Sold an item with a shipping only option, but the buyer lives in my city

[red_daredevil]

Should I go ahead and ship or just take it to his house? Just taking the package to his house would save me on shipping since I included free shipping, but it wouldn't give any evidence of a delivery to eBay. 

[toyshnip]

Why risk it?
Buyer could open a case claiming the item never arrived. ebay won't see a delivery confirmation, and that will hurt your "Late shipment rate" and "Tracking uploaded on time and validated".
So it can hurt you much more then the shipping cost.

[evry1nositswindy]

I agree to just ship it. 

I sold an item that was local pick-up and that same buyer bought something else from my store that was also free shipping.  Turns out he was someone I knew and lived nearby.  He paid both through PayPal and picked up both of them at the same time.  I had printed out something for him to sign that he picked up both items.  We both left positive FB but I had to look at that item as a late shipment/no tracking for months.  I was still under the % I had to maintain as a TRS, but just looking at it made me mad.  Messed up my 100% tracking!  If you are anywhere close to hitting the % for no tracking, don't do it!

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@red_daredevil wrote:

Should I go ahead and ship or just take it to his house? Just taking the package to his house would save me on shipping since I included free shipping, but it wouldn't give any evidence of a delivery to eBay. 

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Ship it.

I would not be happy if a random somebody showed up at my house with my package. The buyer may work nights and sleep during the day. They may not be home during the day.  If they wanted to pick up locally they would have asked.

[chapeau-noir]

Just drop them an email and ask them if they mind.

[richard1rst]

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@red_daredevil wrote:

Just taking the package to his house would save me on shipping

And what will it cost you in time, mileage, gas, lost productivity (being on the road instead of processing your other orders), throwing your general work flow patterns all out of whack. etc.

I never do it.

[mam98031]

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@red_daredevil wrote:

Should I go ahead and ship or just take it to his house? Just taking the package to his house would save me on shipping since I included free shipping, but it wouldn't give any evidence of a delivery to eBay. 

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Your buyer may not appreciate you showing up at their house without their prior agreement to handle things that way.  It could be seen completely differently than you intend.  I know I don't want my buyers showing up on my doorstep unannounced.   I'd be dialing 911.

Ship it.  They purchased it and should have paid for the shipping at that time.  Package and ship, that was the agreement you entered into when you sold them the item.  Trying to change that agreement now is not in your best interest or that of the buyer.

I know you are just trying to do a nice thing, but often those types of actions just aren't received in the same way they are intended.

[inhawaii]

Tell the buyer you're a recovering serial killer, then offer to drop the item off at their house. 

Chances are they will ask you to ship it.

[luckythewinner]

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@red_daredevil wrote:

Should I go ahead and ship or just take it to his house? Just taking the package to his house would save me on shipping since I included free shipping, but it wouldn't give any evidence of a delivery to eBay. 

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First, the buyer paid for the shipping service in your listing - he did not give you money so that you could use an alternate delivery service in order to profit from that payment. 

Second, I would be MORTIFIED if an eBay seller had the the gall to show up at my house unannounced. IMHO that would be an unbelievable violation of personal boundaries. 

Not to metnion that it might not even be the buyer's house; if could be a friend or relative. And it's also possible the buyer has a delivery hold on his mail and is expecting it to be held safely at the post office.

The key takeway here is that your suggestion is entirely designed to benefit you, not the buyer - and in order to do that you would be changing the terms of the sale and ignoring the agreed delivery method without any input from the buyer.

[deech21]

if shipping cost is high,you can ship a thank you note for under $3 with tracking,and take it to his house .

I would just ship it. 

[*madison]

I purchased an item 3 weeks ago from a seller in my city. Approx 60 minutes later, the seller hand delivered the item to my home without any prior conversation and agreement, and I was furious. My wife stopped me from giving him negative feedback because she's a nice person, and I'm not as nice.

[this*old*attic]

Folks are jumping to conclusions here!

Shipping was “free.” Buyer doesn’t feel like he paid for it.

OP never said it was a stealth operation.

Not to mention, no one dies from a single late shipment demerit and we have no evidence it’s a high scam item.

Sheesh. 🙄🙄🙄

It’s up to you, OP. I wouldn’t do it to save $5 but I might if shipping was high, the address was close/convenient, and I wasn’t crazy busy with other stuff.

[*madison]

If the op wants to hand deliver though, the op must get permission from the buyer first. I was furious when the seller came to my home uninvited..

[this*old*attic]

Of course. That’s obvious to everyone except, apparently, your foolish seller. OP never indicated he’d just pop by.

[popeirasplace]

Instead of going into a long story about a very bad experience with local pickup and what it cost me I will just say that shipping it with a tracking number is the best way to deal with it. So I no longer will experience this problem I now tell the buyer if they wish local pick up to let me change the listing to LOCAL PICKUP ONLY before they buy the item....this solves the problem.