eBay

drusalina · ‎05-12-2018

I ordered an item. It came folded up and shoved in a paper envelope with so much tape and so small that it damaged the item. I am returning it. The seller also fudged on the shipping.

Sellers Do your homework.

1. When you are ready to sell something. Find a bag or box that fits (not shoved in to a small container just to reduce shipping costs).
2. Weigh it with a few extra ounces for good measure so the PO won't ask for more money on arrival. If it is close to the next weight go up not down on the shipping costs.

3. Use an eBay Calculator to find out what your costs and profit are at finalfeecalc . com

This will save you the trouble of having angry unsatisfied customers like me.

Change the channel!

castlemagicmemories · ‎05-12-2018

@lex-talon wrote:
@bigdeals.etc wrote:
@drusalina wrote:
I use cereal boxes to ship magazines, and put PLEASE DO NOT BEND. I have used flattened boxes too. When a publisher ships a magazine it comes without any packaging. I would never use a plastic bag to ship a magazine or book. But if it is something important or could be damaged with shipping I would use a better box or packaging.
Like this?

@castlemagicmemories haha yea that's so true with clothing. I get some buyers asking me that sometimes. Size chart that shows Medium is only 30-34, and the buyer says I'm 38... so the Medium would be good right?
That is horrible. The mail carriers on my street have more tact and common sense not to cram any important documents in my mailbox. They will leave any oversize envelopes and packages on a plastic storage bench on my porch.😀

I was thinking along the same lines. They could put the envelope between the storm and front door.

castlemagicmemories · ‎05-12-2018

@inhawaii wrote:
I found it. The item was a rare bottle of soda from Japan. A bottle of soda. Of course i'm going to package it carefully (excessively" as the buyer put it).

FEEDBACK:
Item arrived fast. Packaging was excessive, but got the job done.

REPLY:
Sorry, I will try not to package your items so carefully next time.

I should have just kept my mouth shut and not replied to that feedback ... but i couldn't resist. LOL

castlemagicmemories · ‎05-12-2018

@jonathankirkland wrote:
@inhawaii wrote:
I found it. The item was a rare bottle of soda from Japan. A bottle of soda. Of course i'm going to package it carefully (excessively" as the buyer put it).

FEEDBACK:
Item arrived fast. Packaging was excessive, but got the job done.

REPLY:
Sorry, I will try not to package your items so carefully next time.

I should have just kept my mouth shut and not replied to that feedback ... but i couldn't resist. LOL

It's possible the negative was a mistake.

I think I may have tried to at least politely contact the buyer and ask if the accidentally made the wrong selection and if so, would they be willing to change it.

I've seen sellers with negatives that are clearly meant to be postivies, i.e., "fast shipping, great product thanks!" but of course all in red.

Unfortunely it seems like even the obvious ones ebay will be very reluctant to remove.

I would hope they could see that the positive comment did NOT match the negative format and remove, but maybe not.

secretsquirrelisnowhere · ‎05-13-2018

It would be nice if more sellers actually checked out packaging tips before shipping. I won an antique plate for a decent price but the seller sent it in an envelope protected by 2 peanuts. Needless to say I needed a full refund. A porcelain plate sent in a manila folder. How stupid.

castlemagicmemories · ‎05-13-2018

@secretsquirrelisnowhere wrote:
It would be nice if more sellers actually checked out packaging tips before shipping. I won an antique plate for a decent price but the seller sent it in an envelope protected by 2 peanuts. Needless to say I needed a full refund. A porcelain plate sent in a manila folder. How stupid.

@secretsquirrelisnowhere

We have something in common. I think we had the same seller. Mine sent me a porcelain doll in an envelope, on of those plastic poly mailers.

Then there was the unforgettable snow globe that was shoved, and I do mean shoved, as in squished in a box with only a t-shirt for packing. As the globe sides were touching the box since it didn't fit, guess how THAT arrived?

Then there was the music box that was shoved in a doughnut box and arrived smashed. Yes, a lightweight, fragile, no support to it doughnut box.

The heavy music box and fragile glass item that sat over it. No separation in box between the two, the music box smashed the glass item.

One might think, what were they thinking...but then again...

drusalina · ‎05-13-2018

@castlemagicmemories wrote:
@secretsquirrelisnowhere wrote:
It would be nice if more sellers actually checked out packaging tips before shipping. I won an antique plate for a decent price but the seller sent it in an envelope protected by 2 peanuts. Needless to say I needed a full refund. A porcelain plate sent in a manila folder. How stupid.
@secretsquirrelisnowhere

We have something in common. I think we had the same seller. Mine sent me a porcelain doll in an envelope, on of those plastic poly mailers.

Then there was the unforgettable snow globe that was shoved, and I do mean shoved, as in squished in a box with only a t-shirt for packing. As the globe sides were touching the box since it didn't fit, guess how THAT arrived?

Then there was the music box that was shoved in a doughnut box and arrived smashed. Yes, a lightweight, fragile, no support to it doughnut box.

The heavy music box and fragile glass item that sat over it. No separation in box between the two, the music box smashed the glass item.

One might think, what were they thinking...but then again...

Thats horrible ! Maybe if we tell our packaging stories here, it may help others to pack better.

I ordered a rearview mirror that has a suction cup to attached to the windshield last year for my vehicle, since mine had come unglued from the windshield. Now I ordered it from China, I know, I shouldn't have, but I couldn't find them any where in the USA, or local stores to buy. The first one I ordered came in a padded envelope, It was in the plastic bubble that things come in, but of course it arrived broken. Got my money back, didn't have to return it (thankfully). So then I order another one from another seller in China begging them to wrap it better. Again it was just put in a padded envelope, and it too arrived broken and I got my money back. So finallly I did find someone on eBay in the USA that had them and I asked how they were shipped and told them how my other two had arrived. They never responded. So I gave up and used my side mirrors and drove very carefully. I couldn't reglue my original mirror on the windshield, because the instructions on the glue had a temperature range when I could glue it and I had to wait till it was a cool day. So the moral of the story... don't order mirrors from China! :o(

Change the channel!

irinahat · ‎05-13-2018

I've been selling 15+ years. I started out selling extremely fragile porcelain china, some from the early 1800s, even. Over 15 years... I've maybe only ever had a small handful of breakages, mostly due to postage throwing my boxes or doing who knows what else to them.

I recently shipped an item I THOUGHT would be safe in an envelope. I quadruple wrapped it in bubble wrap, put it in a bubble envelope, put "fragile" stickers all over and even wrote "do not bend" everywhere - item still broke. This wasn't something that was fragile, either. Mistakes happen, I guess.

I refunded the buyer and can only hope that they're forgiving and will understand. Needless to say, this is actually only my second time ever using envelopes for anything but things like coins, jewelry, or prints / photos that I'd put between two pieces of cardboard, etc. Really re-thinking using them altogether. Shipping is WAY cheaper with envelopes, and I can see the temptation to use one, because it's cheap, and seems simple enough if the item in question seems durable enough to withstand it.

So, if I had to guess, I'd say maybe sellers are using envelopes more because they are cheap and with shipping rates going up, we're just trying to find the cheapest option. I'd NEVER put a porcelain doll or anything of that sort into an envelope, though...

ymeagainlord · ‎05-13-2018

Some people mail mugs in padded mailers. I've never been game to try it.

Crusader Cat is watching

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. - L Tolstoy

"You are entitled to your own opinion, you are not however, entitled to your own facts."

rolenboy01 · ‎05-14-2018

@ymeagainlord wrote:
Some people mail mugs in padded mailers. I've never been game to try it.

Yeah I've tried it in my early days here didn't work out too well so I stopped doing it but some posters here claim to be able to make it work, I think the key component was using a padded flat rate to keep the costs down they allow a lot of weird shaped packages if the said padded flat rate is covering the item.