Excessive Postage?

qazitory

Thanks for everyone's replies!

I won the shoes for roughly £10 and they charged £6 postage on top. I always take in account the postage when I work out the top price that I want to pay, but I though in this occasion the seller probably miscalculated the postage. The packaging wasn't anything special, the shoes were wrapped in a supermarket bag and then wrapped in brown paper.

I'm overall happy with the transaction, but I just thought £3.50 profit was a little much. It was advertised as 2nd class, and it was sent 2nd class, so no grip there.

I agreed buyer's shouldn't be made to pay other costs such as petrol or bus fare as that's like charging your employer to go to work everyday!

I'm still in 2 minds if to mention it or not?

Debt_Free_Chick

qazitory wrote: »

I agreed buyer's shouldn't be made to pay other costs such as petrol or bus fare as that's like charging your employer to go to work everyday!

I'm still in 2 minds if to mention it or not?

But those costs are included in the price of everything you buy. The supermarket's price includes the cost of getting the goods to the store. When we buy knickers, we don't see the cost of the packaging or the cost of getting the pack into the shop - we just see the total price and decide if that's worth paying or not

The same is true of those stores that offer "free" delivery .... it's not free. It's already in the price of the item.

arfabrane

qazitory wrote: »

I agreed buyer's shouldn't be made to pay other costs such as petrol or bus fare as that's like charging your employer to go to work everyday!

I do charge my employer for going to work - in as much as, I would be more than happy to do the same job for less money if it meant saving that money in travelling. As it is, before taking a job, you do take into account travelling expenses to get there before deciding on the salary you are willing to accept.

arfabrane

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

And make Ebay more money...

Which why postage is Ebay's new crusade.

Agreed 110% I remember the days of sellers putting things up with a BIN of 1p, but with £4.99 p&p on something like a CD - obviously, the seller made the money on the p&p, but eBay didn't with regards to final value fee.

Of course, now they have the market sewn up with PayPal, so they have found a way to take a slice from the p&p too - whilst I know that eBay is a business, when you look at it objectively, it's highly automated, and they are effectively raking in millions for doing very little.

Personally, I think eBay makes quite enough money without then marking down sellers for clearly stated p&p charges.

EDIT: Something else to take into consideration is time - after all, if I work for £8 per hour, if I want paying for my time, that would mean an extra £2 on p&p only allows for 15 mins to package an item, take it to the post office, queue and pay for postage, and return home

StaffsSW

I think were getting into the Business v Private seller debate here.

As a business, every cost of mine is calculated and built into either my selling or P&P price - I personally mark every item up by around 25-50p above stamp price. This average out across all my sales to be revenue neutral/small profit. The rest of my "handling charges" such as, ebay fees, paypal fees, time taken to pack, getting to the Post Office etc are all loaded into the profit margin I want to achieve across each sale.
I also use "Free" P&P, because there are a lot of people out there who seem to be favouring it over paid P&P - they seem blinkered enough by the eBay propaganda machine to believe it is truly free. Again each free P&P item I sell is fully costed and profit remains the same. I've even had two buyers offer to pay me more when they saw the cost of postage at £5 on an item I sell at £20 with "free" postage... Bless 'em!

Free P&P also gives me a boost on the Best Match searches - put simply the more money I make, the more that eBay make, therefore they will give my listings priority as it is in their interest. I'm happy with this arrangement.

As a private seller, it's a different matter. The goods, in theory, are personal items for sale, therefore profit margin is not as crucial - just a case of covering fees, postage and packaging materials. I don't really buy into the whole idea of a private seller charging for time, fuel to the PO etc - either they want to sell their personal goods, or else give them away to a charity shop/freecycle if the selling costs outweigh the item value.

If private sellers are charging for all of this, then I'd be inclined to believe they are borderline business and should declare themselves as such.

arfabrane

stevew8975 wrote: »

I don't really buy into the whole idea of a private seller charging for time, fuel to the PO etc - either they want to sell their personal goods, or else give them away to a charity shop/freecycle if the selling costs outweigh the item value.

If private sellers are charging for all of this, then I'd be inclined to believe they are borderline business and should declare themselves as such.

I think we would have to agree to disagree on that. Just because I am a private seller should not mean my personal time does not have a value attached to it (after all, going to work is merely being compensated for use of your time), and certainly do not believe that a private seller should not be able to claim for fuel etc, where a "business" should.

However, I do respect your argument of getting more business by offering free p&p, and getting the same amount - though this, of course, does depend on the value and type of items you are selling

chja

Two issues:

1) sale price + postage = the total price you win the item for. If you are happy to pay that price, delivered, then it is irrelevant how much the seller actually pays the Post Office.

2) No one likes to feel ripped off, and excessive postage can leave a bad taste, even if the total price is acceptable. As has been said, reflect your feeling in the star rating you leave for postage and by all means leave a comment if you feel that strongly about it.

To be clear, I wouldn't consider £6 charged and £2.50 paid excessive once packaging, time, etc is taken into account.

It is often difficult to quote an accurate postage rate - I always weigh my stuff and add a little for the packaging, but still find myself paying more than expected at the Post Office (or sometimes less).

Cerisa

My standard charge for postage is £2 for first class. More for coats and shoes. People still complain this is too much! even bulk buying packaging and getting stuff off freecycle, I USUALLY lose out on postage. You agreed to pay £6 for the postage, and i'm sorry but you entered a contract. How much was the packet that the shoes were in? I ahve noticed though, that since the credit crunch buyers are getting touchier.

Brooker_Dave

stevew8975 wrote: »

As a private seller, it's a different matter. The goods, in theory, are personal items for sale, therefore profit margin is not as crucial - just a case of covering fees, postage and packaging materials. I don't really buy into the whole idea of a private seller charging for time, fuel to the PO etc - either they want to sell their personal goods, or else give them away to a charity shop/freecycle if the selling costs outweigh the item value.

People often just guess the postage, it's not like they're going to weigh everything, sometimes I've brought stuff where the postage charged is way below what I was charged, so it works both ways.

It's best to add the bid to the postage and decide if it's a price worth paying and not to get too worried about ebay losing money on the commision...

Brooker_Dave

Cerisa wrote: »

since the credit crunch buyers are getting touchier.

It's ebay's new thing, first anyone who didn't use paypal was a theif, now anyone who charges more than the stamps cost is a theif.

First paypal becomes compulsary, next it will be "free" postage.

They have to get back some of the revenue from all the sellers who've left and gone to Amazon....