Ebay - overcharged on postage

hartleysjam

easy wrote: »

Absolutely !! when I look at the price of something on ebay, I consider the whole price-inc the p&p.

I've been looking at messenger bags this morning. I like one which is priced at £13.00 + £3.50 p&p. That means the bag price is to me is £16.50.

If I buy it, I will tell DH it cost £16.50 (if he bothers to ask). I can't say that I usually look at the postage cost on parcels I receive anyway. By then it's a done deal.

I'm exactly the same, I don't take the postage into account as seperate, It the same if I order off a shop website like boots the postage is part of it I'm afraid

soolin

967stuart wrote: »

Can you confirm that if you sold an item for £1 and then £1 on postage yet all the materials and fuel in fact left you out of pocket that you would still have the same view ?

Yes because I am intelligent enough to start an item at the price that makes me a profit. Postage costs say 69p jiffy bag 10p- so charge say £1 maximum for postage . If my fees are too high to then make a profit on the £1 item I would then change the start price to such that I can make a profit.

i don;t think I am any more intelligent than anyone else, but that doesn't seem hard to me.

If you can't sell without making a loss then something is going wrong with your math.

As an aside, please remember everyone to keep a check on your expanded seller dashboard. A few 1 or 2 * in a year on a low volume seller will start to affect your placing, more than about 4 might seem you fall to below standard which means for a private seller no more free listing weekends.

easy

soolin wrote: »

with your math.

aaaargh !!

Becks81

easy wrote: »

So you have allowed 35p for packaging & time spent etc!!

Obviously without knowing what the item is and how it was packaged its impossible for anyone to say what is reasonable, but I would have thought it difficult to package up anything that needed bubblewrap or other packing, + sticky tape or a self-sealing wrapper for less than 30p. so that only leaves 5p for getting it to the post, never mind any time spent.

OK, you might think £3.85 is excessive over the cost of the postage, but I think your 'allowance' of 35p is just ridiculous !!

No bubble wrap, just a plain jiffy bag, the boxes inside the jiffy were damaged as though the jiffy hadn't actually done anything

vivre

Okydoky25 wrote: »

I buy and sell a lot and honestly would not dream f complaining about the cost of postage. If I bid on an item with high postage I am taking this into account with how much I'm willing to pay for the item. If I'm unhappy with the post quoted I don't bid in the 1st place.

Agreed. Even when the postage price has been truly shocking complaining didn't even enter my mind - it's not like its hidden from you before you buy.

Becks81

soolin wrote: »

Nope any seller that believes that wont last long on ebay.

You pay what is charged, if it is unreasonable then a buyer is eprfectly entitled to query that with the seller. Depending on what seller says the buyer can then leave feedback and stars (stars are actually more damaging than feedback) to let the next lot of buyers know what sort of experience they can expect.

However whilst th eovercharge here was quite big, I would not expect a full £3.50 back especially if it was well packed and/or boxed as well. A small refund would be more appriopriate.

May I ask why you think this? P&P is exactly this. Postage = £3.65 and how much does one jiffy cost? I charge packaging at the 40p mark for a small jiffy. which is exactly what was sent

Becks81

Ok, let me clarify

I brought 2 items from this seller (exactlly the same item) the P&P for one item was £3.65 so you would automatically assume for 2 it would be £7.50 hence why I went through with the sale.

Or am I missing someone completely here?!

dorsetlady

vivre wrote: »

Agreed. Even when the postage price has been truly shocking complaining didn't even enter my mind - it's not like its hidden from you before you buy.

Same here - I've often been overcharged for postage but I knew, before I agreed to buy the item, what the charge was and that it was excessive. It's the same when buying anything mail order - if I don't like the charges I don't buy! I wouldn't dream of complaining about it.

Okydoky25

Becks81 wrote: »

Ok, let me clarify

I brought 2 items from this seller (exactlly the same item) the P&P for one item was £3.65 so you would automatically assume for 2 it would be £7.50 hence why I went through with the sale.

Or am I missing someone completely here?!

Did it say you would get a postal discount for multi items? If you wasn't sure you should have asked before purchase but you still would have realised there wasn't on checking out at the payment stage?

soolin

In reality and despite all our differences of opinion none of what we say on here matters at all, we can all agree that we can charge whatever we like and buyers can't moan- but it is our buyers who leave stars.

There are too many good selelrs already struggling due to a handful of low stars, around 10% of the threads on the community boards are about restricted sellers due to poor stars- almost always post and packing.

So regardless of people saying I can charge for my petrol, my time and anything else I want to and tough luck to my buyers, I prefer to keep my account and charge a realistic price that keeps my stars high and my expanded dashboard above average.

As above though, sellers- never stop double checking your expanded dashboard, you need to watch for those 1 and 2 stars being left and not just rely on having 4.8- 4.9 on your main dashboard.

Never forget that for a private seller, too many low stars in one year will mean no more free listing weekends. Every time there is a free listing there tends to be someone on the community boards moaning they have become ineligible due to their stars.