eBay

dgardner13601 · ‎06-30-2022

Why does Ebay allow Seller to get away with sending items that have postage due? I purchased a card, Seller printed .53cent lable, attached it to yellow bubble envelope and shipped it to me, Mailman delivered with $4.07 postage due? Ebay says nothing they can do, that's crazy. I paid $2.00 for this original, so ended up paying $6.07. They said file a return, so seller sent label, still won't get me my postage due back. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

eoi · ‎02-25-2023

Postage Due fraud when the seller using a letter rate on a parcel multiple times (check their feedback) is called Revenue Fraud by the USPS. A guy here in Calif was fined almost 5 million dollars for doing it.
It is a criminal offense, as it is revenue fraud against the USPS, mail fraud (false advertising), etc.
Ebay is a party to the fraud as it is aware that this is happening, people report sellers to ebay, people post negative feedback about the postage due.
If you get an item postage due and it is not an "honest mistake" like the seller was off an oz or two on a package (15.5 oz vs 16.1) it should be report to the US postal inspectors (you will need to call them as the website has no category for this, and retail USPS staff can not assist you as they are silo'd from the USPSPI.)

Postage due fraud harms legit businesses who can not compete with sellers who engage in postage fraud, it also slows down mail processing and delivery (carriers have to spend extra time, longer lines at post office), and the millions of dollars in fraud means we all have to pay more for postage - it fuels inflation.
Hopefully with enough reports the USPS will also penalize ebay for being an accessory to fraud.
If one seller is committed 5 million in postage fraud, ebay like got over $500,000 in ill gotten gains., which is should have to pay back to the post office.

house*of*paws · ‎02-25-2023

Hi @dgardner13601

It’s the buyers who are paying the postage due that are letting the sellers get away with it.

I always ask the PO to hold onto the package until after I speak to the seller. I then ask seller for the needed money … reminding them that their home PO will demand the money before they’ll release the package back to them (if it’s ‘returned to sender’). That always works for me.

[That said … I thought that current policy was that the seller was charged the postage due automatically so that the buyer never had to face this situation anymore.]

And it appears that I just answered a zombie thread. 🫤

nobody*s_perfect · ‎02-25-2023

@house*of*paws wrote: … I thought that current policy was that the seller was charged the postage due automatically so that the buyer never had to face this situation anymore.]...

The APV system automatically charges the sender for Postage Due, but these envelopes that are erroneously sent as letters are apparently not caught in that system. Probably because many are mailed with stamps rather than with online postage which would enable USPS to bill the sender. The OP's piece was apparently set with metered mail, which might be trickier to back-blll.

https://link.usps.com/2017/10/05/what-is-apv/

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/ship-smart/ebay-shipping-partners/avoid-extra-postage-costs....

kh-taylarie · ‎02-25-2023

Due to the age of this thread, it will be locked in order to keep discussions current. If you have the same or a similar question/issue we invite you to start a new thread on the topic.