Shipping ethics and you. What do you do when shipping is more/less than expected?

In the case that shipping is LESS than quoted:
As a buyer if you get the package and you paid $40 for shipping and on the package it says that it was only $15, do you feel entitled to a shipping refund?
On that much of a difference, yes. There is no way a 25 dollar difference covered handing and supplies. I wouldn't bother any difference $10 and under though.

As a seller do you feel that the price was agreed to by both parties so do you feel that a refund is not necessarily needed?
Yes if I misquote someone over what shipping ended up being I'll refund the money. If I under-quote I'll do what others have said and swallow the difference. Depending on how big the purchase is I'll pay for sig conformation and insurance myself. Others have done it for me so I'll do the same.
Last head I sold, I got to the post office and the guy at the counter said it wasn't worth sending priority to said country and told me to use first class international. So the moment I got back home I refunded the $15 or so dollars. I viewed that money as still belonging to the buyer.

In the case that shipping is MORE than quoted:
As a buyer do you feel that the seller should pay the difference of what they quoted?
That's up to the individual seller.

As a seller do you feel that the buyer should make up the difference?
As I said above, no. It's up to me to make sure I quote it right.

 

if it's more than i quoted, i suck it up and pay the difference. unless it's exorbitantly more, in which case i ask if we can go halfsies on the shipping, which i feel is fair.

if it's less, i refund it. even if it's just a dollar, it's a dollar that person might need later!

 

One thing I discovered today when shipping a package, is that the price quoted on the Poastal Service website is different than when you pay at the post office itself. I quoted shipping to the buyer according to what it said on the web site, for the weight and size of my box, but when I paid at the post office it was $2 more. That's a small amount, so I'm not going to worry about it, but it still irks me. I was already selling the doll for a lot less than I paid for her, and it adds $2 more to the loss I took on the doll.

To answer the question: if postage is less I would definitely refund it. If it goes over a little bit, I don't mention it, but if it went over a lot, I would mention it, and apologize. But I'm usually very careful about getting an accurate estimate from the post office website before I quote a shipping cost to the buyer.

 

With the USPS website, there's a "web" price and a "post office" price, and they are in fact different; if you're using it for quoting prices, it's important to be careful with which price you use. I've learned this well over time.

For me personally, I've also learned that I'm really bad at estimating package weights. Typically in the past, if I've misjudged and lowballed the price (which is pretty well what I always do), I've just covered the difference myself. My mistake, after all! If I've managed to quote too high, I'll typically offer to refund the difference. If I substantially lowball, I may ask for a new payment, but I feel that, as I've asked payment already, it's my mistake to eat.

My poor ability to judge weights, though, is why I prefer shipping via Flat Rate whenever possible. I run fairly regular group orders, and any purchases that are being shipped Flat Rate can go out almost immediately--I can invoice as soon as I know what size box they fit, print the shipping label here, and drop them at the post office the same or next day. For those that go First Class, however, I have to haul them to the post office with an APC so I can get weights (and rates) for all of them, invoice them all separately, and often take them back to the post office to pay shipping instead of handling it from here. Two trips to the post office per package, plus having to either buy or scrounge up boxes, plus having to keep extra notes on everything gets to be a pain, but I'm not willing to remove the option from GOs, because I also understand wanting to save as much money as possible in what is inherently a very expensive hobby.

As for the questions at the top of the thread:

In the case that shipping is LESS than quoted:
As a buyer if you get the package and you paid $40 for shipping and on the package it says that it was only $15, do you feel entitled to a shipping refund?
Yes, I do. I understand fully paying for shipping materials, time, and transportation, but there's no way all that cost $25.
As a seller do you feel that the price was agreed to by both parties so do you feel that a refund is not necessarily needed?
Not at all. As I said above, if the price is significantly different, I'll always offer the refund.


In the case that shipping is MORE than quoted:
As a buyer do you feel that the seller should pay the difference of what they quoted?
I don't have a solid answer to this. As a seller, I do generally do this, since it was my mistake, but as a buyer, I've dealt in the past with orders where the shipping price went up (though mainly because of a miscommunication between what I thought was being shipped and what the seller thought was being shipped). In that case, I did pay the difference, and I felt it was completely fair for me to pay the difference.
As a seller do you feel that the buyer should make up the difference?
Again, I don't really have a solid answer. If it's substantially different, it's pretty tough for the seller to have to eat all that cost. At the same time, the buyer already agreed to a shipping price, and it doesn't always seem right to send them a message again telling them it was more than expected.

 

I used to sell on EBay (not dolls) a couple of years ago, and this is exactly what I did. It was so nice to be able to print the label at home, arrange a pickup, and have the mail carrier pick up my packages the next day. I didn't even have to leave home. But my printer died and I haven't gotten a new one. I really need to get one so I don't have to deal with the post office any more.

 

As a buyer, I feel that whatever the agreed upon shipping cost was, that's what it was. It's the sellers responsibility to pay any overages, and the seller's privilege to keep anything left over.

As a seller, I refund extra shipping money if it's more than a few cents. I try to make shipping as affordable as I can for the customer though, so I often end up paying just a little bit more for shipping than I charge. Shipping quotes are hard to get exact, even with a postal scale (which I have) so I think of it as the cost of doing business.

 

As the seller I was always able to get my quote within a couple dollars of the actual. I would pay for the differences myself if necessary, I feel since I quoted the price and the buyer has already paid the deal should be honored.

As the buyer I would not ask for a refund if actual shipping is significantly less than quoted since I knew what the shipping was and had agreed to it. However I would remember the seller and would think twice before buying from them again unless there's a good reason for the high handling cost. Of course small differences are expected and no big deal, I am only talking about significant overages here, like paying $30 for shipping which actually only costed $7.

 

I would expect a refund if the difference is really big - otherwise I'd just feel cheated! I'd also mention this in feedback if needed.
Same with the national shipping cost being already included in the price, but if you are international all of a sudden you have to pay THE FULL price for shipping? I don't get it.

Small differences of a couple dollars are normal and I neither expect a refund nor issue one if I'm the seller (though as a seller I include extra gifts whenever they pay even just one dollar too much in shipping cost to make up for it)

Personally I do not charge handling, packaging materials or travel expenses to the post office at all, if people do it reasonably that's fine though (aka not 15 bucks just for an empty box or so).

 

For me I go by one rule: it should be fair to the seller as well as the buyer.

If I sell something and the shipping ends up being less than quoted. Then I will e-mail the buyer and offer them to refund the amount which they paid too much. As a buyer I appreciate it a lot when sellers do that the same. If I get a package and see I paid a HUGE amount of money for shipping and the shipping was lots less, then I expect to get a refund. If not, well then I know who I won't be buying from again because frankly put I can understand paying for the box and such. But It's also the sellers responsibility to figure out how much shipping is and not keep the "extra shipping money" if it turns out the price was a lot less than expected. Of course I'm not talking about a few $ difference when I'm the buyer. But If I pay 40$ for shipping and it turns out the label on the box says 10$ (this has happened to me more than once) then it's not ok. Also if there are packaging and handling fees then I prefer if it's stated because then I will know why the shipping price may differ a bit from what I paid.

If shipping is more than expected as a seller then I will pay the difference because I messed up and didn't make sure to go ask the post office about the actual cost. When I'm the buyer and I see that shipping was more than I paid. Then I will e-mail the seller and offer to cover the additional shipping cost. But as a seller I will not expect the buyer to cover the cost because I misscalculated (even if it's of course very kind if the customer offers to do so). As I see it's always best to go down to the post office with the actual items packaged in the box that will be used and ask for a quote. That way you're guaranteed to know the actual cost. Of course I do understand that is a problem if you don't live close to the post office.

 

I try to be understanding of a little bit of an overage in shipping because boxes and packaging materials to safely ship dolls or items cost money, it takes time and often gas to go to the post office, etc. However, there is a limit to this, and I do tend to refund extra postage paid when I've sent dolls on to a new home. I used to roll the doll and shipping into one asking price, but shipping rates seem to fluctuate quite wildly now, so that doesn't seem to be as good of an idea. When I get a doll, I don't tend to read packages to see how much anyone paid to ship me a doll, because I've never felt gouged by a shipping price.

 

Just as a little info concerning judging the real shipping fee from what it says on the package... in my country the amount given on the package is often not the whole shipping fee. F.i. if I pay for insurance, this will make up a very substantial part of the shipping fee, but it will not be stated on the package at all - the reason is that the postal service does not want the package to say 'hey, I'm precious, I'm insured, come and steal me!' You know, better be safe than sorry. I always charge the exact shipping fee or a little less when I sell, but the package won't tell you what I really paid.

Is that different with your home countries' postal services?

 

I think communication is key. I think buyers and sellers end up in awkward situations when assumptions are made and buyers aren't clear about the type of shipping they want. I always state the kind of shipping I want regardless of what kind of shipping price they may quote up front. I've also had situations where both the shipping was over estimated and underestimated and sellers have credited me or I've paid more. To that note...I also never double check the shipping cost on a package, so who knows I could be loosing money left and right but I've been dealing with the same people and companies for years and everything has always been flawlessly simply.

 

I generally pick a flat price that includes postage, insurance, tracking, packaging materials, rounded to the nearest dollar. I've had several occasions where the actual price comes out a few dollars more when i mail from a post office vs the online calculator, but I don't hassle the buyer for a few extra dollars. If it's less than what I charged, I generally don't do anything either until it's a substantial amount (> $5).

On the receiving end, as long as my seller is straightforward with a price and I agreed, I don't add and subtracts dollars and cents in case they were a little off. I feel it's the seller's job to determine what they want to charge for postage and stick with it.

 

After reading so many negative comments about PostNL (dutch shipping company) I was very hesitant to send a doll I sold out. I ensured it just in case and we agreed to also make the deal through pay pal. It worked out ok but idealy i would just like to drop her off personally or get her picked up.

 

In the case that shipping is LESS than quoted:

As a buyer if you get the package and you paid $40 for shipping and on the package it says that it was only $15, do you feel entitled to a shipping refund? I do enough shipping to have a pretty good idea of what shipping costs to me, and if it seems unreasonably high, I'd probably question it before paying. I know shipping a head is not going to cost $40 from pretty much anywhere, so if I was quoted that high, I'd probably pass on buying at all. I shipping seems reasonable in my head, I normally don't even look at the price on the package.

As a seller do you feel that the price was agreed to by both parties so do you feel that a refund is not necessarily needed?
I check shipping costs on the USPS website before quoting anything. If it's a large international package, I'll check with the post office. If I quote much too high, I'll refund the buyer. It's not right to keep their money when it was meant to go to shipping.


In the case that shipping is MORE than quoted:

As a buyer do you feel that the seller should pay the difference of what they quoted?
Yes, I do. I feel it's the seller's responsibility to give an accurate quote, and I don't feel it's acceptable to raise the price or ask for more money once we've made an agreement.

As a seller do you feel that the buyer should make up the difference?
No, never. If I give an incorrect quote, that's my mistake, and I'm not going to breach the deal due to my error. I'll just pay it.