Can seller get away with charging this p&P???

Mrs_justjohn

Crowqueen wrote: »

That's because it saved them the few seconds needed to work out whether the 99p item they were about to buy was really 99p or whether it was 99p + £12.00 postage (because the unregistered business seller was trying to pull a fast one with the free listings).

I agree that an unregistered business seller shouldn't load the P&P to enable him to get the item price down to 99p to qualify for a 'free listing'. On the other hand though - what about the genuine private seller who is selling her second hand books but as it WAS a free P&P catergory she had to start the price at £1.99 (to cover the P&P costs) therefore NOT qualifying for free listings on a genuine 99p item

Buyers aren't stupid enough to believe that free postage is genuinely free; they are however encouraged by seeing the whole price up front and it worked very well for me.

Compulsary free P&P for me made absolutely NO difference to my sales, other than me having to pay more in FVF to Ebay, a cost which I absorbed and did not pass on to the buyer = Ebay better off and me poorer

Anyway to get back to the point I do not believe you can make a judgement on whether the P&P charge is 'Fair'. As no one know what the seller is actually paying in costs...Just to play devils advocate for a moment here....

He may be buying his bubble wrap, sellotape and jiffy envelopes from Harrods at a price of £4. He may live in a Remote Scottish Village and not drive....therfore he may have to get a cab to the post office everyday with perhaps 1 or two parcels at a cost of £6 each way....he may have to pay someone minimum wage to package his items and take them to the post office...etc etc...I am sure that he is not doing any of these things however HE MAY BE even if you are not. Therefore all you can do is look at the price he has quoted UPFRONT and decide if you are willing to pay it. IF yes - then buy. If No - then don't buy!

Mrs_justjohn

macfly wrote: »

john - calm down. You know you're going to get a lecture on which costs are factored in.

:rotfl:John is sitting here most animated...LOL - It can't be good for his blood pressure!!

I think what John is trying to say (although not very eloquently) is that no buyer can know what costs are involved to the seller. Ebay state that you can charge costs plus a handling charge, and no one can know what your actual costs are these will vary greatly depending on how much you pay for packaging, how far away you are from the PO, which courier you use, whether you have staff to pay (who package)...etc..etc and largely it is all irrelevant as the cost is displayed upfront and if you don't like it don't buy!!

We recently bought two small items of furniture from the same furniture store and delivery was £30 per item....no reduction for 'combined P&P' LOL...If they sold on Ebay they would be hung drawn and quartered for that:rotfl: and then ultimately suspended. We did however have a choice we could have walked away and bought elsewhere.

soolin

John I think you are missing the point and will play directly into the hands of people who dislike overchargers.

Post and packing is just that, I don't want to pay your petrol or your employees or your gas bill, they are overheads are factored into the overall item cost v profit calculations. If you are lucky enough to live in a picturesque wildnerness in the highlands then good on you, but don't expect me to pay for it by pretending it is postage.

I live in London maybe i should charge extra 'London weighting rates'. but unfortunately it doesn't work like that.

All buyers see is that seller A charges £3 for postage and seller B (who will be way down in the rnakings) charges £6, so therefore seller B must be overcharging. Whilst ebay insist on using DSRs that take into account 'post and packing' and ask buyers to rate it, a seller that inflates their postage will eventually lose out.

Mrs_justjohn

soolin wrote: »

.

Post and packing is just that,

No it's not - Ebay state in their help pages (or at least they did) that you can include a handling charge in P&P.

Just as an example...lets say that I take a wage of £6 per hour from my business. If I package 10 items a day and it atkes me an hour, then each package has cost me a handling charge of 60p (on average). If it then takes me a round trip of an hour to take those 10 items to the post office each day, then that has incurred me a further handling charge of 60p per item (on average) that is £1.20 in handling charges that "can" be added to the postage and packaging cost. That is without factoring in petrol costs etc....



All buyers see is that seller A charges £3 for postage and seller B (who will be way down in the rnakings) charges £6, so therefore seller B must be overcharging.

Yes I agree that is what the buyer perceives but it doesn't necessarily make it true;)

Whilst ebay insist on using DSRs that take into account 'post and packing' and ask buyers to rate it, a seller that inflates their postage will eventually lose out.

Again this is your/a buyers perception of inflated....I am not defending the seller in the OP by any means, the point I am making is you can not know that it is or isn't overcharging, as you do not know his costs.....however what you do know is how much he wants to charge you and it is upto you to decide whether to buy.

........................

justjohn

soolin wrote: »

John I think you are missing the point and will play directly into the hands of people who dislike overchargers.

Post and packing is just that, I don't want to pay your petrol or your employees or your gas bill, they are overheads are factored into the overall item cost v profit calculations. If you are lucky enough to live in a picturesque wildnerness in the highlands then good on you, but don't expect me to pay for it by pretending it is postage.

I live in London maybe i should charge extra 'London weighting rates'. but unfortunately it doesn't work like that.

All buyers see is that seller A charges £3 for postage and seller B (who will be way down in the rnakings) charges £6, so therefore seller B must be overcharging. Whilst ebay insist on using DSRs that take into account 'post and packing' and ask buyers to rate it, a seller that inflates their postage will eventually lose out.

Ebay state you are alowed to charge and admin fee on the poastage and packaging charges.

You should be more bothered about the price you pay rather than what ebay does or does not want. Because surely all you are interested in the long run is what you actually pay for an item.

And as for you subsidising the cost of getting an item to you because of the logistics/sittuation the item is at/in. You will find never mind what the item or service is somewere along the line it is subsidised.

Dsr's and free postage are there to make ebay money.

It is very simple

Seller- is there to make as much money as possible
Ebay- is there to make as much money as possible
Buyer - is there to get as cheap as possible

Buyer/ebay is not there for COMMUNITY SPIRIT(for those that can remember that line). Ebay is there to make profit in any way they can.

Ebay introduced free postage because it makes them money.And brought it in under the guise that the buyers were misled. Buyers were fully aware of all the cost. This was propaganda. Just like the community spirit line. The spiel/brainwashing that ebay churns out seems to work fine with you. Which is exactly what they want.

Dont like the charges dont pay.
Dont buy,moan, then stab in the back just because you are greedy. Buy from someone that has free postage.

Mrs_justjohn

Copied from the Ebay help page on excessive P&P

In specified categories, eBay has set limits on postage & packaging (P&P) charges.

Elsewhere, sellers may charge reasonable P&P charges to cover the costs of posting, packaging, and handling the items they are selling.
In such categories, while eBay will not prescribe exactly what a seller may or may not charge, eBay will consider member reports when determining whether or not a seller’s postage, handling, packaging, and/or insurance charges are excessive. P&P and handling charges may not be listed as a percentage of the final sale price.

In addition to the final listing price, sellers are permitted to charge:

Actual Postage cost: This is the actual cost of delivering the item.

Handling Fee: Actual packaging materials costs may be charged. A handling fee in addition to actual postage cost may be charged if it is not excessive.

Crowqueen

Yes, but excessive handling fees end up making you uncompetitive, and even as a private seller, my goals and yours are to sell items, not just list for the sheer hell of it.

Through a combination of bad DSRs and people just not biting at excessive postage charges, you will end up not selling at all. While that may be OK as a private seller, if you rely on eBay for your income, you're going to end up screwed.

For the record, I had a number of DVD titles sat gathering dust - as a private seller I was only selling what I had, and the good titles didn't need any encouragement to sell - until DVDs went inclusive postage. The same titles which had taken months to sell flew off my shelves. The only thing I changed was the inclusive postage element. I tended to use Buy It Nows, so I knew the total price, my buyers knew the total price, and people tend to buy books and DVDs more as BINs because quite often they want to watch or read the book or film now, not in 10 days.

So it did work for me and I'm happy because although eBay did get more money, I got more sales. We both won.

Mrs_justjohn

Crowqueen wrote: »

Yes, but excessive handling fees end up making you uncompetitive, and even as a private seller, my goals and yours are to sell items, not just list for the sheer hell of it.

Through a combination of bad DSRs and people just not biting at excessive postage charges, you will end up not selling at all. While that may be OK as a private seller, if you rely on eBay for your income, you're going to end up screwed.

For the record, I had a number of DVD titles sat gathering dust - as a private seller I was only selling what I had, and the good titles didn't need any encouragement to sell - until DVDs went inclusive postage. The same titles which had taken months to sell flew off my shelves. The only thing I changed was the inclusive postage element. I tended to use Buy It Nows, so I knew the total price, my buyers knew the total price, and people tend to buy books and DVDs more as BINs because quite often they want to watch or read the book or film now, not in 10 days.

So it did work for me and I'm happy because although eBay did get more money, I got more sales. We both won.

Yes largely I agree.

The point I am making is not whether it is ok to overcharge on P&P ...it is rather how do you KNOW that you are being overcharged....LOL. Just because someones P&P is higher than the next does not mean they are overcharging you, it may be because their envelopes are dearer....(To keep it simple). My point is that you (the buyer) has a choice to buy or not to buy, and the seller will accordingly have choices to make on their selling strategy.

cyberbob

Mrs_justjohn wrote: »

Copied from the Ebay help page on excessive P&P

In specified categories, eBay has set limits on postage & packaging (P&P) charges.

Elsewhere, sellers may charge reasonable P&P charges to cover the costs of posting, packaging, and handling the items they are selling.
In such categories, while eBay will not prescribe exactly what a seller may or may not charge, eBay will consider member reports when determining whether or not a seller’s postage, handling, packaging, and/or insurance charges are excessive. P&P and handling charges may not be listed as a percentage of the final sale price.

In addition to the final listing price, sellers are permitted to charge:

Actual Postage cost: This is the actual cost of delivering the item.

Handling Fee: Actual packaging materials costs may be charged. A handling fee in addition to actual postage cost may be charged if it is not excessive.

You seem to be massively missing the point. Yes you can charge a handling packaging fee but ebay customers are hot on postage as Crowqueen said if you charge what is perceived to be high charges your sales will be lower and the sales you do make your DSRs will likely get hit which cann effect your selling.

On lower price items I normally have free postage so all my costs including packaging are in the BIN price. My sales went up when I started this. On Auction items last year I started to charge less than cost price on the P&P element and put the extra costs in my start price. Since then for similar items I have had better sales and higher prices.

We can all look at the rules and see that in theory a handling fee can be charged but it really doesn't matter as the people who judge what is acceptable is the customers.

I'm happy for other sellers to charge handling fees, fees for there shoes and taking there dog for a walk to the post office etc. It just means that I appear higher in searches (the cheaper the P&P the higher you appear in searches) and I make more sales due to customers hating high postage.

justjohn

could mrs john please get on with her work because i may just have to load more postage costs onto my p&P