Seller Charged Too Much For Postage

voodoozoe

I agree that when buying stuff on ebay you should always check the TOTAL amount is acceptable to you before bidding.

I believe that some people sell the item very cheaply and make the money up on the postage because ebay do not charge you for the amount you make on postage, just the amount made on the auction(Final Value Fee). Therefore you pay a lot less in ebay fees(which are pretty high if you sell a lot of stuff).

arkonite_babe

I'm not being stroppy, only asking for advice here as I felt that it was very unfair. I would understand if the item had been sent special delivery but it wasn't.

I didn't expect to get a telling off too.

arkonite_babe

Just received a reply from the seller:

Thanks for emailing me regarding my postal charge balance i'll be glad to explain why i do this. On any product such as the memory card reader i pay more than the buyitnow price to purchase the item. However on Ebay with the types of products i sell the competition is fierce. Particularly with sellers from the far east using 1p auctions to avoid paying ebay any charges and using the postage as the main means of profit (besides avoiding paying any TAX to the UK government!). Therefore for the little profit i make I have to incrase my competitiveness,

So I'm all happy now with the explaination.

jaffa30

Hi

what was the postage method stated in the description.

Jaffa

shahidemran

Thanks mates you saved seller for getting negative. :T :T :T

bordercars

some sellers sell low but make there money on postage, i also think but cannot confirm,but it maybe or was a loop hole whereby the seller paid commision on the goods but not postage.

central

Jeez, some of you guys are harsh to the sellers. You bid on an item for the final price knowing the postage. If it arrives ok and you were happy to pay it what's the problem?

rattla

just to agree with the rest of the people that you take P&P into account when looking at the total cost.

A good point is that most online retailers don't charge you variable postage costs, but a fixed amount instead. If you buy a toothbrush from Boots, it'll cost you £3.50 in postage, a plug socket cover from Toys R Us , £3.90.

Even Amazon charge something like £1.70 for a memory card, that would post for a 21p stamp!! ...and thats about a 800% markup!

motorguy

arkonite_babe wrote:

I had a similar situation today. I purcased a digital card reader on Ebay this week. It arrived today, albeit nicely packed, but the seller charged me £4.99 p&p yet it only cost 88p in stamps to send. Now I know some people add a wee bit on to cover packaging travel to PO, but isn't this a bit steep in my case??
The card reader arrived via first class mail, it wasn't special delivery or anything like that. I have emailled the seller to explain before I leave any feedback for him, is there anything else I can do??

Yes you can look at the BIG picture.

i bet you paid a relatively small amount for your card reader though? The seller is either trying to keep his fees low OR is trying to compete with chinese competition who sell stuff for pennies and make their money on the postage. Either way, if the guy sold it to you for £5 and charged £1 postage, why is it any different to you if he sold it to you for a £1 and charged a fiver postage? Still costs £6 to you? Chances are if the guy had done it by the latter he'd have had to charge more for the item to cover his extra fees...

EDIT : i subsequently see thats exactly what the seller was doing

Antonis

The way i see it...the seller is at fault if he said that he'd send the item in one way... say Special delivery for 15 pounds and goes and sends it by 2nd class mail.

If the sellers sends by the method he sais on the auction and you agree to it then the seller has done nothing wrong.

If i see an auction where i believe that the p&p is more that what i am prepared to pay for that particular method of posting then i will simply not buy. What the seller pays to get the item delivered is none of my bussines...

cheers,
Antonis