Why would a seller put a 2 lb. priority label on a small flat rate priority box? Is that even legal?

[georgestobbard]

I purchased some  items that had a suspiciously high shipping price, given how small and lightweight they were.  The seller refused to answer my questions about her shipping methods, costs, and package weights, both before and after I paid her. Even when I requested a combined invoice for the two auctions I won, she still wouldn't answer my questions, even though that was the ideal time for us to finally have this discussion, which I had initiated many days earlier.  I even wrote a note about this on my combined invoice request, and she ignored it.

Since she wouldn't answer me, and since nobody else had the same items for sale, I felt like I had no choice but to pay her the asking price in shipping, or else risk getting an unpaid item case opened. So with extreme reluctance, I paid her $13 in shipping (which I was pretty sure was too high for the small, low-value items I purchased), then I waited to see what she would do.  I thought if she had any decency in her, she'd refund me if there was a significant overage.

When I received my package, I couldn't believe my eyes.  The actual package weight was well under 1 lb., just as I'd suspected all along. Even more perplexing, the items were inside a small flat-rate priority box and when I looked  closelyat the shipping label that she had printed off eBay.com, it wasn't the small flat-rate priority price!  The label said it was for a  2 lb. priority package!  So it seems that she had deliberately charged me $13 to cover an imaginary 2-lb. package when she KNEW all along that the items were small enough and light enough to travel at the small flat-rate priority box rate, or even by first class.  

I thought it was against the postal service's rules to use a priority flat-rate box for anything but the priority flat rate assigned to it.  Shouldn't her package have been flagged as undeliverable?  And also, I know that the post office weighs packages to make sure that the prepaid labels have the right weight.  If the seller overpays, they refund his or her account through eBay, and if the seller underpays, they withdraw the money through eBay.  Is it possible that the seller was counting on the post office to refund her the overage without passing that money on to me when she received it?  

After I complained to the seller about her bizarre shipping choices and her evasive, almost non-existent communication, she tried to appease me by refunding my $13 shipping cost.  But I'm still pretty upset about how she treated me and I'm still trying to understand if she was scamming me all along.

[wesk_36]

She refunded your shipping costs?

That's good! I guess you finally got to her. She may or may not have been trying to scam you, or she may just be "knitting with one needle"

Time to move on!

[cream_couture]

Yes, you are only supposed to use flat rate boxes with flat rate postage. They aren't going to catch every misuse though. Being that she apparently overpaid, there is not much for the post office to do. Most of their policies are to prevent people from taking advantage of them.

Based on what she did, I don't see how she was trying to scam you. Maybe she simply doesn't know much about shipping. Maybe she didn't like being questioned.

She refunded you, so I would just drop it and not order from her again. You questioned the shipping price and instead of getting a lower amount, you got it completely free. You came out ahead. 

[mtgraves7984]

Maybe all the seller had was that particular box. I think it's crazy that the seller put 2# shipping on it, when the small Flat Rate would've been cheaper. 

Accept the seller's offer of the $13 credit, but know the seller was out the original 2# shipping and FVFs on it. Interesting that the seller offered this refund amount... maybe someone new just trying to please.

[georgestobbard]

I'm still confused by what happened.  I was genuinely surprised she refunded me anything.  I never asked for a refund, I only wanted to tell her how illogical and financially wasteful her shipping choices were.

In hindsight, I never should have paid her invoice and I should have let her file an unpaid item claim against me. Or maybe I should have asked her to cancel my order without paying for it. Anybody who is that evasive is unlikely to come through at the end with good service as a pleasant surprise to make up for everything that came before.  

[georgestobbard]

She's a very experienced seller who should know the ins and outs of shipping by now.  She has enough feedbacks on eBay to indicate some understanding of the process. She also told me, apropos of nothing, that she's successfully sold high-end goods on another ecommerce venue and she has had celebrity clients.  If she's as good a seller as she claims to be,  then should know by now that if she is not willing to take legitimate questions about her items before an auction ends or at the time that an invoice is requested by the buyer that this doesn't reflect well on her at all. 

Even though she refunded me on all the shipping, I feel drained.  I've been on eBay for 20 years, and I think this is only the third bad buying experience I've had. in all this time.  And as a seller with 11 years of experience,  I would never allow something like this to happen if the shoe were on the other foot.  If I can't or won't entertain questions about my items, I'd put my shop on vacation or even question why I'm in the business of selling at all.

I certainly won't be buying from her again, that's for sure.  I think the lesson here is to trust my instincts and not keep trying to interact with a seller, who, for whatever reason, won't answer legitimate questions.  

[nobody*s_perfect]

She has a lot of feedback, but most of them are for buying and only a few are for selling within the past year.  The listings offered Parcel Select Ground, which makes no sense at all for those lightweight things. IMHO she's just very, very confused and flaky.  Generally it's best to ask questions before you bid/buy so if a seller is uncommunicative you can avoid dealing with them at all.

[simba6]

Was it a new seller?  They might not know what they were doing.

[georgestobbard]

The seller was not a new, inexperienced person, as I just told creamcouture in a response to her comment.  

I briefly considered the possibility that the seller doesn't own a proper scale and that she was just too embarrassed to admit that she couldn't tell me up front what the package would weigh.  But when I saw the small flat-rate priority box with the 2-lb. label on it, that possibility went right out the window because that's when I realized that she never needed to weigh those items in order to price the accurate postage plus a reasonable handling fee. And then there were her excuses for not answering me, which I can't verify and which I can't be entirely sympathetic to, since they came too late to mitigate the circumstances. 

I am glad I stood up for myself, it's just the lack of logic that gnaws at me.  I suppose I need to let that go, because some people are neither logical nor fair, as much as we'd like them to be.  

[georgestobbard]

Thanks to those of you who responded.  This was a bizarre buying experience and I need to process it in my mind some more, then try to forget it.  I hate it when people are so illogical and then they try to gaslight you into thinking that you're the one with the problem because you insist on pursuing a line of questioning that is perfectly reasonable.  

[shhboom]

My best guess is that she too was confused (maybe the daughter of the regular seller). Two auctions, each with  one pound Priority Mail shipping...she wondered if she shipped in one box if she was required to pay for two pounds Priority Mail (which she did even though she didn't have to). You came out way ahead in this with the free shipping while she lost big with the excessive postage.