How Not To Pack Your Ebay Items

About two weeks ago, I ordered a house shaped shelf that came with some thimbles. I wrote about it here. It arrived in a big size box and I was surprised to see it was shipped First Class mail. I decided to weigh it. It weighed 4 pounds. The label said 3 ounces. I'm not sure how it slipped by the post office and did not arrive postage due. I did not originally pay for shipping as the seller had listed it with free shipping. Anyways, when I opened the box, I noticed the shelf was wrapped carelessly in brown shipping paper and the thimbles were wrapped in tin foil and placed in a plastic sandwich bag. Yes, you read that right. Tinfoil! Honestly, how do you expect anything to arrive safely wrapped in tinfoil?

Needless to say, this is what happened.

I contacted the seller and let her know what happened. She had less than 10 feedback and was new to selling. I let her know you can only ship First Class mail if the package weighs 13 ounces or less. I showed her the pictures and stated how disappointed I was that they broke. I asked her if she had any others she could replace them with. She did not and refunded me $5. It was nice of her to give me the refund but had she just bubble wrapped the thimbles, this could have been avoided.