ebay and postage etc

zoelouise88

ok well i sold an item on ebay when i had it weighed i was told it would cost £3.75 to post but when my partenr posted it it came to £6.85 as it was 100g over. anyway he did not no how much i had charged the buyer so he posted it .

I asked the buyer if he would cover the extra postage as the item sold that cheap it wouldnt have been worth me even selling it really, he then said he would return it for a refund so i agreed.now hes being rude and saying that he wont pay the extra and that he will not be returning it etc.

i no to many £3.60 isnt alot but to me it is as my partner who was self employed has lost his job etc and what with xmas we really cant afford it.

what makes it worse is it was a gift for my son that i had to sell just to try and get a bit of cash for xmas.

do you think i was in the wrong for asking him to cover the cost? is there anything i can do about it?

any info/ advice would be greatly appreciated.

pinkshoes

I think it was a bit cheeky asking him to cover the extra cost, and you should have asked him BEFORE paying to send it.

The buyer was quite entitled to say no, as this was your mistake, and is entitled to keep the item and not pay any more postage.

Check your postage more carefully next time and learn a lesson from it.

zoelouise88

thats is the problem as the post office weighed it before and told me the cost.
how can i be more careful than that? its either trust the post office and charge what they say it will cost or overcharge all my buyers just incase

babys*mum

Unfortuantely it is against ebay policy to ask the buyer to pay the addional cost and they could report you for "seller asked for additional fees after listing ended"

To try to prevent the post office getting it wrong again perhaps add an additional requirement to your Xmas gift list and ask someone to buy you a pair of kitchen scales.

If you should aquire a pair of scales make sure you allow for packaging then cost the postage yourself from the Royal Mail website

http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder?catId=23500532&gear=pricingcalc

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/product1?catId=400147&mediaId=66200782

pinkshoes

zoelouise88 wrote: »

thats is the problem as the post office weighed it before and told me the cost.
how can i be more careful than that? its either trust the post office and charge what they say it will cost or overcharge all my buyers just incase

It doesn't make it the buyer's fault though. You should be taking it up with the post office instead, as they're the one who's told you two different prices.

Was the parcel EXACTLY the same when weighed both times? i.e. no string/celotape/bubblewrap added?

soolin

Looking at th eprices it appears your post office were wrong in the first instance as I can't see any postal service that would cost £.3.75. The £6.85 equates to a parcel up to 4KG sent parcel post.

100g looks like packaging to be honest, did you actually have it packed and sealed with everything finished *before* you listed it, or did you just take the item and the box to the PO before calculating the weight?

Regardless of all that you can't be asking buyers to cover your mistake, it just doesn't work like that. You got it wrong and the buyer bid in good faith, imagine if you bought something from Tesco and they turned up and asked for another £3 as they had used more petrol than they calculated..you would laugh at them.

You probably got more for your item due to the costs as people do factor in what they are prepared to pay including the post and packing so if your actual charge had been shown you probably would have got £3+ less for the item , so would be in the same situation anyway.

he then said he would return it for a refund so i agreed.now hes being rude and saying that he wont pay the extra and that he will not be returning it etc.

I don't understand this at all as you are going to be further out of pocket if you agree to this as you will have to refund his full original payment made

zoelouise88

the only extra that was put on the parcel was a lable wit hhis name and address on cant see that weighing much.
looks like in future will ahve to rip my buyers of on postage just to cover myself

pixelchick10

It was your mistake - and speaking as a buyer if the postage looks high or there are any silly preconditions such as the seller not chasing up a lost item -- I won't bid. I also sell - and nearly always do I calculate the postage correctly and if I don't -- it's my loss -- I should've got it right in the listing in the first place.

soolin

zoelouise88 wrote: »

the only extra that was put on the parcel was a lable wit hhis name and address on cant see that weighing much.
looks like in future will ahve to rip my buyers of on postage just to cover myself

Oh dear, then I fear your ebay career will be very short lived. Rip off merchants tend to end up with worsening DSRs until eventually they get suspended. Also every £1 extra on your postage is £1 less that the buyer will have to spend on the item so it is counter productive. lastly, if you are unfortunate enough to have the RM lose an item you actually only get the item cost back plus the actual postage paid, so rip off merchants are actually ripping themselves off.

zoelouise88

soolin wrote: »

Oh dear, then I fear your ebay career will be very short lived. Rip off merchants tend to end up with worsening DSRs until eventually they get suspended. Also every £1 extra on your postage is £1 less that the buyer will have to spend on the item so it is counter productive. lastly, if you are unfortunate enough to have the RM lose an item you actually only get the item cost back plus the actual postage paid, so rip off merchants are actually ripping themselves off.

its not that i want to rip people of its just if thats the only way i can make sure this doesnt happen to me again then i am willing to do it.

i was selling my sons presents and anything else i could find to help us get through xmas, as my partner who was self employed is out of work and can not get any money for 6 weeks so was not planning on making a career out of it.
(nothing left 2 sell)

never the less as people have said its my problem nothing i can do so best jsut to move on and forget about it

angel00079

Although this is unfortunate it really is not the buyers fault.

There is nothing that you can really do this time. In future perhaps ask the PO assistant to write the cost and type of delivery on a slip of paper. Not concrete but perhaps you will have something to go on. After all if the scales were inaccurrate on that day it will have affected other people. Perhaps you could complaint to RM, might be differicult proof.

Perhaps list as collection only. This will limit your potential buyers and there is the problem of no shows but it may be something to consider.