Bill Geiger

I recently had an ebay auction end and in my auction I stated that if using the Buy it Now feature, shipping was free. However, the person who purchased the item paid for shipping even though I stated in the auction there was no need. There was a shipping fee listed in case someone didn't use the Buy It Now feature. My question is, is it fair for me to keep the shipping fee and call it a mistake on the buyers end?

I am somewhat confused. On one hand, it was right there in front of the buyer that shipping was free yet they chose to pay for it.

So, if you were me, what would you do? Refund shipping to the buyer or just forget about it. The shipping fee was $3.50, and when you include the paypal fee, it comes to about 2.81 remaining from the shipping fee.

basketb

Well, if you need the $2 and change that badly, keep it. Otherwise, think of how surprised and happy the buyer will be when he receives the merchandise and some extra cash. He'll most definitively will give you the highest praise in his feedback.

Bill Geiger

That is what I was thinking.......

damn_skippy

Maybe it was a tip.

marty888

I assume that the shipping fee was to cover media mail or regular mail - possibly you could "upgrade" the shipping to priority mail - I've done that when a buyer has overpaid on s/h.

PwA

id go with marty.. upgrade the shipping for them

it would look good on your part, and your doing them a favor

Bill Geiger

I went with the Priority shipping. I feel good about it too.

Troy Stiffler

I do the free S&H w/Buy it Now-thing on most of my auctions. And you wouldn't believe how many people pay shipping. If they mention it to me, the money goes back to them instantly.

Also, PayPal lets you do partial refunds now; it's something new. So you could have refunded $3.50, and PayPal would have refunded your fees, too.

El-Kabong

Why go the paypal route? Just slip an extra 3.50 in with the item (assuming that it hasnt shipped) with a note.

Troy Stiffler

And the fee is no longer an issue anyways. If you click on 'refund payment' on the transaction page, you will be allowed to do a partial refund from there. It will refund Bill's original fee, AND won't charge the buyer when it come back to him.

DeltaSigChi4

Well it seems he already sent it out (Priority) but I'll add my two cents anyway. The bidder just paid you, so the balance is still PAYPAL balance, and Paypal doesn't charge fees for balance transfers. Of course, that will leave the question if the winning bidder is also a seller, because if he/she has a Premier account then PAYPAL will charge the fee - but not everyone has a Premier account.

I would've contacted the winning bidder and asked if they wanted their shipping upgraded to overnight (I ship Priority as it is)

TexasGuy

I bought a circular saw once on ebay. The seller charged me $15 for shipping, which I felt was fair for a large, heavy item. Imagine my surprise when the box included a check for $2 and change, along with a note from the seller that he was refunding the unused portion of the shipping charge.

He got very high praise from me.

Tazwolff

This happened to me last month. My auction ended with buy it now and he still paid the shipping for a non-bin close. Even though I had it very clear in the description with bold red saying that BIN would get free 2 day shipping. So, I sent a refund with Pay Pal and informed him via email about it. He never replied and never claimed the refund. Strange fella….

kayak99

I would refund the shipping charge because the buyer did as agreed.

Please be aware that if you use paypal, a shipping charge sometimes pops up in the box all by itself. The buyer actually has to remove it, sometimes twice, in order for the box to stay blank.

At least three times I noticed an automatic $4.95 shipping charge appear when I did not insert an amount myself.

This could be what happened but regardless, you need to send his shipping money back.