One of my auctions was
ending Monday and there was a bid and he emailed me and asked about the
shipping. I charge $3 for shipping, which includes the card being packed in a
penny sleeve, in a rigid top loader, in a team bag inside a padded mailer with
tracking information and delivery confirmation.
So, when the guy told me
that after he bid the shipping jumped up to $16 and he was angry with me for
trying to rip him off and to cancel his bid. I assured him my shipping is $3
and that the jump in shipping cost must have been an error because I was seeing
my regular shipping cost when I checked the auction. He settled down and said
to not cancel his bid because he still wanted the card and it helped that I
told him that if for any reason the shipping was showing up for anything over
$3 I would cancel the order and just work out a trade instead.
The auction ends and I
go to send the invoice and I get a message that this is an eBay Global Shipping
Program (GSP) order and that the invoice is sent by eBay and I have no access
to adjusting the shipping cost. I didn’t realize he was international, I
probably should have checked, but in my auctions, I clearly say I do not ship
internationally so this is something he should have brought up when asking
about the shipping.
I emailed him and pointed
out that since this was a GSP purchase I had no ability to adjust the shipping
cost because it is automatically set by eBay but I still offered to cancel the
order and work with him to get the card to him. Essentially offering him the
card for free or for a trade but he decided he didn’t want the card anymore
after the frustration. Luckily, he didn’t leave negative feedback, I had no
control over the cost eBay charges so that would have been unwarranted. I have
changed all my auctions to now say any international sales will be through GSP
and that the shipping costs are determined by eBay, not me.
It was only a .99 cent card so this didn't turn in to a huge issue and the GSP program is nice
but since it isn’t spelled out that the shipping cost will be different than
what is listed by the seller it leads to situations like this. A lesson
learned.
The Global Shipping Program can be a big pain. It should have shown the buyer the cost based on his shipping address. My impression is that he either checked the shipping and saw the $3 when he wasn't logged in or that he was trying to get you to offer to work around the GSP to save some money.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea this existed. I always check "no international shipping" as well.
ReplyDeleteI spend a lot of time overseas, and sometimes an international shipping price will show up on my screen, usually if I'm not logged in. It freaked me out a bit when it first started. So, yeah, if you have a customer getting a higher number for shipping, they may be out if the country, or their browser may think they are out of the country.
ReplyDeleteI've only sold a few things on eBay in the past decade or so and I always state that I don't ship internationally (due to insane shipping costs). Never even heard of this GSP. Thanks for pointing it out.
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