excessive postage - advice please

nicky7200

Hi there, just wondering if any one coudl advise me.

I have been a good ebayer for the past few years (800+ feedback). I recently sold a dress (bnwt, original price £35) very cheaper for a couple of pounds. The buyer - after winning - told me they were in Cyprus so to recalculate the postage costs and send it abraod, I added £2.50 on as I wasn't sure how much it would cost. Total postage charged was £5.50. The actual postage cost - to my suprise was £2.55.

She has now messaged me saying she would like a refund on the postage.

The problem I have is that in my postage I had to include packaging charges and handleing charges + time to the post office + petrol, (I normally print out from the net and stick items in a post box).

Just wondering what others would do in this situation, if i refund her the extra postage it would mean I would only come out with £3 for a £35 dress which I took time to list and take to the post office.

Rep given, many thanks, Nicky

neas

I got someone complain the same way from cyprus.... even tho price was listed in auction. They were pretty rude and threatened leaving feedback if i didnt respond etc..

In the end i refunded her half the overcharge as that was reasonable. P+P includes packaging costs of a bout a quid is reasonable imo.

Hintza

Depends on how you value being held to ransom. You really should have quoted for European delivery up front so as not to cause confusion.

Either tell them to get lost or do a partial refund and be more careful in the future.

x-cupcake-x

I would offer a refund as a gesture of goodwill. I would be pretty annoyed if I paid £5 for p&p and it cost half of that. I had a similar situation where a lady asked if I'd send something to Germany, I did a quick estimate using RM's cost calculator but when I took it to the PO it was actually quite a bit less, so I sent her a bit of a refund straight away.


As buyers rate sellers on P&P charges your DSR could be affected, too many low ratings and action could be taken against your account.
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/sell/sellerupdate/detailed-ratings.html

If you need to factor in your time & petrol you should start the auction a bit higher

pinkshoes

P&P = postage and packaging.

SO add up what the postage and actual packaging (jiffy bag) cost, then refund her the difference.

I think charging for time to take it to the post office and petrol is cheeky.

cyberbob

I'm surprised with so much feedback (how much as a seller) that you havent realised what a sore point postage is with buyers and that guessing postage is a really stupid thing to do. I would cring at 100% markup from the cost price!! I would be marking your DSRs appropriatly. Saying that you new the difference when you posted the item so why didnt you refund then? Your lucky the buyer has asked for a refund you have a chance to rescue the situation.

The price the buyer paid for the dress is immaterial (no pun intended) if you wanted more money for it should have listed it for a higher price. Postage and Packing costs should be that and not a vehicle to gain more profit. If you try and use those costs for profit it wont be long before your DSRs dip to a point that you will be affected (low search status).

mrcol1000

I wouldn't refund the postage. The buyer should have asked before hand what the postage will be or even if your willing to send aboard. Them asking after the event leave them open to be taken advantage of.
Its wrong to say that you need to make money on the postage because the price was lower than you expected. You should have started it at a price your will to accept especially in August when less people are bidding.
I would learn from this to make sure you make your money on the item not the postage as your going to end up with poor feedback and your items will sell for less or not at all if you charge too much postage.
Remember how much you charge for postage is your choice. If you want to inculde whatever costs in it then that is up to you but if they are to high then don't expect high sales.

cyberbob

mrcol1000 wrote: »

I wouldn't refund the postage.

Then expect a negative,

The argument that the buyer agreed is always a very silly one. Buyers do not always know how much is reasonable for Postage. (as they dont know the weight) untill the item arrives when they can see if they have been taken for a ride.

I take Soolins line here. It really doesn't matter what any of us say here. In the end the customer decides. If they do not like what you are doing your ratings will be effected and eventually your sales. All we can say is what we would do.

If i was in your buyers situation and you refused to refund a sensible amount of the postage cosst. I would happily Neg you.

pounds_and_sense

If you are serious about making money selling on eBay, you need to deal with the issue of postage (and packaging) as it is probably the number one source of agony for buyers.
I have heard of sellers who refund 10p to buyers, for excessive postage. Now, in the shopt term, once you factor in PayPal costs, it is probably not worth the effort.
But in the long term this endears sellers all the more to prospective buyers.
Try to reuse as much of your packaging materials are you can, to keep costs down. List items at roughly the same time so they end at roughly the same time - that way you don't have to make multiple trips to the Post Office, keeping petrol and parking at a minimum.
If you have several large items to send, use a courier company instead as they will pick up the items from your home.
Sorry to have to say this, but if you are looking to top up your profit from the P+P costs, that is just wrong :-(

nicky7200

hi all, thanks for the response, i will try and refund half the difference for good will.

I think the thing that annoyed me most about the situation was that she bought the item before asking if I would post abroad (listing stated I only post to the UK and price quoted for that) and then after it ended said it needed posting to Cyprus.

mrcol1000

nicky7200 wrote: »

hi all, thanks for the response, i will try and refund half the difference for good will.

I think the thing that annoyed me most about the situation was that she bought the item before asking if I would post abroad (listing stated I only post to the UK and price quoted for that) and then after it ended said it needed posting to Cyprus.

This exactly is my point. THe buyer should have checked with you the postage cost before hand and then decided whether to bid or not. Really what you should have done is cancelled the transaction and told the buyer you clearly stated in your listing that the item will be sent to UK only.