posted on October 2, 2005 06:48:09 AM
After reading about this in another post, I thought it might be interesting to see how many other people practice shipping before payment is received. At first, it sounds crazy, literally granting credit to people you don't know. But I've done it a lot with low dollar items and very occasionally on higher dollar items for people with impeccable feedback rating. But nowadays, about 90% of people pay me by PayPal, and most of the time it's very soon after the auction so it's not so common now, for me anyways.
I never advertised the fact that I did, but on occasion when I would be going away for a few days, or just had a ton of stuff to ship, and I had their addresses, I sent it all. That way, those people who mailed money orders would be getting their merchandise about the same time I was getting their payment.Some of them gave it away by posting this in their positive feedback, kind of wish they hadn't said anything becuase then everyone will expect it. I only did this with low dollar items that cost me very little, so all I really had to lose was a few dollars for shipping.
The only bad experience I had was with a guy who went through checkout and said he'd mail a money order. Ok, fine, so just like before I sent him his stuff the next day. When he got the items, he asked if he should still bother sending payment. I replied "YES! Please do send payment!" and after several reminders and about three months I just gave up. It wasn't worth the hassle. He owed me about $15 (about $5 of which was shipping).
Still not bad, out of a few hundered I've shipped before payment that was the only time I got burned. Figured it would happen sooner or later. A few others felt bad and immediately emailed me to apologize and sent a money order or paid by PayPal. A couple of others responded to a friendly reminder.
[ edited by powerwebmedia on Oct 2, 2005 06:48 AM ]
posted on October 2, 2005 07:01:12 AM
It has never crossed my mind to ship before payment. As a matter of fact, when potential consignors ask about the logistics re payment/shipping (which a few do), my response is usually "I only LOOK stupid."
I guess on a $15 item it wouldn't be the worst thing to ship in advance, and I have two frequent purchasers for whom I ship before payment, but as a rule I try not to give all of my chips to the other people at the table.
posted on October 2, 2005 07:40:37 AM
Yes, for the odd time I get burned, I can live with it. I make up for it when some auctions get a much higher final price that I ever dreamed. I got sick of people complaining it took too long (when I waited for a money order to arrive, then shipped the item the next day). The loudest complainers are usually for the lowest priced items, so that settled them down. When I realized most people send their payment right away, or within a few days, I figured I might as well ship ahead of time.
posted on October 2, 2005 10:12:08 AM
I've done it maybe three times in all these years. Each time it was for a low-end item (under $15) that I wasn't sure would sell if I had to relist it AND usually there were extraordinary circumstances under which the buyer needed it fast--like a birthday gift, or such. Each time I've trusted the buyer, and I've never been burned on this.
As someone said above, now that more use PayPal, it hasn't happened as often. Someday I may get burned doing this, but I usually just go by my instincts re the buyer.
This may only happen for those of us who sell in the collectibles area. . . .
