Worried!! EBay troubles!! advice please!

[fiona00004]

I was eyeing a pair of pre-owned diamond earrings on Ebay last week. I noticed the listing said US buyers only (I am in Canada). I contacted the seller about it and he said that he does ship to Canada for 10$. So I bid and I won!

But then... when it comes to paying, not only am I charged some kind of import fee of 27$.. but shipping ended up to be 21.52$. So I did not pay... and I have been contacting the sellers ever since I won the earrings since Friday and I have only received 2 emails from him since I won: one of which said he is looking forward to sending me the earrings and the second email said that the earrings are ready to ship.. he is just waiting for payment.

I do not understand why he is not replying to my concern and not even acknowledging my emails. He has 100% feedback but only 23 transactions. I even told him that if I can't get a reply, I might have to give him a less than positive feedback... still no reply! What can I do??

 

[Indylady]

If you haven't paid yet, I would not worry that much about it. Request to cancel the transaction, wait to hear back, and if the seller doesn't reply you may consider contacting eBay. I'm not sure what else you could do, but at worst it should only affect your feedback score IF the seller actually even leaves you negative feedback. I would absolutely not leave negative feedback unless he actually does something egregious. Are you sending him messages through eBay's message system, or through your personal email?

 

[LaraOnline]

I would just pay, that might just be my character (pay through the nose lol).
but it's not the vendor's fault there's an import fee, and the increased cost may be due to the insurance.
Either way, the mark up on the postage is small, certainly in comparison to a pair of diamond earrings.
I wouldn't upend the sale for small change.

 

[momhappy]

I would pay too. The extra import fee and shipping charge would not be enough for me to back out of a sale. I take EBay sales pretty seriously (Ive been seriously burned both as a buyer and a seller), so when I purchase something, I consider it a contract to buy/sell. I know that the seller told you $10 for shipping, but honestly, the amount he charged you seems more than fair (especially if it includes protective items like insurance, signature confirmation, etc.).

 

[ForteKitty]

Import fees are your responsibility. The seller is under no obligation to pay it.

As for shipping, $21 is very reasonable for shipping costs from the US to Canada. I've paid much more.

 

[junebug17]

I would just pay it too - the increase is relatively small, doesn't seem worth the hassle.

 

[minousbijoux]

Agree with the others - I would swallow hard and pay, partly because I'd feel at fault for not fully determining costs ahead of time.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck to you.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Unless the earrings are costume jewelry, I would fully expect the shipping from the US to Canada to be $21 if insurance is involved. Be sure you are communicating through the ebay messages only.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Unless the earrings are costume jewelry, I would fully expect the shipping from the US to Canada to be $21 if insurance is involved. Be sure you are communicating through the ebay messages only.

 

[partgypsy]

Why would YOU be the one posting negative feedback? Yes, shipping is $11 more than you expected. The import tax is not his responsibility, it's yours.

If you bid and don't withdraw before the auction ends, you have entered in a contract to purchase the item. If you back out, you are in violation of the terms of agreement.
He did reply to your emails. He said he is waiting for your payment. It cost this person money to sell things via Ebay, why would he start over again just because you changed your mind?
Sorry if I'm being harsh, just the way I see it.

 

[TC1987]

It costs the seller about 15% of the total including shipping to sell on ebay. And the calculated shipping estimator on there doesn't include the insurance fee, or things like customs fees. So, what many sellers do is tack on a Handling Fee to cover the costs of fees, insurance, packaging materials, etc. And that is perfectly acceptable so far as ebay is concerned. It's possible that just the shipping portion alone was $10 or whatever the seller quoted, but that was just the shipping cost without insurance and handling fees.

Be advised that there is a feature in ebay that sellers can set to automatically report as NBP, non-paying bidder, any buyer who doesn't pay within 4 days. You'd have to look up the specifics of that policy for NPBs, but if you get 4 strikes or something, you can be banned by ebay. If it's been longer than 4 days, the seller can report you as NPB. I think that process still gives you the option to pay, and then the problem goes away. But if you want to cancel the transaction, you need to be doing that process in ebay before you get the seller irritated. ebay charges him a Final Value Fee, immediately, and he's not just going to let the issue drop. He's going to want to either get paid by you or file NPB so that he can get his FVF refunded. If you want out, try to get him to cancel the sale, but he doesn't have to agree to that. He can just file NPB and let ebay handle it.

 

[makemepretty]

You should not have to pay more shipping than he quoted, sellers are not allowed to raise that after the auction. The duty fee is your responsibility though. Hopefully you two can work it out. It sounds like you both miscalculated a bit but easily fixed.

 

[momhappy]

^A shipping quote is not something that I would consider to be set in stone unless he actually calculated it (which doesn't seem like he did since he gave her a number like $10).
To be honest, the only EBay troubles that I see here is that of a non-paying bidder.....

 

[TC1987]

If the seller has a handling fee built into the listing, then the buyer would be obligated for the actual shipping cost PLUS the handling fee. So the seller may be correct when saying shipping is $10 or whatever. Then seller costs like fees, transportation, packaging materials, etc., may be lumped into a handling fee, IN ADDITION TO the shipping cost. That is all okay per ebay policies. From a seller standpoint, ebay seems to prefer that sellers offer "free shipping," but allows a handling fee that the buyer can use to help offset the shipping cost, like bury part of it in the price of the item, and the other part in the handling fee.