Ebay postage costs??/

shoppaholic_returns

As a buyer and seller on ebay I am always aware of postage costs, and how some sellers are making alot of money by charging extortionate prices for their postage. I have recently won an item that is a very lightweight silk dress,the seller is asking £9 for postage:eek: , although this is for special delivery,the item is not particularly high value certainly well under £500 compensation and my postage rates info from royal mail looks like the costs to the seller are more like £5 for special delivery.Is there any comeback on this ie could I go to the seller and ask for the postage to be reduced? What do you think, hasnt there been something on ebay about unreasonable postage rates?? Thanks

ArmitageShanks

No............

burcrita1

shoppaholic_returns wrote: »

As a buyer and seller on ebay I am always aware of postage costs, and how some sellers are making alot of money by charging extortionate prices for their postage. I have recently won an item that is a very lightweight silk dress,the seller is asking £9 for postage:eek: , although this is for special delivery,the item is not particularly high value certainly well under £500 compensation and my postage rates info from royal mail looks like the costs to the seller are more like £5 for special delivery.Is there any comeback on this ie could I go to the seller and ask for the postage to be reduced? What do you think, hasnt there been something on ebay about unreasonable postage rates?? Thanks

well u shouldnt purchase it.When u put your bid on,you accept sellers T&Cs.
...just get on with it,you cant do anything and must not neg feedback either.

shoppaholic_returns

burcrita1 wrote: »

well u shouldnt purchase it.When u put your bid on,you accept sellers T&Cs.
...just get on with it,you cant do anything and must not neg feedback either.

Yes I am aware of this, but I am also aware that ebay are trying to crack down on excessive postage charges, taking the eg of cds/dvds charges, I thought that there was an unwritten rule about them cracking down and trying to introduce more sensible charges??

frivolous_fay

shoppaholic_returns wrote: »

Yes I am aware of this, but I am also aware that ebay are trying to crack down on excessive postage charges, taking the eg of cds/dvds charges, I thought that there was an unwritten rule about them cracking down and trying to introduce more sensible charges??

What's the point in having sensible postage guidelines if people go ahead and buy from expensive ones?

That said... have you considered the seller's other postage expenses? Presumably that £5 special delivery sticker isn't going to be stuck directly onto the dress?

POSSETTE

If you really want to buy it from them,then go ahead,but it does compound the problem as said previously,we should only buy from the cheaper postage options. But you can mark them down in thier stars rating for postage.

Hermia

shoppaholic_returns wrote: »

As a buyer and seller on ebay I am always aware of postage costs, and how some sellers are making alot of money by charging extortionate prices for their postage. I have recently won an item that is a very lightweight silk dress,the seller is asking £9 for postage:eek: , although this is for special delivery,the item is not particularly high value certainly well under £500 compensation and my postage rates info from royal mail looks like the costs to the seller are more like £5 for special delivery.Is there any comeback on this ie could I go to the seller and ask for the postage to be reduced? What do you think, hasnt there been something on ebay about unreasonable postage rates?? Thanks

He may be choosing special delivery because he has had problems with buyers claiming the item hasn't arrived. How much is the dress worth? If it's over £36 he needs to get Special Delivery or he won't be covered if the parcel is lost.

If the SP is £5 I don't think that £4 is necessarily that expensive if he is using new packaging etc. I personally would only bid for a dress with £9 postage if the dress was really expensive, but you have already won the item. It might be worth asking him to use a cheaper method (at your own risk) but he would be within his right to refuse as you should have asked him before bidding.

StaffsSW

Before I had a "few legal problems" - I sold a number of silk and satin wedding dresses - relatively light, but they required a lot of packaging - tissue and boxes, as well as large waterproof polybags.
The value was about £75 each, and I was charging £10 postage - the SD cost me £5.50 (from memory) but i remember working out that I was losing out on packaging costs.

If £9 P&P is too much, why not drive into town using your own fuel, park the car for a few hours and wander around a few shops to find a suitable alternative?

bap98189

Say the parcel weighs 1kg. The seller is going to have to pay £6.40 for Special Delivery. If they are charging £9, that's hardly a big markup, especially if they are a business as after VAT they are only receiving £7.82.

As for their choice of delivery method, they probably have their reasons for only offering Special Delivery. With recorded delivery, you may get a POD, but you don't get the same service you do with Special Delivery. If it goes missing you have to wait 30 days to claim any compenstaion for starters.

jasmineswhiskers

Although now the free 99p start price has come in there are a lot of sellers starting their auctions at 99p and putting extortionate postage prices. I saw something yesterday 99p start, 7.95 postage which would have cost about £1 in reality to post. Up to the buyer if they want to buy it though... Personally I wouldn't but i'm not going to start reporting people either. It's up to ebay to sort it out.

zenseeker

POSSETTE wrote: »

If you really want to buy it from them,then go ahead,but it does compound the problem as said previously,we should only buy from the cheaper postage options. But you can mark them down in thier stars rating for postage.

I don't see why the OP should; considering they made a conscious decision to accept the postage charge when placing the bid.