AIBU about Amazon P&P charges?

[LaDolceRyVita]

Ok, so here's the thing.

My son's collecting Disney Pixar Diecast Cars, the ones from the movie. He's autistic and when he starts a collection, he has to collect EVERYTHING from beginning to end! So now, he has all but one and it's been very expensive. Years ago, you could buy these in Tesco for £3.99 but in 2011, they cost an arm and a leg.

The only way of getting them has been on Ebay or Amazon. Here's what I don't get.... I would pay say, £12 for the actual car (fine) and then postage would be £4.62. Last week I bought 3 cars and so that meant postage amounted to just under £15. The items arrived in a small bubble envelope (clearly reused) with a postage amount of £2.68 on it!!

Makes me cross and I just don't get it!

Of course, you could argue that if you want it, you have to pay for it but seems like a rip off to me, from the postage viewpoint.

My DS collects these and I am sure they are £3.99 or close to in Asda. Obviously not helpful if you do not live near an Asda!

Oh and YANBU. :)

£4.62 isn't just for the envelope and the postage, it's for getting into the car and going into town and paying for parking and standing in the overheated post office while old ladies have a chat about their pensions with the person behind the counter and stressing that you didn't put enough money on the parking meter and running back to your car in the rain and accidentally stepping in a puddle in your new and definitely-not-waterproof shoes.

Leave feedback. On eBay there are detailed ratings (stars) for p&p charges I think, and there is feedback for sellers on amazon too, but I haven't left any so I don't know if you can rate the p&p charges there.

It is annoying, and certainly over estimating in some cases.

YANBU I had an email conversation with Amazon customer services about the same thing. I received a very small and light item in a used bubble wrap bag with 2nd class postage on it and had paid £4.62 P&P. In the end they stopped replying to me, which is great customer service .

The cost of the item should cover your time and any inconvenience, not the standard P&P charge.

Is there really nowhere else you can look for the cars? Have you tried appealing on MN? Someone might have one to swap.

Yeah but £15 is excessive. I know as much because I sold 3 of them after DS got duplicates for xmas and it cost me the princely sum of £3.40 to send them. So where did fifteen notes come from?!

Mine was Amazon Marketplace but the P&P was a standard cost that was set by Amazon.

Have you tried the disney store? Online they have the complete set (although this is probably not helpful if you have already started the collection!) I know they are pricey but if you add together all the p & p costs of individual cars vs the little bit of extra cost from the disney store it could work out cheaper. I know they sell a ' mac' transporter that has the whole collection included.
Hth

Try play.com they don't charge postage on anything.

When I sold things through Amazon, they took a slice of the P&P fee. Not sure if this is the case now, but if it is so, it might mean that you've been charged £4.62 for P&P, but the vendor has been paid £3.80 or something. Amazon also charged a fee for the sale on top of this.

Amazon and ebay are different.

Ebay, you're not supposed to overcharge on postage. They take their % from the final sale value. And listings can be removed if the postage is excessive.

Amazon take something from the P&P and sale price.

So the seller would have likely taken into consideration the amount they wanted to make & set the sale price and postage accordingly.

If you buy several items from one seller, ask in advance if they give a P&P discount for multiple purchases.

Postage Costs are set by Amazon aren't they? its something like £2.70 for Books, which is Crazy, as some text books cost more in the region of £7+ to post, but Amazon say you're meant to adjust the price to accommodate the postage cost.

Find out who the UK importer was for them and ask if they are still importing and buy the whole set in bulk.
I think they are made by Mattel, they are like hotwheels? Toy shops might be able to order them in for you?
(I wouldn't like to comment on how many "sets" of things I have collected over the years)

Ahh, wish I'd consulted MN BEFORE buying (all but one) this collection. Only one more to get now...

Thanks for all the advice, though. Will definitely leave feedback. I'm aware that the seller has to schlep to and from the Post Office, and stand in line and all that.....but still, it seems a lot to me.

its like Jude said, postal charges are set by amazon not by the seller, so leaving bad feedback is not really fair

Please don't leave Amazon sellers negative feedback - they can't help 'overcharging'!

Postage costs are fixed. Unchangeable. You can't discount for buying more than one item (not easily as far as I can tell anyway). Amazon does charge a fee (not on the postage specifically), so the seller will take into account the money they get for postage to see how much profit they can make from the overall sale.

and surely you agreed to pay the postal charges when you bought the cars? It does give you a total many times during the checkout process.

Ok, good point!

Am relieved we have the full set now. Until the next movie comes out in the summer, that is!