Ebayer won't allow collection

Alfie_E

This is why you might never want to meet your eBay seller.

FloFlo

A buyer wanted to collect an item from me because he lived in a nearby village and sorry but I refused. This is something you need to ask BEFORE bidding. I was not making anything on postage but just did not want the hassle of arranging collection - my buyer was really nice and just accepted that.

shellsuit

Alfie_E wrote:

This is why you might never want to meet your eBay seller.

The guy who was robbed has posted on the ebay postage forum.

black-saturn

On the upside letting an ebay buyer collect from your house can go right sometimes. Once I was selling a load of old photos of this town so it was inevitable that the buyers might be from this town and would want to pick them up in person. Most of the photos went to the same buyer who was a collector. He was really friendly an polite and as a thankyou sent me a photo of my street with my house in it in the Victorian times which is now on the wall in a frame.

Contains_Mild_Peril

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.

I wouldn't have bid without knowing the p&p charges, and I certainly wouldn't assume that colletion would be OK if the seller hadn't said so, but from what you've said, the listing very clearly implied that postage and packing would be charged at cost. A package containing 3 newborn size baby T-shirts would probably weigh under 250g. Even if we suppose it weighs between 250-500g, 1st class postage would be £1.70, so one might reasonably expect postage and packing to be around £2.00.
I would ask the seller why the p&p is so expensive, and what the package (assuming they're sending the 3 items together) actually weighs. If they did not come up with a satisfactory explanation and/or offer a discount at that point, I would then point out, politely, that their listing implied that the p&p charge would be based on the actual cost, and that eBay might consider it excessive, so would they consider revising it? EBay is actually a bit vague on this, but if the seller refused a discount, I would report them to eBay for excessive postage charges, since they're trying to charge around 5 times the actual cost. I would certainly consider that excessive.

eBay encourages sellers to clearly describe the item and postage and packing details in their listings to avoid possible confusion.

A postage and packing fee can cover the seller's reasonable costs for packing and sending the item. However, postage and packing fees may not be listed as a percentage of the final sale price.

When a bid is placed, the bidder is entering into an agreement with the seller to purchase the item, which most often means incurring reasonable postage charges that may also include packing fees.

Where there are disagreements between buyers and sellers regarding postage charges, eBay encourages you to communicate with each other to seek resolution.

Breaches of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

Listing cancellation

Limits on account privileges

Account suspension

Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings

Loss of PowerSeller status

Hermia

mspig wrote:

Thanks for the info, nothing different to what i thought really.
Its just a shame these days that we live in fear of strangers coming to our houses, i'm the opposite really it doesn't bother me one bit about someone collecting from my house, but i understand where your coming from.

I've had mostly negative experiences from people collecting which is why I won't allow it anymore. I had one guy turn up drunk and stinking. I am a female living on my own and my front door is down the side of the house and I was very intimidated indeed. I am not paranoid and don't think every ebayer is a murderer/rapist, but I think I would be pretty stupid to allow lots of strangers to come to my house (esp. as my neighbours didn't lift a finger to help - not even to ring the police - when I was burgled).

It's not just safety though. I work long hours which means I am not at home much. One guy wanted to collect his potential purchase on the way home from his work. I said yes, but warned him that my leaving work time probably wouldn't coincide with his. Of course he won the auction and then said he wanted to collect the item at 5.30pm. I said I wouldn't be at home until 7pm and he got in a huff and refused to pay up. Another buyer wanted to meet up on a Sunday in town to collect his item, but Sunday is often my only day off and I usually have chores to do or relatives to visit and just didn't have time.

I now always state that I won't allow collection on my auction because a lot of bidders do seem to assume you will allow it.

ddavis

Alfie_E wrote:

This is why you might never want to meet your eBay seller.

All that proves is that Darwin was wrong...

Contains_Mild_Peril

I would usually allow collection on request, and even encourage it if the item were particularly heavy and/or fragile, but I'd complete the transaction at the front door rather than invite them in, and I'd expect cash on collection rather than Paypal payment.

tomstickland

To keep it in perspective, what is the approximate ratio of total bill to value of the items?

jodie

I allow people to collect from me but fully understand those that dont.

I insist on daytime collection and it has to be done on the doorstep.