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:


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