Combined Postage

valacky

Strapped wrote: »

Why? What could the buyer possibly gain from this?

Justice of course. If you pay for 3 lots of p&p then you should get 3 lots of p&p. Do you think £9 p&p for 3 T shirts is a good price?
If everything is shipped together you are getting only 1 lot of packaging. I don't know how much it costs to post T shirts but I bet its not anywhere near the amount that is going to be charged by the seller, so why not highlight your dissatisfaction by insisting you get what you pay for. It may make the seller more flexible with their p&p prices in future.
I also agree with one of the other posters. Combining items quite often does not reduce the actual postal cost due to Royal Mail's sizing system. Of course it may still reduce the amount of packing required.

metoyoubear

How do you know the seller wasn't going to post them all individually at a cost of 2.60 or 3.00 each anyway,don't know how big the item is so could be large letter,you don't know at this point.

Seems rather petty insisting on them being sent individually because the buyer never asked BEFORE bidding.

Take it on the chin and move on.

mikey_bach

apparently they arrived in one package postage £2.60, is it petty to mark the DSR stars down.

iammumtoone

mikey_bach wrote: »

apparently they arrived in one package postage £2.60

I thought you said you had only paid for one? did they send the other two without getting payment?

campdave

mikey_bach wrote: »

apparently they arrived in one package postage £2.60, is it petty to mark the DSR stars down.

'Where the p&p charges reasonable' is the question. Up to you to answer, I'd certainly be leaving a 1 star

mikey_bach

iammumtoone wrote: »

I thought you said you had only paid for one? did they send the other two without getting payment?

they paid for one, then just paid for the other two as it could have dragged on for days.

suppose moral is to ask do they combine postage before buying.
My friend combines postage automatically if someone buys two items together;
can leaving low stars for three items do to much damage??
they were nice items just the postage

BargainBee2111

The seller doesn't have a requirement to lower the postage price upon anyone's asking or demand and having them sent to other addresses just so the seller pays more is pretty petty.
Honestly I would have just cancelled the buys, if they want to take the pee with the postage then they wouldn't get my money at all!
That would really be justice.

Leaving low stars for three items will do a lot of damage to the seller and if you didn't ask and they didn't say they combined before it's not really their fault .

poppet

I'm afraid the buyer should chalk this one up to experience, to be learnt from for next time.

When selling items on eBay and accepting paypal, a seller is obliged to send items using a trackable method ie: recorded or special delivery. If a seller does not do this they are not covered under paypal seller protection and would be liable if the item went did not arrive with the buyer, and obviously all this special tracking comes at extra cost.
Also, in offering postage there are more costs to factor in than the price of the stamps alone. There is packaging, plus transport costs in buying the packaging (fuel or bus fares or parking fees maybe) then you also have to consider costs in actually getting to the post office.

Although it's good business practice to combine postage, the seller isn't under any obligation to do so. Ideally your friend should have asked the seller to combine postage BEFORE bidding, as by bidding, you're accepting the postage as it states on the ad. Effectively what the buyer is now doing is trying to change the terms of the contract AFTER the sale has ended and that's not playing by the rules.

It wouldn't be fair to leave a negative based on postage as the buyer bid on the item with the postage clearly hi lighted from the outset.

campdave

You're right, but the buyer is entitled to leave their opinion of the sale without being guilt tripped into thinking a seller charging 300% postage is somehow the buyers fault.

RFW

poppet wrote: »

I'm afraid the buyer should chalk this one up to experience, to be learnt from for next time.

When selling items on eBay and accepting paypal, a seller is obliged to send items using a trackable method ie: recorded or special delivery. If a seller does not do this they are not covered under paypal seller protection and would be liable if the item went did not arrive with the buyer, and obviously all this special tracking comes at extra cost.
Also, in offering postage there are more costs to factor in than the price of the stamps alone. There is packaging, plus transport costs in buying the packaging (fuel or bus fares or parking fees maybe) then you also have to consider costs in actually getting to the post office.

Although it's good business practice to combine postage, the seller isn't under any obligation to do so. Ideally your friend should have asked the seller to combine postage BEFORE bidding, as by bidding, you're accepting the postage as it states on the ad. Effectively what the buyer is now doing is trying to change the terms of the contract AFTER the sale has ended and that's not playing by the rules.

It wouldn't be fair to leave a negative based on postage as the buyer bid on the item with the postage clearly hi lighted from the outset.

Sellers can do what they like, buyers don't have to like it and can express that how they like. As far as that goes there aren't any rules.

For small value items there isn't any 'obligation' to send tracked, there's not much point paying an extra £1-£4 postage for an item that's worth 50p.

As for "there are more costs to factor in than the price of the stamps alone. There is packaging, plus transport costs in buying the packaging (fuel or bus fares or parking fees maybe) then you also have to consider costs in actually getting to the post office. Seriously? You missed out road tax, car insurance. If using public transport you might pull out a shoulder carrying the bag with the envelope in and end up going to the doctor, who may refer you to physio, all these are extra costs. Perhaps Ebay should list how far a seller is from a Post Office so we know how justified they are in charging their postage.

Thankfully sellers who include all that extra in postage get marked down and have their selling activity restricted. Bunging any old costs you can think of is counter productive and hopefully becoming a thing of the past.