How to change parcel size after sale

[luketeacup]

Hello I’m completely stuck; I have sold an item to a French buyer using eBay’s international shipping programme, however when I generated the label at the post office, they told me the size I’d selected was ‘large letter’ when it should have been a ‘parcel’. I have a frustrated buyer chasing me for the updates but I have no idea how to change this (he’s already paid). I tried speaking to someone but the request has disappeared into the ether, and I’ve no confidence that a fix will be forthcoming any time soon. Do I need to cancel the order, refund the monies and ask the buyer to buy again ? Many thanks 

[style_wise]

Bon courage! Whichever way you handle this please be patient, polite and apologetic to your Buyer as this is not their mistake. I am assuming you want to continue sending with the Global Shipping Program as they have good seller protections regarding delivery/damage.

So you should do as you suggest, cancel the sale & refund; then relist with the correct postage weight/size asking the Buyer to pay again. If it were me, I would reduce the price so that the Buyer pays the same (you eat the cost of the mistake).

[xyz307xyz]

Is it a Simple Delivery label to the UK GSP hub or had you entered the UK postage price yourself?

[luketeacup]

Simple delivery label to UK hub. I’ve refunded the buyer the money now as
eBay couldn’t fix it, so we’ll start again

[xyz307xyz]

You didn't have to. The post office were wrong to refuse it.

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/guides/how-to-sell-on-ebay

If you have a personal eBay account, you’ll most likely be using Simple Delivery. This means the buyer pays for the postage and you’ll be sent a prepaid postage label. You can print this yourself or ask the Post Office team to print it from a QR code. Our branches should accept all parcels, as long as they’re within the service’s maximum weight and dimensions (20 kg and 61 cm x 46cm x 46cm).

[luketeacup]

Interesting… yes, it was simple delivery (French buyer), but PO said
postage label to the UK hub was for a ‘large letter’ rather than ‘parcel’.
The buyer only paid £2.50 for postage; would he have been sent an
additional invoice by eBay for the postage to France? I had def chosen the
global priority service. Thx for your help

[xyz307xyz]

In terms of the Post Office - it's nothing to do with them. Ebay and Royal Mail have an arrangement and the Post Office just needs to accept the packet as quoted.

My understanding is-

If ebay suggested the weight/size band, then in theory you wouldn't later have to pay any extra.

If you overrode what ebay suggested for weight/size or typed in a weight or size which was incorrect, you could be charged extra by ebay, later - not at the post office. Or possibly they might raise some kind of query with you once received at the GSP hub.

Sellers are supposed to check the weight/size band suggested by ebay and change it if necessary. As the difference in price between a large letter and packet is more for international than UK; and some payment may need to be made between RM and the foreign delivery company, then IMO there is more of a case for having the correct size/weight band selected. But unless a seller is doing it deliberately or inadvertently on selling a large number of packets abroad, I doubt ebay would take any action, other than giving a warning and charging the extra plus £1; if that.

I'm not aware of any situation that the buyer would pay extra. 

The general wrong weight/size bit is explained here, but in terms of national delivery, not SD to GSP and then abroad. I've not seen any pages explaining anything extra about SD/GSP/size and weight but I've not specifically looked. https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575#se...

[luketeacup]

Thanks; I was posting a record - 34 x 34cm; 0.5 kilos.