its just not fair

Crowqueen

£2.95 or £3 would make no difference to me, tbh, Soo.

Compared to other sellers it would still probably be a lot.

Compared to actual cost of postage and allowing for packaging it would still be a lot.

A sensible seller listens to their customers; otherwise they would be out of business - even off-eBay, offline, sellers can't set their face against what people are prepared to pay.

It is a dilemma I'm frustrated with - inclusive postage particularly on cheapo books makes things look expensive but charging stamp price leaves me vulnerable on P&P DSRs for people who think RM is just expensive. My sales are so poor that I suspect the items I have simply aren't saleable, but I'm continuing to use FLWs/Amazon at present rather than chance my arm with being charged to list.

d123

pumpkin25uk wrote: »

, I charge £2.80 for each item, it costs me £2.20 to post and the rest goes towards packing. How is that unfair costs?

An extra 60p for a bit of bubble wrap and/or an envelope seems excessive. I would mark you down as well if I bought from you. If the actual postage is £2.20, your absolute maximum if you want to push your luck IMO is £2.50 and even then you will probably still get a few low stars (look how many sellers offer free or below cost p&p these days).

luvvlyjubbly

I hate this system as i get marked down for P+P charges yet I weigh everything.....people mark you down due to Royal Mails ever increasing postal prices and blame you

pumpkin25uk

Firstly I haven't been restricted or banned! Secondly this is something that has only come to light on my last evaluation dated 20 August. Thirdly I'm not a high flying business seller and have only been trading since The end of may, so therefore buying packaging in bulk isn't an option at the moment.
I've tried the recycling route and people have moaned in their feedback, so I knocked that one on the head.(I don't think many people would be happy receiving a designer dress that cost them 50 pounds in recycled brown paper.)I tried free postage and my sales went down.....As the star rating is anon how can I rectify the problem with my customers?
As for being able to charge what I want, you can't. EBay have a cap on postage fees, to stop people charging what they like. Which I agree with to stop the 99p bargains with £15 postage.
I have researched my competitors and my postage and packing is fair and in some instances I have managed to undercut them.
So perhaps I have unrealistic expectations, or maybe the buyers do!
Well the good news for me is that my maternity leave has ended and I'm back to work next week, I started up the business in a hope that I would be able to be a stay at home mum and not have to be another strain on the taxpayer. Hey ho that's life.

pumpkin25uk

luvvlyjubbly wrote: »

I hate this system as i get marked down for P+P charges yet I weigh everything.....people mark you down due to Royal Mails ever increasing postal prices and blame you

Thank you :T

porto_bello

Whilst it is obviously vital to offer a realistic p&p price, I think there is a danger of analysing this to death, without any real objective.

I've found, on average, 98.5% of buyers are trouble free, but there is that 1.5% who are simply after something for nothing and routinely damage feedback and/or stars.

When I see a low star and work out who has left and then take a look at the feedback they have left for all their sellers, predictably, there are all kinds of confrontations - over postage amount, over delivery time, over the condition, the attitude of the courier etc etc.

Like in the real world, there are a very few people who move from seller to seller, simply trying to take advantage, because that's how they choose to live their lives. They will always want more than what they've got.

The bottom line is that however well a seller performs, they will always be those 1.5% chancers out there and there's no 100% successful way of blocking them before they inflict damage on a seller's account.

I'm not suggesting for one moment that every seller shouldn't aim to provide 100% satisfaction, but 100% isn't realistic unless 100% of buyers are honest and above board... which we know isn't the case!

pumpkin25uk

I absolutely agree, in a sense you get what you pay for. Personally I would rather not sell the item to a whinger than have to put up with quibbling over 50p, the other option of course is go to the shops pay parking, petrol, public transport and pay 50 percent more for the item. I don't force anyone to buy from me and my postage and t&c are very clear. Sadly it appears that 1percent has made an huge impact on my account.

sharpy2010

When I buy an item on eBay, and it arrives, I don't bother to check how much postage is on the envelope, then check eBay to see what I paid, and then rate the buyer on this. I simply open my envelope, take out my item, and if its what I paid for then I mark 5 stars all around.

After all, I knew what the postage was going to cost when I bought the item. If I didn't like it at that point, I simply wouldn't have bought.

Am I unusual in doing this? Seems a bit sad to be quibbling over pennies I think.

Manchee

sharpy2010 wrote: »

After all, I knew what the postage was going to cost when I bought the item. If I didn't like it at that point, I simply wouldn't have bought.

Sure, you might know what postage cost you're going to be charged, but you don't know actually how much its going to cost. Postage costs are not another way to make money, they should accurately reflect how much the seller has to pay to post it. So if someone has included a postage of say £3 when it would really cost £2 or whatever, at best this is inaccurate and poorly researched which says to me that the seller isn't very professional, at worst this is someone whos knowingly trying to rip people off.

alykatz

sharpy2010 wrote: »

When I buy an item on eBay, and it arrives, I don't bother to check how much postage is on the envelope, then check eBay to see what I paid, and then rate the buyer on this. I simply open my envelope, take out my item, and if its what I paid for then I mark 5 stars all around.

After all, I knew what the postage was going to cost when I bought the item. If I didn't like it at that point, I simply wouldn't have bought.

Am I unusual in doing this? Seems a bit sad to be quibbling over pennies I think.

whilst i dont quibble if postage is higher that the actual costs, i generally allow 1/2 pounds over or only mark a 4 star depending on acutal cost.
ie: if im charged 5 pounds and it cost say 3.50 im generally ok with that but if it costs a first class stamp an im charged 3 pounds im not happy.
But for me it all depends on the transaction as a whole..
I`ve had 2 parcels recently same type of widget.
1st parcel was well wrapped, as described, sent by service as advertised and i was very pleased overall even though i paid 1.95 over the odds for postage, sellers comms were great so 5 stars all round.
2nd package was inadequately wrapped in brown paper,not quite as described[if it was just this i would have just moved on]sent 2nd class when advertised as 1st an charged more than double postage, so overall lesss than happy so stars marked accodingly.
for me if its onle little thing i do tend to move on but if the overall transaction isnt good i do mark accordingly.
I have found lately that im getting more an more annoyed with sellers in general as many these days dont seem to care at all for their customers .