I bought 2 items from same seller. The more expensive item had free postage, the other had a small postage charge (large letter money). I sent a polite message requesting a combined invoice and that if it was possible to send the items together to please do so and waive the second postage charge unless it would cost more to post then the free postage item would cost any way or if it wasn't possible to do because they were packaged separately.
I sell a bit too and if someone bought two items and i sent together I would combine postage, unless it made it more expensive - then i'd contact buyer, explain and charge the actual extra if less than original postage or original postage if same or more. If I didn't send together I would do separate postage. Regardless I would reply to a message from the buyer and explain.
The seller did not reply to my message. A few days later my items arrived in the same parcel but the seller charged the extra postage - despite it not costing extra to mail.
I left a positive for the larger item and a neutral for the one with postage charged. I did it same day so it won't affect her rating. In the comments I put item sent combined but no postage reduction and no comms from seller. Tbh it was the not even bothering to reply that annoyed me.
A few days later seller sent me this message:
I hope you don't mind me contacting you about your recent purchase from me of a X and Y, but I am a little confused about why you left me neutral feedback.
You said I charged you postage for both items though sent them together.
Well, yes, that's true, I sent them together, as the X was postage free to you anyway! The Y had a 95p postage charge, so in all honesty, the postal cost to me to send them was still much more than you paid.
I apologise for not replying to your message about combining postage charges, but in all honesty, this was because one was postage-free anyway!
I really hope this clears up any misunderstanding.
So was ibu to leave a neutral? It she had replied and said "sorry they have to go separately as pre-packaged" or "sorry the extra weight will make it more expensive then postage for just X" I would have left a positive. Not sure what i would have done if she'd said tough. Probably cancelled Y and bought the better quality and slightly cheaper similar item I found from another couple of sellers.
Seller has almost 2000 positive feedback ratings, a handful of neg and neutral ratings if that makes any difference. Most non-positive relate to not communicating.