Excessive postage Query

pimento

I received a small article of clothing wrapped in brown paper with no inner plastic bag. When it arrived it had ripped. The seller had paid £2.20 postage. The brown paper must have cost pennies. She charged me £3.95. I gave her 1 star for postage costs.

Oh and she only posted it eight days after I paid and I had to send her a message asking where my item was. She got one star for communication and one star for speed, too.

PasturesNew

If they're a proper business though they'll also be paying wages for somebody to wrap the stuff up and get it to the PO. I was somewhere a week ago that was running an online shop and they had 3 staff running round the shop picking the orders out too.... and another two days later that had 4 staff working on boxing/packaging.

pimento

This was just a private seller.

I know that packaging and time and all that shizz costs money but a mark up of £2.50 or so is too much.

RFW

PasturesNew wrote: »

If they're a proper business though they'll also be paying wages for somebody to wrap the stuff up and get it to the PO. I was somewhere a week ago that was running an online shop and they had 3 staff running round the shop picking the orders out too.... and another two days later that had 4 staff working on boxing/packaging.

Customers don't really care if there are two hundred people carefully packing each parcel, they see the stamp price and the value of the envelope. They don't want to pay any more than the value of those two, anyone who clearly charges more than that is asking for trouble, anything else should be in the sale price, not the postage.

That said, I'm happy to take custom from those sellers who like to look like they are shafting their customers, so keep it up;)

noelphobic

I ordered a phone case from an Amazon marketplace seller yesterday. Very reasonably priced at £1.49. However, I realised too late that the p and p charge was £3 - my fault for not being more careful. It arrived today by 1st class post in a small jiffy bag.

I will comment on the speedy despatch in my feedback, but will also comment on the excessive p and p charge. It was clearly stated but I still think it was a rip off. If they don't think they'll make any or enough profit on the selling price then they should make it more expensive, not take the p""" with ridiculous p and p charges.

Rev

My worst was a PSP stated £20 for courier postage. Was still a good price with the £20 so went for it. It arrived 2nd class suick in one of those thin plastic postage bags, no bubble wrap, no protection, nothing.

Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.

I agree'd to postage costs as it was still a good deal with that included, so that wasn't my issue. But I paid for courier, and got 2nd class, plus not a scrap of protection for the item.

Contains_Mild_Peril

PasturesNew wrote: »

If they're a proper business though they'll also be paying wages for somebody to wrap the stuff up and get it to the PO. I was somewhere a week ago that was running an online shop and they had 3 staff running round the shop picking the orders out too.... and another two days later that had 4 staff working on boxing/packaging.

Some eBay sellers run businesses like that; other business sellers are sole traders. Some live miles from a PO and if they're only selling a few items the bus fare/ petrol costs may add a lot to their postage costs, but the buyers aren't interested in any of that. I won't usually mark down for p&p if I believe the seller has honestly overestimated it a bit, but if they're knowingly overcharging that's another matter.
I usually charge the actual postage cost + 5p towards packing, but I've still seen my stars suffer since Royal Mail's price restructuring earlier this year: some customers evidently don't read the postage price on the packet and don't seem to believe that anything over 2.5cm thick costs over £2 to post nowadays even if it only weighs a few grams.

RFW

noelphobic wrote: »

I ordered a phone case from an Amazon marketplace seller yesterday. Very reasonably priced at £1.49. However, I realised too late that the p and p charge was £3 - my fault for not being more careful. It arrived today by 1st class post in a small jiffy bag.

I will comment on the speedy despatch in my feedback, but will also comment on the excessive p and p charge. It was clearly stated but I still think it was a rip off. If they don't think they'll make any or enough profit on the selling price then they should make it more expensive, not take the p""" with ridiculous p and p charges.

Private Amazon sellers don't set their own postage, only the item price, I've sold items charged at £4 postage on Amazon when it only cost 60p and there was nothing I could do to change it. All the penny book/cd/dvd sellers rely on the postage profit on Amazon. Amazon is a different entity to Ebay as far as postage goes.

noelphobic

RFW wrote: »

Private Amazon sellers don't set their own postage, only the item price, I've sold items charged at £4 postage on Amazon when it only cost 60p and there was nothing I could do to change it. All the penny book/cd/dvd sellers rely on the postage profit on Amazon. Amazon is a different entity to Ebay as far as postage goes.

I bought items from 2 other sellers at the same time and neither of them charged for postage at all, so I don't see how that can be the case.

custardy

noelphobic wrote: »

I bought items from 2 other sellers at the same time and neither of them charged for postage at all, so I don't see how that can be the case.

who fulfilled the order?