Sick of being accused of Postage Rip Off

Hintza

I seem to be getting a lot of mioans about my postage charges and wonder what other people think.

My auctions start at 99p which is about the cost of the item to me. About 20% - 25% of my auctions will close at this price or within 5p of it.

I then charge £1.45 for P+P (and send items with proof of postage) and post item 1st Class in an envelope which is adequate. I will post within 24 hours thus offering a very fast service. My prices are clearly displayed.

Costs to me:-

Postage:- 28p
PayPal Fees:- 30p
Final Value Fees:- 5p
Listing Fees:- 30p
Envelope:- 5p
Sheet of Paper:- 1p
Printing Invoice:- 3p ??
Petrol/Car to PO:- 10p ??
Time/Effort:- ????
Total(excld Time):- £1.12

Is this unreasonable?

Epiphone

Doesn't seem too high to me to be honest. Buyers have the choice of whether they want to bid or not. As long as your P+P costs are displayed clearly sod em!

rooo

Seems fine to me.

I think it's highly unfair that people leave negs for postage costs where the postage is clearly marked. If I ever got one I would pursue a feedback withdrawal through ebay.

RACHIE77

No I dont think so, people seem to moan a lot about P&P fees but like you have pointed out its not just the cost of the stamp its the whole kit and kaboodle that goes with it!! It looks to me like you are charging a reasonable amount, I think it is probably just the fact that the item is priced at less than the postage so it stands out as being a lot (although its not) - if people dont like what you charge then they dont have to buy the item!!

You got careful spending that 33p profit Hintza - grin!

maybe you just just refer people to this page when they moan?? http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/buytrust-shipping.html

Tojo_Ralph

OK.... I'll buck the trend.

You say you charge £1.45 for P+P, however, when broken down the charges are made up of.....

P+P = 34p
Extras = £1.11p

Another issue will be what the buyer sees, namely, they see a 28p stamp and an envelope, now, for £1-45 a buyer is going to expect a jiffy bag, or similar (depending on goods), and perhaps recorded delivery. (a waste of money!)

As I see it, what you need to do is to be honest, and clearly list the £1.45 as a "Postage, Packing, Administration and Processing" fee, that way, the buyer can have no complaints that all they got in the way of P+P was an envelope and a 28p stamp.

payless

once you get into the realms of charging extra postage for covering these elements and possibly time- thats when I would say you are actually classed as "trading" - ( and with it comes tax implications)

even if the goods you sell are not originally purchased to sell on.
( Hintza might well already do this anyway)

campdave

Postage is the price charged for posting the item, not to cover your ebay and paypal fees. If the final value of our item does not reflect that, maybe you should start it at a higher value. As it stands, a £1.11 mark-up on postage to me is unreasonable.

divadee

If the postage was clearly displayed than i dont see a problem.

as like most people i bid on the total price. so if i think item is worth £10 but p&p is £2.50 the most i would bid is £7.50. or if the postage was £8 i would only bid £2.

if postage is not stated i e-mail and ask, if they dont reply i dont bid.

stavros_2

i agree with the above post, but not quite to that extreme, in that i don't think you should include (ebay and paypal) fees in "p&p"

having said that i also think that a bidder should look at the p&p before bidding and as long as they get the item they won then i don't really see how they can complain!? i bought an item a month or so ago with a huge charge for p&p, but the overall cost was much less than all the others. it was obvious the seller was avoiding some fees but we both got we wanted so why complain

to be honest i'd just stick with what you're doing anyway

RACHIE77

Tojo_Ralph wrote:

OK.... I'll buck the trend.

You say you charge £1.45 for P+P, however, when broken down the charges are made up of.....

P+P = 34p
Extras = £1.11p

Another issue will be what the buyer sees, namely, they see a 28p stamp and an envelope, now, for £1-45 a buyer is going to expect a jiffy bag, or similar (depending on goods), and perhaps recorded delivery. (a waste of money!)

As I see it, what you need to do is to be honest, and clearly list the £1.45 as a "Postage, Packing, Administration and Processing" fee, that way, the buyer can have no complaints that all they got in the way of P+P was an envelope and a 28p stamp.

I disagree - it doesn't say "how much is the stamp?" it says "postage costs" which to me says "the price to post this item..."

To me that price would include the stamp, the packaging (whatever is appropriate) and some sort of payment for the time and effort it takes to post it (man power, petrol, whatever...), okay so Hintza admitted that he/she included ebays fees in this calculation but basically the profit is gonna be some sort of payment for the time taken to package the item and take it to the post office. The other costs are definatley includable (is this a word?) as it costs money and takes time to print invoices and labels etc etc....

If you take the ebay/paypal fees out then hintza is left with £93p for the time and effort it takes to package this item and take it to the post office... not a lot really....

If it was an online retailer then you wouldn't quibble at their postage charges even if the item arrived with only a 1st class stamp (as they often do) - ie. if amazon want to charge £3.95 postage and packaging and you dont like it you simply go elsewhere!!

I think the cost is justified and if clearly stated who can really complain??

angelcake

I agree that it is a good p&p especially with some of them out there! unless it is something that could go with a first class stamp! Although I wouldn't like to think I was paying someones elses fees!