eBay: not paying for cancelled courier?

[itsabongthing]

I listed a piece of electrical equipment on eBay as not working/for parts as I wanted to see if someone wanted it to fix or for parts rather then sending to landfill. Listed it as collection only as it’s quite large.

The buyer won it for 99p and asked if he could send parcelforce to get it. He asked if I had a box and I said I thought so, I thought it would fit in the box our replacement new item had just come in.
He set up parcelforce to collect today (Monday). So last night I set about printing the label and packaging it only to discover the box is slightly too small, I have no other box and I can’t package it safely to send. I’m out at work all day today so no chance to source a box and it’s all feeling like a lot of hassle

So I email him apologising and refund the 99p. Parcelforce website indicates you can cancel and be refunded. I tried to phone parcelforce but customer service centre not open.
I didn’t hear anything back from the guy so also filled out an online form to request cancellation of the collection.

Anyway today I have had a call from parcelforce who tried to collect the parcel.

The guy has still been weirdly quiet but I’m anticipating he will contact me asking me to reimburse him for the courier costs, don’t know how much but likely to be £25/30 I think as it’s a heavy item, might be more!

AIBU to not pay him anything as I said it was collection only initially and said I only thought I had a box?
But I can also see why he’d be peeved, and he has my address and number!

Lesson learned about agreeing to courier collection!!

I think you're in the wrong here.

You agreed to collection and said you had a box. He ordered and paid for a collection based on your assurances.

Now he's out of pocket.

I would be very annoyed in his shoes.

I think this is your error as you could have declined the request to have it couriered and refunded him at that point, so I think you should refund the courier costs.

This is your error. You agreed to it and if there is a fee then you should suck it up.

Yes I should have declined the courier or said I’d have to check the box.

He also could have asked me to confirm about the box since I only said I think I have one (I checked back the messages)

Dammit. An expensive mistake which I can ill afford.

So did you cancel it in time with the on line form? If so I'm not sure anyone should be being charged anything?

It wasn’t up to him to confirm, it was up to you to confirm you didn’t.

As I would see it collecting the item is his responsibility, if he organised a courier then it's also up to him to cancel it. You gave him notice and he would have received the email from you cancelling it plus emails and notifications from EBay regarding the refund, it's unlikely he would have missed all of these and not had enough time to cancel Parcel force.
Packaging costs are normally part of P&P and as you were charging anything I think it was a bit cheeky of him to ask you to package it.
If he does contact you then I would suggest going through the eBay disputes rather than just agreeing to reimburse him

You thought you had a box, it was your responsibility to say you didnt in good time!
Why did you leave it untill the night before collection before checking??

Tell me, why should they buyer pay the courier because of your cancellation??

You should have been clearer and said 'don't arrange anything until I've confirmed I have the right box.'

Packaging costs are normally part of P&P and as you were charging anything I think it was a bit cheeky of him to ask you to package it.

But it was up to the OP to say 'Can you pay my costs for packing it.' The buyer isn't to know what her costs would be.

There was no cut off on the parcel force website but I imagine it was just too late as it was a Sunday early evening not in business hours. When I didn’t immediately hear back from the buyer to confirm he’d got my emails, I tried initially to call parcelforce to cancel but their call centre was shut.
Obviously I should have checked the box sooner.

I will await contact but be prepared to pay although I wonder under eBay rules if I would be liable since it was down as collection only and could argue that sending a courier was at his risk.
Still I accept that it was basically my error. I just hope it’s not too much and will ask for proof of cost and also for evidence that he has attempted to get a refund from parcel force and been turned down.

Then maybe I’ll relist with a higher start price and definitely collection only!!

I don’t think eBay / Paypal can make you pay this courier fee as it wasn’t part of your contract for the sale of this item. You also hasn’t no control over what courier the buyer used/service they chose. If they were collecting, this wouldn’t have happened.

You also don’t know if the failure wasn’t on the part of parcel force not changing their work sheets in a timely manner after receipt of your email.

Yes, ideally you should have checked before agreeing to buyer’s additional request but ultimately, this is on the buyer and their choice to send parcel force.