ebay question

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Posted By: david

about two weeks ago i sold and item on ebay and sent the item out the next day without insurance or delivery confirmation. now the buyer claims to have never recieved the item when the five other items i ship out that day all arrived without problems. the buyer now wants a full refund and refuses to report the lost item to the post office. has this happened to anyone on the board. how should i proceed. i have been a member of ebay for over five years and have excellent feedback and this is a new buyer with feedback around 20-30
thanks for your help

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Posted By: Jay Miller

This is closing the barn door after the horse has run away but never, ever, sell anything on ebay that you do not take out insurance on. Do not make insurance an option; require the buyer to pay for it and include a notice to that effect in the item description. At this point you have no idea as to whether it was received or not. You may choose not to send a refund but almost surely there will be a pissing contest.

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Posted By: TBob

I have been on ebay for several years and can relate my opinion and experiences, having been a buyer of more than one package which was lost in the mail. I normally don't purchase insurance if it is optional unless the item is $30 or more or unless it is something truly unique and in my mind irreplaceable. I have had 3 items I bought on ebay lost in the mail and since I didn't purchase insurance, I had to "eat it." All I asked was that the seller doublecheck to make sure the item was sent (twice the seller apologized as an item wasn't sent) and that a "trace" be placed on the item from the place of origination to my home. This did no good but I tried.
The bottom line is the seller is not responsible if the buyer doesn't purchase insurance. One more note, be careful if you buy a delivery confirmation that your postal worker enters it in to the system. If he doesn't, you are S.O.L. The only repercussion you might have in your case is a negative feedback from the buyer. You might weigh this against the amount you received from the buyer to see if it is worth it. I have never left negative feedback for a seller when an item was lost and not his fault, but there are some real squirrels out there on ebay.
One more thing, I almost always purchase delivery confirmations myself out of my own pocket on any package where the buyer rejects insurance because I just don't want the frigging hassle. They are fairly cheap and save headaches.
Good luck!

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Posted By: petecld

You have no choice but to hand over responsibility to the post office for delivery so I take no responsibility for what they do. That being said:

As a seller: I make it very clear in my emails that I am not responsible for lost or damaged packages and if buyers don't buy the insurance and a package is lost/damaged that is their problem. Delivery confirmation does cover your (you-know-what) but does nothing for the buyer. Insurance at least covers them as well. I'm amazed how some people have spent hundreds of dollars on an item but won't flip for the $3-4 it takes to insure the item.

As a buyer: I ALWAYS pay for the insurance and if the seller won't allow it (which I don't understand at all) I pay very close tabs on their ebay activity until I receive my item.

My learning experince: When I first started using ebay I bought a photo but didn't pay for the insurance; Never got the photo; left a neutral saying "I guess of you don't buy insurance, you don't get your item." Sure enough, within the next 2 weeks more than 12 other users emailed me saying the same thing - they didn't buy insurance from the guy and never received their item - and the guy got tossed from ebay soon after. Good scam he had going - send nothing, blame post office, keep money.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Sadly, selling on eBay is all about CYA. Nothing gets shipped out from me that doesn't have delivery confirmation or insurance, unless it's going to someone I know. I also clearly state in my auctions that insurance is optional and the buyers risk if not insured. The post office changed the requirements for delivery confirmation and you can now use it on 1st class mail if it's of a certain thickness and the padded envelopes qualify.

In my last round of auctions I had a guy claim that he never got his card. I sent him the tracking number from for the delivery confirmation that said it had been delivered and I never heard from the guy again.

Jay

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Posted By: Bob

always insure the card for $50-It requires a signature and cost $2. Any item insured for $50 or more needs a signature and like tbob said it saves you a lot of hassle.

Bob

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Posted By: Jeff

I once bought some cards from a guy and payed with paypal. The seller said he sent the cards. Weeks went by and I never got the cards. Finally the seller refunded my money. After 30 calander days I got the package in the mail and it was postmarked from when the guy said he shipped it 30 days prior. I emailed him and told him that I got them and would be sending the money back and he said to forget it. Which I thought was very nice of him. Jeff

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Posted By: dan mckee

All of my auctions state: Insurance is extra or at your risk, period. Before that, I ate it and refunded not knowing if they got it or not. I thought most people were honest and they are. But you must protect yourself on ebay at all costs!

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Posted By: Jon Canfield

but you can get Delivery Confirmation from the USPS for FREE if you use Priority Mail! Yes, it's true - this is not a scam. I sell about 5-10 items a week on eBay, and always ship via Priority Mail. For the most part, all my packages fall under the flat rate, so charging $4.00 for shipping makes it so easy. I don't have to guess at weight or postage costs, and most buyers like the fact that they get their item within 3-5 days after shipping. So, if you use Priority Mail, you can get free delivery confirmation. Here is the link to get it.
http://www.usps.com/cgi-bin/api/shipping_label.htm

What you do is fill out your address and the destination address, and when you hit "submit", you create a shipping label with a Priority mail designation and a Delivery Confirmation barcode. You then simply print it off, cut it out, and tape it on. Bingo - free D.C. This way, you should never have to worry about tracking the package again. The best part about this is, since the D.C.is generated electronically, it is automatically entered into the system for you - don't have to worry about the post office worker entering it in. Hope this info helps!

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Posted By: Leon

I like to use UPS (you're welcome Tom) because for under $4.00 I get tracking info and insurance up to $100.00, for packages on a pound or less, in the US.......the only thing about that is sometimes getting shipping personally from UPS takes more time to get to them, than it does to go to the Post Office....but for folks with UPS at work it is the best way I have found.....as far as losing a package without insurance I too believe it is the buyers responsibility but if the amount being disputed is less than the stress of the $$ loss then maybe you do go ahead and refund......as others have stated I always put disclaimers, or specific shipping instructions, in my auctions to try to alleviate this issue.....best regards

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Posted By: Leon

woops...I meant to say "the money involved is less than the stress of a potential negative feedback"....then you should refund the money....which, personally I would not do....best regards

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I always state that if the buyer does not purchase insurance, the item ships at their risk. If they claim not to have received it, tough. Before I did this I had one items stolen from my mailbox and since I was able to confirm this had happened, I ate it. After that rather painful meal, I decided to require insurance or shift the responsibility to the buyer.

If you actually shipped the item (no offense meant, not impugning your integrity), I'd refuse to refund the money. Just my feeling about it.

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Posted By: julie

Thanks!

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Posted By: jay behrens

the 1st class requirement is around 1/2" which most if not all padded envelopes fall into.

Jay

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Posted By: TBob

for some reason some of our postal guys say it must be at least 3/4 inches in which case padded envelopes don't qualify but I always go to the other (good) guys at the windows who could care less and they take care of it for me.