Expedited shipping

[rarebird631]

I offer free shipping on my items. I just had a sale (12/7, will ship 12/8) and the buyer asked if I could deliver it by 12/12, if possible. Expedited shipping costs $5.00 more. Can I ask them to pay the extra (they already paid) or do I have to eat it? I've never had this request. Thanks.

[12345jamesstamps]

I never make promises of when item can arrive. And I wouldn't charge the buyer. What if there is a delay somewhere? You can eat the 5 bucks and let the buyer know but if it doesn't show up on time and buyer paid 5 bucks....who do you think will be upset. There's that feedback. And its not like you are delivering it yourself.

[iamalwaysright]

For me this is a coin toss on a case by case basis. First off, I never guarantee arrival date of a package unless it’s USPS Express Mail. Basically I tell the buyer I can only guarantee what USPS would guarantee. Expedited services might be faster, but no one will be covered if it shows up late except for Express Mail. And usually express mail costs like what, $30+ more.

There’s also the speed of each process. There’s been times a buyer would pay for First Class (4 days ETA) and ask for expedited (2 days ETA) but then take over 2 days to decide to pay for the upgrade or not. Then the time they paid for it, it would have been faster had I just shipped it FC immediately as originally planned. So competency of the buyer would be considered. I predict and prejudge this based on the buyers feedback and tone/verbiage/frequency of their messages.

For the ones I agree to expedite, I either get their email and send a PayPal payment request or create an eBay listing titled something like “upgrade to expedited shipping” and have the buyer pay it. Either payment method is susceptible to payment disputes, which is also considered when prejudging the buyer.

[fm2000]

If they paid for standard or economy shipping, or if the listing had "free" standard or economy shipping, then you are not obligated to send it expedited.

Given the delays going on with USPS right now, I would tell them you can't guarantee a delivery date even with expedited and offer to (user requested) cancel the order if they are not ok with the risk of not making their delivery date. You could offer to send it overnight if they are willing to pay a large additional charge to pay for it, but that is up to your discretion; if they willing to pay for overnight and are polite and completely reasonable, it might be worth it, if they are in any way rude or set off any red flags I wouldn't do it. As someone else said, check their feedback too and make sure they are not leaving rude, unwarranted or excessive negative feedback to help avoid a possible headache.

[markker_2]

No of course not you can ask them to pay you the extra they’ve already paid if they’re serious about wanting to receive the service you don’t have to eat it and if someone told you that they’re wrong for doing so!

[markker_2]

It’s never a good idea to make promises to yourself or your customers or your employees that you can’t keep remember you’re only as good as your word if your word is no good than your business as well as your associates and your word is no good and will ultimately condemn your company to failure in the long road ahead and will ultimately be your demise and or your company’s complete and total failure!