Postage mispriced - what should we do?

dccarm

My partner won an ebay auction for a lot of 50 magazines. The postage on the lot was £1.50. After she won and paid, she got an email back saying the seller would get back to her on Monday when he had checked the price of the postage. We double checked the entry, and although the postage was down as £1.50 in the postage summary at the bottom he had added postage is £1.50 plus standard parcel rate.

Has anyone any suggestions on what we should do? It sounds obvious now that the cost of posting 50 magazines will be more than £1.50, but it really wasn't clear without reading every single word on the advert. Are we entitled to ask for the money back? Are there rules for how sellers should show the postage? Surely he should be weighing them and costing the postage first.

Ms-Money-Penny

You really should read all the listing before bidding.
I always check the postage and if the seller states no postage then i always email them and ask for a postage cost before bidding.

I think in this instance you should pay up as they have stated their postal charges quite clearly.

danmanchester

Technically, the seller HAS stated there would be extra postage to pay..however I would argue that their advert was misleading and they should have at weighed the items and given the full postage BEFORE listing.If they suddenly ask for a ridiculous additional postage charge personally I'd try retracting the bid explaining to ebay that their charges were at best ambiguous and at worst deliberately misleading.Good luck!

chinagirl

I Got Caught Out With Postage A While Back On Ebay. I Ordered Goods And Paid Postage As Advertised At £2.50. When I Received My Parcel, There Were Stamps On It For £0.78 Only. The Jiffy Bag Must Have Cost Maximum £0.50, So I Emailed Them, And Suprise Suprise, Got No Reply. I Did Not Take It Further, But Now Look Long And Hard At Postage Before I Bid On Anything.

danmanchester

I've been caught out on inflated postage charges too chinagirl, seems a lot of sellers are building in extra profit into the postage now that they're not allowed to add extra for accepting Paypal. Having said that I once bought 4 items from one seller who bundled everything up in one package and only charged me the postage stated for the heaviest item..so they're not all rogues (it only seems like it)! lol

dccarm

Thanks for the replies. I looked at the advert again and while I agree that yes it did state that the postage costs would be quite high, it actually only does so in the 'seller's payment instructions' rather than in the postage information section as I've shown below.

So yes she really should have read it down to the bottom, but it's understandable that she missed it. I know I would have. I think we'll email the seller and try to get an amicable resolution.



Postage, payment details and return policy

Postage Cost Services Available Available to
£1.50 Royal Mail 1st Class Standard United Kingdom Only
Will post to Worldwide.

Postage insurance
Not offered

Seller's payment instructions
Postal insurance offered at standard rate, PP in UK is standard parcel rate plus £1.50.international rates for outside UK,the collection is quite heavy so postage will be high.

LongDongDave

dccarm wrote:

Thanks for the replies. I looked at the advert again and while I agree that yes it did state that the postage costs would be quite high, it actually only does so in the 'seller's payment instructions' rather than in the postage information section as I've shown below.

So yes she really should have read it down to the bottom, but it's understandable that she missed it. I know I would have. I think we'll email the seller and try to get an amicable resolution.



Postage, payment details and return policy

Postage Cost Services Available Available to
£1.50 Royal Mail 1st Class Standard United Kingdom Only
Will post to Worldwide.

Postage insurance
Not offered

Seller's payment instructions
Postal insurance offered at standard rate, PP in UK is standard parcel rate plus £1.50.international rates for outside UK,the collection is quite heavy so postage will be high.

Doesn't look that ambiguous "collection is quite heavy so postage will be high."

dccarm

It's where it's placed, rather than what it says.

misty

Sorry but it's her own fault. 50 mags for £1.50 is unlikely and would have made me look very closely at the description. They nay have been deliberately ambiguous but it is also the buyers responsibilty to read it carefully. I too always e-mail to ask P&P if it is not stated.

humph_2

chinagirl wrote:

I Got Caught Out With Postage A While Back On Ebay. I Ordered Goods And Paid Postage As Advertised At £2.50. When I Received My Parcel, There Were Stamps On It For £0.78 Only. The Jiffy Bag Must Have Cost Maximum £0.50, So I Emailed Them, And Suprise Suprise, Got No Reply. I Did Not Take It Further, But Now Look Long And Hard At Postage Before I Bid On Anything.

The way I see it is that I know the postage costs before bidding so I factor that into the total amount I am willing to bid for an item. If the seller makes a few pennies on the postage so what. They have not misled anyone because all costs have been stated.

I use my kitchen scales to weigh my items and at times have over-priced the postage by a few pence. It has also worked the other way for me too and I have undercharged. I think as long as you state the postage costs in an open and honest way that is sufficient.

VH

There is clearly a case for stating that the buyer should have read the small print here. However, the postage costs on this auction are clearly misleading.

Postage costs should either not be stated at all, with a note explaning why, or they should be clearly stated in the 'postage' section of the auction.

Notes on postage costs have no place in the seller's payment instructions section. This is why there is a potage section.

I ran a similar auction like this a few months back. I was selling a job lot of 50 magazines. Altogether the magazines weighed something like 5 kilos. The postage costs were silly and I had abolutely no bidders on the auction at all. In the end I lowered the postage cost and took a loss in order to shift the magazines. They went for a decent price in the end so I didn't lose any money.

I reckon that's what's happened here - the seller is deliberately trying to mislead people in order to increase interest in the auction. Then comes the sting - "I'll get back to you with postage costs".