Wording this neg?

allconnected

Er, of course business sellers get...

our buyers to pay all our car running costs, shoe leather , shopping trips etc

..because that's why they are in business - to get their buyers to pay them enough for what they sell in excess of all of their costs to give them an income to live on.

Logically, a buyer should be just as annoyed that the item I've sold them for £10 cost me £2 from a wholesaler as the fact that the postage I charged them £2 for amounted to an envelope and a 50p stamp. More in fact, as the mark-up is higher - if the buyer objects to being charged more than cost.

The issue, from a business perspective, isn't the relative markups - it's the degree of buyer knowledge. The buyer can see (or guess) the cost of postage, they can't see the wholesale or acquisition price to the seller. So it makes complete business sense not to overcharge customers on postage and invite a direct comparison between costs to buyer and seller, or even to discount postage, weigh the sale price and give buyers a sense of a "bargain" - that's sound business practice.

It's nothing whatsoever to do, however, with sellers having a moral obligation to conduct part of their business at nil profit - that's simply a byproduct of ebay's attempts to minimise the part of the transaction escaping their fees.

Forcing sellers to build all costs of posting into their sale price apart from the actual "cost of stamps" also impacts on items offered for collection only as an alternative - but that's another argument.

enkoda

I always thought "p&p" stood for postage AND packing.

It may well have only cost 69p postage, but the OP hasn't mentioned how the item was packaged?

Rev

bxboards wrote: »

You can't dispute postage costs in Paypal - it's not a valid reason.

This site is called MoneySavingExpert - but in trying to get money back, it's actually going to cost you money to send back, and you'd have to open a Paypal claim for spurious reasons. Unless you planned to lie in the Paypal claim..

Go to the back of the class

No but there is an item not as described and several other options. If a seller annoyed me that much I'd open one of those with a made up reason. Send it back second class recorded, obviously it's a light item if it cost under £1 to post. So I'm out a few £ to post it back. But I'd get my full refund inclusive of the £6 p&p.


TBH. I've never done that and in the OP's situation would just leave low stars. I'd be annoyed but IMO a neg is too harsh if the item is as described and was delivered quickly.


What I'm saying is. The way eBay works these days. Peeing off the buyer does no favour for the seller, and thinking as a seller you can somehow get one over on the buyer is just stupid. Telling them to return for a refund but it will be minus postage, which is what their issue was with in the first place, is just asking for trouble. So the seller shouldn't be surprised when that's what they get.

graspthenettle

Something that always puzzles me about this 'you knew what you were paying for argument' - if you go into a shop and ask how much an item is on the shelf and assistant says £10 and you say, ok, that's a bit more than I was expecting but I do need/want it and then when you have paid up & he hands you the item only for you to find there is a £5 price sticker on it do you then say, "hey, wait a minute"? or "oh well, I knew how much he said"?

Just wondering, that's all

SlowCooker

bxboards wrote: »

Buyers can and often do pay more if their is 'free P&P'

Ironically a lot of dim buyers would be happy if an item was 7.50 with 'free p&p' but are unhappy if it was 2 + 5 P&P.

I went 'free postage' ages ago just to stop whining penny pinchers. Ironically I always used to charge actual Royal Mail postage cost only, and my stars were around 4.8.


But free postage (with delivery added into the price) is the way to go for sellers I think.

I agree. Once I received 4 stars on p&p when I charged only stamp cost. I guess the buyer thought they were rating Royal Mail

SlowCooker

gollum007 wrote: »

I hate to think what the hate crowd here would do if I took a refund and negged him :eek:

-Gollum

The feedback you leave is up to you of course, but why would you neg the seller after they solve the problem?

anotheruser

SlowCooker wrote: »

I don't understand why some sellers still overcharge on p&p. It saves them no money at all and makes the buyer feel ripped off.

Because if an item sells for 99p and has free postage to tempt people into buying, but then costs £3 to post.... you do the math!

SlowCooker wrote: »

The feedback you leave is up to you of course, but why would you neg the seller after they solve the problem?

Because it may teach them?
If there is no negative effect from this particular sale then the buyer will think they can do it again as most people don't leave a neg.
I certainly would!

SlowCooker

anotheruser wrote: »

Because if an item sells for 99p and has free postage to tempt people into buying, but then costs £3 to post.... you do the math!

The math should be done before the sale, not after it.

anotheruser wrote: »

Because it may teach them?
If there is no negative effect from this particular sale then the buyer will think they can do it again as most people don't leave a neg.
I certainly would!

Well, good luck with that. But be careful, because those sellers might take a look at the feedback you leave to others and notice that they don't have to help you since they'll be negged anyway.

ivavoucher

soolin wrote: »

Really, that's all the business of the buyer is it! It has never occurred to me that I need to only buy from sellers who live next door to a PO and who don't expect me to pay all their living costs.

That is irrelevant.
Surely the most important thing for the buyer is the total cost of the item. Delivered in a timely manner and good communication.

3 of the same desired items listed, which one are you going to buy.
The cheapest is the one with the most expensive p&p

Are you going for the overall cheapest and then then leave negative feedback?

Or are you going to object to paying my true postage expenditure and pay more overall?

If you do buy off me as the overall cheapest but then go on to leave negative feedback, you may find in time the cheapest option for buyers will disappear off eBay.


1. item cost £10 + £2 p&p = £12 total
2. item cost £5 + £5 p&p = £10 total
3 item cost £11 + £1 p&p = £12 total

barmonkey

bxboards wrote: »

But free postage (with delivery added into the price) is the way to go for sellers I think.

Not so, I tried this and my sales fell by about 50%, so i have gone back to charging p&p, now my sales are back to normal