eBay Question?

DooF

I purchased CARD on eBay. I know.. but I HAD to have it.

I paid the:
Shipping & Handling via Standard Delivery
(includes any seller handling fees) $1.99 USD
Shipping Insurance (optional): $1.30 USD

Total: $7.53 USD

I received the card today. The postage was $1.90 and it was not insured. I emailed the seller. Is this normal? I have bought and sold ALOT of different stuff on eBay & I ALWAYS take insurance.

This is a 1st for me.


Thanks

pandrews

yeah, the seller should be willing to refund your insurance money.. it was probably just an oversight on his part..

personally, i dont bother insuring anything unless its a large amount (relative to my small budget).. the seller is responsible for adding delivery confirmation..

MooseDog

I'm not defending the seller, but just for the record, I do my postage through Stamps.com. One can insure mailings through them (saves having to stand in line at the PO and it's a little cheaper in most cases) but there will be no notation on the label that gets printed out. It is STILL insured though.

Then, there is so-called "self-insurance" whereby the seller may charge you for insurance and opt to pocket the money hoping that the package does not get lost or damaged. I don't have any problem with this if a seller was to do it, so long as he paid up in the event of loss or damage.

However I would add, that in this case, if you paid for insurance, and the package had been lost, the seller would be bound to refund your purchase.

My pet peeve is when I get charged $6.00 for shipping and the package arrives in a manila envelope with 83 cents in stamps.

GoblinOutpost

My thought is you requested for insurance to insured against any loss during delivery. Does it matter where the seller obtain that insurance as long as the seller will honor it? The seller could have purchased insurance from his pet. Couriers are not the only one that provide insurance.

As far as I know, let say insurance is purchased with USPS. If something goes wrong in transit, USPS will deal with the seller and not you (except perhaps to get a rep to drop by your place to inspect the damaged content). From USPS's perspective, it is the seller who purchased insurance with them, not you.

It would be nice if the seller can state more clearly if he/she is:

1) Purchasing insurance on your behalf with the courier service. Taking on the hassle to resolve any claims resulting from the delivery. Here, I would expect the buyer to have to wait for the seller to finish dealing with the claim before getting back the $$.

2) Accepting insurance and transfer the risk of delivery back to the seller. In this case, if a misshape happened during transit, the buyer just have to deal with the seller. Of course, the seller would likely expect the buyer to cooperate with the courier in processing the claim. Here I am not clear when the buyer would receive the $$ back. As rejection from the courier investigation can constitute as proof that no claims can be made. But it should not be any later than (1) earlier.

Regardless, dealing with insurance with the courier can be a PAIN. At least my experience (just once) points that way. It took forever. (I'm not sure who is to blame for the delay, the courier or the seller.)

Simply put, if the seller does not warrant any protection for the delivery (therefore the buyer bear the risk), purchasing insurance should transfer that risk to another party (be it seller or another party).

zef204

I have refunded insurance in that case. When you sell a lot of cards it easily could be an oversite.

However, $1.90 for one card sure sounds to me like $.60 postage which is typical for a single card in a bubble mailer and $1.30 for ins. I print shipping through Paypal and it does say insured if it is insured. However if he utilized stamps.com it may be different over there.

I have gone both ways on the self insuring and I have decided that I don't buy when people say they do that. Especially if they are quotuing PO ins prices. If he tells you that tell him the card got torn in half and you would like to utilize the insurance you bought.

Good luck.

WinPitcher

Winning bidders must pay within 7 day or email with payment instructions. We ship 1-3 day after payment is made. Not responsible for lost items if not insured. We can prove shipment with forms from Post Office. UPS or FedX. We show picture of items we auction and if there are defects, we list it on our auctions. If you are not satisfied with your item, e-mail us and we will work out a solution.



looks to me like he/she pocketed the dough as this clearly states that he/she is not self insured or any of that crap.

Steve

DirtyHarry

Small beans...but your insurance money should be refunded.

NickM

I think zef is right, and that the seller did purchase postal insurance. $.60 postage and $1.30 insurance is the only combination of postal services that works out to $1.90.

Nick