postage UPDATED

steven0121

Both Ebay and "some" buyers are (to coin Soolins' statement) Illogical. Thats why I remove this aspect from my business model by not charging for P&P, I cant get hammered by "some" buyers or subsequently by Ebay

charlies_mum

steven0121 wrote: »

Both Ebay and "some" buyers are (to coin Soolins' statement) Illogical. Thats why I remove this aspect from my business model by not charging for P&P, I cant get hammered by "some" buyers or subsequently by Ebay

I too give free P & P, but with a mailing bill of £400 for December and a limit to how much I can charge for the products, it is becoming very expensive.

vicx

steven0121 wrote: »

Not if dont charge for P&P

Yes, I know - that is why I offer Free P&P on items which cost around £2 or less to send and charge the actual postage on items that cost more.

If I sell on auction, I just take the cost of packaging out of the item cost rather than add it on to the P&P cost. If I sell BIN, I add the packaging cost in with the item cost.

I used to round the P&P cost up - if something cost £1.33, I'd charge £1.40. Only an extra 7p but I received low stars for not charging the exact postage cost. Seven pence is hardly an overcharge when I am paying 25p plus for a new padded envelope but buyers expect to be charged the cost of a stamp and as buyers can freely hit the low stars on any postage which isn't free then I started charging the actual postage cost. I have not had any low star ratings since I have been charging the actual postage cost so my DSR's have improved and are all back up at 4.9.

steven0121

Not sure if its just me, but when I look to buy on Ebay I generally sort by "cheapest + P&P" then decide on a buyer based on feedback and gut instinct. In the areas I buy in, I generally find free P&P offered by TRS come out on top? YMMV

soolin

steven0121 wrote: »

Both Ebay and "some" buyers are (to coin Soolins' statement) Illogical. Thats why I remove this aspect from my business model by not charging for P&P, I cant get hammered by "some" buyers or subsequently by Ebay

Your point is the only one that really matters

We can all sit here behind our PC monitors and argue whether or not adding extra to post and packing is 'fair' but actually it doesn't matter a bit. Even if we all decided that adding extras to our postage made us all comfortable it wouldn't help our ebay accounts the first time one of our buyers was asked to rate the p and p we charged.

So lets all agree we can charge whatever figure we decide we want to charge, but then lets not moan when our buyers express their displeasure by hammering our stars and get our accounts restricted.

steven0121

Totally agree with you both, I factor in postage to my top line, and that determines what lines I sell to a large degree. If I can generate enough margin the line is viable, unless I need to increase volume of sales, then I take a hit against my gross profit.

vicx

My account was restricted a few month ago because 3 of my buyers rated low on the P&P charge. The most I ever added on to the P&P cost was 20p so it was hardly excessive.

Yes we can charge what we want for P&P but as Soolin say's, don't moan when buyers hit low on the stars and your account becomes restricted.

I have learned from this so charge the actual postage cost or offer free P&P. I am paying more in eBay fee's by adding the packaging and/or postage cost in with the item cost but I am much happier to do this as it is keeping my DSR rating up at 4.9 and not below.

steven0121

Ahh, Thanks Soolin! Always nice to have some agreement.

Lets hope this thread ends in agreement, that would be a first for a P&P thread hehe

soolin

Can I go slightly off topic on the basis of psychology again.

I posted a thread recently about a basic web page or some way to upsell my goods as I got a number of buyers wanting to make further purchases away from ebay for stuff I hadn't listed. One of them actually told me that I should start charging the actual postage as no one would mind, instead of charging under stamp price and worrying about stars.

The point is I do not undercharge the postage on that line. I actually charge £2.35 when the stamp cost is only £2.16, however i use some psychology that someone on here suggested a couple of years ago and use stamps with no face value. So for my £2.16 postage I use 2 x LL stamps, 1 x 1st and 1 x 20p so buyer sees a lot of 1st class stamps, knows they only paid for 2nd and think they have a bargain. I also don't believe many people actually know how much a 1st class stamp or LL stamp costs, we all do as we probably pay more attention to stamps costs thna onyone, but go and ask a mate or a work colleague the cost of a 1st class LL stamp and see if they get it right.

steven0121

Thats very true, I used to charge P&P, and back then, prior to listing, weigh and then frank my items. (cost was shown), But thats because the company I "retired" from bought me a franking machine with £500 credit when they found out what my retirement plan was.

I havnt got a clue what a stamp costs, I know what my P&L entries show, but havnt used a stamp for ages. Ive never even heard of an LL stamp?? hehe