Anyone who sells on eBay – this one’s for you

[SuzieBishop]

So selling something on eBay and postage is set at £3.40 - buyer buys and messaged me asking if I will refund the difference of the postage as it is small and might go as a large letter so would only be £1.10.
I initially found this a bit cheeky as postage is normally set around £3.10 to £3.40-50 on most items on eBay. Yes I set it up £3.40 to make a bit of a profit.
I’ve sold a good few things and some have gone just £1.10 but no one has ever messaged me to ask for the money back. The postage is the postage and it says in your terms that there are no refunds. Is this person being cheeky? I can’t decide.
So my AIBU is should I refund it as they have the balls to ask (YABU) or say no and keep the profit (YANBU). Thanks!

Thing is you can wrap and weigh at home so its easy to id what postage will be and if a regular seller you will have a good idea anyway - postage should be set at what you think and if it does go cheaper then I will often do a payback F&F as well so they get all of it.

You’re not supposed to make a profit on postage, you’re totally in the wrong here

I only do cash on collection because I can’t be arsed with PayPal, postage blah blah
Blah

@GreyishDays

£3.40 postage for something that actually costs £1.10 is taking the piss. You can add the cost of the packaging, but not triple the cost.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

I charge what it costs to post, I recycle packaging so they aren't getting new envelopes.

If you want to charge more for the item then set your price accordingly.

I’m not sure.

Whatever you do with the request, this might be problem buyer and there could be other issues down the line so it could be easiest to cancel the transaction.

I agree that you are in the wrong with your postage costs though. Make a profit on the item instead. It’s justifiable if it’s a signed for parcel with fast delivery, but not a bog standard stamp!

It would be a no from me

I had a high rate of this CF a few years back so started putting on my ads "please bid with my Postage and packaging costs in mind, I will not lower postage unless you are collecting in person at a mutually convenient, pre-arranged time. These costs include RM tracked postage and all packaging, I do not reuse old wrapping."
I got no more rubbish after that.

[quote SuzieBishop]@GreyishDays but o haven’t sent it yet so I don’t know how much it’ll cost though - I personally don’t think it will go as £1.10 as it has a fair bulky bits on it. I’m not out to take the piss and would never triple the price of something!! Just had to reply to your comment there![/quote]
You need to estimate postage correctly before you list it

[quote SuzieBishop]@gretagreengrapes yes this I must agree with - eBay sets it for you at £3.10 so nobody really would then set it lower because then you’re actually losing out on money![/quote]
@SuzieBishop I often set the postage lower, I sold loads of lightweight summer clothes and set the postage charges to what it would actually cost to post items (estimated using kitchen scales).

You have gone to the trouble of setting it higher than the default so you know it can be changed so can't even plead ignorance for you CFery.
Glad you are refunding the difference now.

Make a guide at home out of cardboard if you need.

@ReviewingTheSituation I agree! I’m hardly charging £5 for postage - now that would definitely be taking the piss!

My postage doesn't set automatically. I don't want it to.

It's cheeky. Very occasionally, I have managed to send something as a small parcel £3.10 when I would have thought it would have been a medium parcel £5.20. However in bidding, the has already agreed to pay the amount of postage you are charging, so it would be my genuinely unintentional gain. When Ebay first started, you were only charged commission on the price of the item and not the postage, so many sellers charged excessive postage, but that has now changed. It is not up to the buyer to suggest how much it will be, you often only know once you have made up the parcel. I always try to be realistic about the postage rather than charging extra but I most definitely wouldn't refund if I've got it wrong; nobody has ask so far and neither have I when I have been charged sometimes considerably more than the postage costs. Someone who asks is likely to be trouble so I certainly wouldn't agree.

I absolutely wouldn't refund, they knew the price beforehand and are trying to back you into a corner! If I get any queries I mentioned I also have to travel to the post office which in my case costs £x amount on the bus/car/tram, most trustworthy users fully understand this and wouldn't try to change the agreement last min.

YABU, you’re not meant to profit on postage. If you want more money, list it for more. You're the CF charging 3 times what it costs you

Thank you @PurpleFrames and @CecilyP.
I just had a wee gander on eBay just to see so there is a lot at £3.10 fair enough but a lot of £3.30’s and even some £3.95’s and £4.99’s so I’m definitely not a piss taker!!
And I searched for age 2-3 pyjamas before anyone points out it could be a larger item!

Dh sells things on FB, and he always goes for the free postage option, and sets the start price to cover the minimum he wants for the item plus what he estimates the postage will be. This eliminates your problem, @SuzieBishop.

If I am bidding on something on ebay, I roll the postage cost into what I am prepared to pay - if I am happy that the item is a bargain when I've taken the postage into consideration, I'm happy. I don't think I've ever looked at the actual postage on an item I've received, and compared it to the postage cost given on the listing.

@lockupyourcinammon I’m not charging 3 times what it would cost me - if you had taken the time to read above I said I don’t think it will go as a large letter as there are parts on it which will bulk out the package. If I was charging three times the amount then the postage would be £9 something.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius I do this aswell - I take into account what the postage is set at and if I thought it was set as too much I wouldn’t bid on the item. I certainly wouldn’t bid on the item and then ask for a refund once I had won it.

I buy and sell on eBay and wouldn't buy something with higher than expected postage. Not suggesting you are doing that BTW!
You can buy a postal size guide thing on eBay. I always check my parcel sizes and weights so postage is accurate. I buy all postage through eBay which means it is a bit cheaper anyway and cuts down the faffing at the post office. I recycle pretty much all my packaging for eBay so no packing costs really.

Postage costs more than the stamp. There’s the cost of packing materials and don’t forget that eBay charge a % on the total amount that the buyer pays, so if you charge £1.10 you’ve probably got 95p after fees and you’ve had to package the item too

I think she is being cheeky. I buy lots on eBay and I decide the most I am willing to pay including postage.
So if I’m willing to pay £20 and the postage is £3 I will bid £17. If the postage was set at £8 I would only bid £12. Surely most people do that?
When you buy from any online shop the postage does not necessarily reflect the actual cost. (Here’s looking at you QVC who charged me £4.99 postage which came in a small envelope that would have cost no more than 65p)

Thanks all - i am genuinely not a piss taker!! Just was very interested in whether the buyer was a CF and definitely don’t agree with the folks that think I am! I will refund on this occasion but had never thought about it before with those people that are saying that the packaging and getting to the post office takes time! Definitely something I will keep in mind in future if this ever happens again.

@Fairyliz very annoying when that happens! I was going to buy a small cardboard Christmas Eve box on Etsy today and she wanted £4.95 for the postage so I swiftly removed that from my basket!

The postage isn’t just for what you pay to send it

It’s for the petrol getting there. It’s for your time. It’s for the envelope.

Drives me crazy when people say but it only cost £2.40 to send it!

It’s for the whole thing. So £3.40 is perfectly fine.

I have been ebaying since almost the beginning, and luckily can count on one hand the CFs.

I agree that if someone starts haggling and creating problems, then that spells trouble. You have to give in, and chalk it up to experience, otherwise they give negative feedback. The last troublemaker took a week to pay, then decided they wanted to return the item, and then said they'd keep it as it was damaged (yeah, right) if I refunded the money. Unless you're losing ££££ just take it on the chin and chalk it up to experience.

I agree that ebay like to set the postage, usually at £3.10. Some I've lost, some I've won, but no one has complained. I always send out immediately, and that seems to please buyers.

@Smallsteps88

I always thought postage was to cover postage, packaging and time/expense to go and post it.

Remember that you get a fee on your P&P as well as your final sale price. For example, I charged £2.50 on a blouse and the ebay fee for that alone was 25p.