Buyer requesting express post after paying

[thedeltons4]

Today a buyer has purchased a number of items from my shop and paid for them, then purchased a few more items and then paid for them. On both orders there is a note to seller requesting express postage and saying they will pay the extra costs.  All of my items have a two day handling time and I do not offer express post as an option - some days I just simply can not get to the post office.

However, since I am already prepared to take these orders to the post office tomorrow I can easily up it to an express post item. Normally all my items are posted large letter but to do the express post I need to move to parcel post to get a satchel big enough for all the items.

What are my options?

eBay says to send them an invoice via paypal for the extra. My question here is should I be sending the items as two parcels to be covered by the paypal proof of postage (I though that it was void if you combined when a buyer paid individually)? Or do I just combine it anyway and get them to pay the difference (which will be less)? Or something else?

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

Yep, PP Seller Protection is compromised if a seller combines pourchases from two payments into one package - it doesn't automatically mean you would lose a PayPal dispute, but if you invalidate protection and lose something like a chargeback, you'll have to foot the bill.

I would personally err on the side of caution if the items were of high enough value to make me think twice about risking it, and invoice once for the extra on two parcels... But I do get this same situation on occasion and have just invoiced for the extra on one, but the items in question were of relatively low value and I wouldn't otherwise have had protection anyway. 

You could always refund all and reinvoice for all items, though that might also be a risk because ebay's new-fangled system may count it as a defect. 😞

[thedeltons4]

Thanks for your help. The buyer was happy to pay the extra on two parcels. All sorted.