Amazon fees and shipping problems

steveninthesun

Recently sold an item Internationally (to Ireland) on Amazon:

Buyer's price: £5.99
Amazon fees: -£2.44
Shipping: £4.02
Your earnings: £7.57

Actual postage (cheapest available) was: £5.91

So Amazon fees (40%) £2.44 + £5.91 actual postage: £8.35

£8.35 - £7.57 (My earnings) = £1.66

So the buyer paid £10.01, and I ended up with £1.66

Amazon won't budge on the postage, and also explain that the fees are correct.

Just seems that it was pointless selling the item. My fault I know - they sent out the fees and postage info with the order to me. I just assumed that the postage was correct and it wasn't until I was in the post office that found out otherwise. Didn't want to cancel the sell at that point as I had already packaged everything and was ready to send. Plus unfair to the buyer.

Going to stick to ebay.

theonlywayisup

I like Amazon as it clearly tells you how much you will earn when you list. But if you are a casual seller you cannot adjust your own postage.

Likewise you sound like you don't have a royal mail business account, using PPI for international post would save you considerably.

soolin

steveninthesun wrote: »

Recently sold an item Internationally (to Ireland) on Amazon:

Buyer's price: £5.99
Amazon fees: -£2.44
Shipping: £4.02
Your earnings: £7.57

Actual postage (cheapest available) was: £5.91

So Amazon fees (40%) £2.44 + £5.91 actual postage: £8.35

£8.35 - £7.57 (My earnings) = £1.66

So the buyer paid £10.01, and I ended up with £1.66

Amazon won't budge on the postage, and also explain that the fees are correct.

Just seems that it was pointless selling the item. My fault I know - they sent out the fees and postage info with the order to me. I just assumed that the postage was correct and it wasn't until I was in the post office that found out otherwise. Didn't want to cancel the sell at that point as I had already packaged everything and was ready to send. Plus unfair to the buyer.

Going to stick to ebay.

How did you expect Amazon to know how much your book weighed ? Postage is fixed so it is nonsense to think they set the postage based on the weight of your book.

You say youruself you were expressly told before you confirmed the listing how much the net fees were, that's when sellers need to check they can afford to ship overseas. or, like many selelrs stick to the UK only option.

Your buyer won't lose out as you need to post it, it is not their fault you didn't understand Amazon- we've all done it though so you are not alone. It's that sinking feeling when we wrap a book thinking it was below 1kg and it just creeps over for instance.

soolin

For any selleing platform where you need to post items it is worth sellers investing in a set of cheap digital scales like these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Salter-Black-Electronic-Platform-Kitchen/dp/B00140VYEG/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1319529341&sr=8-8

If you hunt around you can often pick up a set in places like Argos or Amazon for around a fiver. Weigh everything and look the postage up before you list on any site.

Postage here:

http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder;jsessionid=RTQOHQJCGXXHAFB2IGLENZQ;jsessionid=RTQOHQJCGXXHAFB2IGLENZQ?catId=23500532&gear=pricingcalc

steveninthesun

soolin wrote: »

How did you expect Amazon to know how much your book weighed ?

It wasn't a book. It's was a large display plinth.

soolin

steveninthesun wrote: »

It wasn't a book. It's was a large display plinth.

Same still applies, you had the item and was therefore in a position to know its weight, Amazon was not. Only you were able to tell if it made economic sense to ship to the places you opted to sell to.

If you refuse to ship and you have a smallish turnover the strike on your seller metrics may well damage you, poor feedback certainly will.

Obviously_the_best

soolin wrote: »

For any selleing platform where you need to post items it is worth sellers investing in a set of cheap digital scales like these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Salter-Black-Electronic-Platform-Kitchen/dp/B00140VYEG/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1319529341&sr=8-8

If you hunt around you can often pick up a set in places like Argos or Amazon for around a fiver. Weigh everything and look the postage up before you list on any site.

Postage here:

http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder;jsessionid=RTQOHQJCGXXHAFB2IGLENZQ;jsessionid=RTQOHQJCGXXHAFB2IGLENZQ?catId=23500532&gear=pricingcalc

I normally use proper parcel scales http://www.weareelectricals.com/products/Salter-First-Choice-Parcel-Scale-Manual-with-Dial-25g-Increments-Capacity-5kg-Ref-FC0280 for scales and https://www.seajays.org.uk/postage to work out costs or I use an economy courier such as https://www.hermes-europe.co.uk

soolin

Obviously_the_best wrote: »

I normally use (I drop ship from them sometimes) http://www.weareelectricals.com/products/Salter-First-Choice-Parcel-Scale-Manual-with-Dial-25g-Increments-Capacity-5kg-Ref-FC0280 for scales and www.seajays.org.uk/postage to work out costs or I use an economy courier such as www.hermes-europe.co.uk

I prefer scales with a digital display as I am selling small items so a gramme can make a lot of difference, if i ever buy new ones I do a few test weighs against the post office ones.

I do have one popular line that in the lightest possible packaging I can get away with go to 253 grammes- argh.

Obviously_the_best

Are you sure you couldn't lose 3g somewhere?

soolin

Obviously_the_best wrote: »

Are you sure you couldn't lose 3g somewhere?

I just can't, the item itself is nearly all of that and the moment I add even a slither of packaging it goes over 250g.