what is it with these outrageous shipping charges?

[GuntherHess]

I always refund the cost of the item and shipping. Considering I have only had to refund like 2 or 3 returns out of over 500 items shipped its just not a big deal for me. I just dont advertise it in my auctions.

 

[Staunton Dan]

Ebay does not allow the seller to charge a separate insurance charge anymore and there is no guarantee that the buyer will get or report that he got the item shipped. The only way that I have been able to get by this is to insure everything even though it may only be a $5 item. I add insurance to the shipping cost and that tends to look like the shipping charge has been inflated. I also have to estimate what I think the item may sell for and then charge the appropriate insurance. If I think that an item may sell for $100 and it only sells for $20 then I adjust the insurance or shipping charge lower at the time of invoicing. Can be very confusing at times.

 

[GuntherHess]

Yes they have made it more difficult for sellers. If fleabay had thier way everyone would have to offer free shipping. They love that.

 

[Staunton Dan]

ORIGINAL: GuntherHess

I always refund the cost of the item and shipping. Considering I have only had to refund like 2 or 3 returns out of over 500 items shipped its just not a big deal for me. I just dont advertise it in my auctions.

I do the same thing. Luckily I haven't had but a couple of returns in the over 12 years that I have been selling on ebay. If an item has been misrepresented, then why should the buyer be penalized for it? Sometimes things like internal dings that you don't see, slip through the cracks. I am happy to refund the full purchase price but am dismayed that the item wasn't what I originally thought it was when I listed it.

 

[LC]

I was looking at an auction item on eBay once and noticed that the Seller had more than a good many negative feedbacks . I was surprised that eBay had not kicked him off . Turned out he was making custom grills for a Dodge truck from aluminum . He was charging fifteen dollars for shipping charges , but it had only cost him a bit under four dollars to ship it . Some of those buyers were really fired up over that , not that I blamed them .

 

[baltbottles]

If you read ebay’s terms for sellers. It states that the seller is responsible for the item until it arrives to the buyer. This is why they removed the option of added insurance. They believe it’s the seller’s responsibility to safely get the item to the buyer and that the Seller should purchase shipping insurance to protect themselves from lose or damage by the shipping company. That it’s not the buyer’s problem if the item is lost or damaged. Then ebay goes on to state that incorporating the cost of insurance into the price of the item is okay or to add the insurance cost with a handling fee. So all they have done is told sellers to raise their starting prices and add handling fees. This works fine for anyone selling new in the box items but is hard for people that sell any kind of antique.

Chris

 

[LC]

Point well taken Chris , a whole different set of circumstances .

 

[cornucopia]

If you take a look at the listing you'll notice an addendum was added to it explaining an incorrect weight was chosen and eBay, using their lovely listing tool, would not allow us to modify the weight. In addition I listed the instructions along with our zip code so anyone looking at the listing can figure out / calculate the proper shipping charges for their location.

Unfortunately we use to use tubo lister to do our listings but good ol' eBay changed it to add the handeling time and that stupid application from eBay wouldn't work correctly and I beat my head against the wall long enough trying to figure it out....so we're now using the application for listing right off eBay's selling page. Only problem is if you make an error on the shipping it won't let you modify it, you can only add another service - again more time to beat my head against the wall.

 

[nostalgia]

I have been selling on ebay for many years now and once in a while a potential buyer will complain about my high shipping costs.

Here in Canada, to ship a hutch soda for example will cost me $14.29 (I also have the economy option for $11.54 but believe me, it takes many many weeks to get to destination...). So I am not expensive on shipping charges, Canada Post is.

You guys in the US have it a lot cheaper! Free boxes & tape? Wow! Only in my dreams!!!

 

[Lordbud]

Here is a picture of the Herve & Somps which I would describe as "fire aqua" a color description coined by a fanciful Western digger (not me), first read it in an ebay description for the San Francisco-blown deep rich aqua glass produced by the SF glasshouses. I'd be bidding on one or the other of these but I've already got examples in my collection purchased many moons ago when most hutches were looked down upon as Poor Man's Sodas...blobtop, iron pontil, Gold Rush era sodas were the only sodas worth collecting of course.[8D]