Postage rip off

mike_paterson

bluejake wrote:

£20 postage seems about right for a leather Jacket. I have one and it is heavy and awkward to pack.

I agree that people forget about the packing costs, but £20 is way ott for posting a leather jacket. at http://www.parcel2go.co.uk/ you can have an item up to 32kg couriered for £11.74 inc VAT I reckon you could fit 10 leather coats in a 32kg pack with a bit of bubble wrap and a box you would still have plenty of change (profit) out of £20.

Most real businesses have agreements with couriers and get even cheaper deals on their services. I had a towbar couriered from one end of the country to the other for £5.95 - it does rather put £20 for a leather coat into perspective - do you still reckon it's reasonable ?

I never buy anything with ridiculous postage costs - I prefer to deal with the honest traders that price properly. I'd recommend others to do likewise and support guys like kevinyork who posted above.

bestyman

I dont mind buying items with low cost and high P+P. The seller is not ripping me off he is saving me money.
If the seller put high item cost with low p+p he would pay more ebay fees, these fees have gotta come from someone and as Im the only person in the sum parting with money then that someone must be me.
Im amazed how people believe / expect something for free. It must be the case as double glazing firms advertise BOGOF and the customers love it( forget that one window is £1,000)

kevinyork

mike_paterson wrote:

I never buy anything with ridiculous postage costs - I prefer to deal with the honest traders that price properly. I'd recommend others to do likewise and support guys like kevinyork who posted above.

Cheers Milke.


Kev

kevinyork

bestyman wrote:

I dont mind buying items with low cost and high P+P. The seller is not ripping me off he is saving me money.
If the seller put high item cost with low p+p he would pay more ebay fees, these fees have gotta come from someone and as Im the only person in the sum parting with money then that someone must be me.
Im amazed how people believe / expect something for free. It must be the case as double glazing firms advertise BOGOF and the customers love it( forget that one window is £1,000)

Ok. So everyone should therefore charge 1p for their items and load the true cost into the postage fee, then the seller would pay hardly any eBay fees and we would all get items cheaper....... In reality I reckon such sellers simply pocket the additional profit, not reduce their prices. If sellers dont like the eBay fee structure they have agreed to when signing up to eBay then dont sell on eBay.

Take a look at the thousands of electronic items on sale from China, firstly they are being shipped from the country of manufacture usually and therefore will cost the seller less than a UK seller could buy them for. Then the Chinese seller inflates the postage price ridiculously to avoid eBay fees. The result is not lower prices, simply more profit for the Chinese seller. Sellers price items at a point they think the market will take. Any saving on costs becomes additional profit for them. Supporting sellers who vastly inflate postal charges will just force legitimate sellers to have to do the same. Also, what people dont thnk about is if you buy something with an inflated postal fee and have to return it. Will you get the postal cost back as well or just the 1p item price you paid? Just look at the feedback for these 'postage inflators' to get your answer.

This is the same as paying a tradesman cash for a job or buying something for cash from a bloke down the pub. Only in that case they are evading tax and people are supporting that behaviour to try and grab a bargain. Great way to get something done cheaper but where do you stand when their repairs fall apart or it goes wrong?


Kev

mike_paterson

bestyman wrote:

I dont mind buying items with low cost and high P+P. The seller is not ripping me off he is saving me money.

I think you are forgetting an important point.

You decide to pay £1 for a £20 item and £25 p&P instead of £20 for the item and £6 P&P (for example). The item goes wrong. What happens - you are entitled to a replacement or a refund. What do you think you will get ??? Of course - you will get a full refund of ...... £1. You pay £25 to get the item delivered to you and don't realise that you can never claim that back.
It is a scam - just face it - it should be stopped.

mishkanorman

LAURA !!!

Thats ok thought I had consumed too much wine, Thanks for apologising .


mishka

CAT-THE-FIFTH

mike_paterson wrote:

I agree that people forget about the packing costs, but £20 is way ott for posting a leather jacket. at http://www.parcel2go.co.uk/ you can have an item up to 32kg couriered for £11.74 inc VAT I reckon you could fit 10 leather coats in a 32kg pack with a bit of bubble wrap and a box you would still have plenty of change (profit) out of £20.

Most real businesses have agreements with couriers and get even cheaper deals on their services. I had a towbar couriered from one end of the country to the other for £5.95 - it does rather put £20 for a leather coat into perspective - do you still reckon it's reasonable ?

I never buy anything with ridiculous postage costs - I prefer to deal with the honest traders that price properly. I'd recommend others to do likewise and support guys like kevinyork who posted above.

What if you use Royal Mail or Parcel Force?? Not everyone has the time to be waiting for a courier to collect the item and in many cases it is much simpler to go to a Post Office instead.

Any item over 2kgs with Special Delivery Next Day costs £18.50 and any item upto 10kg would cost £13.85 by Parcelforce 48 and £17.85 by Parcelforce24.

Also I make sure anything I buy is delivered by Royal Mail or Parcelforce! Why?

What if the post comes when I am not there? At least I can get the item redelivered to a local post office or go to the Postal Depot which is relatively nearby.
These so called couriers have depots in Industrial Estates in the middle of nowhere which is OK if you have a car and loads of money and time if they cannot redeliver at a convenient time.
This is why couriers are much cheaper as their support network is inferior to Royal Mail.
They also tend to come at any blooming time they want- at least with the Royal Mail you can roughly know when they may come.

mike_paterson

Honest trading is fine - and you obviously do trade honestly. I made the point about parcel2go as it is a valid one - bluejake also alluded to the hard time faced by the larger traders and their huge overheads so for those businesses using couriers is an ideal way of shipping items.
What we are complaining about is blatant con merchants.