Possible 'sharp practice' by eBay merchant. Postage related.

Ditzy_Mitzy

I recently purchased two books from eBay as 'buy it now' items and, as expected, paid for postage for each item.  Each book was sold by a different seller.  Thus there was one buyer, me, two sellers and two lots of postage paid.  Nothing unusual. 
Imagine my surprise, therefore, when a courier delivered a single parcel containing both books.  The only reasonable explanation is that both seller accounts are being operated by the same individual.  That's not the problem; nor is the problem combining the items in a single parcel, which seems eminently sensible.  What bothers me is this: I imagine sending one parcel containing two books is cheaper than sending two separate parcels containing one book each, even when the weight difference is accounted for.  Owing to this I feel that, on being made aware that both items were going to the same address and deciding to combine the postage, the seller did not contact me to discuss the possibility of any sort of reduction or refund.  For reference, I paid approximately £5.00 postage per item. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Unfortunately there's no entitlement for the seller for combine postage for a buyer, eBay offers buyers the chance to leave star ratings for the P&P costs where the buyer can express any dissatisfaction with a low star rating. 

From a consumer rights point of view there's nothing to be done here.

soolin

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

I recently purchased two books from eBay as 'buy it now' items and, as expected, paid for postage for each item.  Each book was sold by a different seller.  Thus there was one buyer, me, two sellers and two lots of postage paid.  Nothing unusual. 
Imagine my surprise, therefore, when a courier delivered a single parcel containing both books.  The only reasonable explanation is that both seller accounts are being operated by the same individual.  That's not the problem; nor is the problem combining the items in a single parcel, which seems eminently sensible.  What bothers me is this: I imagine sending one parcel containing two books is cheaper than sending two separate parcels containing one book each, even when the weight difference is accounted for.  Owing to this I feel that, on being made aware that both items were going to the same address and deciding to combine the postage, the seller did not contact me to discuss the possibility of any sort of reduction or refund.  For reference, I paid approximately £5.00 postage per item. 

As above as long as you received the items you have no other rights. It is also not necessarily the case that postage remained the same for both items travelling in same package.

Sellers are discouraged from giving partial refunds by eBay who retain all the fees regardless of whether any refund was made, and PayPal do the same. Even if seller did refund any small difference it would have been negligible after eBay and PayPal fees anyway. 

HHarry

I recently sold a number of jigsaws with P&P of £3.50 each.  One Buyer won 2 of the jigsaws.
I managed to get both jigsaws in one postage bag for the same cost as a single jigsaw, so I refunded the Buyer £3 via Paypal - it was quick, easy and simple to do.

 You don’t have any right to a combined postage discount, but I understand your frustration.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Wrong thread! 

mikb

HHarry said:

I recently sold a number of jigsaws with P&P of £3.50 each.  One Buyer won 2 of the jigsaws.
I managed to get both jigsaws in one postage bag for the same cost as a single jigsaw, so I refunded the Buyer £3 via Paypal - it was quick, easy and simple to do.

 You don’t have any right to a combined postage discount, but I understand your frustration.

In your case -- you were charged 10% of each of the two £3.50's you received by eBay (final value + p&p fees).
So that's an extra 35p in fees you paid to eBay which you didn't get back by "doing the right thing".

When you sent £3 back to buyer, they will have received about £2.61 only (fees on this new transaction you created).
That's 39p lost to PayPal for you "doing the right thing". To give the buyer an actual £3 you'd have to have sent more than £3.

That's what was meant above about eBay not liking/handling partial refunds very well. It all looks simple enough when you do what you did, but you get knocked in the process.

mattyprice4004

You bought 2 books and received both books - you were happy to pay the amount charged for postage; it doesn't matter how they got there or arrived together. 

theonlywayisup

For reference, your £5 per item was a charge you were happy to pay otherwise you wouldn't have bought the books.  You have them.  

soolin

There is another consideration as well, there is for instance a current promotion on for private sellers who are capped to £1 FVF. However hidden in the T and Cs is a clause that says if all or part of the PayPal payment is refunded then the £1 cap will not apply and full FVFs will be charged. Perhaps they were using an offer where similar restrictions applied. 

gettingtheresometime

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Unfortunately there's no entitlement for the seller for combine postage for a buyer, eBay offers buyers the chance to leave star ratings for the P&P costs where the buyer can express any dissatisfaction with a low star rating. 

From a consumer rights point of view there's nothing to be done here.

But the OP states that as far as they were concerned when making the purchases , each purchase was with different sellers.

OP how much was the postage that was actually paid? If it was considerably less than £10 then I think I would leave a poor review on both purchases to potential warn other buyers.

born_again

mattyprice4004 said:

You bought 2 books and received both books - you were happy to pay the amount charged for postage; it doesn't matter how they got there or arrived together. 

To me a bigger issue is one seller having 2 accounts. Then combining the postage.... Bit like going online to asda & sainsburys to buy something paying for delivery, but all packaged & delivered together.
Wonder what e-bay would make of it?