Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm in dispute with a buyer over postal costs for a couple of DVDs. The items were listed separately, with an initial price of 10p each and postal costs of £2 each. They sold for exactly that, and were bought by the same person.

When they sold, I sent invoices by clicking the boxes in the emails notifying me of their sale. When I received payment via PayPal, i saw I'd been paid only £2.20, representing 20p for the two DVDs and one postage payment. Checking my emails, I find the buyer sent me an 'invoice me' email which grouped the items under one postage fee, which I presume I must have clicked on without checking it properly.

Do I have to accept these reduced postage costs? The listings clearly state the postage is £2 for each of the items, and at no point did I agree to group them. It seems he or she has took it on his/herself to do so unilaterally, ignoring my invoices and sending one of their own. Apparently, £2.10 for a DVD isn't cheap enough for him/her.

The buyer insists I must accept the reduced postage rate, saying "Sorry but under your final invoice the P+P was £2. Under ebay policy you cannot increase tha postage after payment has been made". This seems unlikely to me. I'm not increasing the postage, I'm simply asking for the postal fees agreed when we made the deal.

I've tried emailing eBay, but have yet to get a straight answer from them about whether this breaches their rules. Does anyone here have any thoughts?

Hmm...difficult, £2 is on the top end of postage for 1 DVD but I've no idea how that glitch occured.

I suspect however you may just have to suck it up so to speak, ebay is buyer biased badly these days and £2 should cover you, it only cost me 79p to post one to Mr Sofa last week.

Just be very careful what you click in future.

I know eBay had something in their rules about not overcharging for postage (and £4 for postage on two DVD's is massively expensive, even if they're a cheap at 10p) because you could use it as a way to get around eBay fees (ie - a watch that costs £10 with a £100 postage charge would only be billed on the £10). I don't know if that's still the case, but as Duds says, you're probably going to have to accept the money and send the stuff.
You'll doubtless be able to refuse, but it'll probably end up costing you more in the long run with the bad feedback, etc.

It is indeed still the case.

Just gonna drag this thread up again, save starting my own.

I'm selling some stuff on ebay at the moment, and someone has been bidding to win (it has a couple of hours left) but has messaged me saying they just saw that I only have paypal as a payment method but haven't been able to open an account; they ask if I'd accept a cheque.

Now, this automatically rings bells with me. However, said person has 155 positive (100%) feedback so I'm in two minds whether to accept her cheque if she wins the auction.

Is there any risk with cheques I need to watch out for? Should I get her to stick the guarantee card number on the back, etc.?

Cheers!

Cash cheque, don't send item until it clears. Why such a problem opening a paypal account? It's pretty damn easy.

UK cheque rules changed recently. Now, they take 10 days to clear, but can never be clawed back afterward. Previously your bank would honor cheques after a few days but months later could take the money back if the cheque was hooky.

How much is the item selling for?

You kid, Dr. Gaywood, surely. There's been a giant load of criticism and push to make cheques clear faster than 4 days as there's no technical reason for being unable to do so. It can't now be 10?

£165 at the moment, with a while left, so I'm expecting frantic last-minute bidding.

Cheers for getting back quickly

This sucks balls

Actually it doesn't, because you can 100% rely on the money after seven working days. I prefer that to the "oops, that cheque you cashed last year was just clawed back out of your account, and look, all your direct debits have bounced".

Right, cheers for that. I'll email her back saying I'll accept a cheque but will have to wait for 7 days after receiving it before I dispatch the goods.

Ta!

But I want the money now! I'd rather they changed the rules so the banks have to pay both you and the defrauded person back.

Certainly sir. Please deposit £35 a month to use your current account.

7 working days - so 10 days.

Ah yes, nice anti-idiot catch, Craster chap.

Hooray! It sold, and not to the person offering a cheque.

Cheers again, anyway, guys

155 transactions and no PayPal account? Hmm...

Gah. Last night I got bid-sniped on an item in the last possible second (quite literally, I refreshed the page and it came up with "2 secs left" with me as the high bidder) and he won by a single pound.

Gnnngh.

Hm. That's either dodgy or really awkward for her.

Either way, after emailing her and explaining the precautions I was going to take, she didn't get back to me or place any further bids.



Hah. Annoying, huh?

I was confused when it was in the media, confused because cheques already took 3 days surely? But then the penny dropped; this kills overseas cheque fraud completely, where people in America would pay for cars by check, the seller would ship it when the check "cleared", only to have it then bounce 3 months later.

Unless it's UK-internal only, which wouldn't be as good, but still better than before.