Are there new P & P requirements?

JimmyTheWig

TurkishDelight wrote: »

unoffically it is because ebay don't get final value fees on p+p, just on the item cost itself, and they want to milk sellers for that little bit extra.

More like sellers don't pay fees on postage and were trying to milk eBay for that little bit extra by charging too much postage.

But surely eBay could have had a "maximum 50p postage" rule, or something similar?

TurkishDelight

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

More like sellers don't pay fees on postage and were trying to milk eBay for that little bit extra by charging too much postage.

But surely eBay could have had a "maximum 50p postage" rule, or something similar?

I suspect personally that it was a combination of the official and unoffical reasons- ebay noticed that buyers were peed off by extortionate p+p, and thought well we're not making money from that, lets do away with it.

Xaviera

I'm worried this is gonna be rolled out to everything isn't it?

Is it books now that are all the same postage amount?

soolin

Books are currently capped at £2.75 but will have to offer inclusinve postage from October.

trrk

That's the first I've heard about books needing free P & P from October. Guess it means I won't be selling many books after October as not enough of them sell to make it worth paying the listing fee (I currently start all listings below 0.99p).

My solution for this would be to allow free listings up to £3 for items with free postage to allow people to list items that might not sell. Would offer a wider range of items to buyers and Ebay would still get the higher final value fees when something does sell.

soolin

caoimhin wrote: »

Read something on their website today about not allwoing to to charge for insurance (in any category) as eBay provides all thew insurance. Does this mean if I sell an item and it goes astray the buyer could accuse me of not sending it?

In categories where the postage is not capped or 'free' you can still add insurance to your quoted postage. So for instance I recently sold a mobile phone where I charged £5.50 for special delivery that is perfectly acceptable.

What you can't do is put postage at say £5 and then say in the small print that there is a compulsory £3 extra to pay for insurance. If it isn't in the quoted postage it cannot be added.

I believe from reading the rules you can still offer insurance as an optional extra as long as it relates directly to the actual cost (if someone thinks I am misreading that then please correct me as I haven't done a thorough reading yet). So you could put say £3 postage with an optional 75p for recorded delivery, or you could have £3 1st class postage with an option to upgrade to special 'get it fast' at a total cost of £5.40.

In categories where free postage is a requirement you can still show enhanced services, so again you cna have 2nd class postage = free, plus an option of special delivery 'get it fast' at £5 and the buyer can choose. What you can't do is show free postage and then put in your auction that all buyers are required to pay a compulsory insurance charge of £3.

RFW

caoimhin wrote: »

Read something on their website today about not allwoing to to charge for insurance (in any category) as eBay provides all thew insurance. Does this mean if I sell an item and it goes astray the buyer could accuse me of not sending it?

That's always been the case, it is the sellers responsibility to ensure the item arrives with the buyer.

cyberbob

caoimhin wrote: »

Read something on their website today about not allwoing to to charge for insurance (in any category) as eBay provides all thew insurance. Does this mean if I sell an item and it goes astray the buyer could accuse me of not sending it?

Insurance is really your responsibility. If the item goes missing the buyer can put a claim through paypal and receive a refund. If its not insured you will not get any money back.

As the seller it is your responsibility to get the item to the buyer. If you put optional insurance on your listing and the buyer does not take it up. They will still be able to claim through paypal. So in your business model you need to weigh up the advantages disadvantages of insurance and possible losses.

soolin

Here's the new rules so people can double check for themselves:

http://pages.ebay.ie/sell/sellerupdate/buyerinsurance.html

Where appropriate, sellers can include the cost of insurance in their item or postage price.

From reading the community boards recorded and special delivery is not considered insurance as they are postal methods. What ebay are trying to stop is the added extra that some sellers (mainly Far East ones) add for a general 'insurance'.