Ebay Seller Changing Invoice P&P

MissGivings_2

trukdiver wrote: »

Does it really make much difference, except to Ebay's fees? I always take the combined cost of postage and the item into consideration. All the cap on postage means is that Ebay takes a cut of the postage as well as the item price. A lot of items from Hong Kong still have ridiculously high shipping costs!

You're absolutely right that to buyers it makes no difference now the rates are capped.
It's clear what they are paying for, a really good thing and buyers add the item and postage together, right.

The blasted feedback and star system though is the thing that bothers sellers so much because buyers don't understand it and poor stars can ruin your selling account.

If a buyer 'thinks' the postage is too high or has taken too long, they may leave 3 or 4/5 stars for those categories, despite the seller having posted within the time stated in the listing and may well not have charged the full amount to the customer.

Buyers constantly mix up postage and delivery. They don't notice when the item was posted by the seller, only if it's seemed to arrive soon.

Low stars can lead to your selling account being restricted.
Most sellers on eBay have noticed the increasing demand by buyers to receive their parcels yesterday!

Feedback is purely voluntary, lots don't bother, but seller's accounts are judged on feedback!

A balanced and fair system?

MissGivings_2

reigansmummy wrote: »

eeekk i phoned ebay a while back to query what to do in this and they told me it was fine to do that!!

What, they said it was OK to add a surcharge?
They couldn't have.
Was it some other kind of charge?

reigansmummy

MissGivings wrote: »

What, they said it was OK to add a surcharge?
They couldn't have.
Was it some other kind of charge?

why would i lie?
I explained that the item would cost more than the capped limit and they said it was fine to select courier option

glad its been pointed out otherwise to me

reigansmummy

MissGivings wrote: »

You're absolutely right that to buyers it makes no difference now the rates are capped.
It's clear what they are paying for, a really good thing and buyers add the item and postage together, right.

The blasted feedback and star system though is the thing that bothers sellers so much because buyers don't understand it and poor stars can ruin your selling account.

If a buyer 'thinks' the postage is too high or has taken too long, they may leave 3 or 4/5 stars for those categories, despite the seller having posted within the time stated in the listing and may well not have charged the full amount to the customer.

Buyers constantly mix up postage and delivery. They don't notice when the item was posted by the seller, only if it's seemed to arrive soon.

Low stars can lead to your selling account being restricted.
Most sellers on eBay have noticed the increasing demand by buyers to receive their parcels yesterday!

Feedback is purely voluntary, lots don't bother, but seller's accounts are judged on feedback!

A balanced and fair system?

this is very true i can't say i ever take notice of when the item was posted

johnnyboyrebel

mikey72 wrote: »

The seller was happy to put £4 for postage when they made the listing.

By the sounds of it, they obviously weren't happy with it. £4 is the maximum you can enter on postage, a lot of products have this restriction but with different amounts. £7.75 max for a Blackberry for example.

I wouldn't have thought eBay would allow the invoice to be changed so assume it will go in the buyers favour eventually.

Crowqueen

reigansmummy wrote: »

eeekk i phoned ebay a while back to query what to do in this and they told me it was fine to do that!!

/facepalm.

Crowqueen

johnnyboyrebel wrote: »

By the sounds of it, they obviously weren't happy with it. £4 is the maximum you can enter on postage, a lot of products have this restriction but with different amounts. £7.75 max for a Blackberry for example.

I wouldn't have thought eBay would allow the invoice to be changed so assume it will go in the buyers favour eventually.

That's quite correct - but seller is always in control of both elements so they should have factored this in.

Otherwise, eBay wouldn't be able to stop sellers doing this and force them to take responsibility for their own sales if they didn't have this rule.

EDIT - you mention Amazon on your other thread - they give out a set postage allowance - so it's no different to there.

mikey72

reigansmummy wrote: »

why would i lie?
I explained that the item would cost more than the capped limit and they said it was fine to select courier option

glad its been pointed out otherwise to me

I have seen ones that don't have a cost, I think it says "other courier". I skip over them.

johnnyboyrebel wrote: »

By the sounds of it, they obviously weren't happy with it. £4 is the maximum you can enter on postage, a lot of products have this restriction but with different amounts. £7.75 max for a Blackberry for example.

I wouldn't have thought eBay would allow the invoice to be changed so assume it will go in the buyers favour eventually.

Well, no one else made them do it if they were unhappy about it.

johnnyboyrebel

Crowqueen wrote: »

EDIT - you mention Amazon on your other thread - they give out a set postage allowance - so it's no different to there.

True, I was just saying the seller may not have been happy with it just had no choice.

Actually, Amazon postage can be amended or set manually with a pro-merchant account.

trukdiver

MissGivings wrote: »

You're absolutely right that to buyers it makes no difference now the rates are capped.
It's clear what they are paying for, a really good thing and buyers add the item and postage together, right.

The blasted feedback and star system though is the thing that bothers sellers so much because buyers don't understand it and poor stars can ruin your selling account.

If a buyer 'thinks' the postage is too high or has taken too long, they may leave 3 or 4/5 stars for those categories, despite the seller having posted within the time stated in the listing and may well not have charged the full amount to the customer.

Buyers constantly mix up postage and delivery. They don't notice when the item was posted by the seller, only if it's seemed to arrive soon.

Low stars can lead to your selling account being restricted.
Most sellers on eBay have noticed the increasing demand by buyers to receive their parcels yesterday!

Feedback is purely voluntary, lots don't bother, but seller's accounts are judged on feedback!

A balanced and fair system?

No, it's not balanced and fair. Anything that starts with five stars as normal and works downwards according to people's perceptions is not fair. It doesn't leave any room for rewarding sellers who give really excellent service any more than the ones who just do the bare minimum.