am i right to ask for a refund

nursemolly

i paid £6.70 for an item to be posted. when the item arrived this morning the P+P was only £2.00. it was only a small item wrapped in a small piece of brown paper (it was the size of a deck of cards. so i have emailed for a partial refund of P+P suggesting they knock of 70p for the cost of the small bit of brown paper.
trouble is i now feel guilty for asking as its not normally the thing i do. but the buyer has had nearly £5 profit.
what do you think.

Teerah

Personally I think that if the post and packing price (no matter how extortionate) is there for you to see beforehand, and you go ahead and agree to purchase at that price then you dont really have a comeback. I agree its a rip-off though

Hintza

I think you are pushing your luck. You agreed to the terms and conditions when you bid. The time to ask for a discount was prior to bidding. You might well get a negative or a neutral for this.

The rule is either don't bid if you don't agree with P+P or enquire before hand.

soolin

mollytrundle wrote:

i paid £6.70 for an item to be posted. when the item arrived this morning the P+P was only £2.00. it was only a small item wrapped in a small piece of brown paper (it was the size of a deck of cards. so i have emailed for a partial refund of P+P suggesting they knock of 70p for the cost of the small bit of brown paper.
trouble is i now feel guilty for asking as its not normally the thing i do. but the buyer has had nearly £5 profit.
what do you think.

Personally I would not have been brave enough to have asked for a refund. The price you paid was clearly shown on the auction and if it seemed too high then you should not have bid. If it is really excessive then it should be reported to ebay as fee avoidance, but more usually it is a marketing ploy.

Inflating the p and p charges is often discussed on this board and it seems some sellers do it just to cover the low starting price of the item itself.

I have been buying some wonderful widgets from the States. The combined price including post and packing is about two thirds of which I would pay for somehting similair in the UK. The last one arrived yesterday, I paid $12 postage and the stamps totalled less than $4 and the packaging was recycled. I am already bidding on more even knowing the overcharge on the p and p.

Soo

Bargainbabe_2

I don't mind a couple of quid, but when the excess is £5 plus, I think thats taking the P.

VH

I agree it's a ripoff but then you don't have much of a case, as you agreed to pay the postage when you bid on and won the auction.

nursemolly

hi, yeah thats why i feel guilty. but the seller has just refunded me via paypal and left positive feedback too.
but i will check closer next time before bidding.
cheers

Bargainbabe_2

mollytrundle wrote:

hi, yeah thats why i feel guilty. but the seller has just refunded me via paypal and left positive feedback too.
but i will check closer next time before bidding.
cheers

Wow lucky you! Must be a decent seller...they are getting few and far between these days :rolleyes:

HC_2

I use eBay quite a bit, and it does irritate me to see sellers taking the mickey with their p&p charges. I quite agree with previous posts that say that you know in advance what this cost will be and so it's no good complaining afterwards.

However, if I'm interested in something that has a suspiciously high p&p cost, I email the seller to innocently ask if they've perhaps made a mistake when they typed it in. Most recently I asked the seller (in a friendly, joky way) if the skirt she was selling was perhaps made of lead. As a result, she halved the p&p and changed it on her listing.

I've had a few successes this way - I think the seller can get a bit embarrassed at being caught out.

soolin

HC wrote:

I use eBay quite a bit, and it does irritate me to see sellers taking the mickey with their p&p charges. I quite agree with previous posts that say that you know in advance what this cost will be and so it's no good complaining afterwards.

However, if I'm interested in something that has a suspiciously high p&p cost, I email the seller to innocently ask if they've perhaps made a mistake when they typed it in. Most recently I asked the seller (in a friendly, joky way) if the skirt she was selling was perhaps made of lead. As a result, she halved the p&p and changed it on her listing.

I've had a few successes this way - I think the seller can get a bit embarrassed at being caught out.

That's a really good tip HC. I've done that myself as well it sort of lets the seller know that you know it is OTT.

I got P and P knocked down from £9 to £3 last time I asked!

Soo