Bad ebay seller (venting)

[butterflydream]

Some ebay sellers insist only one option of expensive shipment method, for their convenience not for the customer's. If the seller doesn't give any alternative option for shipment, he should take some responsibility for the service of delivery company - especially in case the shipping method is more expensive.

My small company ship out our products more than 100 packages everyday by door to door delivery service companies. We have a contracted company who gives us special rate and we prepay the shipping cost from our account. Even so, whenever customers ask for their preferred delivery company we ship via that company. We pay more shipping cost, we have to ship more batches, and warehouse should work more. But we do this because it's right customer service.

[Vlad Soare]

I'm sure the brokerage fees can be prepaid, because I have had several packages delivered by UPS from the US, and I never had to pay anything extra (except local custom taxes, of course, which are a completely different matter). I'd rather pay a high amount in advance than rejoicing in a small shipping charge only to have a bad surprise later.

Anyway, I'm surprised to hear how sloppy UPS are in the US and Canada. In Romania they are very decent to say the least. And I believe they're OK in other European countries as well, though I don't have first hand information about that, so I may be wrong. It may be because we don't deal with UPS directly, but with a small Romanian company who represents them. Or it may be because they deal with a lot fewer packages than their American counterparts. Whatever the reason, I can tell you that having a package delivered by UPS in Romania is a pleasure, at least in my experience.

[jetcode]

use Fedex

[Vlad Soare]

I don't know, Joe. I've read a lot of horror stories about FedEx, too.

[goamules]

I got away from UPS a couple years ago. They are more expensive than US Postal Service, and less cautious. Didn't used to be, but are now. I shipped a fragile acoustic guitar this spring twice with no problem via FedEx. They are good for large stuff. For small, I like USPS.

[Allen in Montreal]

I don't know, Joe. I've read a lot of horror stories about FedEx, too.

I have a FedEx account, do not use it as much since going all digital, but I use to ship film almost every day and knew every FedEx drop box in the city.

The only FedEx story ever was the bill, they are a bit expensive, but they have never lost, damaged or needlessly delayed a package of mine in 20 years!

UPS screws up every second package or there abouts.

I love USPS for cross border. They may be slow, but there are reasonable and have never failed me either. UPS has the lowest batting average of the three, by far.

[e]

There are usually some extra transportation and customs fees for the buyer when shipping overseas....depending on the country...it will be more or less.

Blame your govnt's customs and UPS, not the seller.

$48- is a drop in the bucket....don't be so cheap...that's the price of admission.....this is LF....remember? It's probably not even worth your time to mention or think about it....you just pissed away a few hours of your valuable life ranting....was that worth it?

Not trying to be confrontational....this is just the way life is....

[Vlad Soare]

I don't know, Joe. I've read a lot of horror stories about FedEx, too.

The only FedEx story ever was the bill, they are a bit expensive, but they have never lost, damaged or needlessly delayed a package of mine in 20 years!

Look here for some Fedex horror stories.
Whether there are more such stories about UPS than Fedex, or the other way around, I don't know. I personally have had very good experiences with both of them.

Blame your govnt's customs and UPS, not the seller.

The seller should be aware of all UPS charges and disclose them to the buyer. This is especially true when UPS is the seller's choice, not the buyer's. When I receive a package I expect to pay customs fees, but I certainly don't expect to pay "extra transportation costs". I expect the seller to charge me the full transportation costs.
Customs fees are between me and my government, but UPS fees should be charged in full by the seller, to avoid getting any nasty surprises later.

[neil poulsen]

I also avoid UPS whenever possible and use USPS.

>> I find that USPS can be a lot less expensive.

>> USPS has seamless tracking to the UK, if one ships Express.

>> USPS delivers to the door. If I'm not home, it's easy enough to pick up the package at the local post office.

>> UPS requires an electronic signature. I don't like having my signature on file anywhere. USPS uses electronic signature but has a paper option.

If I have to use UPS, I ask the seller not to have signature required.

Shutterblade knows exactly what they are doing by using UPS for international shipping. Apparently, if UPS rakes their (Shutterblade's) customers, it's fine by them.

Anyway, I had a bad experience with Shutterblade and will avoid purchasing from them. They placed a failure to pay complaint on me with EBay three days after they had received my money order. It was immediately withdrawn by Shutterblade, but it sure left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Greg Miller]

The ebay seller cannot know in advance what country the high bidder will come from. You cannot expect the seller to know what the shipper will do for every country in the world.

In ebay you can see where the seller is from (the seller cannot see where the bidders are located). So if you see that the seller is in a different country than you, it is really your responsibility to figure out the ramifications of shipping on your own before you bid.