should be a surcharge (any envelope that has a rigid item in it is subject to a surcharge, according to the USPS website.)

Out they went. Of the batch, one did arrive with postage due, the rest did not (how THAT works I have no idea.)

Happily, the buyer emailed me and was fine with it, and I sent her a small paypal payment to cover the charge (20 cents, gotta love that.)

Afterwards I went back to my local PO guy and talked to him about it, bringing with me a printout of the USPS website page. He then called a regional supervisor who confirmed what I had said, and what no one in that office (and presumably many other offices around the US) knew.

So bear with your seller, he may have been given faulty info by his local PO employee, and may not know enough to check the USPS website for things like rigid insertions, square envelopes and the like.

If I were you I'd email him and let him know you had postage due. Most likely he'll go out of his way to reimburse you. I presume you didn't leave feedback yet, right?

The postage system is a mess, and I can hardly wait for rates to go up again in May. Oh frabjous joy! I get to modify all 800+ items in my store... ((sigh))

Laura

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Posted By: Scott Mt. Joy

This has happened to me twice when the sender used the wrong weight for the package. They paid for mailing a 7oz package but the package really weighted 9oz so the usps charged me 35 cents for the difference. Both time I went back to the seller and got them to refund the total postage.

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Posted By: Steve

Yep it was a snafu at the original PO.

Had it been paid with his printer he would have

been the one who shorted the system. IMO he was told to pay 2.11

and he did. Somewhere along the line another postal employee

re weighed the item and tacked on the difference.


I'd mention it to the seller but would not hold him to it.


Steve

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Posted By: D. Bergin

Sometimes Postal employees are also overzealous in collecting charges they think are due because they don't know their own rules.

Around a year ago I sent out a package, at the time there were all kinds of questions about whether you could send a package with rigid backing through 1st class mail, don't know why but it seemed to turn into an issue almost overnight.

Turns out if you looked deep enough into the USPS rulebook you could.........and one of the workers at my Post Office confirmed this for me and even printed out the page for me.

Anyways, about a week later I sent a package to Philly. Got an e-mail back from my customer that he got a postage due notice and they told him the package could only be sent via Priority Mail because of the cardboard backing. He had to go to the Post Office to pick the package up and pay the extra fee.

I was fuming. It was totally wrong on the Post Office's part and to be honest, it made me look horrible in the process. My customer was completely understanding but I did refund him the extra cost plus a bit more for his troubles because he was just caught in the middle and it caused him extra aggravation to.

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Posted By: jay wolt

Kevin, I've had that happen to me a few times as well.
The latest was the most interesting. I too paid a shipping fee of $3.00
for a raw N184 $30 card. In my PO Box was a note that I had a package I
had to claim. The postmaster handed it to me and the package had NO stamps
or metered postage on the padded envelope. I was told If I wanted it,
I'd have to pay the $2.25 or so to claim it or they could return it to sender.
Naturally I paid it and contacted the sender & stated the package was shipped
w/ no postage. He apoligized and reimbursed me for the shipping fee I laid out.

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Posted By: Steve F

Happened once. I was bitter initially, but paid the 35c and didn't bother ripping the seller when I quickly realized it wasn't his fault.

"I'll handle this Violet. Go take your three hour break."

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Posted By: Robert {Bigb13}

Unbelievable, with some of the shipping that some sellers charge? To still owe postage? I would have let it go back and put in a pay pal claim that it was never received. Maybe because all I do is buy and never sell I look at it differently. I think some sellers try to make extra money raising shipping costs and if they do not put enough on well that is their fault.

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Posted By: Rick McQuillan

I am a long time Postmaster, and I must say that I agree with all of you. The system is very confusing, especially since we instituted the DIM weight parcels and the rigid flats rules. I see all sorts of pricing coming through the mail, and the policy in my Post Office is that even if the postage is short paid, if it was applied in another Post Office by a Postal employee then we don't charge postage due.

I had to go to my local Post Office last Friday to pick up an ebay package that had 60 cents due. I never did figure out why I was charged an extra 60 cents.

Rick

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Posted By: Kevin Andrews

What made this even more irritating for me was the fact that what was inside wasn't even close to what was advertised and it wasn't damaged in shipment and was packaged in an acceptable manner. I contacted the seller and he's going to make it right on the entire situation.

When I list on Ebay or here on B/S/T, 99.9% of the time I have a good idea on what packing materials and postage is going to cost. I'd guess that 75% of those that post here probably know much more about postal regulations than the average person and could routinely guess (fairly close) what 1st class postage plus insurance would be on package. I think I'd have a good idea if something was wrong while I was at the counter. I guess that's also why I still walk everything into the post office. All in all I think that the USPS does a fine job. They've never lost a single one of my packages in the 10 years I've been selling on Ebay. Occasionally I have inbound issues, but that's all part of living in Louisville, Ohio. Every once and awhile if a sellers not carefull the stuff heads toward Louisville, KY!