Mumsnet Talk

I won a men's jacket for £5, with postage stated on the listing as £3.50. I thought fair enough, and paid as soon as I won. Within 8minutes of winning the item and paying I received this message:

Hi, thankyou so much for your bid for the jacket i went to post to you and the postage is £5.50 i underestemated the weight, would you like me to refund you the money or would you be able to paypal me the £2, really really sorry for this i know its my fault and i appologise, the jacket is all wrapped ready for posting,let me know what you think.

What would you do? I don't really want to pay anymore for it but would love the jacket as it would be a Xmas present.. So WWYD?

I'm trying to think what I'd say if the seller posted their story- probably tough if you've underestimated the weight. So I would see if you can stick to your guns and get them to post at original price.

Pay it and check the postage when you receive it. If it isn't as much as she said open a dispute

How do you check how much the postage was? That I could do.. Didn't even know you could!

I've made this mistake myself as I was a bit lazy and guessed at the postage instead of weighing the item. The seller needs to suck up the extra cost and learn from his mistake.

As a seller, I would take full responsibility of my mistake and post it anyway!

It'll be on the postage stamp/label on the parcel.

I would also be inclined to say sorry but you can't change the price after the auction ends. Otherwise we'd all be doing it. Best to tell her to suck it up this time and check her postage in future.

not your problem - email back as they had plenty of time to edit the listing & say you won fair & square. if they dont play ball - report to ebay :-)

the answer is no - the seller is not allowed to charge extra after the auction has ended. It is against the rules.

and if the postage is over estimated you can't open a dispute for being charged too much for postage

Seller can not charge you extra. Pay what you owe and that's it.

Great thanks - just had an email come through to my phone saying they had sent me a message but can't see one.. Will message her back again and say it is against the rules to ask for more once listing has ended. Thanks!

what did they say op? :-)

i would offer another 50p & suggest to seller they put it in double carrier bags & send with Collect Plus for £4.

true she messaged me saying she wasn't aware it was not allowed so would post it for listed price, then on the day it was sent she emailed me again to say that she had got my item and someone else's mixed up and theirs was the one she underestimated.. Received today checked postage label and was £3.50

hmph, makes you wonder about stunts people will pull :-\

I've just had one of these - where exactly does it say that a seller can't request more money after an auction has finished?

I'm torn between ignoring the request and emailing back suck it up, nobber a refusal.

forums.ebay.co.uk/question/Postage-Payments/Seller-Asking-Pay/1700108208

Thanks. Apparently it's been dispatched without me paying more, lets see if it turns up.

But that's a forum that Fergoose has linked to, it's content generated by a bunch of Ebay users, just like us. They're no more authoritative than we are.

Where does it say in official Ebay Corp guidance that Sellers can't ask for more to cover postage?

it will be in the ebay terms and conditions - you will have to google

that is the ebay forum btw, most knowledgeable place for answers

I think it may actually be in the Paypal user agreement, not in the Ebay T&C at all, especially not for Ebay.co.uk. Also it has to do with terms that must be complied with for "seller protection" (as if I think that really exists, anyway).

However there is perhaps a leeway to charge a "handling fee" in the Paypal T&C (I have encountered it often online, from other sellers who accept Paypal).

As an aside, how would you rate the authoritativeness of Ebay reviews, like this one?
That was only updated yesterday & says clearly that Sellers are allowed to add a "reasonable" amount to postage to cover some or all of fees. Same thing stated here (but that's ebay.com, not .co.uk). Reasonable handling charges allowed, % charge for Paypal not allowed.

you are not allowed to charge for paypal - ebay changed that years ago

If the seller was using eBay's postage calculator I can see how this happened. It shows a rate of £3.50 for packets over 750g, then slightly away from that it says not applicable over 1kg. I've gone to the post office with my £3.50 before now and found that the correct price for 1kg+ up to the next category is £5.50. Grrr

Mandy, that happened to me yesterday, was absolutely raging. I think my packaging took it just over so lesson learned there but would never have listed as £5.50 p&p, it was too excessive for the item I was selling.

I would think that everyone has made that mistake at some point- they just have to absorb the cost and learn from it. I once bought something that cost the person more to post than I paid in total- when I pointed it out she said that she had hoped I wouldn't notice she felt such a fool!

I don't charge postage any more because of estimating, and also the feed back- people never factor in packaging when they decide whether it is reasonable. I start it at a higher starting price to cover it and put 'post free'- no one can possibly say that it was anything other than reasonable that way! (I started doing it when EBay wouldn't let you charge the proper cost of posting a book.

Collect plus service is good for posting books for £3.99.

It does seem that the postage drastically jumps up to £5.50 with some items.

parcels upto 2kg are actually £5.30

1, you can add to postage costs to cover packing materials ie box/bag/bubble=wrap/ packing peanuts etc ( you can not charge for petrol or parking fees)

2. if and only if you are a business can you charge for time, as a business you could charge for petrol etc, but that would make your car a business vehicle and would have to be insured as such etc) this is how inland revenue would consider it any charge for time is income and therefore declarable whether you would pay tax or not depends on the amount but it has to be declared as income

no-one can add either ebay or paypal fees to postage charge, they must be covered by purchase price so your starting price must reflect this ( ebay and paypal rules)

you can only add the exact cost of signed for or insurance to postage so if parcel costs 2.20 to post and you charge 40p for packing so total charge is 2.60
( signed for option can not be more than 3.55 ie exactly the 95p signed for costs) ( again in ebay rules)