Buyer asked for partial postage refund

perfect10

soolin wrote: »

Have you got a link to that eBay guideline? I was not aware eBay had the opinion that by bidding a buyer accepted the postage and would not be allowed to leave poor stars or bad feedback.

Sorry I was trying to edit my post as realised it did not read correctly and was partly my thoughts which wasn't clear and a bit misleading, ebay have a guidleine on what buyers should know about post and packaging which says p&p should be considered before making a bid, I didn't say they wouldn't be allowed to leave poor stars or feedback - the link is
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/pay/shipping-for-buyers.html
The buyer in question has left neg feedback for alot of people for p&p charges which has to be wrong and I think needs flagging up to ebay.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

soolin wrote: »

Have you got a link to that eBay guideline? I was not aware eBay had the opinion that by bidding a buyer accepted the postage and would not be allowed to leave poor stars or bad feedback.

Regardless of the reason any buyer persistently asking for part refunds on a disproportionate number of purchases is, at the least, going to get an educational email or call from eBay if reported.

Regardless of what people think about P&P charges it isn't acceptable to constantly ask for refunds, going back to my original post, they are winning items and then getting them cheaper, not fair at all to the others who bid or were interested in buying.

perfect10

I have instead offered the buyer a full refund if he is unhappy and wants to return the item - I would probably get more for it if relisted anyway!! Am awaiting the response!

Ralph-y

Sorry, but a forum such as this on "martins money supermarket" has to sooner or later start flagging up ebay user names who are abusing people ....

Just as in the buyer that the OP has had the misfortune to sell to!

You can not defend agreeing to a auction and then raise all sorts of hell afterwards for £1.40 when they had agreed to the P&P charge !

Ralph

techspec

perfect10 wrote: »

This thread has more responses than I thought it would and interesting to read!!
I have since checked the buyers feedback that he has left for other people this includes positives like - 'buyer was reasonable about refunding postal charges' and lots of negatives stating 'postage cost was too high' therefore this buyer is doing this on a regular basis to try to claw a bit of money back - this in my opinion is dishonest and amounts to blackmail - if and when he gives me a negative I will be reporting him to ebay - there is alot of evidence in his feedback - ebay have clear guidelines about postage charges which clearly states that you should consider p&p 'BEFORE' bidding not after and contact the seller to discuss before bidding.
Surely once you have bid you are agreeing the price and entering into that contract?

Exactly. People have a choice to go for a dearer item with cheaper postage if they wish. But they don't - they get the cheapest - and then try and get it even cheaper.

When contacting Ebay there is no point mincing your words. Ebay staff can be very fluffy headed. I told Ebay rep that the buyer left me a negative because i would not pay her some of her money back. I said it was feedback extorsion/blackmail. Neg removed and buyer warned immediately. Buyer said she did not know she was breaking Ebay rules and asked me to withdraw my complaint. I ignored her. She probably got the idea that it was OK to demand money back off sites like this. It was for a 50p overcharge above stamp cost. Item was even in a box that would cost about £1.35 in a post office. It would have been easy to just refund the 50p - but i would NEVER do it on principle.

RainbowDrops

This thread, and all the other similar threads on postage prove just one thing: there is no right way.
It might seem wrong that a buyer can mark you down for P&P after 'agreeing to your terms', but eBay have made the star system so buyers can rate you.
So regardless of how you justify your costs to yourself, the only person you have to convince it's a fair price is your buyer.

soolin

Of course if a seller had started a thread saying that a buyer had left them a 1 or 2 * for post and packing without even contacting them first to give them a chance to do anything we would probably said we hoped a buyer would email first and mention the over charge.

thebestnameshavegone

nat_85 wrote: »

We had a guy call up and ask for us to send a cheque for 13pence for the difference in the stamp price to what he paid!

A colleague was contacted a couple of weeks ago by a buyer who wanted a refund of 5p for exactly that reason (yes, five whole pence!).

However, another colleague bought something from a seller who was caught out by the RM prike hike a couple of weeks ago - the seller contacted her and asked for an extra £3.50 towards postage! She paid up in the hope that karma will prevail should she make such an error in future.......

Slowhand

Personally if I bid on something I'm agreeing to the p&p cost, delivery time etc. Complaining about p&p cost when you were well aware of them is like b i t c h i n g about not getting your parcel within 2 days of paying when the listing says 5-7 days.

BitterAndTwisted

Agreed. I buy quite often on ebay and I don't consider myself to be a moron. I know ahead of time what the P&P charge is going to be and am never offended if the actual postage is less than what I've agreed to pay. I once sent a seller an additional payment via PayPal when they'd undercharged me quite substantially.