Combined Postage

soolin

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.

Unfortunately your business model would almost certainly see a seller lose their account due to poor stars very quickly.

The regulars here will be used to my hobby horse re stars, but seriously, any seller that ignores the power a buyer has with leaving stars is going to get a shock.The days of the buyer expecting to pay whatever a seller demanded for p and p and putting up with it are long gone.

If you do sell on eBay please please check out the thread about the seller expanded dashboard a high percentage of business sellers use free postage, the other business sellers and private sellers are competing with free postage, and will lose out.

campdave

poppet wrote: »

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.

Why do these fixed costs increase when buying multiple items from one seller?

JoW123

I have an Ebay business selling items of clothing and I would have combined postage for these 3 t-shirts at approx. 4.00. I would have sent them Tracked as having to refund for 3 missing items would hit my profits. That costs 3.70 2nd class. I do state on my listings that I offer postage discount for multiples and that more than 2 items posted together will be sent Tracked.

I think the seller is way out of order charging 9.00 and would hit their stars accordingly. However, I would expect the buyer to understand that postage would be slightly more than the 3.00 for just one.

Strapped

Seller needs to switch to inclusive postage if they are not going to combine anyway.

This_Year

JoW123 wrote: »

I would have sent them Tracked as having to refund for 3 missing items would hit my profits. That costs 3.70 2nd class. I do state on my listings that I offer postage discount for multiples and that more than 2 items posted together will be sent Tracked.

£3.70 is 2nd Class Signed For. Which isn't tracked. It's as the name suggests, Signed For.

Which doesn't often happen. I regularly have Signed For items just pushed through my letter box.