What to do when you've been grossly overcharge on postage?

A_Phoenix_of_Tangerine

Hi all. I recently purchased an item with postage of more than £7, which was stated as being sent with Collect+. The item turned up today with a £2.85 Royal Mail sticker on it! What can I do to

(a). Try to reclaim this money, &

(b) To stop this seller doing the same thing again?

I can see from the sellers' feedback that this has happened to at least one other person recently. :mad:

Cornucopia

Was the item clearly under-priced?

Was there expensive/intricate packaging involved?

mrcol1000

You can attempt a) but if the seller refuses to refund you then there is nothing you can do. I am not sure how you could do b).

All you can do is contact the seller and point out you paid £7 for it to go courier but it was sent Royal Mail. If the seller refuses to refund you or even respond then there is nothing you can do but leave negative feedback .However if they have done it before then they will most likely do it again. Personally if they ignore you I'd just move on with your life.

bxboards

You weren't overcharged as the delivery charge was mentioned on the listing, and you paid the delivery charged asked.

The seller actually used a better service than Collect+ which is a 3 to 5 day service while Royal Mail is usually a 24 to 48 hour service, so it's likely you got the item quicker.

What the seller paid is no concern of yours because you agreed to the delivery charge and the item was delivered to you for the charge you agreed to. The delivery charge includes postage AND packing. It's not great form to use a different postal service than agreed, but I think most people would agree Royal Mail is always a better option that a 3 to 5 day budget courier service.

Unless your time is valueless, you will spend more time on the post you made here on MSE, and contacting the seller on Ebay than the couple of quid you hope to extort from the seller. Time is money. Don't waste it. Move on.

A_Phoenix_of_Tangerine

mrcol1000 wrote: »

You can attempt a) but if the seller refuses to refund you then there is nothing you can do. I am not sure how you could do b).

All you can do is contact the seller and point out you paid £7 for it to go courier but it was sent Royal Mail. If the seller refuses to refund you or even respond then there is nothing you can do but leave negative feedback .However if they have done it before then they will most likely do it again. Personally if they ignore you I'd just move on with your life.

You're probably right. Just seems a shame that there isn't an obvious route for reporting this practice, like 'item not as described', but with the delivery side..

bxboards wrote: »

You weren't overcharged as the delivery charge was mentioned on the listing, and you paid the delivery charged asked.

The seller actually used a better service than Collect+ which is a 3 to 5 day service while Royal Mail is usually a 24 to 48 hour service, so it's likely you got the item quicker.

What the seller paid is no concern of yours because you agreed to the delivery charge and the item was delivered to you for the charge you agreed to. The delivery charge includes postage AND packing. It's not great form to use a different postal service than agreed, but I think most people would agree Royal Mail is always a better option that a 3 to 5 day budget courier service.

Unless your time is valueless, you will spend more time on the post you made here on MSE, and contacting the seller on Ebay than the couple of quid you hope to extort from the seller. Time is money. Don't waste it. Move on.

Not quite sure how I'm 'hoping to extort' from the seller - I'm merely wanting to claim back the money I overspent on the service they didn't use. Sure, Royal Mail is better; had the seller offered a choice, I'd have chosen RM at their standard rate. The fact is though, the seller is deliberately misleading buyers by listing a higher priced delivery service which they do not use, and pocketing the difference by using an entirely different, cheaper, service. It's dishonest, and not OK, IMO.

A_Phoenix_of_Tangerine

Cornucopia wrote: »

Was the item clearly under-priced?

Was there expensive/intricate packaging involved?

No, the price was about average (~£40), for this kind of item. It was sent in a regular plastic grey postage sack with a label - nothing fancy.

pinkshoes

I would send a polite message to the seller pointing out their postage was a bit steep given it only cost them £2.85.

This is one of those debates where everyone now chants "but you knew the postage was £7 so why complain now blah blah blah...".

Personally I think it is more of a natural gut reaction to feel a bit peeved when a bargain suddenly appears less of a bargain! It puts a bit of a downer on the purchase.

You do have the feedback option though, as there is a star there for P&P...

mrcol1000

I'd dispute Royal Mail is a "better" service. If you are lucky enough to get it sent by a method you have any kind of tracking of, their tracking is patchy at best. If you have brought from a seller who is offering Collect Plus and accepted you will have to pay more for postage, then it is not acceptable for it to be sent by a different method.Had they advertised Royal Mail for £7 and sent it Royal Mail then it would be tough, you knew how much it would be.

. As I said in my first post, contact them. Then leave feedback based on their response or lack of.

glentoran99

My opinion (and ill get shot down for this) is get over it, you were happy with your overall price you paid, you got it, What exactly is the problem?

ballisticbrian

Can we get it into the top 50 of First World Problems?


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/first-world-problems-top-50-2212642

Ting-Tang

glentoran99 wrote: »

My opinion (and ill get shot down for this) is get over it, you were happy with your overall price you paid, you got it, What exactly is the problem?

Exactly. You got your item for a price you were willing to pay. What's the problem?