can a seller do this?

cyberbob

hayley11 wrote: »

And isn't £4 excessive for an xbox 360 game?

al

Postal costs 76p second class or 92p first so anything up to £2 would seem reasonable but £4 is just profiteering as far as I am concerned

Smart_But_Casual

If it says free in the listing I expect it to be just that.

If they decide to add anything on after the sale then they face the consequences.

The ebay rules may not seem fair but the apply to all of us and we all have the same choice if we don't like them.

rockin_plumber

Samba_Pa_Ti wrote: »

i reported them anyway, if they want 4 quid for postage they should sell the item for 24 quid BIN and stop messing about, its only a few pence in ebay fees and i know this all adds up but the seller demanding more money ontop of the auction is just going to make trouble.

OOOOOOOoooooops

I did as well... and the other 2 games they are selling

cyril82

Don't get me wrong, i think the seller is mad not to be adding the postage into his pricing, he's just asking for trouble and i appreciate that it will annoy the ebay purists but i think sometimes buyers get too hung up on the amount that is being charged for postage, yes £4 is high for this item but when you add that to the sale price is he cheaper or more expensive that his competitors? that's what i would be concentrating on.

I don't think stating the charge in the listing is a hidden charge as i'm sure the seller assumes you would read a listing before buying and feels therefore he is being very open about it.

There is some naivety i feel in buyers who report sellers for this kind of thing, why police a rule for ebay which simply makes ebay more money at your expense? Ultimately it is you as a buyer who pay's the extra fees ebay make on enforcing free postage.

I know Soolin mentioned ebay bringing this free postage rule in to stop overcharging of buyers but Soolin knows as well as i do that ebay brought this rule in to help no one but themselves, ebay knew that by enforcing free postage they were forcing sellers to put everything into the sale price, ebay knew this would mean more fees for them and ebay knew this would be at the expense of the buyers who would ultimately end up paying more for the goods sold in these free postage categories so how in light of that can it be seen as a benefit to buyers?

Is it because it stops buyers being exploited in instances of obvious excessive postage? well maybe i'm wrong but i thought buyers had a facility to stop them getting ripped off in cases of true excessive postage where the item was over priced, it's called the back button! (and it doesn't cost anything)

Premier_2

cyril82 wrote: »

...I don't think stating the charge in the listing is a hidden charge as i'm sure the seller assumes you would read a listing before buying and feels therefore he is being very open about it...

Ok, ignoring the ebay rules for now, the main issue is that people often search for items (especially common items like CDs, DVDs, computer games, etc) by price i.e. cost + shipping. This seller is artificially promoting his items up the list by not expressing those truthfully in the appropriate sections.

Smart_But_Casual

As I have Cyril on block I can't read what he's saying but I'm willing to wager it's something along the lines of "It's a ploy by ebay to make more money" & "It can't benefit buyers" & "The buyers aren't right bright as they are policing ebay and seeing themselves off regarding paying more in the long run".

In my case last week it was simple. The seller wanted to add £2 on for postage and decided that his T&Cs over rode ebay's T&Cs. I'd won the game at a cheap price that I was happy with because there was no p&p to add on so he had only himself to blame for neg' and NPS.

cyril82

Smart_But_Casual wrote: »

As I have Cyril on block I can't read what he's saying but I'm willing to wager it's something along the lines of "It's a ploy by ebay to make more money" & "It can't benefit buyers" & "The buyers aren't right bright as they are policing ebay and seeing themselves off regarding paying more in the long run".

That old chestnut again SBC? "I have this guy on block so i can't see what he's writing, but let me see if i can guess".

Firstly, if you felt the need to block someone wouldn't that be because you didn't want to see what they wrote or "guess" and subsequently reply?

And secondly, if you really are guessing what i am writing, given that you have claimed to not be able to see my posts in several threads on various unrelated topics yet have managed to "guess" with astonishing accuracy, would you mind doing us all a favour and hazarding a "guess" on next weeks lottery results...

cyril82

Premier wrote: »

. This seller is artificially promoting his items up the list by not expressing those truthfully in the appropriate sections.

Yea, but not by choice, as i say i agree that the seller is asking for trouble and if he had any sense he would add the postage the sale price, i just don't agree he is ripping people off or deserves a neg.

if you don't like it buy elsewhere, if you don't read the whole listing and therefore don't realise that he is going to charge extra hold your hands up to partial responsibility for not reading the listing and request a mutual withdrawal, only if he refused a withdrawal would i neg him, but i suppose that's just me, then again i wouldn't be in that situation because i read listings before i buy and make an informed decision

soolin

Again thought this is a pointless argument and we on here can't influence what other ebay users think.

Reading this forum though and the far more vocal ebay community boards it is apparent that a great many, if not the majority of users think sellers like this are out of order.If one person with high end power seller status reports the seller they will get a warning, if more than one reports them they may end up with a wrecked seller dashboard. If a buyer buys and refuses to pay the additional extra and negs, that seller is going to struggle to sell in future.

The seller here may consider he holds the moral high ground but as many people will not bid due to his apparent lack of understanding, others will report and some may bid and neg he is merely banning himself from any future career on ebay.

This is Darwins theory applied to business, just by taking a passive option and refusing to deal with sellers like this effectively means seller cannot compete against other more honest sellers.

cyril82

well soolin is right, pointless debate really as we are never going to all agree.

basically the op asked can a seller do this? well since they are selling on ebay ebay make the rules and ebay say no they can't and that’s the end of it really as far as that question goes.

is the seller a no good scheming, con merchant, scammer who is dishonest and deserving of a neg and being reported to ebay? well that’s a judgement call based on your own perception, i'd say he's just a small time seller who is struggling to adapt to ebay's new rules and showing a lack of business acumen, for that i'd probably just buy elsewhere i wouldn't report him to anyone or buy from him just so i could neg and damage his reputation.

but some feel differently, and that’s fine, each to their own i say.