Customer asked to ship using their UPS account in order to save shiiping cost

[dreambooks]

I feel that there are pitfalls for doing this, and there are advantages for doing this. I am not sure if I should do this. Buyer paid near $400 shipping cost, for 4 packages. If I ship it, I may refund them more than $200 because if I ship FEDEX, which is the cheapest, it may only cost less than $200. But if I use their UPS account to ship, I don't need to pay shipping, and hence the eBay fee on the shipping (of course, I would refund the whole shipping cost that I collected). In case anything goes awry, I do not loss anything, except the merchandise. Otherwise I may lose the merchandise, plus shipping. Any advice?

[dreambooks]

By the way, this is an inexpensive item (cloth), but I never expected that someone would buy near 200 of them, and I just collected $2 extra shipping cost for each extra item. So I would definitely refund the excessive shipping cost if I ship by buying labels from eBay.

[robbie31415]

You only have to refund what they paid. So if they paid with their account then you wouldn't have to refund the shipping costs.

Please note, by using their shipping account, you remove a lot of the restrictions that are in place such as forwarding the package that are on labels like eBay and pirateship.

It's very easy for a buyer to keep the item and money in this manner. So if they aren't an honest buyer you will have to most likely accept losing both.

It's really a decision you have to make in your risk assessment.

[stephenmorgan]

I have used buyers provided shipping label from Fed X before.  But this was long before eBay offered shipping and they did not get involved with disputes.

With the buyer providing their own shipping I would think you would have no liability or ability to claim a loss or damaged with the shipper.  I am not sure how eBay would view this.

If something goes wrong with the order and you had to give a full refund, are you ok with this?  At least you would not be out the shipping charges.

If you accept their label I would just make sure the items are going to the same address as eBay provided for you to ship to and record the tracking number into eBay.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I do not see any more fraud than in the past when selling online, but it appears that sellers with a different type of merchandise and customer are seeing a lot more fraud.

If you have little enough at risk if you lose you the entire amount of this order, you can feel free to go with your gut, even if it increases the chance of being cheated.

If you are one of those people who believe that you have to watch every penny, this is probably not a good idea.

What I would always advise against is being desperate to keep a sale and as a result take risks that you cannot afford.

[steady2304]

@dreambooks 

Personally, I would not do it. They are too many things that could go wrong, and you would be left hanging in the wind.

The buyer could be using a UPS account that they don't own, they could also reroute the package to another destination thus you can't prove delivery to the address provided at checkout.

[lakefor94]

I never allow a customer to send me shipping labels. Besides, chances are that their account will not be less expensive than the eBay discounted labels.

As others has stated, they can also pull some funny business with the shipping that might negate your seller protections.

[rudy2828]

Stick to your terms, unless they want to pick it up themselves.

[dryophelia]

@dreambooks 

If they buy the shipping label, they have access to the tracking number. 
How will you prove delivery? 

eBay doesn’t always show sold listings.  Of the sold listings I can see, there is a lot of ‘free shipping’.  What did they purchase that

 FedEx may look cheaper, but the actual delivery charges could be way more after delivery. Surcharges for residential delivery and fuel are just a couple that come to mind. Very rarely, do sellers get a refund on the excess shipping of. FedEx label. More often, FedEx will come back to the seller for more money after delivery. 

Of the sold items I can see, none offered, FedEx was not an option. 

I wouldn’t even buy the eBay label for FedEx, let alone, let the buyer purchase the label. 
Go to the FedEx store with the items in their box(es) if you must use FedEx. 

If the buyer has paid you for shipping, why are they willing to buy their own shipping label?

Stick to the terms of your listing. Going outside the terms of your listing will result in less eBay protection for you. 

[ryry-jj]

You will lose seller protection from eBay.  Any dispute, you will need to deal with on your own.  You should get a receipt upon the item being picked up, so you would have the tracking number, but you need to be there  at the pick up.  You could also ask them to send you the pre-printed label for you to place on the box and then drop off, & get a receipt at drop off.

If they have their own UPS/FedEx account most likely they are a business, check them out.  If the ship to address is not a legit business address, that would be suspicious.  In my daily business, we do this all the time without issues... on eBay, however, I would only do what is in my listing.

As others have said, ebay's rates are pretty close to what they would be paying on their own account.  Their only true savings may be at the back end on their year end volume rebate.  This rebate covers any small loses or damages rather than filing reports for every little problem.  But they would need to have a large volume.

Bottom line...I'm not doing it, I'm only using eBay shipping on ebay.    BTW if you do use  their shipping, have them send you the shipping box and any packaging too, they need to cover it all.