Postage and eBay UK sellers - ridiculous

Anyone here find that UK based sellers on eBay UK bump up their postage rates dramatically when they find out you are in Ireland?

I recently bought a mobile phone and was charged £7 (€10.50)....it arrived and had £3.14 on the corner of the packet. I didn't have to sign for it or anything like that either.

This kind of thing annoys the hell out of me. Sellers with tracksuit tops charging £11.50 postage was another example. I checked the airmail rates on royalmail.com and for that price you could get a bag of spuds sent over.

They're generally bloody robbers except I did have one single honest person who refunded the extra amount after they posted a usb key to me. I think though they were just exceedingly nervous of getting negative feedback from me......

Noelie

I bought a pair of boots for my bike, seller charged me something like 12 pound for postage, when they arrived the cost of postage was 20 pound. that's my only experience with a UK seller.

DMG 1972

I have found for CD's and DVD's they normally charge you double what the actual postage cost is . I asked a couple of sellers about this and they say they just set one worldwide rate and don't change it for each country - I reckon they look at what other people charge and get away with, rather than what the actual postal charges are.
Its a pain when you are looking to get cheap CD's and end up paying three times the value of the CD in postage.

rubadub

There are very good reasons to charge high postage. I mainly deal with people who charge very high postage. If you do a search you might find why, I have explained it numerous times and suggested it should be a sticky here.

I would never bid on items without knowing the postage, nobody ever should.

Eoin

DMG 1972 wrote:

I have found for CD's and DVD's they normally charge you double what the actual postage cost is . I asked a couple of sellers about this and they say they just set one worldwide rate and don't change it for each country - I reckon they look at what other people charge and get away with, rather than what the actual postal charges are.
Its a pain when you are looking to get cheap CD's and end up paying three times the value of the CD in postage.

Also - if I have it right - eBay will take a cut out of the selling price, but not the postage price. So, it's more worth their while to sell something for €1 and charge €4 for postage, then the other way around.

I overcharged someone for postage when I sold an MP3 player, but refunded them the difference through paypal. I had no idea what the postage would be, and didn't have the time to get it priced beforehand. The people who sell in bulk probably know full well what the correct price will be though.

If you don't ask the postage price before you bid, you're setting yourself up for it though.

byte

eoin_s wrote:

Also - if I have it right - eBay will take a cut out of the selling price, but not the postage price. So, it's more worth their while to sell something for €1 and charge €4 for postage, then the other way around.

I overcharged someone for postage when I sold an MP3 player, but refunded them the difference through paypal. I had no idea what the postage would be, and didn't have the time to get it priced beforehand. The people who sell in bulk probably know full well what the correct price will be though.

If you don't ask the postage price before you bid, you're setting yourself up for it though.

I've done the same with a memory card I sold - I had overcharged for postage, so I Paypal'ed the buyer the surplus. If nothing else, it sure helps for good feedback!

I've yet to buy something and have somebody refund me the post difference though. What's more annoying, is paying expensive postage, and for the package to arrive via standard mails, not recorded or anything. If sellers want to charge high postage, the least they could do is send it insured. If i was dishonest enough, I could just say the item never arrived...

Vikings

I agree with partially, while it is annoying paying $5 postage for something sent to you with a $1.33 stamp on it the seller is also charging you for the packaging and the whole "bother" of going to the post office to post it etc.. it's not just the stamps that you pay for.

byte

TBH, the bother posting is part of being an eBay seller. I don't agree that buyers should pay extra to cover it.

Anyway, I suppose it's sense to check delivery costs before bidding on the item, and take it into account when placing your maximum bid.

Ruu_Old

US sellers are worse the the UK ones from my experience. The USPS can pick up the mail directly from the persons house so its hardly any problem or bother for them anymore. That said, the majority of the time, the postage shown on the package has been in or around the price that was shown on the auction for me.

ctc_celtic

in my experience, if your buying from a private seller in the UK, they will normally add very little for postage to Ireland, and in some cases, will say it wont cost any more at all.
but shops and power sellers just rip the ass out of it.

it just annoys me when the seller tries to make more profit from selling it to Ireland, than he would make from selling it in the UK.

wba88

I bought something off ebay before and asked how much it would cost to be sent to Ireland and the guy replied saying Ireland is in the UK and therefore i pay that price-i was happy enough.

but in other cases i have been well over-charged for postage and it is annoying as i am an honest ebayer

mickoneill30

Simple solution. Before bidding make sure you know what the postage price is to your house. Then the total cost = your bid + postage cost. If that's a good price then buy it. If it's not then go elsewhere.

Eoin

mickoneill30 wrote:

Simple solution. Before bidding make sure you know what the postage price is to your house. Then the total cost = your bid + postage cost. If that's a good price then buy it. If it's not then go elsewhere.

Ah, so that's how it works.

Aedh Baclamh

There's one thing I always try if they only have the postage to the UK listed. If they say that they'll post to the UK for £2.00, don't send them a message asking them what the postage to Ireland will be, send them a message asking them will they post to Ireland for £2.00. This works 99% of the time for me when I do this.

I will give that a try!

Aedh Baclamh

I think they usually think that they've got a buyer so they'll try not feck it up by not giving you the postage you were expecting. Let me know if it works anyway.

Aedh Baclamh

Oh and phrase it along the lines of 'Postage to Ireland is £2.00, yes?'

mickoneill30

eoin_s wrote:

Ah, so that's how it works.

Good man Eoin. The guy is complaining about it so he obviously didn't know.

byte

Aedh Baclamh wrote:

There's one thing I always try if they only have the postage to the UK listed. If they say that they'll post to the UK for £2.00, don't send them a message asking them what the postage to Ireland will be, send them a message asking them will they post to Ireland for £2.00. This works 99% of the time for me when I do this.

Heh, sure is worth a try!

o1s1n

Had a recent experience with this myself. Bought three comics on ebay. The seller refused to combine the postage cost and wanted to charge me as if he were sending each individually. Something like 14 sterling! :eek:

I refused to pay. He opened an ebay dispute. Went on for a very long time. In the end, ebay, gave ME three strikes against my account.

I went mad as you could imagine. The strikes were removed very quickly

rubadub

mickoneill30 wrote:

Simple solution. Before bidding make sure you know what the postage price is to your house. Then the total cost = your bid + postage cost. If that's a good price then buy it. If it's not then go elsewhere.

Sounds simple, but many refuse to accept it or do it. We really need a stickie explaining stuff on ebay. If a seller has the same item up twice and wants to make the same profit on both, then the one with the highest postage is the cheapest, end of story, ebay are the only ones being screwed

Our man in Havana

I thought that ebay had cracked down on fee avoidance?

mickoneill30

Bond-007 wrote:

I thought that ebay had cracked down on fee avoidance?

They might have but it's probably hard to police. Somebody saying £7 for postage isn't milking it. If they're selling something for €.99 and charge you postage of €20 it's probably easier to spot.

They win either way though these days. Most people pay with Paypal. So they get a fee for that too.

Yes thats a bugbear for me too....perhaps they see it as more dodgy sending things overseas?