Postage Costs

tony_cluedo

Looking around on eBay there and had a question about postage costs. On an ad page there is the description tab and a postage and payments tab. On the description tab people write all sort of exclusions about where they will post to but on the postage tab it states only a price to the whole of the UK.


I know the site has the ability to set exclusions on postage to certain areas as some business sellers I've used have done so.


So my question is does it matter what the seller writes in the ad description if they have set no exclusions in the postage section?

johnnyboyrebel

tony_cluedo wrote: »

Looking around on eBay there and had a question about postage costs. On an ad page there is the description tab and a postage and payments tab. On the description tab people write all sort of exclusions about where they will post to but on the postage tab it states only a price to the whole of the UK.


I know the site has the ability to set exclusions on postage to certain areas as some business sellers I've used have done so.


So my question is does it matter what the seller writes in the ad description if they have set no exclusions in the postage section?

As a direct answer to your question, I dont know and sure someone will confirm this but I do know adding comments on a listing is irrelevant on many marketplaces as they are generally just not read, all customer will see is the postage cost and not the exclusions in the comments as they dont bother reading it.

Obviously_the_best

johnny, spot on!

kevinyork

Unfortunately there are times it is necessary to add specific postage info to listing information. We sell some heavy items that can only go by courier. We have a set courier charge but have to add another higher priced courier charge for non uk mainland and highlands and islands. The ebay p&p system isnt set up to spell out what each courier fee relates to so we add a section in the listing.

Yes some dont read it but its all we can do and we can direct people who dont choose the correct service for their location to those notes. Ebay could improve it by having geographical charges for the UK to allow non standard areas to be selectable from the drop down list of P&P options.

miacat

my daughter bought an item of clothing off ebay (was a very small packet ),,it wasn't suitable but the seller stated returns by special delivery. Do you have to stand by what they ask? ,and not use normal recorded delivery? just that the clothing was £12 and she had to pay £5.90 to send it back!

Strapped

tony_cluedo wrote: »

Looking around on eBay there and had a question about postage costs. On an ad page there is the description tab and a postage and payments tab. On the description tab people write all sort of exclusions about where they will post to but on the postage tab it states only a price to the whole of the UK.


I know the site has the ability to set exclusions on postage to certain areas as some business sellers I've used have done so.


So my question is does it matter what the seller writes in the ad description if they have set no exclusions in the postage section?

Let me guess, you're one of those militant buyers who lives in the outer hebrides but expects heavy items to be couriered to you for the same price as to standard mainland UK addresses?

Ain't going to happen.

Obviously_the_best

my daughter bought an item of clothing off ebay (was a very small packet ),,it wasn't suitable but the seller stated returns by special delivery. Do you have to stand by what they ask? ,and not use normal recorded delivery? just that the clothing was £12 and she had to pay £5.90 to send it back!

No you don't, although I think they actually had you in mind with that, but someone like https://www.hermes-europe.co.uk or www collectplus.co.uk would be fine. I think they were actually trying to stick to paypals rules of tracked returns, but returns should never be made by recorded

Bryan_Rendall

Strapped wrote: »

Let me guess, you're one of those militant buyers who lives in the outer hebrides but expects heavy items to be couriered to you for the same price as to standard mainland UK addresses?

Ain't going to happen.

It is feasible - Just don't use the more greedy of the couriers!

Yesterday, I ordered a generator online from justgenerators

After paying for it, I had an email saying that there would be an extra £70 surcharge on the carriage, over and above what I assume is the delivery charge built into the price.

I checked how much it would cost for Parcel Force to deliver the generator from their address to mine, and it came up as £31.58 + VAT = £37.90

On that basis, I pointed out to the vendor that the £70 surcharge, on top of what is probably the £20-£25 delivery cost included in the product price was not reasonable, when a National Carrier, Parcel Force will take it anywhere in the country for between 1/3 and 1/2 the cost.

They did not reply to that, but simply cancelled the transaction!

On querying this, and even volunteering to arrange Parcel Force to make the collection, they replied simply - "Your order has been aborted today. There is no other service I can offer."

Fortunately, this prompted me to look elsewhere, and I found another company that were £10 cheaper for the generator, and very accomodating on the carriage. As a result, I have saved about £80 altogether.

We islanders are not expecting miracles. We realise that it costs a bit more to get things here. What we cannot tolerate is the rip off of being charged 2.5 times the cost of carriage in surcharge alone

If it genuinely cost companies like justgenerators £25 to deliver anywhere on mainland UK, and genuinely cost an extra £5-£10 to go the extra, we would not be so annoyed. But when they extract the urine and try to charge £70 more, it does not go down well.

We know it does not cost that much - Parcel Force can do the entire delivery for under £40. There is no justification then for any other carrier to bump up the estimated £20-£25 to £90-£95.

In this case, it has lost justgenerators a sale, and one of their competitors has won a sale. All for refusing to use Parcel Force for a £900 generator sale.

We have a similar issue with companies that refuse to use the Royal Mail, insisting that their courier provides better value! I have seen retailers trying to justify an extra £25 surcharge on something that costs about £2 to post.

Better value?

Hmmmmm.....

Viva la Royal Mail / Parcel Force!

Strapped

Bryan_Rendall wrote: »

It is feasible - Just don't use the more greedy of the couriers!

Yesterday, I ordered a generator online from justgenerators

After paying for it, I had an email saying that there would be an extra £70 surcharge on the carriage, over and above what I assume is the delivery charge built into the price.

I checked how much it would cost for Parcel Force to deliver the generator from their address to mine, and it came up as £31.58 + VAT = £37.90

On that basis, I pointed out to the vendor that the £70 surcharge, on top of what is probably the £20-£25 delivery cost included in the product price was not reasonable, when a National Carrier, Parcel Force will take it anywhere in the country for between 1/3 and 1/2 the cost.

They did not reply to that, but simply cancelled the transaction!

On querying this, and even volunteering to arrange Parcel Force to make the collection, they replied simply - "Your order has been aborted today. There is no other service I can offer."

Fortunately, this prompted me to look elsewhere, and I found another company that were £10 cheaper for the generator, and very accomodating on the carriage. As a result, I have saved about £80 altogether.

We islanders are not expecting miracles. We realise that it costs a bit more to get things here. What we cannot tolerate is the rip off of being charged 2.5 times the cost of carriage in surcharge alone

If it genuinely cost companies like justgenerators £25 to deliver anywhere on mainland UK, and genuinely cost an extra £5-£10 to go the extra, we would not be so annoyed. But when they extract the urine and try to charge £70 more, it does not go down well.

We know it does not cost that much - Parcel Force can do the entire delivery for under £40. There is no justification then for any other carrier to bump up the estimated £20-£25 to £90-£95.

In this case, it has lost justgenerators a sale, and one of their competitors has won a sale. All for refusing to use Parcel Force for a £900 generator sale.

We have a similar issue with companies that refuse to use the Royal Mail, insisting that their courier provides better value! I have seen retailers trying to justify an extra £25 surcharge on something that costs about £2 to post.

Better value?

Hmmmmm.....

Viva la Royal Mail / Parcel Force!

So by your own admission, it is not feasible then.

Unless you can point to a courier company that does charge one blanket charge for ALL parts of the UK?

(I do actually use ParcelForce, or UPS for very large/heavy items, but even so, there is a surcharge for Highlands & Islands).

To answer the original question, it is an issue with eBay that they are not set up to allow setting delivery charges by postcode, as the courier companies charge.

Bryan_Rendall

Sorry, maybe slightly ambiguous!

It is feasible to do. Parcel Force do charge only one price for all of the UK for non contract deliveries. They are as close to a courier company as you can get, and are technically not part of the Royal Mail - Though they are part of the Royal Mail Group Ltd (I did say technically!)

Where it gets muddier is with contract rates - Once you go to contract rates with Parcel Force, there does become discrimination by area in the UK. We have long believed that the obscene surcharges in areas of low competition are used to fund price wars in high competition areas.

What it comes down to is losing the blinkers and seeing what else is available out there. For a courier to claim it will cost up to £95 to deliver an item that Parcel Force can deliver for under £40 is arguably plain wrong. If its arguably the nature of a free market, then retailers need to be a bit switched on that by using the DHL's, the TNT's, etc of this world, that they are not necessarily providing the best value - And those that do not provide the best value, lose the sale.

So to correct my ambiguity - Yes, it is feasible to send goods the true length of the country for a flat rate. Whats most noteworthy though is that that flat rate can be around 1/3 to 1/2 of what it costs to send it with a "more competitive" courier.

theonlywayisup

Strapped wrote: »

Let me guess, you're one of those militant buyers who lives in the outer hebrides but expects heavy items to be couriered to you for the same price as to standard mainland UK addresses?

Ain't going to happen.

Actually it does with me.

Any UK postal code for the same price, inclusive post £0. Royal Mail Tracked. 15kg for a flat rate to any UK postal code.