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

macfly

Yes it matters. Many people read these forums, and nobody is saying it's correct to overcharge.
What they are saying is ebay has managed to convince buyers to nitpick. You would be purely mad to buy a more expensive identical item because the postage charges are lower. To state you are happy with the total price, but still hammer the seller on stars is petty in the extreme.
Play.com is a great site and has always had free p&p. But if you are searching for something, you don't just go there. Net cost is the factor. Yet ebay has somehow managed to turn that around.
I understand the argument that if everyone practises fee avoidance then costs may rise for all.
The same is true for many things we contribute towards. Public transport for one. If we all left our cars at home and used it, as you are mainly forced to do in London, it would cost the ratepayer less. But do we do that?
Buyers are just shooting themselves in the foot. If we were forced to offer free p&p, the cost to them would increase. We would have to factor in the extra fees in to the asking price. Only one winner there.

justjohn

This is true. but not fair or sometimes logical

But some people are just not aware of the actual ins and outs of the system. Many people do not know you are allowed by ebay to charge admin/handling charge on the postage and packaging(and not just the price on the postage label). Hopefully this has opened a few eyes on the matter and made some people think.

I personally give free postage to the buyer and in doing so give ebay more fees, thus the buyer actually pays more as i have more fees.
It is not in the buyers interest in the long run to have free postage as they pay more for the item as there are more overheads due to the actual price being loaded even more with ebay fees.

If i was able to load my postage with my cost/admin properly then the buyer would get my items for 50p-£1 cheaper as that as the loss i make for giving free postage.

Just the same as a buyer can save around 15% by buying outside ebay/paypal from me. Overheads have to be paid for, any item you purchase from anywere has overheads.

justjohn

macfly wrote: »

Buyers are just shooting themselves in the foot. If we were forced to offer free p&p, the cost to them would increase. We would have to factor in the extra fees in to the asking price. Only one winner there.

Calm down lol
I can see you are good at simple maths lol

Crowqueen

I'm afraid the buyers are the ones who are paying for it, and expect a lot these days. No matter how you rail against them, they aren't going to change in their expectations of value for money.

macfly

How on earth does that respond to what has been said? It's their illusions of value that's in question.

DGJsaver

DaveAshton wrote: »

Not even Mr Lewis' outlet, if they go on there?

Guess you also won't want to buy this :A

Damn and blast !

BLT_2

emerald_starcat wrote: »

You're very rude.
If everyone blatantly avoided fees like this seller then ebay will just keep increasing them.
Ebay need to make money too.

You may as well bar everyone in Hong Kong from selling in that case, this has been ongoing for years and I fail to see why everyone gets excited about it.

When I purchase an item I look at the total price, eg cost + P&P, if it's too much I don't buy it.

Perhaps if Ebay had not increased their proportion of the take then people would not see the need to circumnavigate the costs. At the end of the day Ebay need the customers far more than the customers need them, for the majority of us it is just an amusing past time seeing if we can pick up something cheap.

Mrs_justjohn

I am not saying it is ok to overcharge. However to me overcharging is when a seller charges significantly more than it has cost them. My gripe is that as the buyer can NEVER know how much it has cost the seller to send it, their rating is based on a perception and is also led by ebay implying that P&P is only actual postage and packaging costs.

How do they know if the seller paid 3p for the envelope as they bought a pallet load, or £1 for the envelope as they bought in WHSmiths?
How do they know what the postage actually cost. Many sellers use packet post where they pay a fixed price per parcel regardless of weight/size. Some use postage labels that do not show the cost....etc....etc...
Ebay tell sellers they can charge a 'reasonable' handling fee, but what is reasonable in some buyers eyes is unreasonable in others.

I don't like the fate of my business being in the hands of potentially 3 buyers that 'perceive' something that may be totally incorrect.

It just wouldn't happen in the 'real world'. If I bought a lof of bread in Asda's and I though it was a bit stale I might 'perceive' it had been on the shelf too long. I may well decide not to shop there again...but what I would not be allowed to do is put a sign up in their window stating they sell stale bread. I also wouldn't be allowed to approach their customers outside their door and advise them not to shop their. They make take legal action against me if I posted things on an internet forum like 'Asda's sell stale bread'. I also wouldn't be able to 'hide their shop' from potential buyers making it difficult to find (the equivalent of being demoted in the search results by ebay)...I think you get my drift?

I do not overcharge....I think 100% pos feedback and P&P DSR's of at least 4.89 across all my I.D's proves that. However I think the system is severely flawed. I think the only fair way to have a rating that encompasses P&P (if you really have to) is to get the buyer to rate you on how happy they were with the overall price of getting the item delivered to them. Even this would cause problems as everyone knows that most buyers want the item cheaper than they got it....Doesn't everyone want something for nothing...LOL??

emerald_starcat

I am a private seller and find that offering free postage makes the bids go higher. I sold a used t-shirt for £12.50 the other day. I think with free postage buyers believe they are getting more of a bargain. I wonder if I'd still started at 99p and put £4 postage would I have made that much in total?

macfly

If you had sold it unwashed, you would have got double.
Seriously, what works for you is fine. And you will never know if you would have got that much. What annoys me is the incessant need to judge, the self righteous drivel of a few. I also wish ebay would force us to give free postage on everything.
The whole DSR ratings thing confuses buyers. Communication for instance. Low stars there are meant to reflect whether sellers deal with problems quickly and professionally. Yet many people leave low stars if you have the item there next day, as there was no communication.
People receive low stars for using recycled boxes. Yet this is helping the environment.
I sometimes sell new t-shirts. I charge £1 for p&p, as the fees are significant on large sales. The cost is about 92p. I get better ratings than on my free p&p.