shipping responsibility question

This is beginning to look like a ping-pong match. Does anyone know what the law (or case law) is? This is certainly not a new problem.

"F.O.B." means that the commodity is placed "free on board" the carrier at shipping point in suitable shipping condition, and that the buyer assumes all risk of damage and delay in transit not caused by the seller. This means, for example, that if a load is wrecked or stolen in transit, the buyer must pay the invoice price to the seller and file a claim with the carrier to recover damages. Under F.O.B. terms, the seller guarantees that the product, when loaded onto the carrier, is in "Suitable Shipping Condition." From:

This is sort of standard in the business world. However, the FOB term needs to be in the order. I don't think it is for Ebay sales.

May be different in the US of A, but over here it is as follows:-

The contract for shipping is between the seller and the shipping company, not the buyer and the shipping company. Therefore it is up to the seller to recover any costs for missing items.

In this case, it is probably reasonable to ante up the postage for the replacement, but it is also reasonable to expect the seller to recover any losses (including the replacement shipping cost) from the shipping company if possible and reimburse the buyer.

Mark Rand (got a claim going through a shipping company with the seller at the moment for 100' of 3/4" dia electrical cable that 'went missing') RTFM

I'm going to ship an item from san diego to fresno soon. Kinda heavy so I'm going to use a heavy plastic bucket instead of cardboard. Get the insurance. it's cheap at twice

It is the traditional legal agreement. Part of the difficulty these days is that FedEx and UPS will not accept a claim from the buyer unless the buyer was the one that paid them for the shipping.... At least that's my understanding.

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From the ebay help file....Paul

"Disputes over items not received or received but significantly not as described can usually be resolved by direct communication between buyers and sellers. To help transaction partners reach a resolution, eBay provides an online process where buyers and sellers can communicate with each other. Please note that eBay's Item Not Received or Significantly Not as Described policy and User Agreement both state that sellers must deliver the items that buyers purchase from them."

I just checked the Fedex site and found the following about "limits of liability" under their terms and conditions..

"With respect to FedEx Express Freight services, unless a higher value is declared and paid for, our liability for each piece (single handling unit) is limited to US$100 or US$1 per pound, whichever is greater. When the declared value exceeds the greater of US$100 or US$1 per pound per shipment, an additional amount will be charged for each US$100 (or fraction thereof) of additional declared value. See Rates in the FedEx Service Guide for details."

I ask about the insurance if I don't see it listed in the auction, and won't bid if it is not offered/available. The only time I will not request insurance coverage is for auctions involving "local pickup".

One thing to keep in mind about insurance, it also protects you against a seller who doesn't ship anything.

If I did that I might as well never accept mail. I cannot count how many packages I have recieved that looked worse than this one did.

Apparent is a little strong. I said feasible. To be honest, I didn't think it looked that bad. It was partially split down one corner, but I didn't think it was terrible. Not the condition I would like a package to show up, but I have seen a lot worse.

Fair enough. In the future I will probably follow this advice.

I didn't think it was totally unfair. I was just wondering what other's would have done in the same situation. The opinions obviously run the gamut.

I wasn't attempting to victimize the seller. If it seemed so, I apologize. I never listed his id/name or made any directly defamatory statements.

FWIW, I have sent the seller payment for shipment for the replacement part.

I honestly would have felt better to be arguing over a damaged part than a component that "went missing" in transit. I had never considered the option of something falling out of the box.

JW

"jw" wrote: (clip) I had never considered the option of something falling out of the box. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ How does the shipping weight compare with the weight of a caster? Maybe it was never in the box.

It seems reasonable. I think it was in the box at the time of shipping. I have no good reason to believe otherwise.

JW

First dont ever ship anything through the United States Postal Service, Just watch a shift change outside your city's main USPS sorting center. You could prolly find better workers prison! Well the seller is liable because he should have sold and shipped the casters with insurance in the second place. And if he would have insured them he could have made more money on them.

i am kind of amazed that all these people act like he seller has no responsibility to dleiver an item. If mcmaster sent you a grands worth of stuff and rsponded to you rlack of receipt with a tracking number and a shrug, would you pay the invoice? I think not. The seller owes a delivered product. If there is no insurance he still owes a delivered product. If he refuses neg him and pull the paypal.

This is absolutely correct, UNLESS different terms are mentioned in the auction.

If my auction says "Foo bar for sale, like new", buyer pays, the item is lost in transit, then it is indeed the loss of the seller. And it would be an easy case for the buyer to recover money through paypal.

Now if my auction says "foo bar for sale, like new, if the buyer declines insurance, he is responsible for lost items", it is not as straightforward (and still the buyer would likely be able to recover via paypal, as it does not care about stuff like that too much).

Insurance is between the seller and the shipping company.

i

Well, why would you blame McMaster if UPS lost it?

Nope. If you choose not to insure the shipment, then if the post office loses it, it's your problem. If you don't trust the seller to send it uninsured, buy from someone else. That's what reading feedback is for.

What's your eBay ID? I'd prefer to not have you buy things from me, I don't think we'd get along well. If you decide not to opt for insurance, you're saying that you're willing to take on the risk yourself. By then pushing that risk back to me if there's a problem, well, you're trying to play it both ways. Sorry, not gonna play.

FOB where? FOB my door, it is YOUR responsibility, and your property, when it leaves my door. FOB your door, it is my responsibility, and my property, until it is delivered to your hand. Usually requires you to sign for the delivery.

It's a pain , but freight collect items seldom get lost, because they don't get paid for the delivery until it is delivered.

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