To leave neutral ebay feedback due to p&p charges

[chickenfortea]

I bought some trousers for DD just after christmas, the postage was quoted as £2.50. They arrived fairly quickly and in good condition.
They were wrapped in one of the plastic self seal postage back and the postage paid was 65p.
I sent an email to the seller to advise of my proposed feedback and have had a response to say I shouldn't have bid and that it has to cover her time to go to the post office.
AIBU to expect P&P to be a vague reflection of the cost of postage and packing?
Should it give her extra for her time??

I've only sold one item on Ebay which I sent recorded delivery as they were concert tickets (the buyer gave me lovely feedback as well) but I've sold quite a few books via Amazon. It's suprisingly hard to estimate postage and packaging does cost money - I sold some books for almost cost or even at a loss sometimes as I didn't realise how heavy they were even sending them parcel post.

In this case, I'd let it go or use the system other people have described but if you got a good deal out of it, does it matter?

I had this P&P was a fiver and when parcel arrived in reused plastic bag the postage cost was about 98p.

I thought thats like £4 extra profit on an item I only paid £10 total for. I always put my P&P at what it costs so it did p me off a bit.

Cant remember what feedback I left but it probably wasnt the best

YABU - Sadly it is very common though attitude.

I charge exactly the cost of the postage and the packaging and not a penny more and I still get rated down on the star ratings. Do people really expect me to pay their postage costs for them? Obviously they do.

You knew what it was when you bid - too late to quibble about it afterwards. If I think I could send a package for much less than the person listing and I am not happy with that, I don't bid. Simple.

Its a toughie tbh - I don't actually agree with people charging for their time and bus fares, the hassle of lugging a buggy around etc to post things - I think for the vast majority of people when they decide to ebay something that is something that they should take into consideration....if its SUCH a hassle for them to post the item, then maybe they should consider whether selling via ebay is for them rather than NCT sales or car boot sales etc which may be less "hassle" for them. I also doubt for the vast majority of them even if they have to take a bus to the post office, I doubt posting my item is the only bit of business they are doing at the shops that day, and frankly I'm against me personally subsidising their shopping trips.

There are also a LOT of items that are sold on ebay that don't require a trip to the post office - dvds, cds, and a large amopunt of childrens clothes will fit in a normal post box - print out the postage online at the post office website (which will also give you an accurate price that the item will cost prior to listing), and no trip to the post office is required - just pop it in the postbox when you pass.

On the odd occassion that I sell something on ebay (and the reason I don;t sell more is because of the huge pfaff I find it to take the photos and write the listings), I ALWAYS charge the amount it will cost me to post (gleaned in advance from the post office website). I generally use recycled packaging, or if its a dvd or a cd, a normal envelope picked up in packs of 25 or 50 at the pound shop and the supermarket (and frankly I don;t have space in my life to start charging people 4p or 2p to cover the envelope). I always say in my listings this is the case and I hope that when people are comparing my listings with the listing of other sellers that they will bid on mine rather than theirs because they know I'm not trying to fleece them for extra money, or for money that I'm avoiding paying fees on (ebay fees aren't charged on p&p).

On the whole, when I buy from ebay, I factor the amount of the P&p into whether I bid or not - esp on children's clothes where sometimes you can be paying a small amount for an item, but the p&p can really bump it up. A top might be a bargain at £2, but when it actually costs £4.50 with £2.50 p&p then its not a bargain.

YABVU

As everyone's said, you agreed to the costs when you bought it.

ebay says in their help section that you can charge for the actual postage, packaging materials plus a "handling fee".

I buy much more than I sell and if I'm not prepared to pay the P&P specified, I don't buy it. It's totally reasonable for him/her to add a bit for the time they spent buying the packaging, wrapping it up, going to the post office, queueing up to post it, filling out proof of postage receipt etc. Why should they do all that for you for free???

I sell on ebay and 1 large jiffy bag from the local post office cost me 1.45 that's without printing off a receipt and postage. I never make much (unless I post from work and don't have to pay !!) I always add the postage to the price of the item I am buying, if it still seems like a good deal I will buy it , if not I'll shop around.

Bathsheba - in our town it's highly likely that someone will have taken the bus just to get to the post office, with just 3 in our town, one on the northern edge, one on the western edge and the main one in the town centre, they've closed at least 4 smaller post offices that I know of in the last few years.

In fact the house I'm moving to - unless you drive (and if you don't car boot sales and NCT sales often a little difficult, especially the former of the two) the only way to get to the post office is the bus - unless you have a very large burst of energy and a lot of time.

When I'm selling stuff on ebay I quite frequently go to town (to the main post office) as my ONLY thing to do in town.

And you use normal envelopes to post CD's - remind me not to buy a CD from you - as it'd almost certainly be cracked by the time it go to me

we don't have NCT around here. it's a rural area. you have to drive to post offices just to get to a box.

but somehow sellers are supposed to do all this for free?

no wonder so many are put off selling there anymore.

sounds like a lot of buyers have a really bad attitude and would niggle someone over a measure of milk in their tea.

I don't blame the seller. I have tried in the past to keep my p&p costs to the exact cost of the stamps, only to find that the parcel ends up weighling slightly more and I have to pay more, or my sellotape runs out and I have to buy some more, or some more packaging, or I need to use the car to go to the PO, or it takes me half a day to sort out the weighing, wrapping and labelling, or (and this is the one that really stings) I have forgotten paypal will take fees or miscalculated ebay's fees. I have ended up making something like 26p for a decent item of clothing.

Now I work out the cost of postage add on fees, and then add on a bit more just to be sure I am not going to end up with such a measly amount of money.

If I had been your seller, I would not have charged £2.50, but I can understand why she might have done.

I agree with those who say I would not have bid for the item in the first place if the cost of p&p already made the item more expensive than I wanted to pay for it.

I've just paid £4.95 postage for a jumper, when it arrived there was a stamp on there for 54p... it does leave a bad taste in your mouth. I don't see how that markup can be justified.
Haven't left feedback yet, just weighing up what to do. I think I'll leave positive feedback with one star for p&p charges and leave the rest blank.

YABU you knew the postage when you bid .
Also you don`t know what costs the seller incurred . Maybe she had to take a bus to the nearest PO , surely she is entitled to have the costs covered.

if you feel that strongly about it email the seller and say you felt the postage was steep - they might email you and explain the cost or they might agree and refund you a proportion. If your think its really worth it for £1 you maniac.

fwiw you entered into a contract when you bid and don't have a leg to stand on

Also would agree that it is very difficult to estimate postage, or maybe I am just useless !
In April I sold 75 items via Ebay - all lovely clothes that my daughter had grown out of. Some of the nicer items even achieved really good prices, I was looking forward to having some cash to put towards my summer holidays .
After Ebay charges and postage I made a loss of 36.00 pounds (and that does not include fuel charges to cover the numerous trips to the PO ).
A full weeks work of listing , packing and sending that cost me - DH still laughs at that venture.
I pass her clothes to a charity shop now !

Most of the items I sell start with a list price of about 99p so I always add £1 onto what I estimate the postage will be - partly towards tram fare, partly so I am not actually left losing money after ebay and paypal fees. If an item that started out listed for 99p goes for £15 or something I will sometimes post it for free if the seller asks (or in one case I offered as the buyer bought two items, one for £30 and one for an amazing £75 and I didn't at all mind paying £10 postage out of that).
I always quote a postage price for recorded delivery and will sometimes reduce postage costs if the buyer wants it sent standard delivery, though I state clearly that if the item does get eaten by the post office in this case there will be no refund (ie I will send it at the cheaper, less safe option at the buyer's risk).
Next time don't buy stuff if you're frightened that someone might actually make a 50p profit out of you.

You knew what the postage cost was before bidding, If you recieved the item in good time and good condition I don't see what the problem is. As others have said it isn't just the stamp price it's also packaging and travel costs.
YABU.

UABU

What Nekabu said

YABU.It is sometimes difficult to estimate the exact postage and packing of an item being sold. Aslo the postage includes the packing.

Yes YABU I think. It's a bit unfair to let P&P affect your feedback becausde (a) you know what P&P cost is before you bid and (b) you say the item arrived quickly and in good condition.

Sellers are allowed to charge for packaging materials, petrol to get to the Post Office and their time.

I think anything up to £3 is pretty OK, especially when you consider that most mail order companies charge at least £4.50.