buyer not understanding postage costs

Hermia

It's amazing how many people in the world go through life completely oblivious to changes that are quite widely-talked. Had this person never had to post a present or listened to a friend complain because they got a postage due notice for a birthday card with a badge on?

My favourite postage-related story was an American buyer who kept complaining about my postage costs and saying 'why can't you use the UPS flat rate at $11'? I kept explaining that service wasn't available to me in the UK and you had to buy the postage available in the country you were in. He wasn't having it!

soolin

Hermia wrote: »

It's amazing how many people in the world go through life completely oblivious to changes that are quite widely-talked. Had this person never had to post a present or listened to a friend complain because they got a postage due notice for a birthday card with a badge on?

My favourite postage-related story was an American buyer who kept complaining about my postage costs and saying 'why can't you use the UPS flat rate at $11'? I kept explaining that service wasn't available to me in the UK and you had to buy the postage available in the country you were in. He wasn't having it!

Strangely that doesn't seem to be unusual. I am on several US based forums and quite a few times US users have been quite indignant that when they try and buy something from the UK (or Europe generally) that the seller refuses to use the cheapest option that they suggest for a safe fast and tracked postage and instead come up with excuses about it not being available. Their argument is that if they can use the service to ship to us then it is logical that we can use the service to ship to them.

The biggest arguments, and people get banned for some truly awful language, is between US and Canadian users 0 many in the US cannot understand why Canadian post is so expensive - they can see on the map it is not 'overseas' and fierce arguments rage about perceived over charging . Many US sellers are actually happier to post to Europe than to Canada!

Mind you the US system is weird, lots of competing services and depending on where it is being shipped from and to the costs change, so it isn't just a case of checking a list to see how much it would cost when you list the item- there are too many variables to take into account. Add to that the fact that there is a discount if they buy certain postage through ebay- but the discount isn't fixed and moves quite a lot (a bit like Shutl courier prices), plus a few 3rd party re sellers that are possible to use in some states- but banned in others. So it is not unusual to 'find' a price when they list, then when it sells it costs quite a bit more as discounts have changed and buyer is in the 'wrong' state- then even after all that state tax can be added - which is a new Trump thing as far as I can work out.