Excessive postage Query

Mindless_Clone

JonathanA wrote: »

This really annoys me. As a seller, I always charge p+p at the ost of postage plus 15pence which covers the mailing bag (cost 14pence) plus lots of bubble wrap which I buy for £20 for a 100 mtr roll.

I always post either same day, or if bought after 3pm, the next day, including Saturday. Everything is posted RM 1st class, and I have been frequently marked down for postage charges (1 buyer left a DSR of 1, others seem to leave 3s). I've also been marked down for dispatch time.

Obviously I think that my charges are reasonable, others appear not to! What are people's views on free p&p, where I'd add the postage cost on to the price? Do you look past the headline price at the total cost, or do you think sales would be impacted as a result?

Personally, I would think that's perfectly reasonable and you'd get 5* from me.
That said, I buy a lot of used clothes for my DS on ebay and the sellers always seem to bump up the price on the postage. Most times it costs £2.20 to post 2nd class and it's nealy always charged at about £2.60 - £2.80. I can live with that as additional costs on top of the stamp price but if it goes over this, I won't bid (and notice normally it goes unsold).
However, have recently just sold a lot of things last weekend (private seller, just having a clear out). I made a point of buying proper mailing bags because I'd recently had a very badly packaged (and ripped) parcel from someone and thought "that's not the way to do it" I charged P&P at cost of stamp, plus 10p to cover cost of the bags. Literally just the cost of posting it. In a couple of cases I overestimated postage and refunded the difference to the buyer. I dispatched everything either same day or as soon as possible next day and - going on feedback - it all arrived well within timescales. Yet my DSRs for P&P and dispatch have both gone down this week. Not by much, granted, but they've gone down, so obviously some people are not happy with absolute minimal costs and the fastest I could possibly dispatch the item.

I just think whatever you do, some people won't be happy with it so you may as well keep the cost as low as you can and dispatch as quick as possible and not worry overly that some people don't see that as reasonable.

Rev wrote: »

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.

It's not really the point that it was overall a good deal though; you paid for a service you didn't get and that, IMO, is where I'd complain loudly. Or where a seller leaves themselves wide open for an unscrupulous buyer who might take advantage and open an INR on it.

Personally, I think price of posting + 50p for packaging costs is reasonably fair. More than that they're taking the widdle a bit but I'd probably just mark them down a star. +£2.50 on top is defintely too much. Not a great deal you can do to complain though; not until/unless ebay introduce some kind of system to raise a dispute for P&P charges and get it refunded... which would not be a bad idea actually, and might even be more effective deterent than just letting buyers mark them down on DSRs.

shaun_from_Africa

I'm expecting communication from an Amazon seller shortly asking why I left poor feedback for them.

I ordered a low value item but it was something that I needed fairly urgently and the seller had 2 postal options.
Standard, which was 72p &
Express which was £3.72

I opted for the "express" delivery.
The item was delivered 5 days later as it was sent 1st class at a cost of 60p & in a very flimsy envelope which probably cost a few pennies.

noelphobic

custardy wrote: »

who fulfilled the order?

The seller. I think I said in my original post that it was Amazon marketplace but think I got mixed up. Am I right in thinking that Amazon send the orders out if it is marketplace? In that case it wasn't marketplace as it was the company selling the product who sent it out to me.

...Time_for_a_brew_then..

I ordered two items within minutes of each other last wednesday (10/10) at approx 4.45pm. One was via ebay, the other was via amazon.

Both arrived the very next morning. The ebay item (100 coffee filters) were inclusive of postage @£3.20p The same item on amazon from the seller i bought the other item from (a coffee filter cone that sits on top of you coffee mug - makes one cup at a time) wanted £6 including postage for the same thing...

The filter cone was £6 including postage (£1.41 for the item and £4.59 postage)

The actual cost was £2.70, but the total price was well within what i considered reasonable.

I could of moaned about the difference, BUT, the total price was OK, and i knew it before buying. And the one thing i'm not is a postage whinger.

southerndave

I think postage is very misunderstood on both eBay and Amazon. With eBay the problem seems to stem from what is considered 'reasonable' and that is clearly always going to be a point of argument. A buyer considers the cheapest costs to him reasonable and a seller considers reasonable the actual costs plus a little on top. Sadly these views rarely if ever match and often conflict with the reality of the charges levied by Royal Mail.

IN the case above with the phone case sent in a jiffy bag - despite that likely weighing a few grams, if it was a bit to thick in the packet, this would have incurred a minimum £2 1st class posting charge. Now add on the cost of the envelope and the time of the gu to pack it, write and take it to the post office and post it, and not forgetting the selling fees both for eBay and Amazon and PayPal little chunk off it as well, is a £3 postage cost really that unreasonable?

If anyone thinks they have been 'ripped off' on postage costs, a simple test is to pack the thing back up, take it to the post office and ask how much to send it....this will at least give you an actual price that the postage alone cost the seller.

Personally I often take a hit on postage, i.e. it COSTS me to send things, but so long as the profit in the item covers this, I don't mind. Even so sending things at a loss, is still incurring me lower DSR for postage! This is the insane result of leaving postage to what each party considers reasonable, IMO.

Ideally, it would be better for sellers to be able to just pop the item in the post and the buyer can pay the post office the other end - at least then the complaints about sky high fees would land on the desk of those responsible for them!!:rotfl:

custardy

noelphobic wrote: »

The seller. I think I said in my original post that it was Amazon marketplace but think I got mixed up. Am I right in thinking that Amazon send the orders out if it is marketplace? In that case it wasn't marketplace as it was the company selling the product who sent it out to me.

it depends
some items are done by Amazon,some by sellers
it will tell you on the order/sales page

RFW

custardy wrote: »

it depends
some items are done by Amazon,some by sellers
it will tell you on the order/sales page

If it's sent by Amazon the post is included/free.

custardy

RFW wrote: »

If it's sent by Amazon the post is included/free.

yup,and they stated 2 other marketplace orders had free P&P

richto

Happy_bunny wrote: »

Telephone item bought BIN for £6.99 + £3.99 postage - 2nd recorded from business seller.

Item arrives, Cheapo mailing bag - unrecorded 2nd, Postage at £2.20.

Am I alone in being annoyed by this? :mad:

Seller states on all his listings that they 'ONLY SEND RECODED (!) TO AVOID SCAMMERS' which has also got my goat!

More of a vent than anything but wondered if I'm being pedantic?

Let the 'calm down dear - its only a quid odd' comments commence!

£1.79 is perfectly reasonable to cover the labour of packing the item and the cost and time of taking it the the Post Office - it is after all a Post AND PACKING charge.

In terms of sending it recorded or not - that's of no benefit to you - it just protects the seller. If he decides to take the extra risk to make 95p I dont see why you should care.

I always say on my listing P&P options that i ship recorded when i don't for low value items as otherwise you get targeted scammers buying items and then claiming they didnt arrive...

If you really feel its too high then it can be dealt with via the P&P costs rating during feedback. I really don't think this even rates mentioning it otherwise.

Unreconstructed

I recently made an error calculating postage and priced three items as packets which actualy went through as large letters. I have got a plastic guide but was feeling a bit tired and didnt bother to check.

The difference was about £1.50 per item, so I partially refunded all the buyers, leaving just the actual postage plus a few pence. Thankfully I got positive feedback from all three.