posted on August 29, 2000 11:25:10 PM new
The one thing that has been overlooked in this thread is that everyone posting is a professional at online auctions. If you take a minute to step back and look at this situation as a typical buyer, you should be able to see that they are less sophisticated in the actual wording of a TOS than the 2000+ feedback seller who spent several hours coming up with exactly the Wright words to cover his a$$ should a dispute such as this arise. The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of bidders do make assumptions. The 40 or 50 of us who post here don't, but there's a few thousand bidders out there who do. When I (and I consider myself a professional) see $3.20 shipping, I immediately think priority. According to the posts in this thread, there are several others who see it the same way. If it stated $2.39 for shipping or even $7.63 shipping, I would leave it up to the seller to get it to me any way he could. But if you state exactly $3.20 shipping, I will expect priority mail. Period. There is absolutely no question but this seller was intentionally deceptive in his TOS if he used any method of shipping other than priority mail. Even if he dug into his own pocket and payed for Express mail or FedEx, the $3.20 figure is still misleading to the majority of the people who read his ad. On an auction for a $1.50 beanie baby, it should not be necessary for a prospective bidder to have to send an email to the seller to get information that should be in the TOS to begin with.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on August 29, 2000 11:40:21 PM new
I think it's quite reasonable to assume that "$3.20 shipping" means priority mail, because 99 percent of the time it DOES mean priority mail. It's called custom and practice. I shouldn't have to e-mail 100 sellers ahead of time just to find the one who is being sneaky.
Here's my one negative experience: I bid on an auction that stated "$3.20 postage." Now, I assume postage is the actual value of the stamps that go on the package. What I got was first class with 99 cents in postage, plus the envelope was sent certified for $1.40, a total of $2.39. I was ticked, but mostly because if I had known the ninny was going to send it certified, I would have given her my office address, thereby avoiding a trip to the post office.
Ebay could solve this problem by adding a few extra fields to the listing form:
"Buyer to pay actual cost by
[check all that apply: First class, priority, book rate, UPS, etc.]
PLUS a handling and packing material fee of [fill in $ amount]."
posted on August 29, 2000 11:42:12 PM new
Seller was misleading, maybe. Bidder should of asked and I do before bidding or at least before end of auction to find out about shipping.
Simply put though, bidder has a complaint, complaint=neg. Simple.
Can't please everyone.
Ain't Life Grand...
