Jacking the shipping price on Ebay

[Mike999]

I will defend sellers (just a little). There is a glitch (or purposeful shady code) in how eBay calculates some shipping costs. When I sell, I put in the weight and box dimensions. Folks on the West Coast, I am on the East, were regularly accusing me of outrageous shipping costs. eBay was quoting them well over $30 for shipping a single 1/25 scale kit. When I would plug in the exact information directly to the USPS site the cost was closer to $15. They are using weight and dimensions when calculating postage, so you are also penalized for using an oversize box and shipping safely.

I've run into that too.  Here's one reason things went screwy, from the linked article below: "For years, FedEx and UPS did not charge dimensional weight, which meant that packages, regardless of size, were only billed based on the actual weight..."

And beware!  On Jan. 2 2017, the USPS dimensional factor for calculating prices changed yet again.  This is a great article explaining how it works:

http://www.efulfillmentservice.com/2014/09/new-fedex-ups-dimensional-weight-rules/

 

[blunc]

off topic:

hey Bill, tried to message you but got message you cannot receive messages.

[Ace-Garageguy]

hey Bill, tried to message you but got message you cannot receive messages.

MSG box was full. Now it's not.  

[Tom Geiger]

The eBay shipping calculator is more likely the issue than the seller.

This past week I bought three items for my stamp collection.  The seller charged $2 postage and combined additional items at no extra charge.  The shipping calculator took the $2 and divided it up across the 3 lots.  Then added a postage fee at the bottom.  I've dealt with this dealer before so I emailed him, "Looks like the shipping calculator went wacky, please invoice" and he did, without comment.

And as others mentioned eBay now charges the seller commission on the shipping charges too so they are paying an 8% premium on that shipping quote!  eBay did that to combat those dollar auctions with $8 postage.

 

 

[Tom Geiger]

Paypal sucks.

 

I quit sellign a few years ago because of it . True strory.

 

I sold 3 dealer promos all to one guy via ebay. Total with postage was right at $450 .  A week goes buy and he contacts me stating all 3 cars got damaged in transient . My mistake but I  failed to put insurance on them even after he asked me to . Turned out to be a HUGE mistake on my part.

 

So I asked for pictures of the damages, and gave him my email address,  days turn into weeks of messaging back and forth with excuse after excuse why I got no photos to verify damages. it was either his email provided was filtering out the pictures, he was out of the country on business , or my email was filtering out the pics. NOT once did I get pictures of anything . Then on  the very last day he was eligible to file a claim via PayPal buyer protection , sure enough he did.

Paypal contacted me stating he claimed damaged goods and wanted to send them back . I plead my side , but finally ended up having to take back said 'damaged' cars.  Then about a week goes by I get this strange box with nothing but a # and a zip code in the return address section. But because it was insured I had to sign for it, and without opening it to see the contents. 

 

Sure enough he sent back 2 cars to me worth about $20 total. and STOLE the 3 I sent him.

I filed a claim with PayPal with pictures of what I sent him and what he sent me. PayPals  reply, I signed for them case was over. And refunded the money to him.  So he got my 3 cars, and all his money back.

I sent him several  nasty emails saying If I ever get to Los Angeles I WILL pay him a visit.

I watched his feedback for the next month or 2. And you could read the feedback he got he did the exact same thing to several people

 

I started closing down my store and ultimately quit selling on eBay altogether and closed my PayPal account. Now I only use Ebay  to buy and usually pay with USPS money orders if the buyer will let me . Otherwise I use my wife's PayPal account .

Am I taking a risk seller will send what  I bought?  Probably ,,, but I haven't had any issues to date btw .  I know  it adds a few days to the time I get my item . But I take comfort in the fact PayPal gets absolutely nothing from the sale .

The  dollar amount and the obvious fraud that you documented here is enough that I would have gone to the USPS postal inspectors.  They take mail fraud very seriously.