Not sure about buyer - would you send recorded ?

[HormonalHousewife]

just to be sure ??

I was selling a diary and had lots of interest and lots of requests for buy it nows including from the one guy who won. He offered £15 which I declined and it eventually went for just over £20 to this same guy.

heard nothing so opened an unpaid item dispute. Lo and behold 20 minutes before I could close and relist he has paid and apologised for the delay. Grrr.

He has a low feedback rating of 4 and buys one item a year (probably this type of diary)

Now its only £20 and I got the diary for free as I bank with them but at this time of year things get lost in the post etc etc should I pay the extra myself or would that just piss him off do you think ?

He seems overly polite in his emails (maybe not british) but anyone buying a diary from a private bank and trying to pass it off as their own bank seems a bit sad to me.

wwyd ?

[SavoyCabbage]

I would send it recorded delivery.

[HDee]

You are supposed to send everything recorded if they pay by Paypal, so yes I would.

[HormonalHousewife]

Thanks I think I will then.

I dont normally send anything recorded - seems like a big unnecessary faff to me and I hate it when I have to pay for it , but on this occasion I can see it might be worth protecting myself !

[lljkk]

I tend to send recorded if value over £10. And definitely if buyer seems at all dodgy!

[ruby22]

Yes I tend to send signed for if something is higher than £20 in bids or if buyer has lowest feedback. it makes no difference to the amount you can claim back from the post office if they say it hasn't arrived but it's more that if someone has to sign for it maybe they'll be less likely to claim it did not arrive. Or so I think!

[sarahtigh]

HDEE that is actually not right, you only have seller protection if you can prove delivery if theythen claim not received, but it is perfectly reasonable to send things by standard post and take the risk

when you select postage on ebay you can offer anything from 2nd class standard to special delivery,

many sellers send standard second class on lower value items as sending items that cost 99p with 95p extra over and above normal postage ends up with low DSR for postage

for me as a business seller it is in the end about money, it makes more economic sense to personally refund the 1 in 100 or 150 parcels that go missing than lose 95p profit from each transaction

most people buy on total cost so if I get £10 in total, 2.20 in postage £1 ebay fees say 15p to list at £4.99 starting price, ( no free listings for business sellers) paypal fees at 54p, packing materials 20p ; so after costs I have £5.91 left to cover original purchase price and my profit

if I sell 100 items I have £591 if I charged everyone signed for postage I would only have £496; if out of 591 i have to refund 2 or even 5 people I would still be better off, more than 9 parcels would have to go missing ie 1 in 10 parcels to make signed for postage justifiable ( it would actually be still only break even)

i reckon less than 1% goes missing, as I sell mostly china probably 1-2% might break but I would still have to refund those whether signed for or not

so unless item is worth more than £25-30 going to Chile I do not used signed for

I would make an exception in certain categories like technology mobile phones etc where fraud is widespread

but sending a pair of pillowcases or a babygro that costs £1.50 signed for just seems ridiculous

[LineysChristmasNamey]

Also, I have decided to list Special Delivery (tracked, signed for) as the ONLY method of delivery on certain items do try to deter scammers in the first place, thanks to the welcome advice on here.

Dunno if it'll work, but at least I know I have seller protection.