If you sell an item on Ebay, are you responsible for delivering it, or does the buyer have to collect it?

Question

Can you specify that the buyer needs to collect the item from you?

Answer 1

If you sell an item on ebay, you can give the buyer a choice of collecting only, or collecting/posting. When you put an item for sale find out how much the postage is, and how much postage is for insurance e.g for small items find costs of sending recorded/registered, for large items send via parcel force or courier. Give the delivery and insurance choice to buyer - after all they are going to pay for postage as well.

State clearly in your listing if you are offering only first/second class post you are not liable for lost items in post and get a certificate of posting.

Alternatively send everything recorded/courier and add the cost to the p&p. (remember certain deliveries are only insured up to a certain amount e.g recorded post is only covered up to £20 or so). if you do use insurance or charge for it on your ebay listing e.g recorded/special delivery/courier then as a seller *you* are liable for any lost/damaged items to the buyer- so give the buyer a refund and claim cost back from insurance/royal mail/courier. If you offer insurance, and normal post and the buyer only pays for normal post and the item gets lost in post and you have certificate of posting then - this sounds contraversial - but the buyer becomes liable for the loss.

Answer 2

Yes you can specify the item needs collected from your house - but why limit your target audiance in an auction ? The more people bidding the more you'll get. I've sold some fragile things on e-bay and posted them safely - you can buy all sorts of stuff to stop an item from being smashed during transit and you can also take out insurance for a parcel against damage - all these extra costs are passed onto the buyer. So why inconvience yourself waiting for a stranger to knock your door when you can pass the cost on to that stranger....wherever he or she may be !
You sound like a trustworthy person ...e-Bay needs people like you....welldone and happy e-Baying.

Answer 3

You can specify that it's "collect only" in the delivery option, though this is usually only reserved for items like cars and boats.

If it's just something like a DVD player or DS, there's nothing stopping you from listing it as collect only, but I wouldn't hold out on getting many bids, even if you did, the price would be much lower, since the winner is expected to pick it up.

Answer 4

If you want to have the buyer responsible for collection, you must state in your item description "BUYER COLLECTS ONLY".

If this is not stated, then you are fully responsible for delivering the item by whichever postal means you have stated (once the item has been paid for of course).

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

If the seller wont tell you who he sent the item with there is a minor alarm going off. Send the seller and email advising you want the tracking ID and the name of the courier if not the Royal Mail. If they are unable/unwilling to provide these then log a dispute with eBay and let them chase it, they are charging fees for their website and service. I advise doing it with PayPal too, however their investigators have been highlighted on several consumer watchdog programmes as useless. Remember, at the end of this you can leave negative feedback and there is little they can do about it, check the seller isn't pulling a fast one with others. Good luck

Answer 6

Yes, you can specify that the item is pick-up only. I think that is even an option you can check when setting up the sale. However, in any event, you need to put it on your description that the item is pickup only.

Also, don't be picky about when they can pick it up like saying that they can only get it from 12:00 - 12:45 mon-fri. If you are having them come pick it up then work with them and be as helpful as you can be. Another also, don't charge shipping if you only allow them to pick it up.

Answer 7

Yes - Just state collection only. If it's a bulky item I would also mention that it's a large van and whoever collects needs to bring an estate etc.

Answer 8

At the time of putting the item on ebay you can state collection only and what area you are in xxxxxxx

Answer 9

i suppose it depend upon what you specifie on the listings

i would clearly state that you want the item to be collected by the buyer

goodluck

Answer 10

unless specified for delivery only the seller will need to send the item(s) to the buyer