Postage Costs charged by EBAY Sellers

Ms Inquisitive

Is there any way to get a refund on postage charges paid to an Ebay seller.

I've bought quite a few items over the last few weeks and most of the postage costs were reasonable but there have been a few other occassions.

For instance, I was charged £7.00 for one order, however, when the parcel arrived it carried a stamp of £1.70. I know you have to allow for the cost of the envelope, bubble wrap etc but is this extreme?

alan4cult

I don't think so. Sellers would argue that packaging costs are also included i.e. putting the thing in the envelope and the serious strain it causes them to do that!

kleefarr

It seems Ebay are on to it. The new reporting system where you give marks out of 5 for general things including postage costs will be reviewed. A new search system will be brought in next year that will list those sellers that have good postage rates first and the worst ones last, thus hopefully making sellers quote fairer postage rates.
There's info about it on the main page.

rainbowtrout

not really, if you've agreed to the P&P charges when you buy the item, you don't really have any comeback. I suppose it's how some sellers make profit especially if they are selling items for less than €1. It sounds a bit excessive in your case, but if you still paid less for the item overall, no harm done I suppose.

rainbowtrout

kleefarr wrote: »

It seems Ebay are on to it. The new reporting system where you give marks out of 5 for general things including postage costs will be reviewed. A new search system will be brought in next year that will list those sellers that have good postage rates first and the worst ones last, thus hopefully making sellers quote fairer postage rates.
There's info about it on the main page.

Must have a look at that, I hadn't seen it.That should improve things. There are some ebay sellers charging extortionate postage costs. It's a bit like paying 1c for a flight and then having all the extra charges added on!

Ms Inquisitive

I did get a great deal on the items I bought so I shouldn't really be complaining but just hate when I think someone is getting the better of me!

Especially when the parcel takes over 20 days to get from England to Ireland.

Nody

kleefarr wrote: »

A new search system will be brought in next year that will list those sellers that have good postage rates first and the worst ones last, thus hopefully making sellers quote fairer postage rates.
There's info about it on the main page.

And have to raise the price even more to compensate and end up in a over all higher price on the product (Ebay fees are based on the agreed price and not the postage cost).

rainbowtrout

Ms Inquisitive wrote: »

I did get a great deal on the items I bought so I shouldn't really be complaining but just hate when I think someone is getting the better of me!

Especially when the parcel takes over 20 days to get from England to Ireland.

It was probably sent second class instead of first class post which is cheaper! And does take at least 2 weeks to get here in my experience of some ebay sellers. First class normally gets here within a week.

kleefarr

Nody wrote: »

And have to raise the price even more to compensate and end up in a over all higher price on the product (Ebay fees are based on the agreed price and not the postage cost).

It's a buyers market. There will always be someone offering a better price.

311

Ebay is a stinky place ,but I've never had any problems with being overcharged. Sometimes the postage is less than what was promised ,but the service was far better. A bit of ying and yang is involved methinks.:)

nava

kleefarr wrote: »

It's a buyers market. There will always be someone offering a better price.

Hi

I agree with you I changed to another seller to get a cheaper postage.

Also in some occasions if I can see that I was charged way over what the seller paid I send them a mail and got some money refunded.

The problem is that you don't always know how big, heave, etc the item will be after packaging also the type of postage they will use to post the it so can't realy canculate how much it will be.

mickoneill30

I don't care if the item is 1c and the postage is €20 if I buy the item for €20.01 from eBay and the item is €40 in the shops then I'm better off.

eBay don't take a comission on postage so its a way for the seller to make money. I sold a game on eBay a few weeks ago. The item sold for €40, postage cost €5. eBay & Paypal (same company) made about €7 from the sale. That's a pretty good profit.

Always try adverts.ie as a first resort anyway. No fees and you can probably get the item picked up saving you both some money.

msdurden

if that happens report the seller to eBay ..

you wont get a refund

MarkR

Nothing to report really, as long as the price is what is agreed. Frustrating I'll admint, but it is labled as Shipping & Handling.

Colonel Sanders

report them to ebay, its against their rules as the seller doesn't pay fees on postage costs. However they won't care, sellers pay fees not buyers so they don't give a f*ck.

The whole feedback system on ebay is a joke, its a major 'you scratch my back I'll scratch yours' mentality as if i leave a seller negative feedback he'll also leav unwarranted negative feedback for me. If they're doing something to counter this then good.

there's a thread here discussing the same topic.

rubadub

For instance, I was charged £7.00 for one order, however, when the parcel arrived it carried a stamp of £1.70.

Why did you buy from the person in the first place?

I bet he was cheapest when you weighed up the other prices.

You paid £7, and its value was £1.70.

Say the item costed £10 to 2 ebay sellers,

Seller 1 wants to make £5 profit. So he has to put it on sale at £15.62 and £1.70 postage. So you pay £17.32, ebay take a cut of ~4% of the sale value so he gets £5 profit

Seller 2 wants to make £5 profit too, yet he wants to sell at a lower price so he is more likely to make the sale. So he includes a higher handling charge in his postage, of £5.30, bringing postage to £7. Now to make the same £5 profit he can charge you £10.10. So his total cost is £17.10.

So you have 2 choices pay £17.32 or pay £17.10. You get the same product posted the same way. The seller gets the same profit. The only loser is ebay. My heart bleeds for ebay, the poor fellas are barely scraping a living.

All the above omits paypal and other fees, I think it might be complicated enough! I hope people can see the point.

For these reasons I actively search for people with higher postage costs, they can offer products at lower prices at the same profit margins. Please do not report them, do not buy from them if you want, but dont ruin it for everybody else, unless you actually like giving ebay more money.

B1977

sometimes when the postage is extremely high the auction price is quiet low.
the higher the price ,the more e-bay make,so the seller usually make s their profit through postage
Insertion Fees
Starting or Reserve Price
Insertion Fee

£0.01 - £0.99
£0.15

£1.00 - £4.99
£0.20

£5.00 - £14.99
£0.35

£15.00 - £29.99
£0.75

£30.00 - £99.99
£1.50

£100.00 or more

for multiple item listings in £100.00 or more tier

Item not sold
No Fee

£0.01 - £29.99
5.25%for the amount of the high bid (at the listing close for auction-style listings) up to £29.99

£30.00 - £599.99
5.25%of the initial £29.99 (£1.57), plus 3.25%of the remaining closing value balance

Over £600

nazoil

Cost should include travelling to and from and queuimg in post office too. Buyers should take total cost into account. I don't care what p&p is charged if overall cost is acceptable.

I do object to sellers advertising one postal service and actually using another. Recently I bought an item from UK and paid 2 GBP more than the UK rate where seller was supposed to send Royal Mail Int Signed For. When the thing eventually arrived, there was just a 1st class stamp on it. Now that's abusing the system.