My first ebay complaint ..:(

Okay, I sold 4 lead ingots that were listed in two separate lots/listings, about 22 pounds each lot. I allowed the buyer to combine the two purchases and gave a $10 reduced shipping rate. Well, only 3 of the 4 ingots arrived and there was a giant hole in the box he says. Now he wants me to send him another ingot. I offered to send one of equal weight, if he would split the shipping with me. His share would be $6.75.
He doesn't want to do that. I offered him the option of returning the 3 that he received for a full refund upon receiving them.
Any thoughts or suggestions from any of you veteran ebayers??

I "always" insure my packages... well, all but this time T'was an exceptional busy day and overly talkative clerk that made me ferrrrrget all about it.
He has offered no proof of loss, no pictures, no complaint to the usps.
I've offered to refund the full price of a single ingot, in return for pictures of the damage and documentation of a complaint to the carrier.
THANKS for all the suggestions. I'll post the results.

some of those tunes you just got to play by ear. I guess 4 of my longest ebay adventures were in dealing with the unknown. One I returned a sizable amount of money, and wondered why did I even offer to do that. Another was a package claimed lost in Italy which I played out a bit, and the package suddenly emerged. Another was a large peripheral company who's buyer was trying to pull a fast one, which I quenched with some study of the company, and one well timed "right between the eyes" email. The 4th, the only neg I ever received, was actually a seller, who charged an awful amount of shipping for 2 CDs. I negged it, knowing full well he would throw me one also. If I had stayed up with it I could have had that removed, as he soon was barred(which was a near guaranteed neg removal) but I let the 45 day limit pass before checking it out again

Dangdest thing... my lead shipped east from here, CO, seems to arrive in good shape and on time. 3 ships to CA have ALL had issues. Two took in excess of 3 weeks to arrive... and then this one.
I did wrap several layers of re-enforced packing tape around the box, 3 places on the long side, two on the shorter side, and completely around the edge, wrapped each ingot and stuffed the box tight with newspaper to eliminate sharp edges and sloppin' around. I'm open to suggestions.

Offer to refund price of one ingot accepted!!! THANKS one 'n all.

Originally Posted by Bear

When I was working in commercial construction I picked up a fair size stack of 4x8ft styrofoam insulation panels after they'd been used to protect elevator walls and such. When I started selling on Ebay I used almost every bit of it for shipping. It cuts easy and pads well. Makes packing some things a breeze, and reinforces the packages too. Even when I was running out of the free stuff I considered buying some to use. It was only about 5 dollars a sheet then, still well worth it for stable, padded, packaging

I occasionally see free styrofoam on C.L. In the materials section

over the last year

1430 positive feedback
18 neutral
20 negative

So my opinion is based on volume bad stuff is going to happen. I tend to sell used parts and scrap items as used so that is a major contributing factor to the bad feedback. But without the scrap and used parts my store would be about 50% of what it is. Thats too much of a trade off in my opinion. Id rather have higher volume and worse feedback than low volume and great feedback.

As far as problems encountered ive been through all of it before. Ive taken losses on items anywhere from $1 -$1000. Just have to roll with the hits and keep pushing forward and maintain a positive outlook. I am a one man operation and my business is only as strong as I am. Lingering on items and losses only costs me dollars.

in your case i would just send a partial refund in the amount of the lost ingot, that will fix the issue, maybe even a dollar extra

your shipping cost for 1 ingot would not be worth sending a replacement in my opinion

reguardless you need to do what ever will make the buyer happy, $10 is a small price to pay for avoiding 1 bad feedback, id gladly pay $10 each to have my 20 negatives removed

Also if you have a customer threaten to give you negitive feedback you have a case to have it removed from you record. I did that with a netural rating I got. The guy was an ass and threatened to give me bad feedback if I didn't pay for the return shipping which is not included in my return policy. At first the ebay lady didn't want to even try since it was "just" a nutral feedback. I insisted she read the messages between us and she agreed with me.

I agree with others, refund the amount for one bar plus the percentage of shipping paid by the buyer for the entir lot. Make sure the customer aggrees to this arrangement before giving the partial refund. It should take care of the problem then you can move on. Mike.

He has agreed, but is yet to offer any semblance of proof of damage or loss. No pictures, no complaint to the post office. ... I've concluded, with or without it, I'll return the portion he claims he is out, and hope for pos feedback.

Make sure to fill any voids in the box. That is where damage to the box will occur. wads of newspaper go a long way here.