I appreciate you thoughts. I am indeed happy that the items arrived unharmed, but I have to disagree with you in that she does not have the right to charge for her time over and above what is usual and customary. Surly you can not justify in any stretch of the imagination charging someone $18 for handling, can you? Any Mail Boxes Etc. could have done a better job for half the price of what she did -- and they aren't cheap. Besides, she has no right to profit off of a service which she does not provide; namely the shipping.
I could care less if she did have a hernia or only one leg, no car, a starving dog, what have you. Those are not my problems and I should not be expected to pay for them in any regard. I am bidding on auction goods, not her welfare. When you go into any fast-food resturant or department store or grocery store, you don't pay any handling fees of any kind. Those costs are all figured into the final price of each item. If she needed more money for her items, she should have made her opening bid higher. It's not my fault if the market won't support what she thinks the items are worth. She has no right to gouge 'a little extra' out of me by calling it a handling fee. Price gouging is unethical and it stinks!! And that's exactly what she did.
Furthermore, I disagree with you assertion that she has the right to charge for her time. I'm not bidding on her time. I'm bidding on her item. Besides, all she did was to litteraly throw the items in the box, stuff a few dirty, oily newspapers around them, tape the lid shut with two feet of tape, and walk one block to the post office -- total time: ten minutes. For $18.00??? That's damn good wages if you ask me
[This message was edited by berean01 on December 16, 2002 at 10:18 PM.
[This message was edited by berean01 on December 16, 2002 at 10:20 PM.]