Describing a product on ebay.

MyKeyG

Are there regulations against claiming prices on ebay or any similar site? I made a bid on a product before I noticed that it wasn't available for postage to ROI. Yer man cancelled the bid but just out of curiosity I checked to see what it went for which was £106. Now he claimed in the description that it was retailing on on-line sellers for £120 but every site I checked is £99.

I'm not saying it was an intentional deception and I'm not looking to start a debate on whose responsibility it is to check prices because I think the onus is on the buyer to check the best deal but officially is there any regulation against claiming what price other sites do a product for?

allthedoyles

No , not at all - Its not a regulation , but good sales/marketing techniques .

Think of it this way :

A Wholesaler supplies goods to many retail outlets . - It is up to each retail outlet to set their prices and maximise their profits .

Which is why , you will find a bottle of Coke for instance , may be €1.20 in one retail outlet , - € 1.60 in another and possibly €1.79 in another .

So its up to each individual eBayer to get the best price possible for his item . -

That is what auction selling is all about .

MyKeyG

allthedoyles wrote: »

No , not at all - Its not a regulation , but good sales/marketing techniques .

Think of it this way :

A Wholesaler supplies goods to many retail outlets . - It is up to each retail outlet to set their prices and maximise their profits .

Which is why , you will find a bottle of Coke for instance , may be €1.20 in one retail outlet , - € 1.60 in another and possibly €1.79 in another .

So its up to each individual eBayer to get the best price possible for his item . -

That is auction selling is all about .

Yes but it's against the law for say Tesco to say Dunnes sell a bottle of coke for €1.79 when they actually sell it for €1.50. That's really my issue. It's at the sellers discretion to set a sale price sure but to erroneously claim competitors sell it at a particular price when they don't is the issue.

allthedoyles

Ask to have this moved to consumer issues , and you will receive a better response .

Tesco do have matching Aldi prices beside their price labels .- I saw them tonight .

So if Aldi drop their price , does this mean that Tesco are breaking the law ?

MyKeyG

allthedoyles wrote: »

Ask to have this moved to consumer issues , and you will receive a better response .

Tesco do have matching Aldi prices beside their price labels .- I saw them tonight .

So if Aldi drop their price , does this mean that Tesco are breaking the law ?

Yes they have to change the signs which is why a lot of the signs have a space to change the prices with marker or slots to change price tags. If you make a price comparison the onus is on you to make sure the information is up to date!

jor el

MyKeyG wrote: »

Yes but it's against the law for say Tesco to say Dunnes sell a bottle of coke for €1.79 when they actually sell it for €1.50.

Making a claim that a particular retailer charges one price, when they in fact charge a lower price is one thing, but saying that an item you're selling is available elsewhere for a higher price, without specifying where you're referring to, is completely different. An eBay seller that claims to be selling cheaper than other places is not breaking any law or guideline.

When it comes to eBay anyway, the law means squat.

MyKeyG

jor el wrote: »

Making a claim that a particular retailer charges one price, when they in fact charge a lower price is one thing, but saying that an item you're selling is available elsewhere for a higher price, without specifying where you're referring to, is completely different. An eBay seller that claims to be selling cheaper than other places is not breaking any law or guideline.

When it comes to eBay anyway, the law means squat.

Fair enough, I suppose that's my answer. Just seems open to abuse IMO. I expected a regulation prohibiting claiming a product is so much somewhere else in general.

I'm actually new to online buying.

BengaLover

Some sellers have in their ad title the words 'cheapest on ebay', when in actual fact, they arent, it pays to shop around even when you think you are getting a good deal - an example lately was a seller selling an item I wanted, his ad said he was the cheapest on ebay, at 49.99 BUT postage cost to Ireland was 20.00!
Another seller sold the same item for 59.99 with postage of 7.99 - go figure..

MyKeyG

BengaLover wrote: »

Some sellers have in their ad title the words 'cheapest on ebay', when in actual fact, they arent, it pays to shop around even when you think you are getting a good deal - an example lately was a seller selling an item I wanted, his ad said he was the cheapest on ebay, at 49.99 BUT postage cost to Ireland was 20.00!
Another seller sold the same item for 59.99 with postage of 7.99 - go figure..

In that case though I don't think there was a problem. The postage price is at the discretion of the postal service not the seller. In this case his product was the cheapest on ebay.

A Dub in Glasgo

MyKeyG wrote: »

In this case his product was the cheapest on ebay.

No it was not, his was 69.99 whereas the other one was 67.98

MyKeyG

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

MyKeyG wrote: »

In this case his product was the cheapest on ebay.

No it was not, his was 69.99 whereas the other one was 67.98

No it wasn't! The sale price excludes postage. He did nothing wrong. Technically his was cheaper. In this case both the buyer and the seller are the victim of a bigger postage quote.

rubadub

MyKeyG wrote: »

The postage price is at the discretion of the postal service not the seller.

The seller does decide on the postal cost for his auction. More often than not it is higher than the actual postal costs, it includes packing too.

It is against the rules to set very high postage costs, but it happens all the time, so no point ignoring the fact.

MyKeyG wrote: »

No it wasn't! The sale price excludes postage.

And this is why most people ignore the sale price and are only interested in the combined post & sale price, as thats what they have to pay. On ebay.com and .co.uk you can sort your auction searches by the combined price. ebay.ie is still missing this blindingly obvious search option.

I explained some reasons for fake high postage costs before.

rubadub wrote: »

If you postage really is €5 on an item, and you quote €105 all you have done is cover yourself on postage, and in effect created an opening bid of €100. i.e. if somebody bids €1 they really bid €101.

This cuts out paypals profits. When you sell on ebay you have to pay ebay a percentage of the selling price, BUT THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE POSTAGE.

So say ebay take 4% of the selling price. So in my example above if I quoted €5 to cover myself, I would have to have an opening bid of €104.17 to make the same profit, since ebay will take ~4% of that €104.17 reducing it to €100. So if I "mask" it in the postage they get nothing. So I and more importantly (and often not realised) THE BUYER both benefit.

This is why I search for high postage, I know that if there are 2 sellers buying from the same supplier and working on the same margin then the high postage one can offer it cheaper. In fact I have often found the same seller doing this with mulitple buyitnow auctions, he sells the same stuff on 2 auctions and the higher postage one is cheaper.

A Dub in Glasgo

MyKeyG wrote: »

No it wasn't! The sale price excludes postage. He did nothing wrong. Technically his was cheaper. In this case both the buyer and the seller are the victim of a bigger postage quote.

Good luck trying to buy something off an online shop that charges P&P and demanding to get it for the pre P&P price. There is no technically about it, it is a fact that £67.98 is cheaper than £69.99