The six golden rules of ebay discussion area

Voyager2002

verynewmoneysaver wrote:

I ordered an item from Canada which cost $7.99, and now they want over $30 postage and packing. What will happen if I don't pay it?

Contact the seller and explain that you had not realised how much the postage would be and so would like to withdraw from the sale. Ebay has a procedure for sales to be cancelled by agreement, so if the seller is reasonable you should not have a problem.

carolb69

Voyager2002 wrote:

An additional complication is that some sellers state that if the item is defective they will refund the sale price, but not the p & p. I take this as a 'red flag' and am very cautious about such sellers

Why should the seller refund the P&P if the item is faulty ?

Supposing you purchase an item from any high street store, get it home only to find it faulty. You then have return to the store with the item but the store does not refund the cost of your bus fare or petrol/parking fees. So why should the seller refund the P&P, whats the difference ?

carolb69

megsykins wrote:

for example, there are lots of fluffy heart-shaped fairy lights available on eBay - one seller has them on buy-it-now for £9.50 plus £4.50 p&p - I have these SAME lights and know they cost £4.99 from Morrisons, whoever buys these from eBay is being ripped off.

Why are they being ripped off ?

The seller is simply advertising the item for sale, not forcing anyone to buy. If a buyer buys it is entirely their choice, how is this a rip-off ? Goods are only worth what people are prepared to pay, if a buyer is prepared to pay that for the lights I dont see how its a rip-off, maybe they should have shopped around first but they are not being ripped off, its not a forced tranasction.

carolb69

darbooka wrote:

Regarding some of the rants concerning postage, of course there's a limit to what can be considered reasonable; however, as long as the postage price and means of delivery is clearly specified up front there's no real basis for any bidder to be infuriated.

After all, the bidder can choose not to bid if he/she deems it too high. However, do not forget that eBay clearly terms the P&P as postage and packing. Sellers are not merely providing stamps for carriage on the bidder's behalf.

It can't realistically be ignored that a seller would have expended time, effort and money to obtain, stock and use packing materials - not to mention the time to prepare your item for transport and then to travel and carry your item to the post office or coordinate dispatch by courier.

And all this while the bidder ostensibly has benefited from not having to endure the time, effort and hassle of traveling down the shoppes, clamoring for parking, waiting at a till and lugging an item home. So eBay sellers shouldn't be expected to necessarily do ALL the dirty work for a bidder without some premium for their efforts. As long as the seller declares accurately what the P&P charge will be, the potential bidders can decide for themselves if it's worth it to them or not. If the bidder didn't bother to look at the P&P amount stated on the listing, and/or didn't bother to query the Seller, it's nobody's fault but their own.

Well said mate.

It is NOT just the cost of the stamps as a lot of buyers seem to think it should be. Packaging materials eg jiffy bags, bubble wrap, brown paper etc all costs money to the seller, sellers do not have a free supply to such materials. This cost needs to be included in the P&P cost, P&P actually stands for postage AND packaging, not postage.

Also as darbooka has pointed out when purchasing the buyer does not have to traipse to town, pay bus fares, petrol, parking, stand in till queues, lug it home etc. Yet they expect the seller to pay out of their own pocket petrol/parking/bus fares etc to lug items to the post office and then stand in a queue to get the item to them, as darbooka put it doing all the dirty work for them, then buyers have the cheek to moan about a small charge for the convenience of having the item delivered to their door.

carolb69

withalj wrote:

I've actually given up using ebay; I've found so many items for sale at a higher price than elsewhere, that it's often not worth the risk. I've also found that when selling my unwanted stuff, buyers are getting increasingly picky, expecting brand-new condition and consumer rights, even on second-hand stuff selling for a couple of pounds. It's just not worth the hassle. I've gone back to giving it to charity shops.

I know what you are saying withalj.

They buy on Ebay because they want stuff on the cheap, yet they expect consumer rights, brand new goods for second-hand prices etc etc. If you want guarantees and consumer rights then buy from professionals. If you buy on Ebay or from any other place on the cheap then you must take your chances.

cougar_3

Barter!

If you're buying a high value item or anything in quantity, then ask for free postage or a discount on the original. You might need to ask around a bit, but one person's bound to budge.

fee_2

i had a bid on e bay at the end of the aution i dont want to accept it can i refuse to accept it or is there a forfeit to pay

soolin

fee wrote:

i had a bid on e bay at the end of the aution i dont want to accept it can i refuse to accept it or is there a forfeit to pay

If you have a winning bid at close of auction, ie that bid met any reserve you may have set and shows as a sold in your 'sold' listings then you have made a deal with the buyer.

Having said that, no one can force you to sell if you don't want to. The buyer can make a non performing seller complaint against you and leave you negative feedback, depending on your current feedback one neg may or may not hurt you.

In future only use a starting price that you are happy to take.

Soo

deeloughran

I bought an item for £20 and the seller cashed my cheque, said the goods were lost, promised me a refund, which he did 3 times! when i finally had enough and went to go through the usual ebay process, for the first time out of over 300 transactions, i realised that over 60 days had passed and i could not do nothing, does anyone know what i can do?

soolin

Unfortunately I think once you are past the time limits for starting either a paypal chargeback, or ebay complaints process that is it. You do still have the option of negative feedback though up until day 90 (ish).

Soo