Ebayer won't allow collection

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Coupon-mad wrote:

I once had to pay £2.50 postage for a tiny Thomas Tank toy from less than half a mile away from my house! I was fuming when I found out she was so close and she would not agree to collection! :mad:

But when you bid on Thomas you agreed to the total price including postage. It does not matter if the seller lived next door or on the far side of the moon, you accepted the postal charges. There is no 'minimum distance' for which collection is acceptable if it is not stated in the auction. Although it may be annoying that they refuse pickup from so close, it is what you agreed to when you bid and won the auction.

The only recourse for complaining about Postage is if a seller uses a different method from that which they have stated, i.e send 2nd class instead of 1st class recorded. This is why I advise sellers to use 'sellers standard rate' as their postage method as it gives them flexibility.

At the end of the day if you find postage excessive don't bid, it really is that simple.
Why bid on a 5p bookmark with £30 postage then complain about the postage, when it was clearly listed?!

rushnowt

black-saturn wrote:

I think theres not a lot you can do. You bid on the item not knowing whether or not he would allow a local pick up. You also knew what he was charging for postage. No one forced you to bid. So now you have 2 choices, either pay up and accept the postal charges or don't pay up. If you do the latter you will end up with a permanent non paying bidder strike on your ebay account and possibly also a negative feedback.

i don't think she did know what the p&p was from her OP

mspig wrote:

He is also charging excessively for postage as the amount total comes to £11.93(its 3 babys clothes). The postage was not on his auction as it just had, will sort out postage after auction once it has been weighed at post office. i didn't expect that amount though as it £9.43 postage.

jellynose

I had an awkward situation when someone who was a winning bidder turned up at my house completely unannounced. It was very weird and from now on I put *postage only* on the ads. I didn't like it, but since they went to the bother of calling I agreed to give them the goods there and then.

I would agree to meet a person somewhere neutral, however, you could have got it posted to them by the time you agree that sort of thing.

Just my opinion.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

If I were the OP I would probably just pay up and take it as a lesson learned. Yes the postage and packaging charge is excessive but you should have found this out prior to bidding. You cannot assume that because a seller lives close by that they will allow collection of an item. I've only allowed collection of an item once and that was because the item was too awkward to post but I doubt very much that I would allow it again. It isn't safe to allow total strangers to pick up items especially if you're a female who lives alone and/or with young children.

Coupon-mad

I just don't see the problem with the occasional buyer collection...like the OP I have collected several things and I still feel annoyed at the seller who would not let me collect the Thomas train.

It's as if the world has gone paranoid, before eBay people who wanted to sell baby clothes had to 'face' complete strangers by selling at a car boot or listing them in their local free paper.

And yes, I do have experience of selling kids' clothes direct to strangers coming to my house, and it's not a problem! I have 4 children and until recently I had spent some 8 years selling 2nd hand baby and children's clothes direct from my house, to strangers (who then became repeat business, as I sourced things that would sell).

It IS out of order not to state the postage price, not to respond to emails about it and then to come up with such a rip-off price! It's enough to put people off eBay and I am surprised so many of you are defending the sneaky seller.

If I was the OP I would start with a polite email saying 'I am on a budget and was not expecting the postage to be that high' and see what they say.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

The OP should have found out the postage and packaging charges before bidding. The OP already mentioned contacting the seller asking about collecting the item and received no response. Surely that is a good enough reason not to bid.

soolin

Coupon-mad wrote:

I

It IS out of order not to state the postage price, not to respond to emails about it and then to come up with such a rip-off price! It's enough to put people off eBay and I am surprised so many of you are defending the sneaky seller.
.

I quite agree that it is al making the seller look dodgy, no p and p quoted, does not respod to email etc. However in that case why on earth bid?

Sorry, but we can't be ripped off like this unless we allow ourselves to be, the worst 'punishment' for sellers like that is to have all his auctions go unsold as buyers see him for what he is.

Yes the postage is too high but the time to do something about it has now gone.

Soo

KathrynPenguin

I had a buyer get very nasty on me when I said "no collection". I work full time and tend to be home alone with a toddler in the evening. I don't want to tell strangers when I am out and I don't want them coming round when I'm home alone.

They pestered me with emails aying they would bring the cash and collect and I compromised by offering them the chance to come to my workplace (4 miles away from home) between 1.15 and 2pm or between 3pm and 4 pm (I'm a teacher - can't just walk out of lessons to Ebay). They replied with abuse telling me that I couldn't "dictate" when they could collect THEIR item. Transaction cancelled, reported them to Ebay and they didn't even neg me!

This was over a small transaction with a postage of £2. When I sold a set of golf clubs I stated "collection in daytime only" and had a smooth transaction!

CAFCGirl

Is it not possible that the reason why the seller did not give the postage charges in their original listing, because they didnt know how much they were going to sell for and so has now therefore tried to make up the difference with the postage.

Yes I agree that no contact after the initial emails may appear and indication not to bid however, people aren't always available! I've been away for a few days before when I've had items for sale, but have always been willing to accept that if my response to the winning bidder was not what they expected, I would understand them not wanting to go ahead.

I.E if they had bid thinking theyre only 5 mins away, and I didnt get back to them before the auction ended, and I then decided I didnt want them turning up at my house, I would apologise and say I would understand if they didnt want to go ahead!

I think from the tone of the OP, it seems somewhat rude to simply say NO YOU CANT COLLECT! Could the seller not have apologised for not replying sooner? Explained that they were uncomfortable with collection.

I would suggest emailing him again, to simply state that I felt the postage costs were somewhat high. And possibly say that even with the new changes to royal mail, if they were put in say a £3 padded envelope, £6 would mean that they weigh x amount!

I think the bidder should appreciate that the seller is happy to wait for paypal. However is there no other way to pay up. i.e cheque or postal order.

What would have been the most the bidder would have paid for them?inc postage, perhaps put this in the email regarding postage to the seller.Maybe he will see it was an unreasonable amount?

gingercordial

It does sound like very high postage, so it does sound like they are trying to increase their profits via the postage. They should have agreed p&p beforehand - personally I wouldn't have placed a bid until I was sure of what the final charge would be.

I rarely sell (although my OH sells quite a bit) but when we do we don't generally allow collection for several reasons:

1. We both work full time and long hours at that, so actually arranging a date and time tends to involve protracted negotiations.

2. We don't really want people we don't know turning up at our house, or indeed knowing when we WON'T be in.

3. For paypal purposes, the buyer could claim they'd never received the item and the seller would have no proof that it had been handed over as paypal only accept online postal tracking as proof.

Having said that, we did agree collection once (and one time only) because OH was selling a camera and the person wanted it urgently to go on holiday with. I wasn't very happy with OH for agreeing to it, especially as he arranged for the buyer to come when only I would be in, and I was genuinely worried I'd be murdered!