Ebay restricted selling

soolin

Froggitt wrote: »

Maybe ebay should have an automatic postage stars system i.e. it gives an automatic five stars if postage is say cost plus 20p. eg RM 2nd class packet is £2.60 and I charge £2.80 postage.

The buyer may think that's steep for a t-shirt they won for two quid, but that's what postage costs these days.

So you want ebay to employ thousands of people to check what postage is on each package and set the stars automatically from that? I dread to think how much more in fees they would take to emply thousands of people and get RM on board to track all the packages prices.

There is no automatic way of doing this- so I set my postage at £2.80 so would get automatic 5 stars even though I actually squash the item into a large letter size for 69p. Or what about my china, I currently use myHermes at £4.20..but assuming I quoted RM at £5.20 and managed to get it into a small parcel at £2.60 instead I'd still be entitled to 5*

Incidentally I would expect a t shirt to go as a large letter for around £1.10- not a small parcel.

EDIT: what about people using couriers- would they need more teams to monitor all the charges on those, and take into account whether the seller had a business account with the courier or not?

Much easier to only give 5* where postage is inclusive and not extra as it takes no minitoring, although many of us don't even like that.

I'm not sure you've though this idea through

SpammyTheSpammer

Again I fail to understand why some sellers persist with the inherently flawed usage of having additional P&P charges.

Frankly, even if the listed P&P charge is less than the actual cost of the postage, some buyers will still want to "punish" the seller (for some unspecified offense) by giving low star ratings.. They cannot do this with the "free" P&P.

Finally, the star system has been around for years now so your banning should have been expected, as Soolin so correctly points out.

I have a full 5* for my postal stars and, as I have stated many times, the whole "FREE" P&P is a real money spinner.

bear1969

well whenever i buy it is always p&p free unless there is no other choice as i have found a lot of ebayers to be overcharging for postage by quite a large margin

poet123

The problem is that as several previous threads have shown there are two distinct camps of buyers on Ebay.

Camp A.

Those who buy and rate each component part of the transaction as Ebay gives them the opportunity to do. So, you get a buyer paying £7 for an item with postage of £5, they are happy with the item when they get it, but notice that it cost £2.60 to post, so they mark the postage star down.

Camp B

Another buyer gets the same item and doesn't look at the component parts but at the whole transaction; are they happy with the item overall for £12? They are, so they leave 5* across the board.

The trouble is you have no idea which camp any buyer falls into so you have to imo make sure your charges reflect the actual cost just in case. If you don't and the majority of your buyers fall into camp A you are stuffed.

Also, it is pointless sellers saying, as some do, that only camp B buyers are correct when Ebay facilitates camp A buyers with the star system.

SpammyTheSpammer

I think you forgot camp C: -
Those who mark sellers down on Postage stars even if charged LESS than it actually cost, just because they just wanted to hurt the seller.

(Perhaps because the item was delayed in the post and they could not enter less stars for that so "punished" the seller on Postage instead?)

CUSTARDS!

Strapped

SpammyTheSpammer wrote: »

I think you forgot camp C: -
Those who mark sellers down on Postage stars even if charged LESS than it actually cost, just because they just wanted to hurt the seller.

(Perhaps because the item was delayed in the post and they could not enter less stars for that so "punished" the seller on Postage instead?)

CUSTARDS!

Or because they don't like Royal Mail's prices. Which obviously are set by the seller Even if the seller charges less than stamp cost. :huh:

sharpy2010

SpammyTheSpammer wrote: »

I think you forgot camp C: -
Those who mark sellers down on Postage stars even if charged LESS than it actually cost, just because they just wanted to hurt the seller.

(Perhaps because the item was delayed in the post and they could not enter less stars for that so "punished" the seller on Postage instead?)

CUSTARDS!

Exactly. The star system does not and cannot work because there are weirdos out there, and there seem to be a fair number of them.

forgotmyname

For some reason high postage charges make me think twice.

Looking for an item thats about £30 at the moment.

Something deep inside says avoid the seller that is listing it at 19.99 + 9.99 postage and instead go for the £30 one with free postage.

Even though i know postage is not free and its the overall price that counts, Why do i think look for another seller?

Is it just me?

soolin

Forgotmyname it isn't just you , a quick look at completed listings in most categories will show the cheaper the postage the more likely to have achieved a high price.

Strapped

forgotmyname wrote: »

For some reason high postage charges make me think twice.

Looking for an item thats about £30 at the moment.

Something deep inside says avoid the seller that is listing it at 19.99 + 9.99 postage and instead go for the £30 one with free postage.

Even though i know postage is not free and its the overall price that counts, Why do i think look for another seller?

Is it just me?

I'd've said yes until I met the rest of ebay!