Cardboard Carnage wrote:Ok, this keeps getting better.

My address is on the inside of the Priority Box that was reversed (meaning he first wrote my name/address on the priority box), then he turned it inside out and wrote my name on the wrong side... then he wrapped it in brown paper bag and wrote my name/address a THIRD time...

Oh my word!

D.

That is just plain odd.  

As for whether to leave a negative or neutral feedback.  A bit of a delay wouldnt bother me...unless it was excessive....say three weeks or more.  And if that did happen, the worst they would get is a neutral.  But if the seller charged me $10 to ship a couple of modules and only paid $3 to ship it, and didnt mention in the item description that they charged extra for handling, that would piss me off.

Based on what you stated, it doesnt seem like the seller was being deliberately deceptive.  Odds are they just dont know jack about proper shipping.  I would ask for a refund.  If they dont give you one, then decide for yourself whether they deserve something other than positive feedback.

Reversing Prio boxes is against Post Office rules. He can get in trouble for that.
The reason some people do, and should, get pissed about shipping issues like this is simple: YOU PAID FOR PRIORITY. It really has nothing to do with the money, it is the principle of it. You paid for a product (Priority shipping) and the person you paid to deliver the product cheated you.
Maybe I'm alone in this, but I see a lot of American mentality when it comes to this, and that is why it happens. People get the "Well, I'm just happy I got it" attitude and don't get off their asses and nail the cheats.
You paid, he fucked you. it really is that simple. If it were me, I'd pin him like a butterfly.

Whale Tagger wrote:Reversing Prio boxes is against Post Office rules. He can get in trouble for that.
The reason some people do, and should, get pissed about shipping issues like this is simple: YOU PAID FOR PRIORITY. It really has nothing to do with the money, it is the principle of it. You paid for a product (Priority shipping) and the person you paid to deliver the product cheated you.
Maybe I'm alone in this, but I see a lot of American mentality when it comes to this, and that is why it happens. People get the "Well, I'm just happy I got it" attitude and don't get off their asses and nail the cheats.
You paid, he fucked you. it really is that simple. If it were me, I'd pin him like a butterfly.

Deadlord...errr, WT....is right.  If a USPS employee had been an asshole, they would have charged you the priority cost anyway, and made you pay it upon delivery (for using the reversed priority box).  When you use any sort of priority equipment for sending a package, they are allowed to charge you the priority rate. So you would have been fucked TWICE in that case (paying for priority, then, PAYING AGAIN FOR PRIORITY upon receipt of the box).

You really need to nail the guy, otherwise he'll just keep this up. At the very least list his name so we can avoid him, because if this happened to me I'd hammer his ass anyway, and he'd get a neg and worse.  

Mike B.

Cardboard Carnage wrote:
I don't know what the post office would actually do if they caught someone like this, but it does say right on the box that it is not allowed to be used for anything other than priority shipping.

I do.  They would demand the difference between the rate the item was sent and the MAXIMUM priority rate from the recipient (you) upon arrival, otherwise they would have sent it back. Using priority boxes for other than their intended purpose is something the USPS has been cracking down on lately.  That's why I said you would have really been screwed if some USPS employee was doing his job and decided to flag the package as priority.....after paying for priority, upon receipt you would have AGAIN been told to pay for the difference between what this goober charged you and the priority cost.  

Mike b.

I didn't know that about the post office, that is interesting... However, in this case, it cost LESS to mail it priority, so the post office wouldn't have been able to charge me the difference on anything.

I am going to write the seller an email this evening when I get home and see what his reply is.

one thing though and this only just occured to me.

this after some questions have been answered...

example. i have a parcel to send but need to go and do some stuff, so i ask my mother to go send it for me (with specific instructions) - she toddles off to the shops - goes the post office - tells the woman how i want it sent, the woman says the cost is X, then says to my mum, hey you know its cheaper sending it this way .... so my mum thinks she is doing me a favour by sending it like that and saving me some coinage. comes home and can't understand why i take off on her about it.

i wanted 1st class, she sent it standard parcels and saved me £10.    so what did i do? e-mailed the buyer - explained everything and refunded the difference.

these things can happen, thats all i am getting at there and thats not particularly anyones fault. now if i didnt follow that up and then the buyer got the parcel without explanation - they may well have took off about it?

that said, still doesnt explain the inside-out priority box thing and i can only assume (unless they are trying to be a smart ass) is that they are totally ignorant of the regulations that mike has just mentioned (and frank).

anyway

Al

Cardboard Carnage wrote:Al, good points and to be honest, my wife has done similar things to me in the past "Hey honey, can you please mail this for me today via priority", and then she comes back later and says "the lady at the post office said it was cheaper to go flat rate, etc, etc."

So I know things happen and understand that, but as I said, it cost this guy more money to try and be a cheap ass, it didn't have tracking and took weeks to get here. Technically, if I was an ass, I could say I never got it and get my money back from paypal in full because he has no tracking to prove it was sent, and from my understanding on ebay now, he can NOT leave me negative feedback for it. So it makes sense that anyone selling should ship with some sort of tracking?!

D.

Yes it does. Paypal and ebay require tracking or a seller is boned. I love these auctions where the seller states that they are not responsible for uninsured items that are lost or damaged in the mail. They are no matter what they write. Mainly because it is set that way through paypal and logicaly because a buyer can't know if an item was damaged and then shipped, or without tracking, whether an item was ever shipped at all.

What they need to do is charge for insurance (which isn't tracking) and tracking, but that would raise the cost and possibly lower their sales.

You need to contact this seller for a refund. If not file a complaint with paypal. Do not mention anything about feedback. Just say you are a dissatisfied customer. If you start threatening negs it is slightly possible that the seller can have the neg pulled as feedback extortion.

I got a good idea. Let's all go to MY ebay store and buy up a bunch of stuff. Making me your exclusive seller will show him. Anyone in?  

Invincible Overlord wrote:I agree with Mars' posting earlier.

You paid for Priority Mail to get it shipped to you earlier. He screwed you to scam a few dollars off of you.

I would give him a neutral feedback and lowball his DSR score myself...

This very well may be the case, but...
Shoot him an email with your concern. Give him a day or two to respond. If you like the response, which should include a shipping refund, let it go.

If you do not like the response, drop a bomb on his ass.

But what you need to remember is that crap happens. Sometimes it is just too easy to assume the worst. Give the guy some rope and see what he does with it. Honestly, we are talking about a few dollars and a few days delay. But the guy owes you for his mistake.