Seller doesn't disclose postage

JonnyF_2

Hi,

There's an auction which will finish in about 1hr 30. The item is going for about £20, but there is no mention of postage in the listing. The section about postage says "Contact seller for details". I sent a message to the seller this afternoon (but I ticked the box to say don't send my email address), but haven't had a reply yet. I assume since the seller doesn't have my address, contact will be done through "My Messages" on ebay won't it?

I don't want to bid without knowing the postage - I was just wondering if there's anything obvious rule I've missed! 6 bidders have so far bid on the item. How do the bidders know the seller won't charge £100 Postage? Is the ebay contract still valid even if the buyer doesn't know how much postage will be?

Thanks,

Jonny

skylight

YES!!!


Rule no 1.

Dont EVER buy anything without knowing the postage first. If he wont respond (or rather, not yet) then thats his problem as a seller and not yours!

And if he wanted to charge £100 he could. He could break that down anyhow he wanted. Although you could report to ebay, he would have negged you first as non-payer.

Most ebayers have fair postage.

And this is Ebay - there will be another item along very soon!.

black-saturn

They must be very trusting people. If you really want the item wait until the last minute of the auction to see if he replies. See if there are any other of the item listed on ebay and see how much they are charging for postage so you have a rough idea what to expect.

JonnyF_2

Thanks for that.

The item eventually had 9 bids, and went to £46. There's some more on Ebay, so I wasn't too bothered about it!

The seller never did respond - so I certainly wouldn't have bid for it!

Thanks again,

Jonny

lapat

if the seller did come back with a silly postage amount you can dispute that through ebay and report him for avoiding paying fees etc
just a note for next time oyu come across this

masonic

lapat wrote:

if the seller did come back with a silly postage amount you can dispute that through ebay and report him for avoiding paying fees etc
just a note for next time oyu come across this

It depends just how silly it is. Ebay's own example of £25 p&p for a DVD sent by standard mail being excessive doesn't exactly inspire me with confidence.

pivotalgubbins

I'd agree with the people above - if an item has no postage, don't bid! A seller has every right to charge whatever they like for postage, as it can include the actual cost, packing, time spent, parking fees, etc - it just isn't worth taking the risk.

On another note, every buyer should factor in postage when they bid for an item and base their maximum bid around this. For example, if your prepared to pay £30 and another £3 postage for a book, and a seller is charging £6 postage, bid a maximum of £27 for the actual item.

Anyway, I hope that makes sense! Postage gets mentioned again and again, and it gets very tiresome going over the same arguments. Sticking to these rules really helps I find (especially now eBay show postage in search results).

slowen

Sometimes when i sell things on ebay I have not got the time to get every item weighed at the post office for costs so I list some items without postage costs as it saves me time but if a buyer emails me asking how much the postage is then I will get a cost for shipping.