I had an $18 purchase arrive with $36 due but post man left note only saying "insecure location" along WITH the packages he left on my door from other sellers. It blew away and was found by a neighbor later. I recieve packages on an average of 4 times a week from Ebay at ths address, and have for over a year and 4 months now. But that is a whole other story.
Long story short, I took me weeks and weeks to get to the bottom of why there was so much postage due as post office employees did not want to say and passed me around in phone calls and messages. Apparently to avoiding saying anything legally binding, implicating seller to any wrong doing. All the while seller is playing dumb with me in messages. Finally after weeks and weeks, post office emloyee tells me off the record that the seller checked "Books/Media" when they shipped my package of sweatshirts. Most likely to try to get the very very much cheaper shipping rate. I approached it as a simple oversite with seller, and thats when she started really ignoring me.
Then suddenly after over a month, the very next day after the Ebay case closed because to them it looked like we had done nothing for 30 days, (alhtough there is a thread of messages with myself and the seller)...the case closes with no resolve. Then, I recieve a tracking alert from USPS that the package is now headed to a new destination
@outpost1 wrote:
Beginning in 2014, I have been having problems with vendors occasionally selling items postage paid but it arriving with postage due. The problem according to the post office is the vendors either not paying attention to weight limits or else are using inappropriate packaging. It is apparently so common in occurrence that USPS employees suggest it is a deliberate skimming practice but I suspect it is probably just involving a simple misunderstanding of the limits?
In all of the previous cases the vendors rapidly repaid me for the overcharge. The most recent one however will not respond to me at all despite a few days of very polite contact attempts.
My only two options provided by EBay seem to be either requesting a refund or else giving a vendor a bad rating. Another option would of course be ignoring it and accepting the overcharge. A better option would be really nice.
This is obviously an increasingly common issue (based on similar posts) so perhaps EBAy can add a category so that resolution only requires excess or incorrect postage charges be addressed and reimbursed? Another helpful element might be giving vendors more complete and clear details about how to avoid this from occurring. I have no idea how to suggest either idea to EBay though, hence this post for hopeful discussion.
. A different post office employee tells me (off the record) that the "Book/Media" scam is common.
Today I just recieved word that I now owe $12 on a new free shipping item I won with a whole new seller. Postal employee says a seller once told him that it worked a big enough percentage of the time that it is worth the risk of one buyer's bad review from time to time. Sellers have also learned to run the clock out with Ebay on the open case by letting sellers chase answers at their local post office, knowing employees will be slow to speak , as they can't speak openly about one customer's mailing fees or transactions to another customer. This is something Ebay needs to fix but untill then buyers need to all be aware of.
