over charged on ebay postage. can I please have some good advice?

Manchee

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

But it isn't 2p, in my case free P&P costs several thousand pounds a year in additional fees (I'm happy with free P&P, it works for my business).

But you are not the typical ebay seller, and this isnt what I was suggesting that sellers do. Of course offering totally free p+p on all your items is going to increase your fees more significantly. However, what I was saying is, buyers arent happy with all the extra costs that sellers add to the p+p price (and show it through the DSRs they leave) so why not add them to the start price. If the stamps will cost £2.50 but you have fees of 95p (or whatever) don't charge £3.50 for p+p, just start your item at £1.94 (assuming a 99p start price)

The even easier answer is to shop with sellers you see as acting fairly and that doesn't just go for P&P, that goes for dispatch time, description quality and terms you deem fair (i.e if you don't want pay restocking fees on a change of mind purchase with a business, read the terms and don't buy from one who says they'll do this).

Easier said than done tbh, I can't even remember the last time I saw something I wanted from a seller I had bought from before, let alone a seller that stood out as being good.

Buyers have the great power of choice, sellers must meet buyer needs to gain sales, sadly the internet (and in part the security of buyer protection) has made people lazy and in some cases very careless (look at those buying dirt cheap items which are clearly scams) and then can go around blaming everyone else whilst eBay fees go up to cover the cost of buyer protection so I can pay for the carelessness of others and good sellers get booted off over a few pence leaving me less choice.

I'm a buyer and a seller, I sell well, I buy well and don't really ever have any complaints about my purchases but then again I take time to consider my opinions and pay more to buy from a better seller.

Take a poster above, bidding away and then complaining about P&P because they hadn't checked it out first, I mean really?

Sure tbh I would be a lot more aware of p+p that the poster you mentioned

poet123

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Well thats your stupid bl**dy fault then isn't it. I ain't surprised the seller ignored your messages.

The information was clearly given to you on the ebay page and you chose to ignore it and then punish the seller?

How grown up!!

It was an oversight and it was a silk suit. It was lightweight and I knew the postage should have been around £2.60. I bid at the last moment and didn't check the cost. So, shoot me. No way was I paying £7 without comment. I am a buyer and my opinion counts, if you as a seller choose to discount it that is up to you, but it is at your peril.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

eBay offer free listings which start at 99p or less as they know low start gets bidders in and hopefully ends in a better price than starting at the say £20 you expect to get for the item. Problem is you could sell at 99p which is a shame in itself (but that's life) but to then lose the 95p in-costs which you couldn't include in the postage and packaging is fairly painful.

If you start higher you'll pay an insertion fee and FVF on that packaging element included in the price and by you I mean the buyer.

let alone a seller that stood out as being good.

I don't mean to sound rude by this but either you have very high standards or view eBay as a bad place to shop,I know there are a lot of sellers with some poor looking listings, terms and feedback but equally some do stand out as very good, mainly in my view the collectors passing on their treasures to others who appreciate the item rather than just looking for cash.

The last item I purchased from a private seller, they had great feedback, 5 stars all round, the item was sort of unique but as a result cost a bit more than the mass produced stuff from business sellers, I collected we had a chat and it was a very nice leisurely shopping experience. Perhaps all this online lark has taken some of the soul out of shopping and appreciating what we own ultimately pushing everything to only be about price.

poet123

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

So, are you saying that because you were punished by eBay for buyers rating your postal charges as excessive, you now try to extract revenge by penalising other sellers, whereas before you were happy to let it slide if you were happy with the product?

That's an interesting way to behave.

Not at all, I am saying that I realised that I was acting outside the norm by ignoring large postage overcharges and that my feedback did not reflect the reality. If I am being overcharged then now my feedback as a buyer reflects that as would my feedback as a seller if I was still overcharging.

Manchee

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

eBay offer free listings which start at 99p or less as they know low start gets bidders in and hopefully ends in a better price than starting at the say £20 you expect to get for the item. Problem is you could sell at 99p which is a shame in itself (but that's life) but to then lose the 95p in-costs which you couldn't include in the postage and packaging is fairly painful.

If you start higher you'll pay an insertion fee and FVF on that packaging element included in the price and by you I mean the buyer.

let alone a seller that stood out as being good.

I don't mean to sound rude by this but either you have very high standards or view eBay as a bad place to shop,I know there are a lot of sellers with some poor looking listings, terms and feedback but equally some do stand out as very good, mainly in my view the collectors passing on their treasures to others who appreciate the item rather than just looking for cash.

The last item I purchased from a private seller, they had great feedback, 5 stars all round, the item was sort of unique but as a result cost a bit more than the mass produced stuff from business sellers, I collected we had a chat and it was a very nice leisurely shopping experience. Perhaps all this online lark has taken some of the soul out of shopping and appreciating what we own ultimately pushing everything to only be about price.

You're taking my comment out of context. What I actually said was "I can't even remember the last time I saw something I wanted from a seller I had bought from before, let alone a seller that stood out as being good." I was showing how rarely I buy from the same person, and how even more rarely I would say yes I remember this seller as a good one. It makes it look like you are trying to paint me as a 'bad' buyer without reason, I am sure you can understand how annoying that is.

Regarding the fees you mentioned, as I said, buyers should increase their start price to cover all these fees.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Manchee wrote: »

You're taking my comment out of context. What I actually said was "I can't even remember the last time I saw something I wanted from a seller I had bought from before, let alone a seller that stood out as being good." I was showing how rarely I buy from the same person, and how even more rarely I would say yes I remember this seller as a good one. It makes it look like you are trying to paint me as a 'bad' buyer without reason, I am sure you can understand how annoying that is.

Regarding the fees you mentioned, as I said, buyers should increase their start price to cover all these fees.

Not at all, I just misunderstood your post.

With regards to increasing the start price, that's my point buyers are complaining about P&P and the way for sellers to make the P&P seem "reasonable" is to charge the customer a higher overall price to account for fees which goes back to people (not yourself) being short-sighted. I'm sure we don't want to pay more, the complaints in fact clearly show we want to pay less, it just doesn't make sense if looking at the bigger picture.

Manchee

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »

Not at all, I just misunderstood your post.

With regards to increasing the start price, that's my point buyers are complaining about P&P and the way for sellers to make the P&P seem "reasonable" is to charge the customer a higher overall price to account for fees which goes back to people (not yourself) being short-sighted. I'm sure we don't want to pay more, the complaints in fact clearly show we want to pay less, it just doesn't make sense if looking at the bigger picture.

I can't speak for everyone but for me its not necessarily about paying less, its about not feeling ripped off for p+p, its about feeling like you got value for money. Small difference I know, but a difference it is. If I paid £5 for a top and £5 for p+p when the stamp price was £2 I feel ripped off. If I paid £7.50 for a top and the p+p was £2.50 I dont feel ripped off. Sure I was paying the same amount (and maybe I didn't feel like I got a bargain quite as much on the top when paying £7.50 instead of a fiver) but I am left with a better feeling about the transaction.

At the end of the day I have heard it being described as 'sneaky' to load the p+p. I wouldn't necessarily put it like that, but to me it's def misleading.

StumpyPumpy

poet123 wrote: »

Not at all, I am saying that I realised that I was acting outside the norm by ignoring large postage overcharges and that my feedback did not reflect the reality. If I am being overcharged then now my feedback as a buyer reflects that as would my feedback as a seller if I was still overcharging.

Give over, you cannot base an opinion on what "the norm" is based on how a couple of people rated your charges, which you seem to be admitting were deliberately excessive. What you are doing is trying to make it "the norm" by perpetuating it yourself and thereby punish other users who you think get away with it. You're not fooling anyone by pretending your actions are virtuous.

Manchee

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

Give over, you cannot base an opinion on what "the norm" is based on how a couple of people rated your charges, which you seem to be admitting were deliberately excessive. What you are doing is trying to make it "the norm" by perpetuating it yourself and thereby punish other users who you think get away with it. You're not fooling anyone by pretending your actions are virtuous.

Couldn't it just be that it made him realise the mistake he made? And made him more aware how many others are doing it too?

TrickyWicky

poet123 wrote: »

How grown up!!

Yes it was wasn't it - leaving low stars for your idiocy..

poet123 wrote: »

It was an oversight and it was a silk suit. It was lightweight and I knew the postage should have been around £2.60. I bid at the last moment and didn't check the cost. So, shoot me. No way was I paying £7 without comment. I am a buyer and my opinion counts, if you as a seller choose to discount it that is up to you, but it is at your peril.

How do you know what other costs the seller incurred? - For all you know they could of had a 5 mile trip to the post office to send it to you. Why should the seller absorb that?

You wanted it, you agreed to pay it. Simple as that.

Ultimately this thread is about some people wanting to go back on a deal they made and then trying to justify it.