Ebay,some sellers over charging for(Expres delivery)

tommy45

As per the above title, today i was going to buy a product that was new so not in an auction , for £47.99 the normal 2-3 day shipping costs where not an issue,

But the express delivery option which says uses royal mail special delivery next day before 1pm service the price is grossly overcharged at £77.99 to send a small electronic device with a value of under £50.00 within the uk

I have looked at other sellers offering the same or similar products for around the same price, and again the express delivery charge is extortionate , I could send the same product using the same royal mail service for under £10.00

And this isn't just a error on the web page, if it add to my basket and start the payment the same to shipping options are there at the same prices , so to have it delivered maybe next day would cost me more a lot more than what the value of the product they are selling i somehow don't think so,

I have e-mailed the sellers and also asked the useless e bay support regarding this just to see if it is some kind of web site bug or not, still waiting for replies from the sellers, Surely they cannot charge more than it costs to send using the said service plus reasonable costs incurred ?

soolin

Sellers can add what ever postage charges they like, buyers are free to pay the costs or choose to buy elsewhere.

sequence

Sellers can charge what they like. It can be a real nuisance to have to go to the post office for one Special delivery. But if you want to know the real reason, it's because they want the premium service discount, but without actually having to offer premium service.

tommy45

Well there is no way on this planet that i will be paying their extortionate shipping costs, they could well have lost a sale and IMO deserve to loose many more, and if you are an e bay seller doing this scam, and e-bay need to modify the way they do things to prevent this unfair practice

sequence

Ebay won't care now they get 10% of the shipping costs. That's another £7 to ebay for every person the pays the £70 shipping cost, and another 3.4% to paypal...

Sharon87

eBay did do something to try and prevent this as sellers would overcharge postage to avoid ebay final value fees, but now ebay are charging final value fees on postage too!

So those people ruined it for the rest of us who charge a fair postage price.

But for some reason that price strikes me as an error, have you emailed the seller to ask if this is correct? It seems like they meant to say £7.99 which is about right for a small packet special delivery.

iammumtoone

sequence wrote: »

But if you want to know the real reason, it's because they want the premium service discount, but without actually having to offer premium service.

thanks for explaining that. i have noticed the high extra costs for next day delivery myself. It has never bothered me as I would never use it but I did wonder why they charge so much!

soolin

tommy45 wrote: »

Well there is no way on this planet that i will be paying their extortionate shipping costs, they could well have lost a sale and IMO deserve to loose many more, and if you are an e bay seller doing this scam, and e-bay need to modify the way they do things to prevent this unfair practice

eBay actively encourage sellers to do this by only offering discounts to sellers that offer a next day despatch via a guaranteed service. As this is often difficult for many business sellers who normally use royal Mail though a business account , they bump the price up to discourage buyers from choosing it.

If eBay did not force sellers to offer this as an option I doubt many sellers would bother offering it as an option.

ballisticbrian

sellers that offer a next day despatch via a guaranteed service

Yes, what Soolin said. They don't want to offer premium serices. Offering means problems for them such as (just one example) sending someone out on extra drop to post office if orders come in after their collection or (another example) not shutting one afternoon a week, things like this.


Offering the premium service is a problem for these sellers, but they have been threatened by ebay that they will loose their seller "Badge" and rankings in the search results if they DO NOT offer it.


So, they price it too high, because they don't want you to choose it.


This is not only eBays fault, but the real controversy is they took the badge that used to mean the seller had a good track record and turned it into a badge for "offers some ridiculously expensive quick service that no-ones ever chosen."


Shortly, that badge will also mean you can pick your item up from Argos (still from that seller). My prediction is that when that massively over-hyped offering flops, the badge will eventually be dropped and changed back to reliable sellers again and go full cycle.

TKPeters

tommy45 wrote: »

As per the above title, today i was going to buy a product that was new so not in an auction , for £47.99 the normal 2-3 day shipping costs where not an issue,

But the express delivery option which says uses royal mail special delivery next day before 1pm service the price is grossly overcharged at £77.99 to send a small electronic device with a value of under £50.00 within the uk

Sellers are doing this to get the eBay Premium Badge & basically are trying to stop people using the next day service

How to deal with this? Click the REPORT Link & report them under Listing Practices > other... > shipping related charges

eBay are cracking down on this, as it gives a bad buying experience

mrs_sparrow

How heavy is your small electric device? I sent something by Special Delivery the other day and it cost me £27. As a business I also have to charge VAT on the postal service I offer (even Royal Mail) so I would have had to add 20% onto that.