is this excessive postage?

manhattan

i won an item on ebay and paid straight after the auction via paypal.

the auction stated £3-50 sellers standard rate.
the item took about 7 days to arrive but was posted first class,at the price of 64p.

do you think charging the extra £2-86 is excessive,for packaging(very small bubble envelope)petrol,packing fees?

should i ask for a small refund on the postage i paid?

or due to the fact i accepted the sellers standard rate of £3-50 i should just leave it at that.

thanks

black-saturn

Sorry but ou agreed to the pastage costs when you bid on the auction. You could try asking the seller for a part refund but he/she is not oblidged to give it.

angeluk69_2

what was the item?

Unfortunatley, a lot of people do this on ebay, but it is a w ay of making money that you may lose on the actual auction. I am normally quite good as I overcharge to start with then refund after posting and only charge the initial postage cost plus £1 for my time effort and packaging.

it is up to you whether you persue a refund but to be honest with you you could end up getting into bother, and you still might not get the refund.

HTH
Angeluk69

Mr_Clingford

If you are happy with the overall cost of the item (item + p&p) then it was a fair price.

gallic

This is becoming a high mark-up money-spinner for the regular sellers, especially with low value items like cds etc. I just think you always need to pitch your bid based on the total cost of the item including any postage.

It's not worth going down the complaint route or bad feedback.

motorguy

manhattan wrote:

i won an item on ebay and paid straight after the auction via paypal.

the auction stated £3-50 sellers standard rate.
the item took about 7 days to arrive but was posted first class,at the price of 64p.

do you think charging the extra £2-86 is excessive,for packaging(very small bubble envelope)petrol,packing fees?

should i ask for a small refund on the postage i paid?

or due to the fact i accepted the sellers standard rate of £3-50 i should just leave it at that.

thanks

ultimately as long as the seller had it clearly marked as to how much postage was then i don't see what the problem is. Any time i bid i make sure i consider the total cost...

pksaraf

Ebay sellers do inflate the price for postage for a hundred reasons (mostly to escape some of ebay's fees) but why dont buyers understand that the time it takes to go to a post office, queue up and send the post has some value as well.

If I was to account for my time - I would be charging £20 extra for each item everytime I have to go to the post office!

I am in no way posting against the original poster, but in a nutshell, if one thinks that the postage cost advertised is not reasonable, simply do not bid!!

I as a seller, would not like to refund any money if my charges were displayed clearly and if someone had then bid and won the item.

This debate will keep going on!!

hobo28

I agree. I've just sold a lot of stuff on eBay and people don't take into account things like the hassle of postage, cost of wrapping, the box/jiffy bag, the padding etc. etc.

It all mounts up and as long as its clearly stated then I can't see how it should be a problem.

WestieFan

I agree you should always take p&p into account when deciding max amount you want to pay for an item.

However, recently I bought a very small & light item and p&p was set at £9.99. Seller stated "1st class signed for within 1-2 working days".

According to package when it arrived, it had taken the seller 10 days to post it, and it was in a re-used jiffy bag with a 64p stamp.

I thought p&p was a bit steep when I bid, but still feel I should have got the service I thought I was paying for.

Bernie

pksaraf wrote:

Ebay sellers do inflate the price for postage for a hundred reasons (mostly to escape some of ebay's fees) but why dont buyers understand that the time it takes to go to a post office, queue up and send the post has some value as well.

If I was to account for my time - I would be charging £20 extra for each item everytime I have to go to the post office!

I am in no way posting against the original poster, but in a nutshell, if one thinks that the postage cost advertised is not reasonable, simply do not bid!!

I as a seller, would not like to refund any money if my charges were displayed clearly and if someone had then bid and won the item.

This debate will keep going on!!

...if it's there in plain ole black & white on the page, the buyer has no redress against the seller.

pksaraf, Have your first "thanks" on me !

:beer:

charlotte3

I agree with most of the other posts here. You need to decide before you bid whether or not you are happy to pay the postage for the said item. It's too late to complain once you've placed your bid. Just put it down to experience and next time, consider postage and packing more carefully.

I personally don't mind paying higher postage as sometimes you can find the item doesn't reach such a high bid price, so it all even's out in the end. You do have to consider peoples time and petrol to get to the post office and I think it is reasonable for them to include this in the post and packing.