posted on December 24, 2002 01:07:20 PM new
I swear! I will never sell again in December. In addition to slooooow delivery, here's a message from a buyer who paid $60 for two collectible magazines, which I put in bubble wrap with GOOD stiffener, sent media mail. I don't have any recourse, do I? There was no insurance on these. I'm refunding him $15 for half the cost of the damaged magazine. Damn it. And he's a newbie on ebay, too. Here's his message:
"Good news! The two issues of Filmfax magazine arrived this afternoon in the
mail, but....
"The envelope looked like it had been run over by a truck, and whatever it
was left its mark on the front cover of issue #1, which had several
indentations made in it (centered right on the face of SPACE PATROL star
Virginia Hewitt) despite being shipped in a padded envelope. There was also
some kind of small puncture (about an 1/8 of an inch wide) that went through
the first 34 pages of the book. The entry point was Ms. Hewitt's upper
forehead. This doesn't totally wreck the issue, but it did temper my
happiness that the order had arrived.
"In any event, we can close the book on this one! Thanks again.... "
posted on December 25, 2002 11:30:46 AM new
I gave this advice about a month ago. Use a mailing tube. They are practically indestructable. Just carefully roll the mags & stick in the tube( tubes come in various dimensions) stuff som paper in the ends & seal. Have done this on many occasions, never a problem.
posted on December 25, 2002 02:58:15 PM new
Sorry, if you offered Insurance and the buyer was too cheap to take it; the damage or lost that occured past your point of control, is the buyer's problem; unless your packaging was less than adequate for standard transport of the product.
posted on December 26, 2002 09:27:00 AM new
Going to hopefully unload some magazines soon. Regarding mailing in tubes - does anyone get buyer complaints about the magazines keeping their "rolled" shape, and if so, is there a remedy besides putting the mag under a heavy object to flatten it back out?
posted on December 26, 2002 09:55:11 AM newI swear! I will never sell again in December. I am going to make almost the same resolution for this coming new year. I'm ending my auctions the first week of December. That way maybe all payments will be in on time and won't be arriving three days before Christmas with the hope they'll arrive in time to be given as a gift on Christmas morning.
One suggestion I would make would be that you might consider adding to your auction TOS "IF the item goes over $XXX, insurance will be required".
We all hate to pay for insurance, until it's needed. Then we wish we'd either sent it insured or charged for insurance.
posted on December 26, 2002 10:08:07 AM new
Linda: Yes, a cut-off date for me may actually be Thanksgiving. The magazines I mentioned in my first post were mailed November 18th and arrived last week. Damaged, as described.
Good idea to require insurance over a certain final bid amount; my only concern would be that it may deter bidders from going over that amount. I wonder.
An alternative for me would be to put a sentence in my EOA message strongly suggesting insurance for collectibles valued at $____ (whatever the final bid was) so that I'm not liable if there IS damage.
I have had so few damaged goods sent over the last 3 years that it just hurts to see something like this happen.
posted on December 26, 2002 11:03:44 AM new
Your idea sounds even better.
That should work.
For me, if an item goes over what I ever thought it might, I just pay for the insurance. On items I know the usual selling price of, I require insurance. But I require DC in all my auctions, so it only costs an additional $.85 or [whatever the FV was].
Can imagine it was frustrating to have the auction go so well, and then something that's entirely out of your hands like that, happen.
