Real Life MMD: Should I refund the postage cost?

happyinflorida

Personally when I'm buying on Ebay I get really annoyed if I'm charged more on p&p than it actually costs to post an item and if the seller has bought something to wrap it in. If I get something in a reused bag - I don't mind, but I don't expect to be charged anything for the packaging as it's not cost them anything. If people want to charge more for p&p, more than the postage costs, then they should put that clearly in their description, if they don't, then they are liable to getting either neutral or negative feedback. I do contact sellers if I think I've been overcharged and depending on their reply and whether they give a refund or not, effects what feedback I leave. Some sellers are very rude, I gave someone positive feedback but added that I thought the p&p was too much and got a reply ans'd by seller of "rubbish"!!! That made me wish I hadn't given positive feedback as I thought it was so rude!

I think this person is really one of those sellers in that they think it's fine to charge £5 to drive 4 miles to deliver something! I don't! The buyer did e-mail first, so this seller had their chance to do the right thing and should have asked how much they thought they should refund, not refused to - so I'm not surprised they've got bad feedback.

If the seller cares about the feedback, they need to ask the buyer if they are willing to accept a partial refund & will the seller revoke the feedback and agree on an amount to be refunded.

If the seller doesn't care then she's lumbered herself due to being in the wrong, in my opinion!

Sooler

Cloudane wrote: »

Morally - a partial refund is probably fair.

Not really ... it works both ways. If the seller had undercharged for P&P would it be a dilema for the buyer whether they should offer to pay more?

LB83_2

No I don't think you should.

What about the packaging, the time you spent on it and your own personal time driving over there?

I would just be happier that it got to me much quicker and lost the risk of being lost in the post.

Dave1167

As usual the masses miss the real point of the cost. Fuel is only one part of vehicle costs. In order to determine costs there is a need to consider Road Tax, Insurance, Maintenance and Depreciation. The £5 cost comes nowhere near the true cost.
Wake up people and show some intelligence.:D

happyinflorida

"Why don't you go back to the person and try and come to some sort of agreement where if you refund part of the delivery costs he changes the feedback and if he is seriously stubborn and won't consider this then leave him bad feedback too. It is seriously really easy to change feedback so if he won't do this then he deserves bad feedback in return anyway... Joanne 1972"

Joanne you are way out of order for saying that! If the buyer has paid the p&p in good faith believing it is going to cost that to post the item and the seller has chosen to deliver the item, driving 4 miles, so it hasn't cost them £5 to deliver, they cannot leave bad feedback to the buyer! What a cheek you've got suggesting that! Ebay would not be amused either. You leave feedback to the buyer for their payment, if they've paid great, that's it. Nothing more. You don't leave bad feedback because you've had bad feedback - that you deserved, as this seller does!

Can you let me know your selling name so I don't ever buy off you? I seriously wouldn't want to deal with you!

TBagpuss

The buyer bought an item, on the basis that there was a £5 delivery charge.

If the listing specified that delivery would be by Royal Mail then it would have been sensible to e-mail first to let the buyer know that the item would be hand-delivered instead, but unless that took longer, orthe item was damaged in transit, I don't think the buyer has any grounds for expecting a refund. They paid to have an item delivered to their door, and that is exactly what they got. It doesn't sound as though there was any problem with the delivery itself (it's not as though it had been sent by DHL instead of Royal MAil, and the buyer had had to trek to a distant depot to pick it up) the buyer wasn't inconveniencd or left out of pocket in any way.

Similarly I don't consider that a seller re-using packaging is an issue - the buyer only has cause for complaint if the package isn't well packaged, so that the item is damaged in transit, or if re-using packaging meant the addess was unclear so delivery was delayed. I would see it as wholly inappropriate to leave negative feedback becuase a seller used a re-used jiffy bag (or whatever)

If you don't like the amount chargd for P&P or delivery, don't bid. Don't make a contract then whinge that you don't like it.

nij138

jonesjw wrote: »

A deal is a deal. The buyer knows the postage charge. Give your buyer negative feedback for complaining about T&C which were both fair and clear at the time of purchase.

Unfortunately you can't give buyers negative feedback.. Though I would leave negative comments in the positive feedback bit anyway.

I'm on the sellers side really. They agreed to pay the price, and they got what they paid for. In terms of the price, I am a regular seller on eBay and I put my postage up and the item price down to save on eBay fees, so I don't really think it matters about the postage price. And the fact that they have left negative feedback as well, unless they are willing to retract it (if you care about it), then you might as well keep the extra few bob. Thats what I think anyway. They can do without the money on postage, otherwise they wouldnt have paid for it.

nij138

Also, buyers don't complain when there is free P&P so it works both ways. They shouldnt complain when they overpay slightly (key word- slightly, I would be vexed if it was over £7)

happyinflorida

From rve1023 "Dont you dare give this ignoramus a refund or I shall personally come round and kick your backside!! Once they have left feedback, it cannot be retracted, so the deed is done."

WRONG!

You can apply to have feedback retracted - but in this instance you'd need to ask the seller and if you've not agreed the change in delivery first or a partial refund at least I don't expect the seller would be willing to change the feedback left and rightly so in my opinion!

p&p stands for "post and packaging" which means the cost of the postage and the cost of the packaging. Not time spent, I don't expect to pay a seller for their time - why should I?! I don't expect them to charge me their Ebay fees or their Paypal fees in the p&p price either as you are not meant to do that in the Ebay rules!

How many sellers are doing this then?!!! Far too many looking at the replies on here! Get your facts straight peoples - only charge what is right.

potbelly

Cloudane wrote: »

Saving £5 may seem like moneysaving but it's only in the short term - by damaging your feedback rating you will probably lose more than £5 in the long term due to having fewer bidders than someone with 100%.

Since ebay stopped sellers leaving feedback for buyers, the feedback system has been rendered useless. It is not only sellers that commit fraud, I have had sellers claim items not received when it is patently obvious they have done the same to other sellers. Now we sellers have no way of warning other sellers of 'rogue' buyers.