Pre-Sale Buyer Harrassment about not getting the free shipping

[calhounmonster]

My item number 181697060202 offers Free First Class Shipping with the option to pay for Priority Mail or Express shipping. Very standard eBay listing, most of my items are the same.
A buyer attempted to purchase my item but did not complete the order. He is claiming that he was being charged shipping at checkout, and is accusing me of all kinds of fraud, etc.
I sent him a screen shot showing the 3 shipping options and he's still harassing me.

Here's the message thread:

Buyer:
Doesnt free shipping mean free not paid for by the customer. If so whats the fraudelent shipping applyed after its in the cart. This my friend is bait and switch. Change this practice or you will be turned into not only ebay but state attn. General and doj not to mention ftc. THIS PRACTICE WILL STOP TODAY.

Me:
Within the United States, the item has 3 shipping options, one of which is the default free shipping.
See attached screen shot.

Buyer:

Then the 3 options must be made known at the time the decision is to be made, this is called FULL DISCLOSURE and that is one of the very main rules of Uniform Commercial code..nothing is to be held secret in any transaction. In fact by the very nature of your bussiness you enter into a contract every time you sell any product and all is governed by the U.C.C. Now its either "free shipping" or paid shipping not if i decide to ship it free shipping, AFTER I SOLD IT under the condition of FREE SHIPPING. Just stop this practice, its your choice....

Ps. The shipping was tacked on just before i made the purchase in the check out portion of the shopping cart. This is where it takes the shipping out not at the begainning of the process where it is to be disclosed.

So, he must have missed the step where you choose the shipping option, but the default should have been the Free Shipping.

At this point I have blocked him for rudeness and probably won't reply to him again, but my question is...

Why would he have been charged shipping in the first place??

[therogue-trader]

Could be some sort of ebay glitch.  Some people unfortunately can't be reasoned with.

[dhbookds]

you can't know that he didn't change the shipping.  I put an item of yours w free shipping in the cart and tried the BIN.............  both showed up with free shipping...........  If you want me to try the specific item, post the item.....

[kensgiftshop]

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@calhounmonster wrote:

Ps. The shipping was tacked on just before i made the purchase in the check out portion of the shopping cart. This is where it takes the shipping out not at the begainning of the process where it is to be disclosed.

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Could it have been sales tax and not shipping?

[calhounmonster]

The item number is in the first line of my post. You don't have to try it however, we've already checked it from another account and it came up free shipping.

[therogue-trader]

" If you want me to try the specific item, post the item....."

The item number is in the first line...

[calhounmonster]

Could have been sales tax. Hard to know as the person is so obtuse. This seems like someone who can't be reasoned with so I choose to ignore. I just thought people might find this amusing, the lengths some people will go to to harass you about a $4 item!

[inhawaii]

I did a checkout with qty. 1  #2 solid.  It did offer me all 3 shipping options but defaulted to free shipping.  Seems to be working fine to me. 

[ronsam-197]

I think you just dodged a (very nasty) bullet.

It's nice when they out themselves before actual purchase.

[skeletonstore]

At first I thought you were going to ask if you should block him or not.  Wow,  this guy definitely holds up lines at brick & mortars all the time.  The fact that he is quoting laws or rules most people would have never heard of just screams trouble before,  after and during any sale.  I bet his feedback is telling too.  I can picture him buying a plum and complaining that because he didn't eat the pit he shouldn't have to pay for the weight of it.  Most definitely ignore his emails unless you want to have a tick sucking on your calmness.  

[iart]

Nothing more dangerous that a fool thinking he's brilliant.

But, really, be careful of the Attention General.

(You're not really letting this bother you, are ya? I mean, if we don't get a laugh like this at least once a week what's the point of selling on here?)

[duncanvr]

Could be tax being added at checkout & the guy is just confused thinking its a shipping charge. I have had a lot of buyers complain that tax is being added at the check out.

[skeletonstore]

I got a guy right now complaining to me that my use of the word "mummy" for a horror prop which was obviously made to look like a mummy is ruining his search for memorabilia from some "reboot"/"remake" movie called the "mummy".  This "imdb" collector is apparently unaware there are 200 or more films with the word mummy in it.  I think I'll put Yummy before Mummy to really throw him off.  It's a common horror term.  If you were to click on Halloween decorations you'd find even Ebay created a sub category called "mummies".  So I used plastic and makeup, I guess he wants me to sell some real mummies like Ed Gein style.  We should be able to report this because if we don't answer the harassment(?)even after we block them ebay thinks we're performing bad customer service.  It's like a lo-fi attack on a server/website to use up their data.  

[aldente28]

Worked fine for me. If this is the only complaint you've ever had like this, I think you're probably safe to ignore it. It could be a glitch, but it could equally be a confused buyer fueled by misunderstanding. He/she didn't seem entirely reasonable, which in the absence of more information would basically be my bottom line, if it were me.

If it happens again, maybe there's something to it. Until then, I'd forget about it.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Nicely handled response. You maintained grace under pressure which some find very difficult. I'm wondering if he wanted Priority and perhaps thought he could bully you into it? What kind of person threatens legal action even before some minimal investigation to understand what's happening? He went from 0-60 in 5 seconds. I would put him on the block list (and i only have 2 or 3 names on mine after a decade of selling).