Avoiding eBay fees by inflating P&P

hhobba

If eBay do try to suspend someone for this, I don't see why the seller can't object with the perfectly justifiable response that their own time, travelling to the post office and packing goods, is worth a lot to them. Referencing my previous example, the £0.01 iPod with £199.99 postage, is it eBay's place to say that my time and travel costs aren't worth £199.99 ? No, it's not. And they can call this "unrealistic" and "ignorant" as much as they want - but really, if I value my own time so highly as to charge £199.99 for a 10 minute walk to the post office, then so be it.

And if I manufacture my own postal bags from brown paper, can they really say that they are not worth £199.99 ? No. It's up to me what I charge for my own postage service, and I dont believe it's eBay's place to make the distinction between a seller who is blatantly trying to rip them off, and a seller who values his posting services so highly that he charges substantially for them.

Of course, this attitude would be one of extreme ignorance, but it's real, and it 's perfectly and legally justifiable.

And with regards to those who do not bid on inflated postage items, well hey, that's your own loss! There's ONE product, HUNDREDS of buyers. That's all I'm saying.

hhobba

I want to make money and save money at the same time. If people do it by increasing postage then fair play I'm all for it. It's survival of the fittest, and if you lose sleep because someone else is saving money and you aren't then so be it.

That one sentence perfectly sums it up. If I could be assured that every eBay seller in the world was going to stop this practise at once, then I would stop it too. Then, that way, eBay would lower fees for everyone. But this isn't the case! If the inflated postage fees is ever going to stop, it's going to take years, with a dribble of sellers stopping this practise one by one. Thus, why should they stop before others do? Why should those NOT inflating their postage fees be at a disadvantage to those still doing it? This isn't human nature at all.

This argument is very much akin to the "Energy Saving" adverts you see on TV. One lamp off does nothing, but if everyone put off their lamps, it makes a huge difference.

Oh, and, RazorBladeGoddess: attacking people's spelling now? Very nice.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

If eBay suspended people like you that avoid paying fees then that would be a damn good thing. You would have no right to appeal. If you choose to break the rules then you have to be prepared for the consequences.

Quote from eBay:

Listings that circumvent (avoid) fees may provide a poor buying experience and create an unlevel playing field by putting sellers who pay all their eBay fees at a disadvantage. Furthermore, these listings undermine the trust and legitimacy of our online marketplace.

So true.

In regards to your example of the iPod. eBay allow reasonable postage costs. extortionate postage costs are not allowed.

MoneySavingWannabe_3

Who dictates what is reasonable or extortionate? Everyone will have different figures.

hhobba

MoneySavingWannabe wrote:

Who dictates what is reasonable or extortionate? Everyone will have different figures.

Exactly. I am the only person who can place a true figure value on my own time. And as I said, if I manufacture my own Jiffy bags at £100 a pop, is it eBay's place to say this is extortion? They could be of the highest quality. I don't have to justify my expenses to eBay.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

It's pretty obvious that £199.99 postage and packaging for an iPod is extortionate. If you were to ask random people if they viewed it as reasonable or extortionate, I think the majority would say the latter.

Are you a newbie seller?

hhobba

No, I have a feedback rating of several hundred and it's 100% positive. I don't always use the inflating postage technique, but in times of batch-selling I do.

MoneySavingWannabe_3

I'd still buy it for that price though. I don't think trying to save on fee's would impact on the service you get from that seller, if anyone thinks that then they need their head examining, hell thats what the feedback is for. I wonder how many people don't bother to check the feedback of the seller before committing to buy something?

grimelda

There's a hell of a lot of sophistry in this thread. Personally, I wouldn't buy from a seller with ridiculously high postage costs either. But then I don't use Ebay much.

Just out of curiosity, how does this work out with items lost in the post? I understand that if an item goes missing or is damaged, Royal Mail reimburses the cost of the item but not the postage. I have read others here say that they use their Ebay or Amazon invoices as proof of the value of the product. So if you post an item but the invoice says it sold for £0.01, does that mean you won't be able to get your money back from RM?

MoneySavingWannabe_3

Not once have the royal mail asked me what the actual value is of the item i'm sending. I think that says it all.