Advice please - combined postage

Hintza

Good replys on this one. Giving you a couple of options. But they might not win any anyway or only win one or two so be careful what you do!

The thing is the bidder will see you as difficult so the chances of poor feedback might be quite high now, so the blocking route might be a good option. But you should be able to get all the stuff in a box and out for around £5-£7 via courier so is worth thinking about.

tracey55

i used to offer postage discounts but a couple of people decided my discount wasnt acceptable to them and paid through paypal what they wanted to pay and i had to keep refunding them several times until they eventually agreed to pay what was stated
so i no longer do discounts at all
i would just tell them they agreed the postage when they bid so tough but maybe phrased better lol

GregtheHammer

If a seller does not mention in their listing about combined postage I will email & ask if they do, before I place a bid.

Your buyer should have read your terms more clearly before bidding. As Hintza says if you are worried about your feedback send them via a cheap courier & then add them to your blocked bidder list!

eyelinerprincess

I agree with Greg, you didn't say you offered combined postage, so you don't have to offer it. If I'm bidding on something, if the seller combines postage and they haven't stated they would, it's a bonus

StaffsSW

slightly O/T, but I sell a number of products with Free Postage, and it never ceases to amaze me the amount of people that ask for combined postage.

I always reply that they pay full P&P on the first item, with no extra charge for the subsequent items.

And yes, many people do reply with "OK thank-you" and then buy them?!!

custardy

yeah but how many bidders just dont read a listing.
you get questions that are in the description etc

shelovestobuystuff

Can,t you weigh the items together in the box or whatever you plan to post them in.Don,t you have Kitchen scales?
Or what about telling the buyer that you don,t know how much the postage will be for the combined parcel until you get to the P.O. as you don,t have scales.Tell her you will refund the difference between what she pays for postage and the actual postage plus £1.50 handling and packaging(depending on what you are sending obviously,charge what the packaging etc costs you).

I charge a flat rate of £3 for 1st class recorded delivery in U.K.If I send just 1 or 2 items I get about 40p towards the mail bags etc but if postage costs me more than that I cover it out of the profit.

JohalaReewi

With the wonderful new Royal Mail pricing system, it can work out more expensive to combine items into a single package than to send each separately.

StaffsSW

It cost's 70p to send two standard DVD's in an A4 sized envelope when laid side by side, but stack one on top of the other and it goes up to £1.38!

Reading back through the thread, I would be tempted with two options.

Ask the bidder to retract all of their bids which will look bad against their buying record, or leave the bids in place, and go through the Non-Payment process if money is not forthcoming after the auction ends.

Either way it will be a lesson to a numpty to ask questions first, bid later.

blue_monkey_2

You haven't said what the items you are selling are. Are we assuming DVD's or did I miss something? Are you all saying that if you bought 7 DVD's - the MAX price for 1st class up to 2kgs is about £3.80 - so if you was charged £16 for this you'd be happy about it??

I do give a combined postage rate - depending on the size and item either 60p, 75p or £1 but it is clearly stated on my listings, people do spend more money and buy more if they are getting a combined rate as they can spend more money with one seller. I know I do. I recently bought 18 items from one seller as he has a max postage rate (he posted by courier) and it meant I could buy more from one seller and not have to worry about additional postage costs.

At the end of the day you can go charge that much money for a package that will probably cost you £4 to send but 7 negs for overcharged postage are going to look good. Mind you, if you cancel his bids and he is the highest bidder you might end up selling them all for 99p instead. That's the chance you take though, give a good rate from someone who is happy to take everything off your hands or risk not making anything and still having to pay sellers fees to grab a few more quid in postage.

Oh, and surcharging isn't allowed in the eBay rules so whether it mentioned it or not, grossly overcharge on each packet and the buyer can report you for surcharging plus fee evasion thingy - unless you send them each out in individual packets of course.

A customer who is happy all round comes back for more. That is why I am happy to combine postage and not over inflate my costs. Of course people are going to moan. I have to pay VAT on my postage price so mine is higher than everyone elses who isn't VAt registered but people don't take this into consideration either.