Frikkin eBay had default shipping as free

[Gareth]

Carm wrote:
Cancel the sale. You can fib about a missing part. A seller did that to me because their item didn’t sell as well as expected. (He resold it a week later) I’m like whatever.

But the buyer can still leave negative feedback. eBay does make it less obvious how to do that, but it can be done.

[hal]

When I want to cancel a sale due to my own stupid mistake, I contact the buyer (I'm almost always selling a mac) and say that I always test everything right before it goes out the door just to be sure, but this time I found a problem. I'm sure I'll have it figured out in a day or two, but just to be prudent, I'm going to cancel the sale and refund 'your entire payment' (saying more than just 'a refund' has a positive affect).

I try to make it sound like I just rescued them from a potential disaster and I usually get huge thanks. Then I will relist it a month later (at least) so the buyer doesn't see that I'm relisting at a higher price.

NEVER, EVER do what you just did - ask for more money. Even if you're offering to split the cost. The buyer doesn't care about your mistakes - they are your mistakes. It will be seen as 'bait n switch' every time.

[RAMd®d]

mbs has to balance the cost of shipping, which may be considerable for an odd shaped item, against the potential fallout of a cancelled sale.

The shipping could be especially onerous if it's a big part of or exceeds the cost of the item.

[mrbigstuff]

Ok, the buyer agreed to split the shipping cost. Turns out to be less if I break the item into different packages. So, what now? Do I send a revised invoice? He already paid, so I'm not sure how to do that....

[hal]

Send him a custom paypal invoice that you create at paypal.com

You need the buyers email address.

[mrbigstuff]

I refunded the paid amount. Now, I would like to send him an invoice, but if that is not possible, should he just add the extra money to the amount he sees?

[rz]

selling on ebay sucks. It just does.