What would you do if Seller asked for more money after deal is completed and payment has been made?

[fatehbajwa]

I was in touch with a seller here on WUS by PM's as well as email. We discussed the watch condition, accessories that came with it and of course the price including all shipping charges.
Finally we agreed on everything including payment of 3% PayPal fee as I could not send the funds as a GIFT as requested by him.

I immediately (within 15-20 minutes if I am not wrong) sent the payment, the receipt of which he acknowledged. As per my understanding and based upon the practice followed by myself and other people with whom I have dealt with before, he should have sent the watch then. But surprisingly, he wanted to wait for the funds to transfer from his PayPal account to his bank account before he wanted to ship. I didn't say anything and waited for a further response from him.

After a couple of days, he confirmed that the funds were now his bank account and that he would ship the next day. I thanked him by email for the update. True to his word, he shipped the next day and sent me the tracking number. Here is where something new came up. He said that the shipping cost was much more than he had expected and he expected me to send him $35 more for the shipping. I got this message late yesterday night (Indian time) and after reading the message I decided to reply to him the next morning to remind him that we had a deal which included shipping in the final price that I paid. I had thought that if he insisted and despite that fact that we had agreed on a price including shipping, I would send him the $35(which turns out to be 7-8% of the total price), as I did not want a fellow WUS member to suffer for a mistake he made. All this was on my part, in good faith that he actually screwed up while calculating the shipping charges........though IMHO a seller should make sure of all charges BEFORE he strikes a deal and not after.

Anyways, today morning (Indian time) when I got to checking my mail with the intention of replying to his mail, I was very very surprised to get the following mail and I quote, without the names....

""Hi Fateh,

I do not appreciate you not replying to my query. I performed my end of the deal with honesty and diligence, and expect you to do the same regarding those excessive shipping cost.

Please advise.

XYZXYZ ""



This has left a very bad taste for the whole deal for me and I look forward to your comments/advice on it. Please remember that for me it is not the $35 which is the issue, but the way the seller has behaved.

[lorsban]

If all expenses were finalized already then you "shouldn't" have to pay extra. However, that's not really how it works sometimes. I mean, it's not like we're dealing with professionals here, so there are bound to be mistakes. So, it really depends on your relationship with each other.

Based on principle alone, I wouldn't pay. But, knowing that the person you're buying from isn't a pro and may be prone to make mistakes, I'd probably try to work out a compromise, say you both cover half the added cost or something to that effect.

[Monocrom]

"Honesty??"

What a joke. You both agreed on a price. Thankfully he shipped out the watch before trying to get more money from you. As a seller, it's his responsibility to check on shipping costs before mailing out the watch. If he messed up and underestimated the cost to ship the watch to India, then he should just eat the extra cost involved and chalk it up to lesson learned on his part. You did nothing wrong, you don't owe him a penny extra.

Watch out for two things though. One, receiving an empty box as he might hold onto the watch until you pay him extra. Two, that he complains about you on WUS as a dishonest Buyer. If the first takes place, don't even bother dealing with him. Open up a paypal dispute to get your money back. If the other takes place, simply post your side of the story if he openly complains about you.

Honestly, I won't do business with anyone who insists payment be sent using the paypal "Gift" option. (You do that, and someone decides to cheat you; congratulations! Now you have no recourse getting your money back with help from paypal.) The whole insistence on using the Gift option is a big red flag in my book.

[PH68]

Personally I wouldn't have paid any more.
You agreed a price, they accepted, you paid.

If they had "mis-calculated" the shipping costs then that's their problem.

Also to say you would have to wait until payment reaches his bank from PayPal is wrong.


On that point alone I would have cancelled the agreement, contacted PayPal for a refund, and walked away.

[Jraul7]

Well dont send more money before receiving the watch. After that, if you choose to keep the watch, as someone said before, I would send half of the 35. I believe you are not obligated to send anything, but sending half shows the seller you're a reasonable person. The missing half will teach him to plan and research before hand.

[OrangeSport]

I might contribute to the extra postage costs upon proof they are genuine. It would probably depend on if I had got a good deal or not initially. On the other hand, I would never dream of asking for extra if I was the seller.

His attitude doesn't sound great though. That might swing it for me.....

About the delay, sometimes I had PP take some time to actually so the funds as claimed. Not sure why, but I have seen delays a couple of times.

[j.e.t.]

I agree that the suggestion to send the payment as a "gift" is a real concern. If the seller is willing to cheat paypal and remove all your buyer protections it's pretty likely he'll be willing to cheat you too. I wouldn't send him anything, that's his cost of doing business if he didn't price the shipping first IMO.

[brandon\]

It's already been mentioned, but "gifting" the payment was the first red flag. Then waiting for your payment to hit his account was the second red flag - UNLESS you paid with a PayPal check. And him demanding more money along with his poor attitude is your third red flag. If you get a genuine watch in the condition it was described in the for sale post, I will be shocked. You may be in for a little ride here - maybe.

But you may have really dodged a proverbial bullet by denying his request to "gift" him the payment, which was a very smart move on your part.

But nevertheless, I have sold stuff here and elsewhere where I ended up almost breaking even on the sale because I misestimated the shipping. But I didn't even dream for a second of asking the buyer for more money when the ownuss of the mistake was squarely on me.

Good luck! You might need it.

[fatehbajwa]

Guess what ???

The seller has sent me a PayPal invoice for the $35 !!!!!

[Raza]

This happened to me as a seller. I agreed to ship internationally and misread the USPS website and estimated it to be $20. The buyer sent me the price of the watch and added $20 for the shipping cost. When I did ship it, it ended up being around twice that.

What did I do? I shipped the watch and told the buyer "Hope you enjoy the watch!" and moved on. I don't think the seller is in the right here; it's up to him to investigate the costs of shipping. I empathize with him, but disagree with how he's handling it.