I just sold five cases of 100 large bubble mailers to one customer. She chose me because eBay's calculated shipping, which I used, told her it would cost less than $27 for FedEx ground to send all five cases to her business. Each case measures 15 x 15 x 21 inches and weighs just over 6 pounds. With the quantity discount I offered, the five cases cost her $54 plus shipping: $85 total with sales tax.
When I went to purchase shipping labels, eBay had calculated the weight for five cases, but kept the 15 x 15 x 21 dimensions I entered for a single case. There is no way I can cram 200 bubble mailers into one box, let alone 500 of them, so I noted what FedEx labels would cost if I shipped the cases of bubble mailers individually or in bundles of 2, 3, or 4 cases. The least expensive combination (two bundles of two plus a single) cost $95, and other combinations would cost up to $290 just for FedEx Ground shipping, which the customer selected.
I called eBay customer service asking them to write to the customer acknowledging that their calculated shipping method was not accurate. They refused, and asked me to contact the seller to get her permission to cancel the transaction. I stated that if I were the buyer, who paid the amount shown in eBay checkout, I would not want to cancel the transaction if the fault was neither the buyer's nor the seller's. At least the CS rep understood that I was calling to avoid a big defect for cancelling a transaction, so she put me on hold four times. After the first 20 minutes she said that the best that eBay could do for me was to offer me a credit for $33.89 to cover half the difference between what they charged the buyer for shipping and what they would charge me for the same. She suggested that in the future I use flat rate shipping for bulky lightweight items but I asked her to go back to her supervisor and request that eBay pay for the total difference ($67.78) between what they billed the customer and what they charged me for shipping. It will take 7 to 10 business days for this credit to be approved
Has anyone else suffered a loss on a transaction because eBay did not calculate multiple quantity shipping properly? If so, how did you avoid this from happening again?
