Extortionate postage, threat of non-paying bidder strike

Corelli

Ok forumites, I know I shouldn't have done this ... About 45 minutes before an auction ended, I found it and was delighted to see something I wanted starting at 99p but with RIDICULOUS postage charges. As the seller is near me, I messaged them to see if they would accept a personal collection.They didn't respond so in my eagerness I put on a bid for a tenner.

Obviously the high postage had put everyone else off, so I won it for 99p. The seller has refused a personal collection and it looks to me like they want to make up the price with the P&P charges.

(ETA, I usually give the seller more if I win at a stupid price, but the seller wasn't to know that.)

I asked if they would do a mutual cancellation, and explained that if they did that there would be no ebay fees to pay. I felt that an explanation was a courteous thing to do as they have very low feedback and perhaps don't know their way around ebay.

There was no response to that, and just now I have received notice of this non paying bidder strike. I've appealed, and explained, but I know that I am in the wrong, I should not have bid.

So what happens now? Most sellers block people with this sort of history don't they. How long will I have to wait ebayless, depriving other ebay sellers of my cash? I'd better do some quick purchases of necessities before this starts.

alykatz

Tbf i would have just paid up if i had bid and won the item seeing as the postage costs were displayed upfront for you to see.

Most sellers will open a NPB case which if you dont pay will leave a mark on your account. Plus as you say will put you on their blocked buyers list. [as your seller has now done]
If you get 2 NPB`s you will br blocked from a lot of sellers items.
You could be lucky and the seller kindly agrees to cancel which will do no harm to your account.

Corelli

No, they've ignored my message about a mutual cancellation. Oh well, Ive learned my lesson, wait for a response before bidding. But truly, their postage was over twice what it should have been. I don't care at all about being on their blocked bidders list, it's the implications of not being able to use ebay for a while.

alykatz

Corelli wrote: »

No, they've ignored my message about a mutual cancellation. Oh well, Ive learned my lesson, wait for a response before bidding. But truly, their postage was over twice what it should have been. I don't care at all about being on their blocked bidders list, it's the implications of not being able to use ebay for a while.

they dont have to agree to a mutual, its at their discretion and maybe they thought you were going to be troublesome.
As for postage being high. you knew that before you bid so hardly the sellers fault.
so long as you only have the one strike on your account it wont affect your ability to buy on ebay.

pinkshoes

As the postage was twice what it should have been, but you were willing to pay £10 but won for 99p, does this not balance it out?

Some people do not want the hassle of collection. The seller still pays fees on the postage, so they are not exactly gaining.

Either pay up or take the strike.

forgotmyname

High postage and a low buying price used to get less charges from ebay, but they then added their charges onto the bid price and postage.

An old seller that has not realised they get charged on postage also. Pay for it and then appropriate stars for postage?

chickendipperbabe

Why penalise the seller with low stars for postage?

The OP knew what the postage was before they placed their bid as they've admitted.

Had the item been £10 with 99p postage and not the other way around there would be no problem but in both cases the buyer would pay exactly the same.

In my opinion the buyer is in the wrong (as they've already admitted) and they should either pay up or take the strike, it would be very wrong to go on a feedback wrecking spree.

mrcol1000

chickendipperbabe wrote: »

Why penalise the seller with low stars for postage?

The OP knew what the postage was before they placed their bid as they've admitted.

Had the item been £10 with 99p postage and not the other way around there would be no problem but in both cases the buyer would pay exactly the same.

In my opinion the buyer is in the wrong (as they've already admitted) and they should either pay up or take the strike, it would be very wrong to go on a feedback wrecking spree.

The buyer was in the wrong but just because the postage charge is listed, does not mean you should not leave low stars if you think it is wrong. The seller is soon going to realise that regardless of why they are doing it, if you have stupid postage charges then you are not going to do that well on Ebay.

chickendipperbabe

mrcol1000 wrote: »

The buyer was in the wrong but just because the postage charge is listed, does not mean you should not leave low stars if you think it is wrong. The seller is soon going to realise that regardless of why they are doing it, if you have stupid postage charges then you are not going to do that well on Ebay.

But like I said in my post:
99p item + £10 p&p = £10.99 (terrible)
£10 item + 99p p&p = £10.99 (fine)

Personally, if I wasn't happy with the postage cost listed I wouldn't bid unless the item was extremely cheap to compensate. The trouble here is the buyer assumed they would be able to collect thus avoiding paying the postage and depriving the seller of their profit and I would imagine the OP realised this beforehand.

Hopefully the seller will learn as the OP stated they have low feedback and are probably new to selling.

enfield_freddy

Its about time those stupid postage charges were slapped on the head!


ebay have a very good formula for deciding the cost of a pre printed return label , and if the seller has said something stupid like £10 for postage , the truth would come out!


I sell products to a couple of wholesaler's (motorcycle electrical) , and charge them the TRUE cost of the postage and the packaging , NOT an inflated price with an intention of adding 10-15p to the each units selling price

Corelli

To give a more accurate picture, it was £25 P&P for a small fitting. I've had a response from ebay, the rep said not to worry, I won't get a strike and that they would have done the same thing.

Yes, I've learned not to make a reckless bid without an answer to a message, but I like to think that a seller who has upped the postage and dropped the starting price to get their listing at the top if anyone searches on price alone will also have been told to rethink their strategy.