Seller wants to charge £60 postage.. help please..

chaotic_j

Dear all,

I like to buy, sell, repair, videogame consoles, and arcade video games etc.

I purchase items to resell and repair, as well as privately for my collection.

I won a number of arcade PCBs on eBay - they are all faulty (described as such), I intended to repair most for my own use as a few of them are my favourite arcade games of all time, and I bought a couple extra simply because they were cheap.

There are 7 PCBs in total.

Postage was listed at around £10 per PCB. The auctions stated that there would be a postage discount for multiple purchases.

Normally when I buy heavy/bulky stuff on eBay such as these, I ask the seller if I can arrange my own courier collection, and I offer to pay for the packaging materials. I thought I would ask this, and failing that Royal Mail postage should be no more than £12-£15.

The seller has sent me an invoice, for £60 postage!

I am told that there has been a discount of £2.50 per additional item and that the full uncombined postage price is £72.50.

Now I didn't ask how much of a discount before buying.. but this is ludicrous.. paying that much will push up the prices of some of the boards to what working ones could be bought for..!

Surely this is excessive postage?

I have told the seller that if he insists on charging that much.. please could he "mutually cancel" the purchases.

I am now worried in case he decides to file non paying bidder alerts for all of the PCBs, due to the number of items involved, my account would be suspended - I am worried that he may use this to force me into paying the extortionate shipping.

I haven't had this problem before, and I was just wondering if anyone can offer any helpful, constructive advice.. thank you..

Looking at the sellers feedback he has only one negative from last week saying that he didn't send an item out. The rest of the feedback is positive, and his overall score is around 100.

shellsuit

It's something you should have sorted out with the seller before bidding I'm afraid.

You knew the postal costs before you bid and to be fair, the seller has given you a discount.

If you don't want to proceed with the sales, then the seller has no option but to file NPB alerts.

chaotic_j

He has stated that "£2.50 discount per item is my standard charge" however this was not written in any of his descriptions! Very sly..

I wasn't able to ask about the shipping beforehand, since I only saw his items a few minutes before they were due to end..

Actually you don't have to file an NPB, if you agree with the buyer to cancel the sale, in the case of a mistake, etc mutual cancellation can be filed..

Looking for constructive advice only please.

smartie1976

For £60, I would expect each item to be posted individually, in order to warrant the high cost.
If the seller were to send them in the same parcel and the postage cost be considerably cheaper, then you could report them for excessive postage.

But I kind of think that this should have been discussed before purchase, as the seller has given you a discount, even though it seems paltry.

chaotic_j

I have asked them if they can justify the shipping cost..

In my eyes "combined" insinuates that they will be sent together.. surely..?

They obviously just want much more than the bid price for the items.. which is a joke considering they are faulty, and have sold for their true value! :rolleyes:

In fact if they stated the paltry shipping discount.. they probably wouldn't have even sold for what they did.. many people were bidding on multiple boards.. presumably because they thought they would get a fair deal on the shipping! (how wrong they were!)

frivolous_fay

I'd comment, but as you don't seem to like the factual post at no. 2, I'd say my hands are tied

doingwhatican

I take it these were all seperate auctions. If so then I would pay for them all seperately. This will cost the seller a bit more in fees.
And I bet that they will send them all in one box to save on their own costs, and when this box arrives I would then raise a dispute via paypal for items not received for the rest of them. Wait at least 7 days before raising the dispute as this goes against the seller further as they have not send the items in a timely manner.

chaotic_j

doingwhatican wrote: »

I take it these were all seperate auctions. If so then I would pay for them all seperately. This will cost the seller a bit more in fees.
And I bet that they will send them all in one box to save on their own costs, and when this box arrives I would then raise a dispute via paypal for items not received for the rest of them. Wait at least 7 days before raising the dispute as this goes against the seller further as they have not send the items in a timely manner.

Good idea but sounds a bit fraudulent.

chaotic_j

Wouldn't the seller just submit the same tracking number for all 7 items?

Don't really see the point in this.. also the extra fees would only be 20p per item.. not exactly crippling..

shellsuit

chaotic_j wrote: »

He has stated that "£2.50 discount per item is my standard charge" however this was not written in any of his descriptions! Very sly..

I wasn't able to ask about the shipping beforehand, since I only saw his items a few minutes before they were due to end..

Actually you don't have to file an NPB, if you agree with the buyer to cancel the sale, in the case of a mistake, etc mutual cancellation can be filed..

Looking for constructive advice only please.

My post was constructive advice, it's not my fault if it's not what you want to hear.

Of course if the seller agrees to cancel the sales he can choose the 'mutual', option, but once again, seller doesn't have to do that as all costs were there in black and white before you bid.

chaotic_j

I've been in touch with another buyer who bought 4 items from the same seller.

He says that he was told to pay £35 postage, and the seller took 2 days to come up with this figure, and he can have a pallet collected for less.

He says he was miffed with what they wanted to charge him but £60 takes the rip.

Argh dodgy sellers