Many new buyers are confused over ebay policies, and I am here to try to straighten them out for you. One of the biggest areas of confusion lies with just who is responsible for an item once it leaves your possession, and is left in the hands of the post office or UPS for delivery.
In two words, I can sum it up quite effectively: YOU ARE. Now, you may be wondering, "How on earth can I, as a seller, be held responsible for something that's not even in my possession?"
The reason is quite simple. You are ultimately responsible for an item until it ends up in the buyers' hands. Just because you drop off a box at the post office does not relieve you of responsibility of that item. Now, that's not to say that you can't protect yourself and the item while it's out of your possession. In fact, I strongly encourage it, by means of added insurance when shipping all items.
Unless you are willing to gamble on every item you ship by not adding insurance, then you are in for some big surprises.
Buying insurance for items you sell and ship transfers the economic liability for any loss or damage to the item while in transit to the buyer, but the overall responsibility still lies with the seller. You are responsible for the safe delivery of items to your buyer such that they arrive in the same condition as described in the listing. Anything can happen while an item is in transit resulting in loss or damage to an item, and your only recourse is to have had the item insured prior to shipping it.
If you sell a glass vase, and it arrives broken or in any way damaged beyond what was mentioned in the description, you'd better believe that your buyer is either going to ask for a refund or in some other way ask to be compensated. After all, why should the buyer be at a loss for the item. You may be asking yourself, "Well? Why should I?"
Exactly. Why should you, when the package was out of your possession while in the hands of the post office? The answer is, you shouldn't. That's why you insure items. Your job as a seller is to package things adequately to ensure a safe delivery and protection against most routine things that can happen and damage or destroy an item you've shipped. Likewise, another part of your job is to insure the item as well, to cover any losses that you or the buyer may incur as a result of any damage. Adding a proper amount of insurance is the only way to do this.
So, if an item arrives damaged or broken, this is pretty much what I tell a buyer: "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. Please, keep the box, the item, and the shipping materials on hand. The post office (or UPS) may wish to see them. I will file a claim on my end for you and try to get this resolved for you as soon as possible."
Then, go to the website of the carrier you used, and there should be a link or drop-down menu somewhere on the page for filing a claim. Have an ebay page open as well with all your buyers' shipping information handy, because you will likely need your buyers' name & address as well as your own, possibly your buyers' phone number, and the tracking or delivery confirmation number.
You will be able to check boxes for whether the claim check should be sent to you or to your buyer. Personally, I think it's better that the check be sent to me. This is because once I've gotten the claim check for the damaged goods, I will then log in to my paypal account and reverse the payment to the buyer. The reason for this is simple: Suppose you had to pay paypal a $5 fee for the transfer of funds from the buyers' paypal account to yours on a $100 transfer. So, on a $100 transfer, paypal will get $5 and you'll get the remaining $95. Let's say that UPS was the carrier that damaged the vase that your buyer bought, and wants to send someone a $100 check. If the check comes to YOU, the seller, then you'd simply deposit the check, and then reverse the payment in your paypal account. But, here's the trick.... reversing the payment does NOT take $100 out of your paypal account. It takes the $95 you received, PLUS the $5 paypal took as it's fee, adds the two together and THEN forwards the buyer $100.
I like UPS' claims process much more than I like the post office's antiquated system, and, paypal automatically offers up to $100 of included insurance on every shipment. If you ship an item worth $150, you simply buy an additional $50 worth of insurance.
I see on so many ebay listings something to the effect of: "... if you want this item insured, add $X.XX because once it leaves my possession, I am no longer responsible for the item..."
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In one of my other posts I mentioned what could conceivably happen if you ship an item uninsured and it arrives damaged, broken, or doesn't arrive at all. The cards are stacked overwhelmingly against you, the seller, in such cases.
Bottom line: insure everything you ship, unless you like to gamble. But as with all forms of gambling, you will get burned one of these times, and it will just so happen to be on an item worth $100 or more. Without insurance, the loss will come out of your pocket. Period.
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