Ebay Q: Can Buyer decide own shipping?

[mjbaby]

I've been going over the boards at Ebay looking for an answer to this question, but I know ya'll here are faster and nicer (every time I post a question over there, someone calls me an idiot and I just don't need that aggravation, you know?)

One of my auctions ended last night. When I started sending invoices this morning I noticed that one of them was already marked paid - the buyer decided that $10 in shipping was good and checked herself out before hearing from me. I clicked on the item and found the invoicing complete.

1) Can a buyer just decide what the shipping will be and handle it?

2) The shipping for the item will likely, in fact, be less than the $10. What are my responsibilities for refunding the surplus?

 

[ceecee]

I have never had that happen, although one time someone cut my priority shipping and said to mail it parcel without checking. If it's less than $10.00 to ship, I'd say go ahead and ship it, does that include insurance??? You wouldn't have to refund any of the shipping cost unless you wanted to.
I got a pair of Born sandals delivered last week (I paid the asking shipping of $6.95) they arrived with $3.89 postage due because the seller mailed them MEDIA MAIL!!! You could hear that it wasn't books. So the PO opened to confirm and billed me the balance!!! I wrote to the seller and she said she mailed as stated in the ad....I checked and it did say media mail $6.95......but you can't mail shoes by media mail. I was not pleased.

 

[kashkdz]

 

[kashkdz]

Originally posted by mjbaby
I've been going over the boards at Ebay looking for an answer to this question, but I know ya'll here are faster and nicer (every time I post a question over there, someone calls me an idiot and I just don't need that aggravation, you know?)

One of my auctions ended last night. When I started sending invoices this morning I noticed that one of them was already marked paid - the buyer decided that $10 in shipping was good and checked herself out before hearing from me. I clicked on the item and found the invoicing complete.

1) Can a buyer just decide what the shipping will be and handle it?

I've been selling and buying on ebay for years and that's never happened to me. But sure, it could happen...maybe the buyer was going out of town and didn't want to wait for the invoice (if s+h was not stated in the auction), and just wanted to be sure the item was sent quickly and had sufficient postage.


2) The shipping for the item will likely, in fact, be less than the $10. What are my responsibilities for refunding the surplus?

If shipping is less than the $10 paid, I would not refund the shipping charges unless asked. You are not under any obligation. Also, the refund would be less after subtracting the actual postage since my time is money, and my shpping fees, though definitely not excessive, include packaging, gas, etc costs.

 

[mjbaby]

Thanks for your input, kashkdz.

I ended up sending a message letting the buyer know the exact shipping cost for her information, although she was certainly free to pay any amount she wished above the exact cost it wouldn't impact the method of shipment which is clearly stated in the terms of the auction.

Just when I think this ebay stuff can't get any stranger...!