Is this an excessive P&P cost?

OwtForNowt

I only ever charge the postage cost. Sometimes I have Under-estimated the cost and it cost me more to post. Sometimes I have Over-estimated and given a partial refund to the exact amount that it costs. Even though I do this I still only have 4.9 on P&P Charges so I think some people expect more than is possible.

OrkneyStar

Scarlett.1974 wrote: »

Oh, but they will! Some people just can not be pleased.

I sold something yesterday and charged £1.75 for 1st class. It was something quite delicate and used a LOT of bubble wrap to keep it protected. Anyway, when I got to the PO it turned out to be £2.50 (ish) for 1st and £1.95 for 2nd class. I sent it 2nd class and have emailed the buyer to explain. I'm fully expecting him to complain / mark down my stars to be honest..... I'm wondering now if I should have just sent it first class and took the loss but I made a loss on it anyway, even sending it 2nd class and the buyer got a bargain with the item itself so fingers crossed he won't mind. He did say it was for a Christmas present so hopefully he's not in too much of a rush to receive it!

I would mark you down for that, it is not the fault of the buyer that you under-estimated the cost of postage. Stating first class and then posting second, imho, is shoddy service! You should have taken the loss.

OwtForNowt wrote: »

I only ever charge the postage cost. Sometimes I have Under-estimated the cost and it cost me more to post. Sometimes I have Over-estimated and given a partial refund to the exact amount that it costs. Even though I do this I still only have 4.9 on P&P Charges so I think some people expect more than is possible.

I now charge slightly more than it will cost, as I am not a business, just someone selling my son and my old clothes. I did however refund someone yesterday as I was able to send as large letter instead of parcel, a signicant saving to me which I felt should be passed on to the buyer too!

soolin

Actually there might be an explanation , recorded delivery on cheap items might be enough to make some people mark down stars just because they disagree with having to pay the extra. It's only a thought!

Also it is unlikely that one person could have damaged your stars by so much, what does your expanded sellerdashboard show, is there a 1 or 2* in there? If not then it is more than one who has left lower stars.

floralaura

It may not have been that buyer who dinged you? Have you sold any other items lately that it could have been? I took a hammering on my P&P in the past so now i charge exactly what it costs..and take the hit on the packing..stilll get the occasional twit that makrs me down tho, you just clan please the ones that are tsfe!
There is a way to find out exactly who dinged you, but quite time consuming..;)

Crowqueen

OwtForNowt wrote: »

I only ever charge the postage cost. Sometimes I have Under-estimated the cost and it cost me more to post. Sometimes I have Over-estimated and given a partial refund to the exact amount that it costs. Even though I do this I still only have 4.9 on P&P Charges so I think some people expect more than is possible.

There are a proportion of people who mark 4s for everything satisfactory, so worrying over 4.9 is not productive.

As long as you are not dropping far below the average and are maintaining that over a period of time (and/or have targets for lower figures, my target for P&P is 4.8), then there is little you can productively do.

soolin

I think 4.8 or 4.9 perfectly adequate for stars in any category and they certainly wouldn't put me off buying from anyone. I don't even mind 4.7 as long as the overall feedback is good.

One of my competitors is now down to 4.5 for despatch and 4.6 for p and p and they are still selling quite a few items, so people obviously don't care.

luxor4t

soolin wrote: »

Actually there might be an explanation , recorded delivery on cheap items might be enough to make some people mark down stars just because they disagree with having to pay the extra. It's only a thought!

Also it is unlikely that one person could have damaged your stars by so much, what does your expanded sellerdashboard show, is there a 1 or 2* in there? If not then it is more than one who has left lower stars.

The star rating was at the higher rate before this last single feeback - I've looked at my dashboard, but as I sell about 3 times a year at most, it is confusing trying to see the pattern .

In my description I offered second class posting & recycled materials as an option, but the buyer didn't ask for them. I state Recorded Delivery as I thought that E-bay's policy was trackable postage.

Anyway, onwards & upwards, next time I list I'll included P&P in the price - does the 5* feedback apply to standard sellers?

Thanks for all the advice!

iieee

As the DSRs are a 12 month moving average it's possible that you haven't had a low rating recently, but some high ones from just over a year ago have fallen off the radar, if that makes sense. I wouldn't worry about it too much personally, it sounds like you're doing okay and you can't please everyone 100% of the time. (I did have 5 for all my DSRs for a while, but it didn't last!)

StaffsSW

Scarlett.1974 wrote: »

I agree with this. I mention nothing on my listings about p&p. People can see what I'm charging and I hope most people are intelligent enough to realise the price is fair and includes the cost of the packaging materials too!

This is where you are going wrong, remember this is ebay-world, not the real world!

ERICS_MUM

gravitytolls wrote: »

None I'm afraid, I only popped in to say if I received a package with £3.10 on it and I paid £3.50, I'd be delighted.

Chin up, there's some right funny folk about.

I agree completely, I think your p&p was very reasonable. I don't think you can do anything about it tbh.