Unnecessary expensive postage

rainbow_carnage

Bought a pair of concert tickets at slightly below face value. Came to £26. The seller insisted on Special Delivery (£4.95). I didn't mind that much. Even with the extra five quid, it was a good deal.

The tickets arrived today. They turned out to be e-tickets. He printed them out and stuck them in an envelope. So the seller could have just as easily e-mailed them to me, saved me £4.95 and saved himself the hassle of going to the post office.

I know it might be an issue with seller protection, but come on, it's only £26. Not exactly high-risk. And I have a feedback score of 600, all positive. I'm clearly not the sort of buyer who pretends that the item didn't arrive.

I just don't understand why people do that. If he had offered free postage, he would've had a lot more bidders. The going rate is more than what I paid for the tickets.

durham_girl

Blame the scummy buyers who would pull an INR stunt. It's because of them that sellers have to protect themselves as much as they can.

The seller insisted on Special Delivery (£4.95).

SD is the only service that insures tickets

And I have a feedback score of 600, all positive. I'm clearly not the sort of buyer who pretends that the item didn't arrive.

Accounts can be hacked.

rainbow_carnage

Yes, but it's £26. There's no need for a service that insures for up to £500. He could've bought a first class stamp, charged 50p and had pretty much the same level of protection.

Even Ticketmaster doesn't use SD. It's way too expensive considering the cost of the tickets.

halibut2209

Ticketmaster aren't bound by eBay rules

soolin

rainbow_carnage wrote: »

Yes, but it's £26. There's no need for a service that insures for up to £500. He could've bought a first class stamp, charged 50p and had pretty much the same level of protection.

Even Ticketmaster doesn't use SD. It's way too expensive considering the cost of the tickets.

Tickets are not covered standard mail- if seller had wanted to protect themselves against loss via Royal Mail they had to go special.

rainbow_carnage

My point is that it's not uncommon for tickets to be sent via regular post.

Postage should reflect the value of the item. If sellers are going to be paranoid about dishonest buyers, why not charge everyone for SD and be done with it?

It's a waste of money. I regularly sell stuff on eBay. I've sold tickets, too. Everything I sell goes first or second class, unless the value is over £46.

Had he offered free postage, the seller probably would've got an extra £8-10 for the tickets. Yes, it's a risk, but it's a small risk.

GregtheHammer

rainbow_carnage wrote: »

Even Ticketmaster doesn't use SD. It's way too expensive considering the cost of the tickets.

Last tickets I got from Ticketmaster(NFL Wembley Game) were sent SD, what hacked me off was they charged 4 lots of postage for 4 tickets & then sent them in the same envelope!

pulliptears

But to state the obvious you bid knowing full well the postage was £4.95 special delivery. That is exactly how the tickets arrived with you. A little unfair to complain after you agreed to his terms.

I'd fully expected to read you had paid £4.95 and he'd sent them first class, this is just a bit petty I feel.

soolin

rainbow_carnage wrote: »

My point is that it's not uncommon for tickets to be sent via regular post.

Postage should reflect the value of the item. If sellers are going to be paranoid about dishonest buyers, why not charge everyone for SD and be done with it?

It's a waste of money. I regularly sell stuff on eBay. I've sold tickets, too. Everything I sell goes first or second class, unless the value is over £46.

Had he offered free postage, the seller probably would've got an extra £8-10 for the tickets. Yes, it's a risk, but it's a small risk.

It doesn't matter though whether it is common or not for sellers to send standard post. I suspect most sellers don't understand that their tickets are not covered unless they use special.

In your own case (and ackowledging the additional problem of tickets v paypal buyer protection) if you sent £40 worth of tickets recorded and they failed to arrive you would have no claim at all against Royal mail. same as jewellery or cash- it doesn't matter what the value is , unless you use special you have no claim against Royal Mail in case of loss.

techspec

Its against Ebay rules now to send via email too - so all in all another buyer happy to bid - but then nothing better to do than moan.

Seller protected themself - as was their right.

Had the postage been cheaper - the price may have gone higher - AS OP AS STATED THEMSELF - so bidder would probably have still paid the same price. Makes this post even more pointless.

lovinituk

rainbow_carnage wrote: »

My point is that it's not uncommon for tickets to be sent via regular post.

Postage should reflect the value of the item. If sellers are going to be paranoid about dishonest buyers, why not charge everyone for SD and be done with it?

It's a waste of money. I regularly sell stuff on eBay. I've sold tickets, too. Everything I sell goes first or second class, unless the value is over £46.

Had he offered free postage, the seller probably would've got an extra £8-10 for the tickets. Yes, it's a risk, but it's a small risk.

I think you're missing the point! The seller did everything right to protect himself. You could be the most honest person in the world but the seller doesn't know that. He could quite easily got a scammer and doing any of the things you suggested would have meant he lost his money. In fact by doing it the way he did, the scammers probably ignored him and moved on to the next seller who was offering standard delivery!

You really can't complain about someone doing it the right way and as mentioned above, if you didn't like him charging for SD, you shouldn't have bid.

I hope you didn't give him low stars as that would be very unfair?!