seller charged me postage for two items and then sent together - wrong?

[teporar0]

hope someone can help me here.  last weekend I won two auctions from a seller.  first was for 99 cents + 8.50 shipping.  i sent through payment straight away.  then a half hour later I won a second auction $36.99 + $7 shipping.  I messaged the seller before paying for the second and asked if he could combine postage on the two items. he said sorry it but the first was already packed up and courier called, so no combining.  so I paid the 36.99 + 7 shipping for the second one. each item had a different tracking number, but all the week the first items tracking number just says "shipping info received by australia post" without any updates, while tracking on the second kept updating during the week.

today I received the second item, and it had the first item packed in with it.  the seller obviously decided to combine them to save on postage, and pocket the extra payment I made for postage, after saying he coulntt combine them.  they're both small and light items, and i don't think sending them together would have cost any more - still less than 500g combined in a small box.

can i report this seller to ebay and get my second postage payment back?  thanks for any help.

[teporar0]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

@janeababe

I understand your position.

Having posted on these trading boards for many years now I have learnt that sometimes a buyer will come here and post and everyone takes a position based on the picture the buyer has painted, only for the seller to that buyer come along and paint a different picture.  That is why I asked the OP some questions, to help fill in the picture for me.

Many times, many of us have had to reassess our stance once we have the full picture.  At this stage we only have one side of the story, and I form an opinion based on my experiences both here on the boards and from my buying and selling experiences.

I would caution anybody about the risks associated with taking one side as FACT.

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that's a perfectly reasonable stance to take, being cautious not to take what ive stated here as factual.  but then, the questions you asked me actually have nothing to do with the facts of the situation and only relate to my perception of the deal - that's subjective and doesn't give you any more factual information.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@teporar0 wrote:

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

@janeababe

I understand your position.

Having posted on these trading boards for many years now I have learnt that sometimes a buyer will come here and post and everyone takes a position based on the picture the buyer has painted, only for the seller to that buyer come along and paint a different picture.  That is why I asked the OP some questions, to help fill in the picture for me.

Many times, many of us have had to reassess our stance once we have the full picture.  At this stage we only have one side of the story, and I form an opinion based on my experiences both here on the boards and from my buying and selling experiences.

I would caution anybody about the risks associated with taking one side as FACT.

---

that's a perfectly reasonable stance to take, being cautious not to take what ive stated here as factual.  but then, the questions you asked me actually have nothing to do with the facts of the situation and only relate to my perception of the deal - that's subjective and doesn't give you any more factual information.

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and therein lies the problem I have . . . . . we have only heard your side of the story.

The questions I asked may have served an ulterior motive. Your decision to answer, or not answer, and how you do so, may have been all I was after (I watch Bull too often).

[teporar0]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

Hdepending on the volume of sales a seller makes, some will pack each and every item they sell once they have taken photos and listed the item.  Some posters here on the boards have said that they do that with items they have listed ( not on this thread but on other threads).

For this reason, it is not unreasonable to take a seller at face value when they say shortly after an item has ended and been immediately paid for that it is already packed.  It may only need a label to be attached.

The OP waited half an hour before messaging the seller and asking about combining.  Once they saw the other item they could have messaged and said "I am interested in another of your items and will be bidding on <item title> and would like you to combine the items should I win this other one if possible" .  Instead, they waited until after they had won the second item, in itself not wrong, but it may have put the seller on the spot and they responded inappropriately.  Given time, they may have responded differently in the hope that the buyer would bid more aggressively to win the second item.

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i did take the seller at face value and sent them the second payment with full shipping.

i only messaged after winning the second item because i actually think its unreasonable to be sending questions about an item in the dying minutes of an auction - that's putting a seller on the spot.  this was on a saturday afternoon after the post office is closed so it's not like they can send it before monday anyway, and i've already shown them i'm a fast payer from the first item - i'm not sure how they could feel like they've been "put on the spot" by this - they potentially had the rest of the weekend to think about it and respond.

fyi in case its helpful, here's the message i sent to the seller after winning the second item:

*****

Hello there,

Any chance you can combine the postage between this and the <item> I just purchased?

Regards,

<my name>

 ***** 

and the reply:

*****

sorry <not my name!> already packed and courier called

*****

another bit of info that may or may not be interesting: the 99c obviously was listed at 99c, the second item was listed at $5.

maybe some of that is helpful.

[teporar0]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but can I ask what the 99c item was?

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you can - it's a short electrical cable.

[teporar0]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

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and therein lies the problem I have . . . . . we have only heard your side of the story.

The questions I asked may have served an ulterior motive. Your decision to answer, or not answer, and how you do so, may have been all I was after (I watch Bull too often).

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and i prefer to leave out as much subjective information as possible because i'm not looking for people's opinion on whether i got a good deal or not, or to be told to be happy with my bargain - i'm more interested in the principles involved in the situation.  i wonder if people's responses would have been different if hadn't given specific prices for the item i'd won, but had only stated it was two items at less than $50 each, or left out the purchase prices altogether.  the principles behind it should remain the same, but the perception of whether i've been "ripped off" or not (and i'm not necessarily saying i have been) might depend on what i paid for the item.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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teporar0 wrote: 

fyi in case its helpful, here's the message i sent to the seller after winning the second item:

*****

Hello there,

Any chance you can combine the postage between this and the <item> I just purchased?

Regards,

<my name>

 ***** 

and the reply:

*****

sorry <not my name!> already packed and courier called

*****

another bit of info that may or may not be interesting: the 99c obviously was listed at 99c, the second item was listed at $5.

maybe some of that is helpful

---

is it at all possible that the seller thought you were another buyer if the seller got got your name wrong in their reply to your message? After all, they did sell $850 worth of stuff that day.

[teporar0]

i wouldn't have though so - they sold seven items that day, the two i won were second and fourth respectively, so its unlikely they had an influx of messages to deal with

[phorum_junkie*]

I think a seller lying in this way undermines all honest and upfront sellers. I make it clear that combined postage may be available on items paid for on a single invoice. I also have a warning that if they make separate payments the items will be sent singly and that is what happens. I know it is annoying that I could perhaps have made a couple of bucks extra (I charge the quoted postage for one item and add a handling charge of between one and two dolars for other included items) but I act as if it was two diifferent buyers.

[janeababe]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

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teporar0 wrote: 

fyi in case its helpful, here's the message i sent to the seller after winning the second item:

*****

Hello there,

Any chance you can combine the postage between this and the <item> I just purchased?

Regards,

<my name>

 ***** 

and the reply:

*****

sorry <not my name!> already packed and courier called

*****

another bit of info that may or may not be interesting: the 99c obviously was listed at 99c, the second item was listed at $5.

maybe some of that is helpful

---

is it at all possible that the seller thought you were another buyer if the seller got got your name wrong in their reply to your message? After all, they did sell $850 worth of stuff that day.

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I read is as <not my name> is the name of the person who packed it and rang the courier...... 

[*tippy*toes*]

The not my name appears to be showing in the reply from the seller.