Seller charging £18 extra in "seller charges" on top of postage????

[SerendipityAlways]

I'm pretty experienced in ebay and encouraged my good friend to join eventually last week. She has just bought her first item and is very excited but was shocked when she received the invoice for the item which included an extra £18 in the "seller charges" part of the email, and this is on top of the cost of the item and quoted postage. The item is a dress so is pretty lightweight. The buyer is in Ireland, seller in the UK and she assumed the postage to IE would just be an extra couple of pounds for standard delivery. (Normally for items of this size I've paid about £5 postage with no problems whatsoever, and sellers are generally quite fair with postage charges.).
I have not seen the sellers email but have asked my friend to sent it on to me.

From looking at the sellers profile, she has only ever sold one item before herself and I'm just wondering is this some genuine mistake on her behalf as it is ludricous to charge £18 for postage to Ireland for a small light item!
I've asked friend to firstly not pay yet and to send a "polite" email to seller asking her to check was the invoice correct, or has she made a mistake as postage is normally much lower than that etc etc. and could she check what the actual postage cost for standard delivery to IE is.

If sellers comes back stating this is the extra postage (!!) then what are the options for the buyer? Can she rerfuse to pay on the basis that the postage costs are outlandish? She doesn't want a strike against her as she has not even gotten off the marks yet on ebay! I've never come across this before so not much help to her and hoping some of you very experienced MN ebayers can advise!

[catsareevil]

If the £18 wasnt known to her before she agreed to the purchase, then I think she is within her rights not to buy it, as it is outwith the original agreement.
She could also say that she will report the seller to ebay for fee avoidance.

[SerendipityAlways]

Thanks Cats! The £18 was cetainly not known to her before the purchase - but she was aware of the fact that she would need to pay a little extra on the postage, which was no problem! The postage on the item within the UK was £4 (which is in itself a bit pricey for non recorded delivery) and buyer knew she would be paying a little extra on top of that , but certainly not £18 extra!!

[catsareevil]

Hopefully the seller comes back realising that they have made a mistake. Ebay is very heavily weighted towards the buyer, so should be fine.
I think that at the very ebay would see trying to add an aditional £18 in postage as an attempt to avoid fees.

[TwoPeasOnePod]

I've had this on ebay before, an item I won for a few quid plus another few quid postage within the UK..With ten pounds additional charges surrepticiously added on at the end by the seller

I emailed the seller to ask what on earth the charge was for, and they replied in such a sheepish way that I am lead to believe it was added on in the hope I would either not check thoroughly whilst paying, or maybe miss the extra charge if paying for a few items at once...

They removed the charge and there were no further problems! Bloody cheeky though isn't it, I am sure I weas almost scammed

[SerendipityAlways]

Thank you!

[SerendipityAlways]

Two Peas - Thats what I thought also! Especially as the buyer is a newbie with a big fat (0) after her name, the seller may have thought that buyer would just pay the charges !! If so, how nasty!!

[PattySimcox]

That seller is having a laugh. Agree friend should ask if it is correct and not complete if the seller insists it is

[PigletJohn]

very important she should log in and look at Purchase History, the Item Description again, and look at the Postage, see all details. Click "Change Country" and "Get Rates"

(obviously it would have been better to read that before bidding but you say she is new to Ebay)

There might, or might not, be something about extra charges for despatch outside the UK, soi the seller might, or might not, be "trying it on"

[PigletJohn]

p.s.
I am usually put off bidding if I see there is an exhorbitant P&P in the ad. Sometimes it is for a very large or heavy item (I sometimes handle electricians' supplies) but one seller actually said it was a ploy to avoid Ebay Commission charges, and I should just look at the total cost including P&P, regardless of how it was made up.

[SerendipityAlways]

Thanks very much Piglet, I had a look a the sellers profile for her as she wouldn't have had a clue where to look! Seller has a profile of over 80 transactions, but has only ever sold one item, so I dont think shes very experienced herself and am hoping this is all a genuine mistake! Seller does not quote for postage outside the UK (which is not unusual) but neither has she set the buyer requirements to not allow for bids outside of the UK as buyer was able to bid for item. Seller did not specify in ad that she does not post outside of the UK

I know myself that in cases like this I always pop off an email in advance to the seller before I bid and ask them what the postage to IE would be and based on that I then make my decision as to whether to bid or not. As a newbie the buyer did not do this and just bid, naievely in this case, assuming that the seller would only add a couple of extra quid to the UK postage costs.
Still £18 extra is a bit cheeky!!!!!!

What should buyer do next if seller insists that the £18 is a valid extra charge - can someone give me speicfic links on ebay, does buyer need to open a case etc against the seller?

[fergoose]

Tell your friend to go to eBay live chat - the seller has no right to add the charges.

And make sure they leave a clear negative feedback too.

[PigletJohn]

AFAIK you would complain to Fleabay that the seller is trying to impose charges that were not specified in the advert. Should be open and shut case.

If however they claim that you should have known there would be an extra cost for out-of-country then you would go to saying any such charges must be fair and reasonable. If Fleabay complaints dept is in USA they might or might not grasp that within Europe you do not have to fill in customs declarations and pay a huge airmail cost for foreign countries.

At worst, your friend could just refuse to pay and ask the seller to cancel the sale. No-one can make her pay. She might have to close her account and open a new one later if the seller and fleabay think it's her fault.