ebay idiots

[Tony Duell]

> 
> I had an interesting episode recently. I was interested in an item that a
> surplus trader had, in fact he had 3 of them. The items were being offered
> as Buy It Now with free shipping in the US. I asked what he would charge to
> ship to the UK, the response was $30 *each* on top of the Buy It Now price
> which obviously must have already included an allowance for shipping, with
> no apparent option even to combine the shipping. 

Without knowing what the items are, there's no way I could know how much 
it would actually cost to ship them to the UK. It may be that $30 is a 
reasonable _difference_ betweeen the UK and US shipping costs.

The things that annoy me are sellers who have _ridiculously_ high 
shipping costs. There's a guy who's got some manuals for sale -- fairly 
thin manuals, no binders or anything like that. His shipping charge to 
the UK is something over \pounds 60.00. Now, I relaise that filling in 
tyhe customs form for overseas shipping takes time, and that it's 
reasonable to have to pay for that. But, darn it, that charge is 
excessive compared to the shipping charged by other sellers for much 
larger/heavier/more delicate items.

As with others here, I get annoyed when things are not packed adeguately 
and arrive damaged. I would be happy to pay more for proper packing on a 
rare device. 

And I wish sellers would (a) get in touch if there's a delay in sending 
out the package, and (b) would actually let me know when they send it. If 
I am not in to receive the parcel, it gets taken back to the post office 
or sorting office then (a) I have to go and collect it and (b) it appears 
such packages are much more likely to be damaged. So I want to be in when 
it's delivered. On the other hand, I don't want to have to wait around 
for a parcel that's not even been sent yet. A short e-mail from the 
seller 'I sent it on $date' would be much appreciated.

-tony