The Energon Pub

I just filed a complaint with eBay about the shipping costs charged by a seller. Basically, I got charged almost $26 to get two USB memory sticks shipped to me ($13 each--they don't combine shipping). The memory sticks are very light and small, so I figured they would be packaged in titanium. I got them in a simple brown envelope with a thin, tiny plastic bag. That's it. $26 to ship 0.8 ounces of hardware in soemthing smaller and lgihter than a regular letter. And the seller combined the shipping; the two came in the same envelope. Mind you, the seller was in Hong Kong, but still.....

Anyway, I contacted the seller and asked for a breakdown of shipping and handling costs. I received a response with no breakdown, just a lousy explanation that restated their policy: "We don't combine shipping." I contacted again, asking for a breakdown again. That was January 4th. Nothing since.

So I contacted eBay because eBay has a policy about overcharging shipping. This is eBay's reply:

eBay wrote:Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your concern with the excessive shippping.[sic]

We would like to give you as much assistance as possible to help you resolve the situation. However, eBay cannot get involved in the actual transaction between buyers and sellers. eBay's role is simply to provide a place for buyers and sellers to trade. We have no control over whether a buyer or seller follows through and completes a particular transaction.

After that, they referred me to their problem resolution page, which doesn't even mention overcharging for shipping and handling.

But... isn't eBay's response saying the opposite of what they claim on their site? Don't they say they take measures to make sure no one overcharges? What's the point of listing violations here if they don't really go after violators? (My case is almost exactly like the last case they state under "Some Examples.") Why is it every time I come to them with a problem, they just excuse the seller and don't live up to their policies?

And WTF is up with that last paragraph in eBay's response? The eBay-to-English translation basically says they don't care what happens on their site.

Sorry to be more pissed than I usually am, but eBay's the-seller-gets-away-with-everything attitude is really getting to me. Am I wrong in this? Is there something I'm not seeing? Or is eBay all bark and no bite when it comes to enforcing their own policies?

Firstly, you kinda screwed yourself on that one man. Coming from HK they make most of their money within the "shipping costs". And most HK sellers dont combine, so ordering two things at once is a double no no.

Its true that ebay could give two damns, but I dont buy from sellers who inflate shipping prices, unless the cost of the item makes it worth it.

Dude. It's eBay. It's programming is actually an incantation to summon The Elderkind, and ravage the Cosmos for an amount of time so huge, that knowing too many digits can make you go insane and die a most painful death.

Man, I love writing Feax-Lovecraft.

First Gen wrote:Firstly, you kinda screwed yourself on that one man. Coming from HK they make most of their money within the "shipping costs". And most HK sellers dont combine, so ordering two things at once is a double no no.

Its true that ebay could give two damns, but I dont buy from sellers who inflate shipping prices, unless the cost of the item makes it worth it.

I wouldn't have either, but the cost of the item was a good deal. Shipping, however, wasn't. I was basically pissed that the items were sent with no protection (they weren't even packaged in bubble wrap or cardboard, just a paper-thin envelope--this for $26 U.S.).

But I didn't know that about HK sellers, either. Usually I notice incredibly huge shipping charges (DVDs that cost $30 to bring over, etc.). And if these guys hadn't combined the shipping, I wouldn't have minded so much about having to pay both shipping charges. But they just sent both in the same letter.

Shadowman wrote:Dude. It's eBay. It's programming is actually an incantation to summon The Elderkind, and ravage the Cosmos for an amount of time so huge, that knowing too many digits can make you go insane and die a most painful death.

No kidding. In every way, no kidding.

But I think I understand what eBay's thinking: They think I want them to mitigate between me and the seller. I know that's not their responsibility. I just wanted them to know that someone on their site might be overcharging for shipping, and they took it the way they did. Maybe...? I'll have to respond and see what they say. But I'm more pissed with eBay right now than this seller because they--Well, First Gen, you said it best above.