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]

yes, the seller got my name wrong when they replied to my message, that's all that means. the first couple of letters were the same, so at least they were in the ballpark.

[samjess54]

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@teporar0 wrote:

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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.

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Just been scanning the thread and am thinking that the seller might have given little/no thought to your original query or been confused* and now that you have received the one parcel with two items a polite email to them recapping what has happened and suggesting a refund of excess postage/handling might be productive - or at least enable you to feel you had exhausted possibilities.

*IMO indicators of little thought/confusion are that the seller is on a hiding to nothing with his/her postage charges if they are only charging $7 for 500gm parcels - once they have paid ebay/paypal 12.5% fees of $0.87 plus $7.60 for the label they they are already $1.47 under water before thinking about packing/printing costs etc

[teporar0]

i finally sent a message to the seller yesterday morning challenging them on the way they handled the postage thing. hadn't had a response as of this evening so opened a INR case to see if i could force a reply (don't hate me, i wasn't going to escalate it), and sure enough had a response within two hours.  seller's been away, only just read my messages, might have negotiated on a refund but won't now because i'm deplorable(!) for raising an INR case for an item they know i've received.

oh well, there offended. i pointed out they had two weeks to get in touch about it, and that i'd only raised a case to force a response.  told them they could keep the "postage" money, and i've now closed the case.

bit disappointed they didn't give a proper excuse.

[lyndal1838]

In this case I agree with the seller.   

IMO you were testing opinions when you started this thread.  You were always going to try a dispute and it has backfired on you.

[*tippy*toes*]

It's possible the real excuse was, that they'd been away. Mr Tippy needed major surgery last year, 5 hours from home. 2 weeks before, I let my listings run out and got everything posted. By the time we left, all tracking numbers showed as being delivered. Awesome, I didn't have to worry about anything. 2 weeks later we got home. We stayed home for 2 weeks, then he had to go back for another 6 weeks. 3 weeks into that, I discovered purely by accident that someone had opened an item not received dispute.

I hadn't checked eBay because I didn't think I needed to. I don't have access to my email away from home, so didn't see the message that a dispute had been opened. The dispute had been opened for nearly a week. Long story short, I won the dispute as tracking showed as delivered, but if I'd not seen the dispute, she would have escalated it and I would have lost the money.

Sometimes life happens. Sometimes people plan to go away. Other times they have to go away unexpectedly. We had 2 weeks notice, hence letting all my listings end. Some people don't get that notice. They get a phone call and they have to leave now.

That said, his reply to you wasn't appropriate. He could have handled that side of things a bit better.

[teporar0]

likewise lyndal its been clear from the start you would defend the seller regardless of details, to the point of posting incorrect information.

you are entitled to your opinion, but given it was you who first discussed lodging a dispute or me claiming i hadn't received the items, its a bit rich to accuse me of "backfired" schemes. of course i was testing for opinions as i dont know what options there are for this situation

[teporar0]

yes it's possible the excuse is real and the timing is all just a big coincidence but its a poor way to handle it if so.

[lyndal1838]

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@teporar0 wrote:
likewise lyndal its been clear from the start you would defend the seller regardless of details, to the point of posting incorrect information.

you are entitled to your opinion, but given it was you who first discussed lodging a dispute or me claiming i hadn't received the items, its a bit rich to accuse me of "backfired" schemes. of course i was testing for opinions as i dont know what options there are for this situation

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Maybe you should read my posts again.....never did I suggest you could open a dispute....in fact I said quite the opposite.

And I did not defend the seller except to say that he was within his rights to not offer discounted postage.

I am sure you will have no trouble recouping your $7 postage when you list the two items.

[teporar0]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

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@teporar0 wrote:
likewise lyndal its been clear from the start you would defend the seller regardless of details, to the point of posting incorrect information.

you are entitled to your opinion, but given it was you who first discussed lodging a dispute or me claiming i hadn't received the items, its a bit rich to accuse me of "backfired" schemes. of course i was testing for opinions as i dont know what options there are for this situation

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Maybe you should read my posts again.....never did I suggest you could open a dispute....in fact I said quite the opposite.

And I did not defend the seller except to say that he was within his rights to not offer discounted postage.

I am sure you will have no trouble recouping your $7 postage when you list the two items.

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actually read *my* post again - i didn't say you "suggested" opening a dispute. i posted my original question asking if i could report the seller to ebay and obtain a refund for the extra postage.  you contorted this to mean i wanted to claim i hadnt received the items (your first reply) and lodge a dispute (your second reply).  i didnt ask about a dispute, i asked about reporting the seller, you were the one who equated this to me lying about not receiving the items.

you must be a seller as your immediate assumption is i wanted to do something dishonest as payback - sellers are always the victims, right, while us buyers are only out to game the system and rip you off?

and fyi neither item is getting "listed" as i bought both of them to use. another incorrect assumption.

[lyndal1838]

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@teporar0 wrote:

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actually read *my* post again - i didn't say you "suggested" opening a dispute. i posted my original question asking if i could report the seller to ebay and obtain a refund for the extra postage.  you contorted this to mean i wanted to claim i hadnt received the items (your first reply) and lodge a dispute (your second reply).  i didnt ask about a dispute, i asked about reporting the seller, you were the one who equated this to me lying about not receiving the items.

And what did you do?   You opened a dispute and claimed you did not receive the item.   I was pretty close to the mark I would say.

The only way you could report to ebay and obtain a refund would be to open a dispute of some kind as you wanted to do.

you must be a seller as your immediate assumption is i wanted to do something dishonest as payback - sellers are always the victims, right, while us buyers are only out to game the system and rip you off?

I have never sold anything on ebay ever.  Not only did you want to do something dishonest as payback but you did it.  It would have served you right if the seller had reported you to ebay.

and fyi neither item is getting "listed" as i bought both of them to use. another incorrect assumption.

Well you got 2 bargains and should not have been quibbling about the postage.

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