Help please:£20 collection charge on collect only item

liam8282

jaibaby wrote: »

Item sold for £200 - ebay takes off 10% straight away - which is £20 gone already!

You all moan about paying someone to sit on their bums at home whilst you go to collect it, and have to pay to do so, yet you are doing exactly that. Ebay don't do anything, except provide a place to buy and sell. I can't even say their customer service is that good.

I wish I'd have thought up the idea first - then I wouldn't have to sell my items on there.

Every auction place charges commission, Ebay is no different, you are charged for the use of their site, their customer base, their advertising etc.

You could sell a £200 item on Freeads for example, (for free), but take ages to sell it, struggle to get an acceptable price for it, the list goes on....


Totally different to having to pay somebody for the privelage of them being at home while you go to all the trouble of collecting an item.

That is like paying for your shopping online to be delivered from a supermarket, but going and doing the shopping yourself.

Crowqueen

If sellers are so worried about being at home when the buyer calls, or waiting in for them, arrange to meet at the weekend when more people are free to stay at home, don't purposely take the day off work then demand the buyer pays your salary for you.

jaibaby

Crowqueen wrote: »

If sellers are so worried about being at home when the buyer calls, or waiting in for them, arrange to meet at the weekend when more people are free to stay at home, don't purposely take the day off work then demand the buyer pays your salary for you.

I think it should be the other way around! I bought an item that was in Cardiff, I'm in Newport, so asked if I could collect. Lady didn't have a problem. So I went down, took me two and a half hours and cost me £7 in total, to knock on her door and she wasn't there. Her excuse? I forgot. So the following day I done it again. Left her positive feedback but did add that she wasn't in when I went to collect - which is only fair!

Back on to my subject, if Paypal won't cover me with CCTV proof then I will happily involve the police in the matter! And I know all auctions charge fees, I am just saying that ebay ones are costly, and I know that if I don't like it I should go elsewhere, blah blah blah.

The matter is the OP asked if £20 charge for collection was reasonable. In short, yes if item was purchased at £200+.

Crowqueen

jaibaby wrote: »

I think it should be the other way around! I bought an item that was in Cardiff, I'm in Newport, so asked if I could collect. Lady didn't have a problem. So I went down, took me two and a half hours and cost me £7 in total, to knock on her door and she wasn't there. Her excuse? I forgot. So the following day I done it again. Left her positive feedback but did add that she wasn't in when I went to collect - which is only fair!

Back on to my subject, if Paypal won't cover me with CCTV proof then I will happily involve the police in the matter! And I know all auctions charge fees, I am just saying that ebay ones are costly, and I know that if I don't like it I should go elsewhere, blah blah blah.

The matter is the OP asked if £20 charge for collection was reasonable. In short, yes if item was purchased at £200+.

Now there I agree, if you have evidence they have defrauded you, you can definitely go to either the police or lodge a civil claim. I don't think I'd stop anyone from doing that.

liam8282

jaibaby wrote: »

The matter is the OP asked if £20 charge for collection was reasonable. In short, yes if item was purchased at £200+.

When talking about a collection charge, what is the difference between an item that costs £200 or an item that costs £20 or even £2, when the buyer is collecting it?

Surely it will cost the seller the same to be at home while the buyer collects, no matter of the value of the item sold.

Oh wait, the fees.

soolin

liam8282 wrote: »

When talking about a collection charge, what is the difference between an item that costs £200 or an item that costs £20 or even £2, when the buyer is collecting it?

Surely it will cost the seller the same to be at home while the buyer collects, no matter of the value of the item sold.

Oh wait, the fees.

Yes I rather feel that one of the people responding actually accidentally admitted the truth of it.

jaibaby

soolin wrote: »

Yes I rather feel that one of the people responding actually accidentally admitted the truth of it.

Yes I did. Somewhere on ebay I read that buyers had to take into account that sellers MAY charge for fees. The same as they charge for packing an item.

If they are charging £20 for an item that sold for £2 then they are having a laugh!! That is just stupid. I know sellers used to up their postage, to make more money, which stopped to a point when ebay brought in the capped postage rates (which I think are stupid, come back to that). But the way around that is to list the item under joblot - then there is no cap.

The capped postage rates - if I list a book, no matter what size or weight, the most postage I can charge is £3.00. Which I did, on three books. They each sold for 99p (which I didn't mind - they were sat gathering dust). £3.00 postage for 1st class recorded delivery. After I lost the fees, it left me with £3.50ish each. Went to post office to post them, and because they were thick (had to go as small parcel) and heavy it cost me £4.50ish to post each one. I lost out! Anyway, that's a different subject.

Crowqueen

jaibaby wrote: »

Yes I did. Somewhere on ebay I read that buyers had to take into account that sellers MAY charge for fees. The same as they charge for packing an item.

If they are charging £20 for an item that sold for £2 then they are having a laugh!! That is just stupid. I know sellers used to up their postage, to make more money, which stopped to a point when ebay brought in the capped postage rates (which I think are stupid, come back to that). But the way around that is to list the item under joblot - then there is no cap.

The capped postage rates - if I list a book, no matter what size or weight, the most postage I can charge is £3.00. Which I did, on three books. They each sold for 99p (which I didn't mind - they were sat gathering dust). £3.00 postage for 1st class recorded delivery. After I lost the fees, it left me with £3.50ish each. Went to post office to post them, and because they were thick (had to go as small parcel) and heavy it cost me £4.50ish to post each one. I lost out! Anyway, that's a different subject.

You should also note that eBay expressly forbid charging extra to cover any fees, whether or not they are eBay or Paypal fees.

It has been the case for a long time that sellers are not allowed to charge fees to postage either.

The only person who loses out by doing this is the seller: buyers will usually be put off by extra charges, whether in the listing or not.

As regards postage caps, you (a) don't need to send cheapo things recorded, it's a false economy; (b) you should do your homework before you list rather than get a nasty surprise; (c) make sure you add those extra costs to the listing and (d) if this makes it uneconomical to sell it was uneconomical to sell in the first place. Cheap heavy things don't sell well online as the postage costs usually make the cost of sending them prohibitive. This was the case even before eBay imposed postage caps.

jaibaby

Crowqueen wrote: »

As regards postage caps, you (a) don't need to send cheapo things recorded, it's a false economy

Of course the only problem then is the buyer can turn around and say they didn't receive the item

soolin

jaibaby wrote: »

Of course the only problem then is the buyer can turn around and say they didn't receive the item

Then we are back to the argument that if you believe every buyer on ebay is a liar and a thief then selling on ebay is not the thing for you.