Ebaay auction ended and seller has hiked shipping cost.

techguy

Hey All,

So I was bidding on an item and ask the seller how much to post to Ireland. He said about £20 (and he'd check with post office) so I said ok and continued with bidding.

I won the auction today and now the seller has invoiced me £80 for shipping.

What to do now? He said that's what the post office quoted him. I'm obviously not willing to pay this as the items cost is £60.

What to do now. The way I see it is that I have a number of options:

1) Insist on paying only £20 for postage as that was quoted. Also, he never got back to me with an updated price until after the auction had ended. If he quoted me £80 earlier I would have retracted my bid.

2) Back away from the deal, is this allowed by me and will it harm my feedback?

Note: the item comes in a box and could possible be heavy enough but I don't think it would be £80. I think he must have chose express or something? Can I ask that he uses regular/registered post or something? I'll be calling an English PO on Monday and throw a few weights at them and see what i'm quoted.

What have people done in the past? I'm not too used to ebay tbh but I do know tricks often get played with postage as ebay can't take a cut of it etc.

Thanks for reading.

BengaLover

So, the price to Ireland wasnt on the listing initially, and the sellers 'guesstimate' proved to be wrong. I'm afraid there's not a whole lot you can do here, its not like the seller changed the stated postage cost.
You could try asking the seller what the weight of the package is, and check the price yourself and if he knows you know he is overcharging he might drop the cost.
Out of interest, what was the item?
Unfortunately, if you do go ahead with the sale, you may not have any concrete proof of being overcharged, as some sellers print off mailing labels online direct and the cost of postage wont appear on the label.
If you dont pay, he will open a dispute and you will get an unpaid item strike on your account.
With ebays latest dispute system 'improvement' there is no room for buyers to get a chance to state why they havent paid yet either, its all far too black and white.

allthedoyles

As far as eBay/Paypal is concerned , you have entered into a contract agreement with a seller on eBay .

If you agree to anything outside of this agreement , you could lose your protection .

Don't agree to pay extra shipping charges , and in my opinion you should choose option no. 2 and back away from the deal .

Communicate with seller and try to mutually agree to no feedback been left .

Anyway buyers with one negative feedback is not important and won't impact on your buying opportunitoes on eBay .

5500

Send the seller a message Saying that the cost is quite high and would he mind checking out parcel2go.co.uk for a price to send it to you. I've said the same to sellers myself before and they have obliged and the cost has been a fraction of what royalmail charge on large heavy items.

techguy

BengaLover wrote: »

So, the price to Ireland wasnt on the listing initially, and the sellers 'guesstimate' proved to be wrong. I'm afraid there's not a whole lot you can do here, its not like the seller changed the stated postage cost.
You could try asking the seller what the weight of the package is, and check the price yourself and if he knows you know he is overcharging he might drop the cost.
Out of interest, what was the item?
Unfortunately, if you do go ahead with the sale, you may not have any concrete proof of being overcharged, as some sellers print off mailing labels online direct and the cost of postage wont appear on the label.
If you dont pay, he will open a dispute and you will get an unpaid item strike on your account.
With ebays latest dispute system 'improvement' there is no room for buyers to get a chance to state why they havent paid yet either, its all far too black and white.

Yes, he said the item listing said no international shipping. The item was a micro sized r/c helicopter like this one including the aluminium case. I suspect it probably ways about 3-5 Kg.

allthedoyles wrote: »

As far as eBay/Paypal is concerned , you have entered into a contract agreement with a seller on eBay .

If you agree to anything outside of this agreement , you could lose your protection .

Don't agree to pay extra shipping charges , and in my opinion you should choose option no. 2 and back away from the deal .

Communicate with seller and try to mutually agree to no feedback been left .

Anyway buyers with one negative feedback is not important and won't impact on your buying opportunitoes on eBay .

Yea I figured that was the situation re the contract. I'm gonna check out weight's myself and see what the prices are. Either way there's absolutely know chance i'm paying £80 for p&p.

5500 wrote: »

Send the seller a message Saying that the cost is quite high and would he mind checking out parcel2go.co.uk for a price to send it to you. I've said the same to sellers myself before and they have obliged and the cost has been a fraction of what royalmail charge on large heavy items.

Cheers, i'm gonna check out parcel2go now and see what they quote.

techguy

Ok,

I just mailed him and politely told him I couldn't afford to pay the £80 and that could he please check parcel2go for a cheaper quote.

His reply was simply

am you going 2 pay 4 your item please

Obviously playing hard ball. I've now asked him to update the invoice to charge postage to the UK which is only £10. Get it posted to my Aunt and have her relay it to me.

It'll only cost of £10 extra which is ok as my max bid was 10 higher then sale price.

Just another quick one: If I pay with PayPal and the item doesn't arrive will PayPal refund me? I ask because this guy is acting kind of strange now.

Thanks.

allthedoyles

If the seller can prove successful delivery to you , then you will lose a Paypal claim .

Obviously if the item does not arrive and you lodge a Paypal claim , you have a major chance of winning your claim against him .

If the seller is asking you to pay extra outside of the eBay agreement , you can should report him to eBay

BengaLover

techguy wrote: »

Ok,

I just mailed him and politely told him I couldn't afford to pay the £80 and that could he please check parcel2go for a cheaper quote.

His reply was simply


Obviously playing hard ball. I've now asked him to update the invoice to charge postage to the UK which is only £10. Get it posted to my Aunt and have her relay it to me.

It'll only cost of £10 extra which is ok as my max bid was 10 higher then sale price.

Just another quick one: If I pay with PayPal and the item doesn't arrive will PayPal refund me? I ask because this guy is acting kind of strange now.

Thanks.

Seller sounds like a &*&**&.

techguy

Ok well he just got back to me and changed his tune altogether.

Has agreed to post to Ireland for £20.

Thanks.

BengaLover

If you dont get your item, make sure you open a dispute and dont close it no matter what the seller claims. Its their onus to get that item to you now.

techguy

Sure will. Just paid now so we'll see what happens.

Thanks for the advice