Buyer wanting me to package up a pick up only item

[86norman]

So what do I do?  I have it packaged up ready to go, but cant be there for the  6 hr window courier pick up, so have organised for a friend to be here. I've told the buyer that he should buy my friend a 6 pack for helping him out, but he has come back saying it's blackmail and he wants to cancel the sale.  I'm inclined to stick to the rules and say you've paid for it, it's here waiting for you to pick it up at a mutually convenient time (he lives in another state).

Am I being too hard?

[horizon1907]

me thinks, Yes. why don't you take your friend out for a cheap & cheerful dinner for helping you out.  🙂  That way, your problem is solved without getting the buyer involved. 🙂 

[davewil1964]

No, you're not.

You have an absolute right to decide that pickup means pickup. Which the buyer has agreed to. But you have agreed to pack for a courier pickup

However, if the buyer doesn't pick up, then you have little recourse. Stating that you require a six-pack as a condition of sale, post-sale, could well be construed as an extra charge.

Just confirm they will agree to a mutual cancellation, do it, then relist. And don't try to be funny next time.

[86norman]

Thanks for the quick replies, I was thinking the conditions of the sale changed anyway as soon as he wanted me to box it up for him. Maybe not huh. Anyway I wasn't trying to be funny about the 6 pack, everyone needs to be compensated for being put out. 

[digital*ghost]

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@86norman wrote:

 Anyway I wasn't trying to be funny about the 6 pack, everyone needs to be compensated for being put out. 

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Yeah, but it could be argued that technically your friend is helping you by taking your place in the pick-up scenario, even though it means someone else is ultimately benefiting by not having to rearrange the pick-up time / date. Put it this way, when you approached them to do this, did you start with something like 'can you do me a favour?', or was it 'can you do a complete stranger a favour?'

Or, look at it this way - I have a bunch of packages that need posting tomorrow, but I get sick and can't get to the post office. If I ask someone to post them for me, they're doing me a favour by taking over my responsibility, I don't think my buyers would appreciate it very much if I contacted them and said my friend was doing them a favour and they now owe him one. 😛

[phorum_junkie*]

What you should probably have done is refunded the payment for just the item, arranged the courier yourself and sent a revised invoice including the delivery with a six pack handling fee if you wished.

That way you would have had paypal seller protection against a chargeback, you would be specifying the collection time or better still us pack & send where you just drop it off unwrapped at the nearest collection point, and you and/or your friend could have had the 6 pack with the buyer being blissfully ignorant.

[springyzone]

Well, I feel for you. I once had an interstate buyer do this sort of thing to us for a pick up item. Then she wanted us to use some courier an hour's drive away, where we would have to go and wrap it there. Was stroppy when we said no, but there is a local one we will use, only it is a little dearer. Expecting you to be available for 6 hours is a big ask, because that wasn't in your terms of sale. Someone here said your friend is doing you the favour so you should supply the 6 pack, but the whole point is, you should not be out of pocket at all if you specified pick up only and yes, you will feel you owe your friend something. The buyer should have run it past you first, with details about the courier, before bidding. PJ is probably right in all he says. I was just thinking, back in the day when we sold our item (a desk), sellers could give positive/neutral/neg feedback as well and although I was always polite, I did tell some buyers a few home truths at times and point out how some things we were doing were above and beyond our obligations.