I purchased this vintage wallpaper earlier this year off ebay - in my view, it was not packed well and arrived broken up like this. The seller was very accommodating, apologized and gave me a refund immediately. Even so, it was sad because I liked the paper, and the price.
A reader recently reported that a lovely glass item bought off of ebay arrived broken. This situation has happened also to me, at least twice, in the past year. A gorgeous — and in some respects *priceless* find — was packaged with inadequate cushioning. And of course it breaks.
This makes me think I’ll do a post about: How to do your best to ensure that your ebay seller pays attention and ships your precious item so it arrives safely. It’s not just about the money involved — it’s also the heartache at seeing something you’ve been searching for and finally found — needlessly destroyed. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject as well.
So, what can you do to ensure your items gets shipped properly?
- Check the feedback of the seller. If there are negatives about shipping, beware.
- Before you even bid, send the seller an email, and ask them to post an answer to the question, “What steps will you take to ensure that this fragile item is packaged properly and won’t break in shipping? Please be specific on your packaging procedures.”
- Pay with PayPal. I *believe* this provides you with extra protection in case the deal goes sour. Read up on their policies and make choices, if possible, that give you the opportunity to resolve disputes.
- Pay for insurance.
- Even with insurance, write in the Notes when you pay the seller, something to the effect, “As this is a fragile item, please be sure to comply with all shipping company policies when it comes to packaging it appropriately. As you know, shipping companies and the USPS will not pay the insurance claim if you do not wrap the item and all of its parts properly and in compliance with their guidelines.” I learned this when I had a broken item. A gorgeous pull down light with all-glass globes. Basically thrown in a box with some newspaper and shipped. It was ensured. But when I took it into the USPS place they took one look at it and said that they would not pay the insurance as it was not packed properly. USPS and UPS have written guidelines on how items must be packaged in order to be covered by insurance – did you know that? Yes, they do! Again…what you can see I’m saying is to put pressure on the seller to pay attention. Another thing that I learned: I had to do the schlepping when it came to insurance claims.
- A variation on this theme: Mint-in-box items. I bought a wonderful MIB item once and the seller just slapped packing tape and labels over the ORIGINAL box and threw it in the mail. Not only did the item get smashed as the original box did not provide enough cushioning, but the box was ruined – and that’s part of MIB’s value. Again: Ask the question up front about packaging procedures before you buy… get it posted on the listing… reinforce it with a note… get insurance.
- Before you buy, read all of ebay’s and paypal’s policies about resolving disputes — and if you get in that situation, promptly pursue them.
These are just my personal thoughts… . Readers, what do you think? Have you had experiences like this, too? What else can we do to ensure that sellers take care with our precious purchases?
Retro Rando pole lamp for your basement or living room – today’s ebay pick 
Mint in box boudoir alarm clock – today’s #1 ebay pick 
Geranium fabrics make great cafe curtains for the kitchen 
Become a fan
Oh boy, I can rant for hours about this topic. First rule is, ALWAYS pay your purchase via your credit card. Your credit card protects you more than Paypal or ebay ever will. A dispute with a credit card gives you a conditional refund within 2 days. Paypal will take 30-90 just to think about it. The most unfortunate thing is that the buyer is usually required to pay for the shipping back to the seller, and many times this is more than the item is worth.
Ebays new rule is that the seller is responsible for the item until it arrives safely in the hand of the buyer, No more ” I’m not responsible once the item leaves my hands”. That’s good but still doesn’t hold the seller to any standardized shipping procedures. Plus, when buying collectibles, the person may be selling and shipping this type of item for the first time and doesn’t know any better, or worse yet they are convinced they know better than you. I just bought an item for $200. Paid $40 for shipping. I explicitly said please please please be sure to double box this so it arrives safely. They didn’t. It arrived with a 14″ crack, and the box wasn’t even marked fragile. This person had over 3000 feedbacks.
Must…stop…rant ..now..but I’m sure I will continue
I recently had a bad experience with this myself. I won a pair of vintage oriental lamps on ebay. Not a lot of feedback about the seller but what was there was positive. There was no option for shipping insurance at checkout. When the lamps arrived they were so poorly packed that one of them was broken on arrival. I contacted the seller with no response on 3 occasions over 2 weeks. I took it to PayPal & they contacted the seller – no response. I escalated the claim, described the shipping the seller had done and that it was a vintage item etc and PayPal decided in my favor and refunded the money. Definately pay with PayPal so you have that additional support.
As a seller I have found the best thing to do with any glass is to double box, bubble wrap,and packing peanuts or even extra cardboard over the bubble wrap helps. Any glass should be removed from the fixture. This does cause some extra time to reassemble once recieving, but it keeps it from breaking in the long run.
I too, have had the “items just tossed in a box” scenario….like a 24 piece set of dishware. When it arrived it was more like a 200 piece set.
I really wish Ebay would classify description wording: I purchased a “mint” Sunbeam Automatic toaster-only to find that the entire finished had been scrubbed with a Brillo pad. When I asked the seller about this, he stated:” I think what you are looking for is “museum quality”…I no longer buy appliances on Ebay.
My 11×20 Karastan carpet was advertised as “like the day it was made” and is far from truthful. (actually, the home it lived in for years had the same exact traffic pattern).
I continue to use Ebay-but have lowered my expectations.
P.S I have ALSO gotten some fantascic items and great deals on Ebay…delivered to my door in days vs years of waiting and searching. I like to think it all evens out.
Ugh, what a nightmare! As a seller I know that even with good packaging (we spend *tons* of money on bubble wrap and peanuts!!) items are handled with NO CARE by the PO – I swear sometimes they drop boxes off the tops of 3 story buildings just for fun!
With that being said, also quite often a seller just doesn’t know how to package something fragile – so the items never had a chance. I agree that the best way to deal with it is to really look at a seller’s feedback – not just the numbers, but the comments and their previously sold items as well. Are there good comments about how well packed the items were? Were the items with the good comments fragile items? Does it look like the seller has a lot of experience with fragile items?
I sold a vintage typewriter once, and the buyer wrote to me as Pam suggested with specific instructions on how it needed to be packed. I was grateful – obviously this buyer had purchased typewriters online a lot in the past, and I had never sold one before. Between the buyer and my wonderful, diligent boyfriend (head of the Vintage Goodness packaging dept.! hehe) we got it to him with no damage.
A note about insurance – eBay has removed the option for the buyer to pay for insurance. So if you want something insured you need to write the seller and ask them if insurance is included in the shipping and handling. I personally don’t use the PO insurance – too much of a hassle. I use U-Pic insurance through Auctiva, my auction management company. They have a simple claims process, buyer fills out a form and mails it to the seller, seller mails in forms and gets a refund in a couple of weeks. I believe anyone can go to the U-Pic website and insure a package – http://www.u-pic.com.
Soooooo sad! What a waste!!! I’m so sorry.
I once had a seller put a 1950′s pink clock-radio practically loose in the box. Of course, it arrived with little pieces of the insides literally falling out of the bottom. I “lectured” the seller on his packing, and he refunded a portion of my money. I just use it for “cosmetic purposes” now, since it still looks cool.
So in terms of improving the advice even further, what I am hearing so far: (1) Ebay’s new rules make the seller responsible until the item arrives safely in the buyer’s hands — so you do not need to ask for and pay for additional insurance?
(2) Pay with PayPal – but have your paypal linked to your Credit Card (not your bank account.) That way, you can challenge the purchase immediately via the credit card process.
Yup, been there. I was a newbie buyer on e-bay and she was a newbie seller on ebay. Sadly, THE. MOST. GORGEOUS. pull down lamp was sent with a piece of newsprint literally just drifted around it. Of course the shade smashed in transit. The seller was wonderful about the problem and immediately refunded my purchase price and shipping costs.
I advised my seller in future to pay for UPS *packing* along with shipping. This way, they guarantee the item will survive transit. To me as a buyer, it’s easily worth the extra cost to receive my item intact. And I now know that I need to caution sellers about packing.
That’s right Pam, the choice of insuring is now left to the seller. The buyer is always insured. The seller can charge for insurance, but has to be part of the ‘shipping and handling” fees, not put on the buyer to have to make a choice. Technically when making a claim, the money goes to the person that physically purchased the insurance, the seller. unless the seller makes a release to the buyer.
At least until recently Ebay/Paypal (remember they are owned by the same people) has stated that a person is 100% covered. However, once you began a claim you would see that Paypal would tell you they have several ways of handling the case at their discretion. One is a full refund, but the one they always chose was to “attempt to recoup the money from the seller, but with no guarantee of obtaining all the funds”. After several times of receiving only a partial refund, I realized giving up my rights to Paypal and letting them take 90 days to keep my money was not the best choice. Ever since funding the purchase with a credit card and going through Visa or MC for a claim I have had no problems.
On the sellers side, shipping is expensive. People don’t realize how expensive it really is now. Ebay’s detailed seller ratings asks “How reasonable were the shipping and handling charges?” A buyer (and the seller) may not think the charges are reasonable, but they may be accurate. So, in order to not get hit with a bad rating, a seller will try and squeeze something into a smaller box to save on shipping. So, if you really want something safe, and the seller says they can fit it into a flat rate box, beg that they don’t, say you’ll pay extra if you have to, and hope they listen to you.
Jane – that is a GREAT suggestion!
And do want to second what Gavin says: It is amazing the breadth and depth of goods that ebay now makes available to us… not to mention the sheer joy of ogling — which is free. The great experiences I’ve had far outweigh the bad…
As far as we being responsible for the item until it arrives?
Not really sure this is 100% correct. We looked and looked on the e-bay shipping policies and could not find this spelled out. Maybe missed it.
Definitely do not remember reading any of e-bay’s seller bulletins saying so. Maybe true. Truthfully, I hope not. The shipping carriers have all had guidelines in place for years out of mind as far as how the item was to be packed if they were to honor an insurance claim (to wit, if improperly packed the carrier would deny the claim and the onus would go straight back to the seller. E-bay has to my recollection ALWAYS had mechanisms in place to deal with this sort of thing). That alone was reasonably good protection IF the buyer elected to insure the package. Let’s face it, not all buyers are willing to pay the insurance and not all items are truly worth insuring. Why leave it an option? Typically we have not if it was expensive or fragile. Why make it an option instead of mandatory? Well, if no one has noticed (ha ha) frt. prices have gone zerkers at the same time the economy has tanked….stuff really doesn’t move on e-bay like it did in the good old days…and so if I make insurance MANDATORY on an item that may not truly warrant it, it puts my shipping out-of-line in the view of many potential buyers. Add to that the e-bay seller rating system with the stars wherein to maintain any listing fee discounts, etc., we have to maintain a certain rating. Guess what one of the star ratings as specific buyer feedback is? Yep, it’s shipping charges!
As far as it has appeared to me both buying AND selling, the insurance option has been removed. Then again, PayPal has come up with a glowing new ‘purchase protection’ plan which seems clear as mud to me.
Freight claims always made a really long process of getting paid back for damaged merchandise, whether it was the Post Office (dismal), UPS (lengthy) or FedEx (not so bad). Some buyers would always have the misconception that the damage claim and refund were the shipper’s responsibility and hard feelings could arise.
Another issue that always arises whether a large mailorder firm or someone e-bayong out of their living room, is fraudulent damage claims. These do arise, ask any seller. Not often, but they do. I have sold on e-bay on and off for almost 10 years, and have found that usually when I ask for them to e-mail me a pic of the freight damage or the carton, etc…I have heard no more. In all the transactions on e-bay I have EVER made, I can really recall only a handful of freight claims, and only one that went so long unresolved by Fedex that I felt bad for the buyer and refunded out-of-pocket.
I sincerely hope that the “responsible to the door” policy is at least somewhat erroneous. This opens too much of a door for fraud and abuse by unscrupulous or dishonest buyers with no fair recourse to the seller. Buyers have a great deal of power to (fairly or unfairly) harm the seller vis a vis e-bay’s mediation process, the star-rating system, and the feedback rating system which since 2008 is terribly skewed (we can’t leave negative feedback for non-paying deadbeats anymore).
Truly, I think it would have the potential to be such a headache and zoo that good ol cogswellretro would just call it a day.
Dave
Seller update Sept 2009 says: Optional buyer charges for shipping insurance removed: The insurance option creates the perception that buyers need to purchase shipping insurance as a protection on eBay, an experience they’re not accustomed to on other ecommerce sites. In fact, sellers have always been responsible for their items until they arrive safely in their customers’ hands. That’s why shipping insurance will no longer be included in the purchase flow as either an option or requirement for buyers.
Of course you can choose to purchase insurance on shipments, but not ask buyers to buy insurance separately. In some categories like Antiques, Collectibles, and Jewelry, shipping insurance for sellers is essential. When appropriate, you can include the cost of insurance in your item or shipping price.
As much as many people may not want to admit, selling on Ebay is a business and needs to be treated as such. If I buy something at Sears and it arrives broken, I’d expect Sears to take care of it. It’s all about being a responsible retailer. The stranger selling stuff out of a trunk will always receive a lower price than a store. Ebay had not taken any responsibility in policing their customers for a long time and they lost too much business because of it. I hope their changes put them back on track. I’ve found and sold great stuff there and made friends and customers from all over.
Even when you process your own credit cards, the burden is always on the merchant, never on the buyer. Ebay/Paypal have only just come on line with the industry standard.
eBay does make the seller responsible now whether you find it in writing or not. The new insurance policy insures that the buyer is refunded if they do not receive their item as described.
I have sold a lot of glassware and china on the ‘Bay, and only my first item was broken. Of course, it was because I had not packed the cup and saucer properly so they were too close together. I fully refunded even though the buyer did not ask for it.
I found this on the eBay Pottery, Glass and Porcelain Board soon thereafter, and haven’t had an item break since. You might forward this to your seller and ask them to look it over and make sure they pack so the item will not break. This looks like overkill, but it is not, considering the item being packed is a large Chihuly. I used this exact technique to ship a $525 Wedgwood teapot across the country. Sweat bullets til I got the feedback that it arrived in good shape due to fantastic packaging.
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Pottery-Glass-Porcelain/How-Clam-Boy/71558?start=50&#msg2629093
PS I add the cost of third party insurance to the opening bid or Fixed Price. It is after all a cost of doing business.
Shortly before eBay changed the insurance option I won a fabulous large (18 x 15) Moe light. It was my colors, blue and turquoise, so I bid hard and it wasn’t a bargain. The seller packed it in bubble wrap, in a box with about 4 inches larger than the item, and failed to mark it in any way. My carrier dropped it over the fence on to my driveway, and the brittle plastic shade cracked in several places, as did the glass bottom disk.
The seller was communicative and advised me to take the box and lamp to the post office immediately. I was too busy to do that, so I took photos and filled out the USPS insurance claim online, where there’s an option to enter your eBay auction info. To my utter shock, I received a check for the total auction amount plus shipping from the Post Office within weeks. Through the link to the auction, the insurance adjustor could see the original unbroken lamp, and compare with my photos of the damage, and verify the cash amount.
To me, this could have been avoided if the seller had simply marked the box as fragile, and I don’t believe the Post Office would have been sympathetic had I schlepped the box to the office.
I now leave a note with everything I buy, asking the seller to pack well and mark the box clearly on all sides. I warn them about my carrier.
I glued that sucker back together which was very time consuming, as was the fact that I had to do a complete re-wire, but my “free lamp” is now hanging in the study! I try not to let the fact that I know it’s broken bother me, though of course it does. It’s still a rad lamp though, and I was super impressed with the USPS online service in this case.
Thanks, Bill, I indeed missed that.
Here lies, though, a real wicket still for me…how are we really to know as sellers just how much to insure the item for until the auction closes?
This is not an issue on a fixed-price item, as I know what it will be. On a high-ticket item, a higher freight amount may not be a deterrrent, nor a higher opening bid…BUT
Look at the relatively low opening bids on most MCM trinkets right now and how glutted e-bay is with such. We have, sadly, a few HUNDRED items we haven’t even rushed to list. I guess it just makes a real mean street for those of us trying to move 10 to 20 dollar items in a sea of similar, as obviously not everyone is going to pad up the opening bid to cover, and in those cases where I may have something actually climb and go anymore my margin was pretty short to begin with and -presto-I just ate the extra insurance when the item topped over the insured value I had anticipated. As has been pointed out, it’s a business like any other…and no biz likes to lose. That buck or two here and there add up pretty fast, after all.
Dave
I am an eBay fanatic, with over 575 transactions completed over the past three years. My MCM condo is packed with stuff bought on eBay. My 1958 bathroom bathtub, sink and toilet (pictured somewhere on this site) were purchased from a seller in New Hampshire and shipped successfully to Palm Springs. My entire living room suite … sofa, chair, accent pillows, four Heywood Wakefield end and coffee tables, two lamps, ashtrays, knick-knacks, paintings, slag-glass floor vases, etc … were all purchased on eBay from sellers as far away as Pennsylvania. I have two full sets of 1950s dishes … Stetson Dixie Dogwood and Vernon Tickled Pink … with matching glassware, all acquired via eBay. Plus a massive collection of antique fine jewelry. In all those transactions, I’ve had only three or four pieces of pottery-ware arrive broken, but in each case the seller was very quick to offer a refund. I’ve actually felt “cheated” only a couple of times, both involving jewelry that turned out to be glass stones rather than genuine. BUT, I have also scored some MAJOR “victories” against sellers who did not know what they had, like the “CZ” ring that turned out to be a near-flawless diamond worth many hundreds of times more than I paid for it, or the Mary Darter Coleman painting for which I paid $50 that a local gallery appraised at $2000.
The trick with eBay is to be patient, do your research, check and double-check the sellers’ feedback, and ask LOTS of questions. Never assume anything. Get it IN WRITING from the seller via the “Ask The Seller a Question” option. Save the seller’s response in case you need it as evidence in a later dispute. And yes, PayPal can take a while to resolve issues, but I’ve never had them reject any of my handfull of claims.
As for packing, I learned early on to contact the seller in advance and ask very specific questions about how they would pack fragile items. If the response was not to my liking, I asked if they would pack according to my instructions. Most are agreeable to that in order to make a sale, IF the buyer is willing to pay for the cost of the specified packing materials. And ALWAYS ask for shipping insurance. If the seller refuses, DO NOT BUY. The same item, no matter how rare, will almost always re-appear later from a different and more cooperative seller, if you are patient enough.
“EBay-ing” can be very rewarding, but you must be patient, ask lots of questions, and keep documentation in the event of disputes.
Dave, I think its reasonable to tack on a small fee to each shipping option. But, you aren’t required to purchase insurance. Like you said, most things don’t need it. You can put that money into a fund and consider yourself self insured, rolling the dice on some items and buying insurance for ones you may want to be sure of. Luckily, the margin is $50 -100 for each step up at the post office. You can also partially insure through a third party and self insure the rest. Consider it a deductible.
Stephen is right about keeping your documentation. When messaging through ebay always tick that box that sends that message to your email address. Ebay purges all messages after about a month, so if you look for them in My Ebay, they’re gone.
I’ve made numerous transactions via eBay – and while the vast majority have been good, I’ve also had my share of failures…
…such as the pair of gorgeous Blanc de Chine Foo Dogs that arrived in a hundred pieces. Despite being bubble-wrapped, they were put in a box that was too small and had no packing peanuts – and on the diagonal so that the dogs could only smash into one another.
Being a bit miffed, I sent the seller an e-mail w/ pix clearly showing the damage stating that their poor packing led to this result – they actually insisted that there was nothing wrong with their packing! Yet to my amazement, UPS sent me a refund for the item and shipping – IMO, the seller should have had to pay for their negligence.
Tho come to think of it – it’s not just eBay sellers who do dumb things for shipping…
A number of years ago, I inherited a set of LuRay pastel dinnerware from my Grandmother that I remembered enjoying whenever I visited her home. My sister dutifully sent it all to me: each piece wrapped in a single sheet of newspaper and stacked into a single large moving box, then shipped from Virginia to California via US Mail…
Needless to say, each and every single piece was demolished – I still remember the tears in my eyes as I tossed the entire box into the garbage.
I would advise everyone who wants to avoid breakage heartbreaks to deal only with sellers who have a relatively high feedback score and then go read the feedback that has been left to confirm that the seller is experienced in shipping fragile items. As a collector of 78 rpm records I’ve learned this the hard way!
You can also find third party insurers like U-Pic that offer insurance for overseas shipping as well, and are reasonable. I recommend adding the cost of insurance to your opening bid or fixed price because e-Bay encourages buyers to rate sellers by the buyers’ perception of shipping costs. Many are clueless about how much shipping, packaging and insurance add to the cost of their item. If you add the insurance cost to shipping, the buyers may rate you lower and this can cause a lot of problems, from changing your position in Search, to suspension.
As a seller I do my best – I once had someone tell me items arrived broken BECAUSE I used packing peanuts. I wasn’t sure what else I could have used that would have made them happy!
I have bought the same Andrew Sisters Record “Cutano La Gusta” freaturing Carmen Mirand on a 78, FIVE TIMES!!!!! and each time it shows up at my door broken
The First seller Simply put the Record in an evelope and dropped it in her Mail box…. And the rest have followed Suit, Each seller has been more that understanding and refunded my money, But I WANT THAT RECORD! So my own personal Rule now is not to but the old 78′s off Ebay, ONLY 45′s and Long Plays they seem to handle the mail better.
It appears that Etsy shipping prices are MUCH less than eBay. Is there a reason for that?
Such a wealth of information in this thread! The ideal is to package something as if you know in advance that at every stop along the way, it will be tossed up in the air, drop kicked and wedged beneath heavier boxes – because chances are, it will be. I mailed something out once and had it marked “Fragile” and right after I paid the postal clerk, he tossed it over his shoulder and into another bin of boxes like he was at a basketball stunt show. I also can relate to Mick above and that record quest. My husband once bought a record online and it was clearly marked all over “Record” and “Do Not Place Near Heat”. We came home to find that it had been attached to our metal mailbox out on the street with rubber bands in the Summer sun when it probably would have taken less time for the carrier to have just left it in the shade of the porch.
Thanks for all of the information and tips, everyone!
I missed this before but have to tell my experience too.
I had this problem twice in a row, I bought a vintage pink Gilner wall planter, you know those pottery ones with the cool perforated metal holder thingys on bottom? Well it arrived in a THIN box with just a tiny bit of that foam sheeting around it, as I was opening it up I could hear it was broke, I was so upset as I was so excited to find one, hadn’t seen one before like this, so I opened it and it was broke down the front middle in half and the back top corner in little pieces, I cried. Then I was mad, lol! So I immediately took several pictures of it, thankfully I had purchased insurance ( this was several months ago) so I emailed the seller the pics right away and told her what I found, and thankfully she immediately returned my money. And I didn’t even bitch about the packaging much, but I should have, it was ridiculous, how could someone package something like that and expect it won’t get broke!!!
But you won’t believe what happened next…
A few days later I found 2 small similar pink gilner with metal bottom table planters, so I bought them, and I told the seller about my previous experience and asked her to please please wrap them extra well padding etc. because they must be fragile. So gee whiz guess what, when I got them the one was broken! Sigh. But it was not as bad as the other one, this one just had the corner broke off, though it was a big chunk, and figured I could glue it back on, and the other one was fine. But the packaging with these planters were not that great either, not as bad as the other but still crappy packaging to let them bounce around against each other, and after I specifically asked her to be careful. So I emailed and told her about it, but that I was going to keep them since it was fixable, but figured I wouldn’t be able to use it as a planter, didn’t know if it would hold water okay, but I just wanted to let her know, and she just blamed it on the post office, argh. Now I know they are hard on packages, but still, what do you expect when they hardly wrap anything?
Now the good news is, I glued the piece back on and it was okay, and the wall planter, I was able to fix too, since the front was broken in half, but it was a clean break I got it back together, and the bigger little pieces in the back top corner I glued back on, but you don’t see the hole where there was pieces too small to glue since it is in the back, and even better, I was upset cause I figured I couldn’t use them as planters, but my smart Hubby said I can fix that, he got a clear uh, what’s the word, like a liquid nails thing, and put that on the inside of all the cracks on the planters so it would be waterproof, so now I can use them! And you can’t see they were broken unless you look up close.
Now in good news, I had some good packaging too, one seller, I had bought two chalkware wall ballet dancers, a male and female, in pink, lol, from the 50s which I was elated to find, had been looking for them for a long time, and he packaged them to go through a nuclear bomb, lol! Each were wrapped separately in tons of bubble wrap, then each in it’s own box, then the two boxes in a bigger box with newspaper. This was right after the other two mishaps, so you can bet for sure I thanked him a ton for taking such good care packaging!!! I paid a good bit for shipping, but don’t mind that at all when it comes in one piece!!
Hehe, long enough response for ya?? ;O))
Back to Pam’s original post:
If you do points 1-4, then 5 is unnecessary, and indeed insulting to the seller. If the seller has experience shipping items (as evidenced by the feedback you just looked at), then the seller knows how to ship.
I had a lady who bought something from me at least once a month for like 6 months in a row, and each and every stinkin’ time she won something I got this form email on how she expected me to use extra care on her item. Like I should pack hers carefully but not everybody else’s?
Also it’s a terrible idea to mark something FRAGILE on the outside. In fact my insurer (ShipSurance, same sort of deal as U-Pic only I like how they handle claims better) advises against it. All it does is ask for trouble. Seriously. Pack it so you don’t NEED to mark it fragile; if it’s packed well enough, it isn’t.