Another excessive postage amount

Hammyman

debidoodle wrote: »

I purchased an item recently with a postage charge of £3.50, when the package arrived the actual cost was £1.72. I queried this with the seller and this is the reply that I received:-

Another "I don't understand the true cost of posting" thread...

I post laptops. It costs me £3 per laptop for the box and the filling that goes into it. If I post a DVD it costs me 50p for the Jiffy bag. And if I go to the post office it costs me 2 miles in fuel and 30 minutes of my time.

Hammyman

pinkshoes wrote: »

P&P is just that - postage and packaging, and nothing else.

No it isn't. READ THE HELP ON EBAY. It is for postage packing and other related expenses.

Hammyman

debidoodle wrote: »

Thanks pinkshoes, will follow your advice

septemberblues she is not a trader but in fact a private seller, I would have had no problem in paying the £3.50 p&p if that was the actual cost. in my opinion charging more than double equals blatant postage abuse.

Really? How far is it from their house to the post office? If it were my parents, it would be a 12 mile round trip. At 30MPG that's £2.40 in petrol. Just sayin.....

Hammyman

pinkshoes wrote: »

P&P is just that - postage and packaging, and nothing else.

A decent seller would charge you pretty much what it costs, and refund any over-estimation.
.

If you are happy with that and will give 5 stars for that, I am more than glad to oblige. I'll up my postal charges by £15 to cover the 30 minutes it takes to process each item based on my hourly rate for repairs.

epm-84

Hammyman wrote: »

And if I go to the post office it costs me 2 miles in fuel and 30 minutes of my time.

If you're a private seller then you shouldn't be charging for time but may have to go to the Post Office with a single item. (If you're paying yourself for your time then you are a business.)

If you're a business seller then you would get the Royal Mail/courier to collect your items but you'd probably need to allow around 60p/item to cover a few minutes administration per item.

Crowqueen

If it's uneconomical to go to the PO with a single item without charging for petrol then don't sell things online - you can't compete.

I think most people on this thread are fighting a losing battle - Hammy I think excepted, since his charges are probably a small proportion of the overall cost - if you can't keep costs down then you will go under. Buyers are not there to be exploited, they are there to be served; if you carry on with such blatant "ostrich" attitudes than most of you will lose your selling privileges because you will be ignoring the people who matter to you.

epm-84

Crowqueen wrote: »

If it's uneconomical to go to the PO with a single item without charging for petrol then don't sell things online - you can't compete.

What if it costs you £2 to go the PO and it's £5 to send by Royal Mail or £8 for a courier to pick up?

macfly

And how come you have your finger on the pulse? How many buyers have you had?

epm-84

macfly wrote: »

And how come you have your finger on the pulse? How many buyers have you had?

Who are you asking that to?

macfly

The buyer "expert". Do keep up.