Seller refusing to combine postage

[rowyourboat]

I've won 7 baby items from a seller who is refusing to combine postage based on the fact she is new to ebay (she has feedback of 131) and is juggling a newborn baby. I realise I have to pay as I should have checked with her prior to bidding, my mistake, but what feedback should I leave? Can I leave neutral or negative, or should I give positive feedback but mention her refusal to combine?

Also, is she obliged to pack up the seven items separately if she refuses to combine? Surely this will be more time-consuming for her than amending the invoice?

Whilst I am sympathetic, I was new to ebay once and I also have a young baby, I feel she is being a little unreasonable. She says she's juggling a newborn but it seems she has the time to list a great many items for sale.

Thanks for any advice.

[TrilllianAstra]

She is obliged to send you the items in exchange for the amount of money agreed.

That's it, as far as I know.

The newborn baby thing is a red herring, she could refuse to combine the postage costs "because I don't want to" and you'd be in the same situation.

[TechLovingDad]

What's the newborn got to do with anything? She'll still have to wrap them won't she?

[Indith]

When you give feedback you can rate the postage costs so if it arrives parceled together and the postage is much less than you've been charged just give her a low score on that front. It could be that she has bought the boxes/padded envelopes ahead of time so has already paid out most of her money for postage, hell if she was trying to be really efficient with a new baby should could already have paid ofr and printed off postage labels.

[bumpybecky]

is she refuses to combine but sends them together I'd leave negative feedback

otherwise I might leave neutral, depends if the items were exactly as described or not, she'd have lost any leeway with me, so they'd have to be prefect to get a positive

is it just that she can't work out how to combine? or does she want the extra £££? is the first, then give instructions :)

[DuelingFanjo]

my mum won't combine postage because it means if one thing goes missing inthe post, they all do.

[rowyourboat]

Thanks for your replies. I'll see what the total postage is when it arrives and whether it's been packed together or individually. If it's one parcel, the postage amount will sure to be excessive for 7 small baby items. I accept I bid without checking beforehand so a lesson learnt .

Dueling Fanjo, I see your point about items going missing if the seller intends to parcel them up individually.

And Indith may well be right about the seller having already packed everything for efficiency reasons. Fair enough, it would be something I might do. I guess I'll just leave feedback based on the quality of them items and perhaps leave a low score for postage.

[fergoose]

if she refuses to combine the postage then she has to send them all in separate parcels - tell her that everything needs to be in separate parcels before you pay her.

I think she is being very awkward to be honest - how much is she charging postage per item?

Just seems very greedy.

[rowyourboat]

She's charging £2 per item, which isn't at all unreasonable. But a total of £14 seems high for 7 small items of baby clothing I think.

[fergoose]

Yes, it does seem very high

Tell her that she needs to send them all separately, and pay for each one separately (ie untick the box which says pay all my sellers at once, and pay each one at a time with a separate payment). If she combines then it is all one parcel, and one payment which saves her on paypal fees.

If she says she is sending them all in one parcel for £14 then i would refuse to pay, as that is clearly fee avoidance. You can report her for that also.

[sixlostmonkeys]

point out to her that by refusing to combine you will have to pay for each item separately and they will incur fees for each item - and that she will then need to send them in separate parcels because if she sends them all as one a mischievious buyer could claim that 6 items haven't been received.

[LawrieMarlow]

I recently had a transaction where I asked the seller if they could combine postage before I bid. She said yes. Then when I had bought the items I checked and she said if there was any difference she would refund it to me.
She sent the 6 items in two parcels and charged me about £12 for £7.50 postage. She then said I needed to take into account the petrol cost for her and the materials and that I shouldn't have expected any reduction. Couldn't really be bothered to continue arguing and did give positive feedback but marked her down on the postage cost.

[ConstantlyCooking]

Is she worried because she is not sure what the postage will be?
Recently a buyer bought two items from me and asked about combining postage. I replied that I wasn't sure what the postage would be as packing the items together might change the package from a large letter to a small package. I asked her to pay the full amount and said I would refund the difference between the amount paid and the actual cost. She accepted this and I put the refund through once I got back from the post office.

[saoirse86]

I have a very similar issue to the OP. I've bought 3 items and the total postage would be £9 but as they are 3 pairs of baby shoes I have weighed similar shoes I already have and worked out that the postage will cost the seller £2.61, maybe £3.15 if she uses lots of packaging. She hasn't actually refused to combine postage but ignored 3 requests for a total invoice and then invoiced for £3 more than they would cost separately.

We haven't resloved this at all yet and I haven't paid as I'm waiting for her to actually say she won't combine postage. I'll do that paying separately and saying she needs to send them separately if necessary.

If she does send them together and has charged way over the odds for it, how do I report that?

[IslaValargeone]

While it might appear greedy or awkward, surely unless the seller states that they are willing to combine, then they are under no obligation to do so.
I think it would be unfair to leave negative feedback if everything else is in order.If you don't like what they charge then don't bid.

[aswellasyou]

But you're not allowed to profit from P&P costs. If she does send them in one package, she will have profited by a significant amount. I wouldn't be impressed but I suppose there's not a lot you can do if she sends them all seperately.

[IslaValargeone]

Isn't the idea of not profiting from postage costs based on the idea of not selling an item at a ridiculously low price, but charging £25 postage for example and circumventing fees etc? rather than the seller 'losing out' just because one person has decided to buy loads of items rather than multiple buyers.
I just think that these queries should be raised before the transaction is completed rather than a seller receive negative feedback from a disgruntled buyer just because they think something isn't fair.

[fergoose]

it is fee avoidance and greed in my opinion

a seller who refuses to combine always loses me as a customer

[exoticfruits]

I just send everything postage free these days and adjust the price to cover it. It is a disadvantage in that it raises the listing fee, but it cuts all the hassle. I don't think she is obliged to do anything other than what she stated.Maybe she has them wrapped and ready to go.

[IslaValargeone]

I don't disagree with you, however I always read the small print as it were, and do me hagglin' before the sale.
I just think leaving negative feedback if everything is sold as described etc is unfair that's all.

[aswellasyou]

saoirse hasn't said she'll leave negative feedback. I suppose it depends how she sends the items. The seller wouldn't be 'losing out' by combining postage on multiple purchases. In fact, I find it easier. You only need one lot of packaging, one address label, one item to weigh/price at the PO and one proof of postage to hold on to. Anyone who doesn't do it is clearly trying to profit from the extra P&P charges to the buyer. There's no excuse for it except if they charge a little extra if they had already packaged the items and have to repackage them in one parcel.

[IslaValargeone]

The original poster suggested she could leave negative feedback as the seller was refusing to combine postage.

[exoticfruits]

When I have been asked to combine I have done so (always being helpful) but it has been a pain as the parcels were already packed and it means using more paper-something many buyers don't equate in when assessing the postage fees. This is why I just post free-it avoids all this sort of thing. You can't leave negative feedback when seller is just doing what she said she would do IMO.

[exoticfruits]

The moral of the story is ask before you bid.

[saoirse86]

Isla the seller isn't "losing out" unless they intended to profit from the postage. By combining postage what they should be doing is adding the cost of postage and packaging for the items together. That would be the cost of postage for the whole package plus any packaging they may have used (but probably haven't because very few people package beforehand for this reason) and any packaging needed for the whole package.

Anyway, I've had an email back from my seller saying I won the items too cheaply and so she wouldn't combine postage. That is really quite clear to anyone that she's profitting from postage. I just paid them individually and said she can send them individually. I'll see what the items are like but she's at least getting a neutral for being so unnecessarily rude to me in her emails.

It annoys me that there are people doing things like that to get around fees when people like me are always sticking to the rules. I even make people pay by paypal when they're collecting so it's all above board.

[fergoose]

I agree with everything you have said - except for letting collecting buyers pay by paypal - as a seller you should only accept cash for collection otherwise you are leaving yourself wide open to chargebacks from unscrupulous buyers.