Sometimes you hate the game and especially the player…
I’m always amazed by the games some people try to play in conducting business, even the ones that, at least on paper, you shouldn’t need to worry about because they have 100% positive feedback with scores in the thousands…
Find an auction for something you like, check it out, see it has free shipping with nary a word anywhere about shipping insurance or anything else.
You bid, win the item and, within minutes, the seller sends an invoice for it. Now, if you’re like me and you pay through eBay’s system and pay quickly you might pay for the item before you even see the invoice. But I’m a paranoid sort of soul, and, when I see that an invoice is sent, I check it out. What do you suppose I found?
“I can not be responsible for items that are not insured. If the item is not insured the buyer will be responsible. I will combine auctions to save on shipping.”
And, wouldn’t you know it, the invoice just says free shipping and has no option for adding shipping insurance.
Some might just pay and not worry about it. Some, as I said, might pay before they even see that, if they see it at all. But I’m not really the kind to let something like that go unremarked. So, I bring it up with the seller. The response I get back:
“Insurance is not available from me. However, I do send these parcels signature required which works very well.”
Ah, well, isn’t that lovely? No – I’m wrong. It’s the other thing – complete BS.
Sure, signature confirmation usually avoids problems but what if it doesn’t? You’re apparently still saying I’m on the hook for it and you won’t be responsible unless I buy insurance that you’re not even actually offering. Lovely. Except the next message follows a few minutes later saying that I can pay $7 for the insurance if I want it, which happens to be right at 2.5% of the price the auction ended for.
Fortunately, I think, for the seller, I won the auction at a price I was really happy with, and this happens to be something I really want, so $7 is not something I’m willing to raise a stink over and have it risk derailing things. I also happen to be a very risk averse person. So I just paid the $7. I’m just not at all thrilled by this kind of “gotcha” nonsense, trying to sneak things by and absolve yourself of responsibility for basic things like order fulfillment.
I finally have the coin in hand today after some nonsense with the post office. I'm at a point where I find it impossible to trust the people at that branch with anything really important - which is sad considering I didn't have that problem when I lived in a place that was basically a ghetto.
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