Ebay Postage Confusion

Spoonie_Turtle

vacheron said:

£2.70 royal mail is probably a tracked 48 large letter or 2nd class signed for letter. 

An extra £3.50 charge brings the total to £6.20 which is closer to a tracked 48 medium parcel (quite a jump in size and weight TBH). 

Looks like the seller has hugely underetimated the size of the parcel or, as above, eBays annoying new "simple delivery" system which hides all the detail to make things "easier" has messed it up and the seller hasn't noticed? 

Isn't it just a standard charge, rather than asking for the specific difference in price between what was paid and what they reckon it should have cost?

soolin

Spoonie_Turtle said:

vacheron said:

£2.70 royal mail is probably a tracked 48 large letter or 2nd class signed for letter. 

An extra £3.50 charge brings the total to £6.20 which is closer to a tracked 48 medium parcel (quite a jump in size and weight TBH). 

Looks like the seller has hugely underetimated the size of the parcel or, as above, eBays annoying new "simple delivery" system which hides all the detail to make things "easier" has messed it up and the seller hasn't noticed? 

Isn't it just a standard charge, rather than asking for the specific difference in price between what was paid and what they reckon it should have cost?

yes that's correct, it's now a standard  'fee' for postal underpayments.  £3.50 is just shown as 'insufficient postage paid' or use of an un barcoded stamp (which doesn't fit the bill)

Pay a fee | Royal Mail Group Ltd

gwynfil

The package was tiny. A little dainty silver necklace. It arrived in a smaller than A5 little envelope. The post office were in a mess with ebay changing the postal rules with them all the time. I and the seller got caught up in it, but i was the one left paying the extra.
The customer service guy at ebay and i quote told me this- these are his words from the transcript:
'I understand the reason you are contacting us today is because you've been charged twice for postage and you wanted to get refund for the same. Right?'
Then he says
'Sometimes, the courier has to cover more distance than expected. So, they will charge extra postage for which you are not responsible.'

They never resolve it for me. 

RedImp_2

gwynfil said:

The package was tiny. A little dainty silver necklace. It arrived in a smaller than A5 little envelope. The post office were in a mess with ebay changing the postal rules with them all the time. I and the seller got caught up in it, but i was the one left paying the extra.
The customer service guy at ebay and i quote told me this- these are his words from the transcript:
'I understand the reason you are contacting us today is because you've been charged twice for postage and you wanted to get refund for the same. Right?'
Then he says
'Sometimes, the courier has to cover more distance than expected. So, they will charge extra postage for which you are not responsible.'

They never resolve it for me. 

Rough & mean if the package would go through the letterbox then the postage would have been correct and RM have made some error it would seem.

gwynfil

To add. I found the royal mail photo of the parcel being delivered to my front door. It has a 48 tracked large letter sticker on it. It had a qr code and a bar code on the envelope and something about ebay at the bottom. It was blurry when I enlarged the photo, so not clear to read. I don't get why I needed to pay extra. I didn't arrange the original delivery, the seller and ebay did, with royal mail. I have no way of getting any refund for the extra postage paid. It seems now that ebay can choose the courier used and if the courier or they get the postage contract wrong with one another, the buyer gets charged extra. Royal mail informed me the seller may not accept it back and I could be charged for the postage the other end. That's why I decided to pay the excess. What a world we live in. 

soolin

gwynfil said:

To add. I found the royal mail photo of the parcel being delivered to my front door. It has a 48 tracked large letter sticker on it. It had a qr code and a bar code on the envelope and something about ebay at the bottom. It was blurry when I enlarged the photo, so not clear to read. I don't get why I needed to pay extra. I didn't arrange the original delivery, the seller and ebay did, with royal mail. I have no way of getting any refund for the extra postage paid. It seems now that ebay can choose the courier used and if the courier or they get the postage contract wrong with one another, the buyer gets charged extra. Royal mail informed me the seller may not accept it back and I could be charged for the postage the other end. That's why I decided to pay the excess. What a world we live in. 

If you had refused to pay that would have been the end of your liability. A simple INR via ebay would have recovered all your initial costs, and as it was a SD item the return address would be encoded in it- and the item taken back to seller.

These things happen, many years ago I used to take post to a PO where they would weigh and mark the postage on the package, but only sort out stamps (that's how long ago it was) when they had a moment - and on one occasion a whole load went into the sorting office with no stamps at all.

Once I got the first couple of complaints in from people saying they had a card demanding they pay extra as no postage had been paid by sender- i realised what had happened, and my PO confirmed their error. I emailed all affected buyers (luckily I had a stamped sheet for POP which enabled me to identify which parcels were effected) and told them all to NOT pay and I got the whole lot back. I then took them to PO who added stamps and we re sent them.

I've also had labels fall off due to shiny parcel bags - I've had stamps fall off , and as I said it happens.

£2.70 under SD would cover a tracked 48 large letter , which would easily seem to fit your item as described, so the fault here would appear to lie with RM and not ebay or the seller. 

soolin

se2020 said:

It might not be the sellers fault at all.
They could have previously listed an item without putting the weight/dimensions in as they know it was a 'medium parcel' and added the postage charge accordingly. 

Now ebay are using AI to go through these listings and swap them over to 'simple delivery'
The AI calculates the postage charge.

Unfortunately,  it's not very intelligent,  it thinks a comic is a large letter (fair enough) but if you have a complete collection of comics from 1985-2000 and list them as one listing it still thinks it is a large letter.
Even if the seller types "these comics weigh 17kg in total" the AI does not pick it up.

The seller has no idea when they print the label as the label does not have the weight or the parcel size on it.

What it does have is "marketplace seller" so Royal mail are supposed to deliver it regardless. I guess they then bill ebay then ebay bill the seller. 

I think the 'fee to pay' is done by the local delivery office so maybe not every delivery office has had the system update yet?
Or maybe royal mail are getting fed up of the underpaid items as I have heard a few complaints about this happening now...

Incidentally sellers are shown the weight and dimensions of the parcel requirements on the same page that has the download code or label printing for the label. I;ve just sold something on SD and it shows mine and their address in one box, then the weight and size parcel which the label covers - mine shows:

Package details

1 kg

61 x 46 x 46 cm

Package larger or heavier than declared?Learn more

then it has the delivery service, which in this case is Evri.

If i want to see how much the buyer was charged for the label then it shows that on the order details, and mine shows:

Postage*

£2.45

VAT*

£0.49

Nothing is hidden from the seller on SD. 

se2020

soolin said:

se2020 said:

It might not be the sellers fault at all.
They could have previously listed an item without putting the weight/dimensions in as they know it was a 'medium parcel' and added the postage charge accordingly. 

Now ebay are using AI to go through these listings and swap them over to 'simple delivery'
The AI calculates the postage charge.

Unfortunately,  it's not very intelligent,  it thinks a comic is a large letter (fair enough) but if you have a complete collection of comics from 1985-2000 and list them as one listing it still thinks it is a large letter.
Even if the seller types "these comics weigh 17kg in total" the AI does not pick it up.

The seller has no idea when they print the label as the label does not have the weight or the parcel size on it.

What it does have is "marketplace seller" so Royal mail are supposed to deliver it regardless. I guess they then bill ebay then ebay bill the seller. 

I think the 'fee to pay' is done by the local delivery office so maybe not every delivery office has had the system update yet?
Or maybe royal mail are getting fed up of the underpaid items as I have heard a few complaints about this happening now...

Incidentally sellers are shown the weight and dimensions of the parcel requirements on the same page that has the download code or label printing for the label. I;ve just sold something on SD and it shows mine and their address in one box, then the weight and size parcel which the label covers - mine shows:

Package details

1 kg

61 x 46 x 46 cm

Package larger or heavier than declared?Learn more

then it has the delivery service, which in this case is Evri.

If i want to see how much the buyer was charged for the label then it shows that on the order details, and mine shows:

Postage*

£2.45

VAT*

£0.49

Nothing is hidden from the seller on SD. 

Is there any way to change it at.that stage if it is incorrect though?

Say either AI has got it wrong or it comes in over 1kg when you have packed it, how do you change the service?

I can't see any way of doing it after the sale regardless of if its the buyer or seller paying for the postage.

The only option I can see is to send it directly with a  carrier on the correct service. 
If the buyer has already paid for postage they probably won't like being asked to pay a higher price plus they will have to wait a month for a refund of the original postage.

Even if the seller wants to pay the extra themselves there still does not seem to be a way for them to add the new tracking details instead of the SD ones?

Purple_Jumper

My understanding of Simple Delivery was that if AI Ebay got the recommended weight / size wrong the courier has to take it anyway at no extra cost. Maybe that has now changed, it has got so confusing, Simple Delivery must be one of the biggest misnomers ever 

soolin

se2020 said:

soolin said:

se2020 said:

It might not be the sellers fault at all.
They could have previously listed an item without putting the weight/dimensions in as they know it was a 'medium parcel' and added the postage charge accordingly. 

Now ebay are using AI to go through these listings and swap them over to 'simple delivery'
The AI calculates the postage charge.

Unfortunately,  it's not very intelligent,  it thinks a comic is a large letter (fair enough) but if you have a complete collection of comics from 1985-2000 and list them as one listing it still thinks it is a large letter.
Even if the seller types "these comics weigh 17kg in total" the AI does not pick it up.

The seller has no idea when they print the label as the label does not have the weight or the parcel size on it.

What it does have is "marketplace seller" so Royal mail are supposed to deliver it regardless. I guess they then bill ebay then ebay bill the seller. 

I think the 'fee to pay' is done by the local delivery office so maybe not every delivery office has had the system update yet?
Or maybe royal mail are getting fed up of the underpaid items as I have heard a few complaints about this happening now...

Incidentally sellers are shown the weight and dimensions of the parcel requirements on the same page that has the download code or label printing for the label. I;ve just sold something on SD and it shows mine and their address in one box, then the weight and size parcel which the label covers - mine shows:

Package details

1 kg

61 x 46 x 46 cm

Package larger or heavier than declared?Learn more

then it has the delivery service, which in this case is Evri.

If i want to see how much the buyer was charged for the label then it shows that on the order details, and mine shows:

Postage*

£2.45

VAT*

£0.49

Nothing is hidden from the seller on SD. 

Is there any way to change it at.that stage if it is incorrect though?

Say either AI has got it wrong or it comes in over 1kg when you have packed it, how do you change the service?

I can't see any way of doing it after the sale regardless of if its the buyer or seller paying for the postage.

The only option I can see is to send it directly with a  carrier on the correct service. 
If the buyer has already paid for postage they probably won't like being asked to pay a higher price plus they will have to wait a month for a refund of the original postage.

Even if the seller wants to pay the extra themselves there still does not seem to be a way for them to add the new tracking details instead of the SD ones?

Actually on that screen shot it has a link that says 'Package larger or heavier than declared?Learn more'

Also on the same page but not shown on the screen shot there is another link to what to do if label is wrong. I've done all my SD items for today already so can't check what happens - but I know the seller can't just change it at that point. If it could just simply be changed, then surely a lot of private sellers would pretend they are sending the cheapest weight band size item, and then just change it to a heavy option when they get sent a label? That would mean ebay picking up a lot of underpayments. 

From memory , and if I get more SD parcel sales today I'll check, it says if seller has chosen the size  to speak to ebay to cancel sale and re list. However as @Purple_Jumper says if the weight was chosen by ebay with ni input from seller then the courier should take it anyway. It looks like it all depends on whether the seller added the weight (I've gone through most of mine and made sure they are correct) or whether they a) used the weight and sizing originally shown by seller when listed normally, or b) just assumed a weight and size based on what seller was selling.