"DeepDiver" wrote in message
...
I recently purchased some stainless steel cut-offs from an Ebay seller in
New York. You might have seen some of his auctions:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZgentoolco

Incidentally, he's also posted a number of solicitations for work in the
News Groups, including one posted here a couple of years ago (however, as
far as I can tell, he's never participated in any News Group
discussions). Here is a copy of one of his NG advertisements:

Quote:

Toolmaker for Hire I am a retired toolmaker with over 25 years experience in plastics, aluminum, and steels. Please email me with your needs, I will quote your job and lead time. Quality work, quick turnaround, fair prices, no job too small, thanks.

In his Ebay auctions, the seller never mentioned the shipping methods
used (nor did he use Ebay's shipping calculator), but he did write in his
auction description: "Buyer pays actual shipping, I accept Paypal and
money orders and ship in the US."

Since the cut-offs were neither excessively large nor overly heavy, I was
surprised when my invoice showed a large shipping charge for the items
purchased ($17.70 for UPS shipping on a total purchase of $27.99).

So I politely asked the seller if he would ship my items in one of the
new USPS Flat-Rate Priority Mail boxes for $7.70 plus $0.45 for Delivery
Confirmation (which I offered to pay so the seller would be confident
that the package is tracked). I explained that I was paying by USPS Money
Order, so he would be making a trip to the Post Office anyway to cash his
payment.

The seller refused, saying that "the post office is very inconvenient."
(Note: I looked up his address on Yahoo Maps. There is a Post Office only
1.7 driving miles from his location.) He also claimed that he was "not
out to rob anybody on shipping".

I wrote back and--again, politely--explained that the Priority Mail boxes
are free and the USPS will even deliver them to his location for free. I
also explained that he can arrange for his Mail Carrier to pick up the
package from his location for free, saving him a trip to the Post Office.
I sent him the USPS Web links for ordering the free boxes and scheduling
the free pick-up. I also offered to send him the pre-paid postage needed
for shipment along with my payment so that all he would have to do is
stick the stamps on the box and hand it to his Mail Carrier. In short, I
did just about everything short of driving across country to pack the box
up for him.

His reply was again to refuse (this time with no explanation).

Since he did not stipulate in his auction that he would only ship by UPS,
it's my opinion that he's being unfair to demand that I accept the costs
of his choice of UPS shipment, especially when I've made the
less-expensive alternative so simple. I know this is a fairly small
thing, but it just irks me to no end when people are obstinate for no
reason (and expect me to pay the costs of their obstinacy).

So what do you think: am I being unreasonable or is he?


Regards,
Michael




I would say that he should have used the shipping calculator and that he
should have stipulated his shipping preferences in the description.

However, having said that, as a buyer in dealing with an auction like that,
I would have asked him about this prior to winning the bid.

But since you didn't I'd say you are the one being unreasonable here. For
example, there are certain commercial companies that ship everything via UPS
or FedEX, and asking them to do the other won't get you anywhere except
without a sale.

Lane