P&P rip off, ebay do not care

eth0_

I purchased a mobile phone on ebay for £170 last month. The postage was £15 which I thought was probably roughly correct for a signed for package.

When the phone arrived, there was only £6 postage on it.

I messaged the seller and politely asked if he would refund the difference in p&p as it was probably an oversight. I got a rather abusive message back from him, saying what did I expect, I got the phone cheap (Maybe £15 less than the average price on ebay for this phone, hardly dirt cheap!), and "I have to cover my paypal fees".

Clearly this is breaking ebay t&c's. I contacted ebay. After a week, no response. Sent two more emails, got one reply saying they were looking into it. Two weeks later, haven't heard a thing.

Has anyone here experienced this before? Are ebay just going to let him get away with blatantly ripping off customers *and admitting to it*?

Gurgle

eth0_ wrote:

I purchased a mobile phone on ebay for £170 last month. The postage was £15 which I thought was probably roughly correct for a signed for package.

IMO, theres a few reasons you can't complain.
1. You get the price for P&P before you bid, You know you have to add it to what you pay for the item.
2. The second P is 'Packaging', i.e. the cost of the materials to pack the item + the seller paying himself to do the packaging.
3. Practically everything on e-bay has P&P on it thats way over what its actually going to cost to post it.

eth0_

Gurgle wrote:

IMO, theres a few reasons you can't complain.
1. You get the price for P&P before you bid, You know you have to add it to what you pay for the item.
2. The second P is 'Packaging', i.e. the cost of the materials to pack the item + the seller paying himself to do the packaging.
3. Practically everything on e-bay has P&P on it thats way over what its actually going to cost to post it.

Yes, assuming that it would have tracking and insurance, as stated in the Paypal T&C's...I would have expected *that* to cost 15 pounds, but he sent it standard post.

As for packaging, it was wrapped in a recycled jiffy bag.

I accept that people can overcharge a bit on P&P and it doesn't really bother me, but to charge DOUBLE, that is taking the p*ss IMO, and to then admit you bumped up the price to cover your paypal fees?

He's broken two ebay/paypal rules, and ebay don't seem to care. This is my point.

Our man in Havana

Ebay won't care because to ban him they would loose his ebay selling fees. Simple really. They just turn a blind eye to it.

mad m

Maybe Ebayer has to drive to post office and he is covering his petrol..There are a number of factors for the P&P.

rubadub

I emailed the mod here a while back offering to write up a sticky on ebay P&P, including reasons why you should be glad you are being "overcharged" on postage.

I am still willing to write it, this keeps coming up, many are ignorant about why most of the time it is in your own interest to get overcharged.

jor el

eth0_ wrote:

Yes, assuming that it would have tracking and insurance, as stated in the Paypal T&C's...I would have expected *that* to cost 15 pounds, but he sent it standard post.

That really bugs me when sellers do that. Apart from having the insurance and the ability to track the delivery, you have the added bonus that registered post usually turns up quicker too, or at least it does for me. Normally standard airmail will take at least 5 working days, sometimes more. For registered I've had items from the UK arrive in 2 working days on a few occasions. If I pay for registered (even over paying for it) then I don't mind what it costs as long as it registered.

I got a memory card a while back, paid £10 for international signed for. The card turned up after two and a half weeks, 87p worth of stamps on it. I complained to eBay about him, forwarded my email conversation too where he finally admitted it hadn't been sent recorded. The did suspend his account for a month, but he's back trading again now.

What I do now though is this. If you pay for registered and it turns up by standard post, wait a few weeks and say it didn't arrive. Ask for the tracking number so you can see if it's in the country yet. When you don't get a tracking number, which you won't because it doesn't exist, you ask for your money back. If the seller refuses, put a claim into Paypal. You are guaranteed a win because the seller has no proof of postage or delivery, which you were guaranteed by paying for registered post.

If enough people do that then they'd soon stop ripping people off like this.

mad m

Having sort of same experience myself,I recently got a PSP memory stick,seller states its original etc. The memory card when I got it just didn't cut the mustard. I looked up fake memory cards and low and behold mine was a fake. Just today I got my full refund but no money for shipping it back to him,the seller wants his memory card back. I said well seeing as I paid £6.99 P&P, then this would be the same back to him. He emailed me saying that it would not cost £6.99 P&P back to him but £2...haha..

I looked up An Post and a registered packet that is 0.5kg will cost €6.75 plus whatever the bubble wrap costs me....Some neck he has saying it will only cost £2 (around €3).....I reckon that if I don't send it registered like the way jor el pointed out, he will try and claim back off me,saying it didn't turn up.

vorbis

i thought this was very obvious.

You're getting the item cheaper due to the higher postage costs!
Ebay doesn't charge fees on postage so sellers bump up the postage cost to keep their fees lower. If ebay charge fees on postage, postage would be lower but the overall cost would probably be higher!

biko

It's common enough with high p&p, some sellers use it to get extra money "under the table", others just say an amount cause they can't be arsed looking the proper price up.

jor el

vorbis wrote:

You're getting the item cheaper due to the higher postage costs!

Oh I know that, and I've no problem paying £10-15 for registered post (which will probably cost about £5) as long as I get the registered post. I have a problem paying £10 and getting an 87p stamp.

mad m, if you're returning the memory card then you should use registered post. The sellers never cover this cost, even though it's his fault for selling a crap knock off. eBay don't care about that either. You could report the seller to Sony for selling copies though I'm not sure if it will have any effect.

rockdrummer

This happened to me aswell...

Bought metronome from ebay, emailed guy about postage and he said it would cost £11. I replied that it was a bit steep. He said it was becuase it was to big to go as normal post and had to be sent as package. When received postage was only $4. Got back to seller and all he could say was 'you got it cheap, what do you expect'.

He explicitedly said the reason the postage was high was because it had to be sent as package. I continued baggering him via email wanting an explanation. After a while he started getting very aggressive saying that he will notify Ebay of my behaviour and also report me to my work (was using work email for this). I eventually gave up because I wasnt getting anywhere.

I didnt report him to Ebay, as you said they do nothing anyway !! It is very annoying though....

rockdrummer

I see alot of people are saying this is normal behaviour, but i would like to be informed that this is whats happening before I buy. If the seller explained all this to me in the first place then their would be no problem. Rather than blatantly lying - I think this is what annoys people....