Charged $100 for Lift Gate Service without Approval

[projektauto]

A buyer purchased a large item shipped via freight. I asked the buyer up front if they would need lift gate service for an additional charge. They said no, they have a fork lift on site.

Now I’ve received a nearly $100 adjustment from the freight company. Buyer used lift gate service after all. The freight company just went for it and billed me directly. No contact from the buyer or the freight company.

I’ve politely attempted to contact the buyer multiple times. They are long gone.

Do I have any recourse here from eBay or the freight company?

It seems like trying to correctly charge for freight shipping on eBay is still a nightmare.

[asset_liquidators]

The freight company is the one responsible. If you have paperwork showing no lift gate service then you should not pay the difference.

[slippinjimmy]

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@asset_liquidators wrote:

The freight company is the one responsible. If you have paperwork showing no lift gate service then you should not pay the difference.

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Nope, doesn't work that way in the freight business. The OP/seller shipped with the charges being charged to them not the recipient so that is who gets the bill for any extra charges.

In a Freight situation the shipping costs should always be charged to the recipient not the sender, if they had been sent with the recipient the one who is paying then the freight company would not hand over the goods until they were paid in full.

ANY contract with a trucking company would include language that clearly (if you read the fine print) indicate that any additional costs will be billed to the responsible party which in this case is the shipper not the recipient.

[m60driver]

When I had my B&M store I was always dealing with the shenanigans of freight companies.  There always seem to be a little Jimmy Hoffa running their billing department.  The lift gate nonsense is just one scam.  Changing the code on the item, and thus the cost, long after delivery is another.  You must read the contract very carefully to avoid the pitfalls of using a freight company.

[krazzykats]

I had to specifically order lift gate service when I had my B&M store. 

I did not have a dock and had to bring palleted merchandise down to the street level. 

It would always cost extra as not every truck had them and hand bombing the items without one was a PITA!

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[stainlessenginecovers]

Ebay is nothing different than the 1980's ad in the LA Times you would place to sell things and once you did a 'deal' with a 'customer' the LA Times is 100% NOT responsible for ANYTHING. 

[ryry-jj]

Go back to the freight company as ask for a refund...they often do give one.  BTW, the usual going rate on that lift gate service is $45.   More than likely what happened was the item arrived ,and the buyer just let the driver use the lift gate and then they "checked" the box when they signed the BOL.  The buyer may have just thought it was a courtesy drop.  But this service really doesn't cost the freight company anything unless it was set up as a lift gate drop in the first place because then they would have had to have a truck with a lift gate designated for the delivery.  Often times you are then charged for it even if you did use a forklift.

The worse are "lift gate" plus inside "deliveries"...those will total up to $100.  Inside doesn't always mean, brought inside a building, it means at anytime does the driver lose visual site of the their vehicle.

I should mention that any freight company, or delivery service  that handles pallets or large items, lift gate service is the default.  The seller and buyer need to waive it off if not used.  On eBay, I'd always charge for it and then refund if not used.   But, I'm not paying $100 no matter what

[lakefor94]

Simple pitfall of Freight shipping. This is between you and the carrier you hired.

[m60driver]

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@krazzykats wrote:

I had to specifically order lift gate service when I had my B&M store. 

I did not have a dock and had to bring palleted merchandise down to the street level. 

It would always cost extra as not every truck had them and hand bombing the items without one was a PITA!

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I had one freight company that had a driver who would try to start using their lift gate before I even had a chance to go out into my parking, even for small loads of about 10 boxes, and then try to bill me.  I was constantly battling freight companies.