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

arthur_dent_2

Yeah all the time, but what can you do.....................

Tirian

Am surprised at the criticism of Chaotic_j ... he's been caught out by a fairly underhand deal. I happen to know him from some time back, and he is a supremely decent guy, very fair, sells good quality products and services and doesn't rip anyone off. I can't see why he is getting all this flack.

Yes, as a percentage 25% off is quite high - but postage costs do not work the same way as item costs. If I got 25% off a a TV I would be impressed. The cost of packing and posting a single item for £10 does not compare in any way to packing and posting 7 together. For bulky items there are many delivery services that offer extremely good rates - I would be suprised if the postage cost for these items would be any more than £25 altogether. As such it's not unreasonable to be miffed at being asked to pay significantly over the odds.

In the situation, my advice would be to simply state that you are unwilling to proceed with the transaction on the basis of the costs stated and suggest to the seller that you are happy to confirm to eBay that you have agreed not to go ahead with the purchase(s) - this way the seller can recoup their fees.

StaffsSW

Slight digression here - but as the seller is a registered business (or at least appears to be), will the 7 day cooling off period be applicable under the Distance Selling Regulations? I still do not know if ebay auctions are covered - Buy It Now's definitely are, but there has always been doubt as to the status of auction listings....?

MORPH3US

Tirian wrote: »

As such it's not unreasonable to be miffed at being asked to pay significantly over the odds.

Because the OP placed a bid on the item, it was in fact him that offered to buy the item at the price and terms stated (including the postage and packaging costs).

I actually agree that the p&p costs do seem too high, but I am yet to hear a valid argument about why the OP should be able to bid on and win items AND THEN moan about costs after he has won....

arthur_dent_2

Everyone is entitled to vent. However I agree that there is not a lot he can do about it now after the fact.

Tirian

The matter seems quite simple to me. The buyer entered the transaction on the basis of a discount of an unspecified amount for combined postage. As such he did not know how much the total cost was going to be for his items. When the actual amount was confirmed, he was not willing to pay that much for the goods & services he was getting.

On the grounds that the total cost was unknown at the time the ebay transactions were made, I don't view it as particularly unreasonable to want to make the final decision on whether to go ahead with the transaction when the exact costs are confirmed - as long as you are up front with the seller about this, and co-operate with them in recouping their fees. Another alternative would be to offer to pay the seller's ebay fees and let them re-list. I have had a few instances where I've sold something (usually to an overseas bidder) who then wants to withdraw either because of international post cost, or compatibility issues - I generally suggest that if they Paypal me an amount to cover the eBay fees and I will leave them positive feedback. On the whole they are quite happy to do so - and I am quite happy to resolve the situation like that, because there's no point trying to force someone to buy something from you that they do not want to buy!

smartie1976

Tirian wrote: »

On the grounds that the total cost was unknown at the time the ebay transactions were made, I don't view it as particularly unreasonable to want to make the final decision on whether to go ahead with the transaction when the exact costs are confirmed - as long as you are up front with the seller about this, and co-operate with them in recouping their fees.

I find it incredible this is still being debated.
If the buyer was unsure of the 'final costs' why did he bid?

I wouldn't buy something on the basis I'll get some kind of unspecified discount. That's just ridiculous.

Idiophreak

I find this quite an interesting topic...clearly, if the seller's going to send all of these things together (at a cost much smaller than £60) he's going to go against EBay rules ("Sellers may charge reasonable postage & packaging charges to cover the costs of posting").

Clearly, the £10 charge per item was deemed "reasonable", so the buyer had no problem paying it.

Now, the buyer (OP) has agreed to have his items sent together for a discount...I think it's fair for the buyer to assume, even before asking the buyer, that the new postage charge will also be compliant with ebay rules (ie, be "reasonable").

carolinosourus

Tirian wrote: »

The matter seems quite simple to me. The buyer entered the transaction on the basis of a discount of an unspecified amount for combined postage. As such he did not know how much the total cost was going to be for his items. When the actual amount was confirmed, he was not willing to pay that much for the goods & services he was getting.

This all sounds pretty odd to me, placing a bid when you were unsure of total p&p charges and expecting it to be ok to back out of winning once you've decided that the p&p charges which were stated on the auction (no-one thankfully seems to be disputing this) were too much, despite being given a postage discount after the sale is a little silly IMHO. It's almost like signing a contract without reading it, things go wrong but you've got no come-back because you're the one who signed the contract.

As he didn't know what the total cost was he shouldn't have bid on the items. Simple as.

DAVE1968_2

just before Christmas my best friend in Canada asked me to post some items of food to him for a suprise present for his mum, Heinz beans, oxtail soup,treacle pudding,ambrosia cream rice walkers crisps etc etc you know all the old british favourites,total cost of shopping was £23,when i boxed them up in to packages to send and take them to the post office(yes I know its to Canada and I had to use airmail because it was to late for surface mail,)but the cost of postage was £129.00 so with packaging £133. So I was shocked at such high postage but that was the correct amount.Now I havent read all the pages in this thread but you might have resolved this problem,I do use ebay myself mainly as a seller with over 600 plus deals I am also a postman,My advice to chaoticj is if you do pay for the postage of this item,once you receive the package look at how much postage the seller has actually paid to post the item and then make a unfair claim against them if it so calls for. Hope this is of some help as I hate being ripped off,