Shipping costs not displayed

Mr_Squiddy

Afternoon all,

there is an eBay seller who quite pointedly does not display shipping costs for his items. The seller (who is a company) puts things like 'see item description', but when you look there is nothing.

This led me to wonder whether there is a 'get-out' such that if one were to bid on and win the item and the subsequent invoice contained a shipping charge which was extortionate, one would be entitled to withdraw from the sale?

I suspect the answer is 'no'. The seller has mainly good feedback (99.9%) and no-one seems to mention excessive shipping costs so perhaps I am being paranoid, but on the other hand he is not selling his items for very much.

frivolous_fay

You're right, it's very difficult to argue with shipping costs if you didn't bother to check them with the seller.

Anic

Slightly off topic - what about if shipping costs are displayed and then they charge you more.

I bought a DVD boxset off a seller (who has a shop) and deliberately chose this one because the listing stated in the descprtion that this item was £1.49 P&P and any subsequent items would be charged at 99p - "the more you buy the more you save". Due to this I decided to buy another boxset from the same series and was suprised when I was charged £4.98 P&P (plus an optional additonal 69p if I wanted insurance).

When I queried the jump in price he said it was because it was a boxset and not a single DVD. I appreciate a boxset might be slightly more expensive to post I wouldn't have thought the cost would double. I did pay the extra but was really annoyed at his "con".

He has even relisted the items with the exact same wording so I wonder if anyone else will get caught out.

frivolous_fay

Anic wrote:

Slightly off topic - what about if shipping costs are displayed and then they charge you more.

I bought a DVD boxset off a seller (who has a shop) and deliberately chose this one because the listing stated in the descprtion that this item was £1.49 P&P and any subsequent items would be charged at 99p - "the more you buy the more you save". Due to this I decided to buy another boxset from the same series and was suprised when I was charged £4.98 P&P (plus an optional additonal 69p if I wanted insurance).

When I queried the jump in price he said it was because it was a boxset and not a single DVD. I appreciate a boxset might be slightly more expensive to post I wouldn't have thought the cost would double. I did pay the extra but was really annoyed at his "con".

He has even relisted the items with the exact same wording so I wonder if anyone else will get caught out.

Sounds like extremely sloppy wording... in fact it sounds like the postage price was never going to be £1.49.

I never try to calculate combined postage... I guess it, then ask the seller to confirm. As long as I get a bit of a discount I'm happy.

hesjane

Ebay do have a policy on excessive postal charges....see the text below lifted from their site

Sellers may charge reasonable postage & packaging charges to cover the costs of posting, packaging, and handling the items they are selling. While eBay will not prescribe exactly what a seller may or may not charge, eBay will consider member reports when determining whether or not a seller’s postage, handling, packaging, and/or insurance charges are excessive. Postage & packaging and handling charges may not be listed as a percentage of the final sale price.
In addition to the final listing price, sellers are permitted to charge:
Actual Postage cost: This is the actual cost of delivering the item.
Handling Fee: Actual packaging materials costs may be charged. A handling fee in addition to actual postage cost may be charged if it is not excessive. Sellers who want to be sure they are in compliance with this policy may charge actual postage costs plus actual packaging materials cost.
Insurance: Sellers offering insurance may only charge the actual fee for insurance. No additional amount may be added, such as “self-insurance”. Sellers who do not use a licensed third-party insurance company may not require buyers to purchase insurance.
Tax: Only actual applicable taxes, eg: VAT, and equivalent taxes may be charged.
For cross-border transactions, sellers may not collect tariffs and duties. However, buyers may be responsible for actual, applicable tariffs, and duties as requested by respective country laws.
Breaches of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

• Listing cancellation
• Limits on account privileges
• Account suspension
• Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
• Loss of PowerSeller status

But like all things Ebay....they are totally useless when it comes to implementing anything so take this post with the pinch of salt its worth;)

frivolous_fay

If a listing shows a postage price of £1.49 and you order a second item with a postage charge of £1.49, if you're asked to pay more than £2.98 the seller is breaking the rules. (Unless they're charging you compulsory insurance stated in the listing, or some such nonsense)

Anic

I am going to wait until the parcel actually arrives and see how much he has paid for postage.

If it isn't too far off the amount I paid (alowing a little extra for the packaging etc) then I won't bother too much but I will be really peed off if I feel as though I have been ripped off

Anic

Well the parcel eventually arrived.

Listing said item location was Manchester but they were posted from Guensey - not a problem but just took longer to get here.

Anyway, the parcel only has a "1st" frank on it so I couldn't tell how much the seller paid so asked the post office how much it would have cost to post. As it weighs 570g it would have cost £2.20 to post.

Am I being a bit mean thinking £2.78 is a bit excessive for a jiffy bag and "handling" fees.

neilwoods

2 boxsets for £2.78 is cheap. Plus if the stamp on parcel was a frank mark and not a post office one then it will be cheaper than £2.20.

Franking postage costs less

Anic

neilwoods wrote:

2 boxsets for £2.78 is cheap. Plus if the stamp on parcel was a frank mark and not a post office one then it will be cheaper than £2.20.

Franking postage costs less

The boxsets didn't cost £2.78 - that was the difference between the amount to post the item and what I was charged for P&P. The boxsets cost £11.99 each.

The listing for the first set stated P&P was £1.49 and each additional item would be 99p. As it was cheap, I decided to buy the next one in the seires, assuming the postage would be £2.48 making a total of £26.46.

Instead I was charged £4.98 P&P taking the total to £28.96 - £2.50 more than I was expecting.

If the listing hadn't actually stated the cost and discount for additional items it probably wouldn't have bothered me paying £5 for two boxsets but it was the principle that he did state the costs and then charged me double.

oth boxes were in the same jiffy bag so there would have been no additional cost for packaging, etc

Hintza

Let me get this straight he charged you P+P of £2.78 and it cost him £2.20 to post?

If that is the case I don't think you can moan about that, seems very reasonable to me.