Buyers wanting to use their own postage

[riverbend74]

Lately I have 2 different bidders request to send me their own postage satchel / stamps if they are the successful bidder. What's with that? I've bought and sold stuff for years and not encountered this until the last couple of months. Both times I've declined. Anyone else had this happen and how did you handle it?

[iamanark]

Cause they are stealing the satchels from where they work ... I was offered satchels down the Pub for half price

[wendy9456]

Hi I have had this happen a few times. If my memory is correct requests were from sellers who no longer sell on here and had a supply of pre paid bags they wanted to use up. Made sense so I did not have a problem with it BUT I did explain there woudl be a delay in them getting their item delivered. I don't address parcels at the post office so would have to wait for their bag to arrive ( to my P.O.Box ) , take it home, address and then post on my next trip to the post office which would be in another 2 days as I don't always post every day. They were happy with that. I had no problems. Have never had a request to use their own stamps but guess the reason would be the same .As I know there are more and more sellers opting out of selling on here it is probably a request we sellers will see pop up more often.

Hope this helps.

[iamanark]

I knew of one person who would go to the PO ... fill a satchel with other satchels and then post the one satchel to themselves ... so they did not actually walk out of the PO with any unpaid satchels in their possession

[aurellian]

I had this happen. Buyer wanted to send a satchel. The more I said that I didn't want her to do that, the more she insisted. In the end I gave in. Stupid me. Eventually she sent an Express envelope, instead of a satchel. The item was too thick for the envelope. So I sent the item anyway and it got through ok.

The whole sorry affair went on for weeks.

I am a fast learner, and if I get a request like this again, the answer will be a firm no.

[springyzone]

Maybe it is just me  but i think it is a bit odd/rude.

For starters, are they assuming the full cost is simply the postage & bag cost? I thought people were allowed to charge a little bit for handling-taking it to the PO, sticky tape, maybe making a label, that sort of thing.

Plus, don't parcels have to have tracking and are all pre paid bags able to have tracking? I don't know, as I haven't sold in years. But I had a vague impression some of those pre paid express bags weren't trackable ones? I could be wrong.

Then of course there is the situation where the item may not fit the bag the buyer expects it to fit.

Many years ago, my sister and I sold a snow suit, i think it was. This heavy snow suit. It was before the days of paypal & where postage didn't have to be listed, which we didn't as the cost varid depending on what state it got sent to..

My sister had to wrap it in bubble wrap & paper and post it off but the buyer was livid and asked why we didn't send it in a 500g pre paid bag (which was about $4). The thing couldn't even begin to fit into a 3kg bag!

And like someone else said-it would delay the whole process. Some vindictive types might mark you down as slow to post!

[onekiwi0]

i did it once, sent an express satchel to a lady (took the risk of posting it for 60c un registered) and she sent my item back.  not a drama - it had tracking. I'd bought the satchel ages ago when they were a lot cheaper in a lot, and now I don't use them.

had recently had someone buy something and want to send their own box. still waiting for it but I think its just a PO delay, hasn't been long.  I guess it also depends on the item, how much you want to sell it - and how much of a margin you have for loss...

and yes of course a time delay. 

[extra-keen]

This request happen to me a couple of times. I just made it clear that they still had to pay the packaging and handling part of the cost and on one of those occasions the buyer decided not to worry and let me post in my packaging, the other one insisted and didn't mind paying the extra $1.00 for packing materials etc.

[phorum_junkie*]

I too have been asked a couple of times and I just send a polite reply saying sorry but all my items are sent using click & send so I have full Paypal seller protection so am unable to send using their packaging.

[lane-ends]

No harm in asking is they have a supply of satchels they want to get rid of. It's up to you if it's convenient or not. Similar to a pick up request really.