I have to admit that I had mixed feelings about this, as well. You are absolutely right in that I did agree to pay the $25 (which I did). However, like I said in one of my earlier entries, I didn't receive anywhere near $25's-worth of packing and handling. And that, to me, is just plain deceptive. It's price gouging.
Your point is well taken that it might have been more advantageous to ask in advance. However, my past experience with that has not yielded positive results. Plus, a lot of the time, I don't find these types of auctions until it's really too late to engage in any conversation with the seller.
And, as I had said earlier, I knew that package would be heavier and would probably need about $25 worth of shipping and handling, so it didn't seem all that unreasonble -- albeit still a bit much. Had I known that I could have gotten by with less than Seven Dollars, I would certainly have made a more concerted effort to try to negotiate that down. However, in hind sight, I know that would have been a fruitless effort.
But the main reason I decided to leave negative feedback, more than anything, was due to the arrogant and deceptive attitude of the seller and the fact that she had no moral problem with the excessive overcharge on this. If she had been gracious and kind to me in her emails, then I would definitly not have left negative feedback. But since she showed me her true colors, I felt that the Ebay Community had a right to know what kind of a person she really was.
