seller agreed to combined postage but its still high, help me negotiate

[pinkandred]

Hi, I bought 3 items from the same seller (they are only childrens t-shirts so no weight to them). They each had £3 postage. I asked her to combine postage and she has reduced it to £7.95.

Now I sell fairly regularly on ebay and I know that what I have bought will come in at less than £3 for 2nd class delivery. I think this is greedy but what do I do. Do I try to negotiate before paying or let her send the items to me and look at how much she paid then ask for a partial refund on the basis that she has way overcharged me.

crows - who said I was a pita. I messaged her 1 hour before the bidding ended saying that I'd bid on a few of her items and asked if she would consider combining postage. She didn't respond until the end of the auction when she messaged me to say she will combine. However, a few hours later she then messaged me to say she had sent them recorded delivery. The auction said it was 2nd class delivery. I would never agree to pay over the odds for recorded delivery for a few cheap t-shirts.

the seller needs to send with a signature to qualify for seller protection - can't RM redeliver it to you?

Another who takes postage costs into account when bidding. If I think they're too high I leave it although I'd always ask for combined postage if I bought several things from the same seller.

She is actually allowed to add on "handling charges" under ebay rules although ebay don't specify what these include.

And I'd send an awkward buyer's goods by recorded delivery too these days. Way too easy for buyers to make fraudulent claims and win.

Chive, why does enquiring about combined postage make someone an awkward buyer?

If I get buyers bidding on more than one of my items I just lump them all together and more often than not (especially with children's clothing) it hardly makes any difference.

Its hard to define the situation really, a sellers opinion of the situation would be an awkward buyer but a buyers opinion of the situation would be that its a greedy seller.

What about the bit where you asked her to further reduce the postage costs, pinkandred? You said in the OP that she reduced the postage to £7.95 for you, and later said she had reduced it again to £5.50.

Asking for a further reduction when she had already combined postage for you could be seen as being a pita by the seller, hence her sending the items recorded delivery to avoid any further problems.

It makes no difference whether you think the items should be sent recorded delivery - she had reduced the postage twice for you already, so wasn't going to charge you any less than £5.50, regardless of how she sent it, so it was her decision.

Enquiring about combining postage doesn't make you an awkward buyer, OP. Asking for a further reduction when given a combined price does.

SDTG, I asked because £7.95 for 3 children's t-shirts is just greedy. Which is why I then asked for a further discount. To be honest, if she had sent each t-shirt out individually they would have only cost the price of a 1st class stamp each. So, you can stick up for this buyer all you like, she is being greedy whether you admit to it or not.

I can accept paying around £3 per item to post out from separate sellers but to buy 3 from the same seller wouldn't cost any extra to just put them all in the same package. She has sent them recorded delivery because she is being stubborn and refusing to reduce it any more.

I didn't want recorded delivery because I wouldn't be here to sign for it but she just went ahead and did it. I have just re-checked the listing and there is a disclaimer at the bottom of each item stating that they will be posted out 2nd class royal mail unless seller specifically requests recorded delivery, in which case they will have to pay more.

Yes. It's the second request for a reduction which would be ringing the alarm bells for me.

She may be greedy in your opinion but she had stated the costs up front and you chose to take the chance and bid despite not having confirmation she'd reduce the costs at all. That's what I mean by taking all potential costs into account before bidding.

I'd just regard it as one of those and let it go.

I am not sticking up for her, I am disagreeing with you, pinkandred.

And I am sorry, but you knew when you decided to bid what the postage costs were, and you decided to bid anyway, so you don't have a leg to stand on. If you thought the postage costs were greedy, you shouldn't have bid on them - there was no guarantee that the seller was going to reduce the postage to a level,you were happy with, so you should have based your decision on the quoted costs.

I asked about total price because I could easily understand the seller wanting recorded delivery if the total were > £20 (Royal mail only compensate up to £20 for unrecorded delivery). Plus recorded delivery items almost never go missing, so better peace of mind for seller.

The power is in your hands, anyway, can completely slam her on stars.

If I send DH to the post office he does stuff like send recorded delivery.

You're not awkward, Pinkandred. I had a buyer today asking why I can't charge £3 postage on a 1m long item that weighs 1.5 kg (sigh). He let on he's about 12 (literally) so I am trying to be very nice.

SDTG, I realise you are sticking up for the seller, it was a typing error on my part.

Anyway, you are right, the seller has done nothing wrong really. If I bid on her items I should not moan if the postage is high.

I have simply made the mistake of assuming that everyone is like myself in that if I sell multiple items to the same buyer I would not look on this as an opportunity to increase my profits and make money from postage. But, hey ho, we are all different.

I'm not sticking up for her - I suspect this is a typo, pinkandred.

I do think some people take the piss with postage and packing costs - best not to reward them by buying their stuff. Have a lovely holiday, and out all this behind you.

Out = put. Bloody iPad.

Just before you go SDTG, I have a genuine question.

If you are basically saying that as the p&p costs are stated up front then I should just either accept these or don't bid then why do ebay ask for feedback which includes p&p charges. If a seller has poor feedback for p&p then surely they can just argue that if a buyer thought that p&p was expensive then they shouldn't have bid.

I add up the cost of the product plus the postage - personally, whether you think her postage costs are extortionate or not you chose to buy the product, she didn't force you.

Would you try to negotiate with boots, Lakeland or sports direct? What is the difference? Don't bid if you are not happy with the postage - or at least negotiate before bidding.

If I saw someone had left bad feedback in these circumstances I would think worse of the buyer than the seller.

I also assume the postage costs include the cost of getting to a post office (so fuel and parking)

Blue, if I bought multiple items from any of the places you stated, or most other retailers I think you would find that if the delivery charge was £2.99 then that would be the cost regardless of how many items I bought. They wouldn't charge 3x £2.99 less a small discount, they would just charge £2.99. Because, it generally costs the same to delivery 1 item to the same address as it would 3 (obviously depending on weight, and in my case, as we are talking 3 children's t-shirts then the cost would be the same).

No Blue, postage costs do not include fuel & parking. See ebay p&p guidelines.

I would assume those costs to be under the heading of "handling" why should ebay make more profit on costs (on which to not pay tax)

I frequently look at things on ebay and think "im not buying that the postage is exorbitant" in those circumstances if I can buy from someone cheaper I do - if I cant I would ask the buyer before bidding.

But I do order my searches by "lowest price + P&P" it doesn't make a difference to me what the proportion of product price to p&p is just what the final total is.

I guess that P&P is part of the feedback so that people can check and see whether other people say that the postage costs were unreasonable before deciding to bid. And I suppose that different people will have different ideas about what level of P&P is reasonable. I suppose that a seller with consistently poor P&P feedback might start seeing their sales fall, and the feedback might help them work out why.

I think you can also see the postage costs in completed listings, so you can use that as a guide as to whether a seller is being reasonable or not.

I am a buyer and seller on ebay. Your 2nd email re P&P would have my red flags going and I would do exactly what this ebayer did and send tracked.

There is a massive difference between a large company with a courier or royal mail contract , so fixed pricing and an individual seller who has to literally work out p&P individually for each parcel.

why do ebay ask for feedback which includes p&p charges.

Well yeah, that's a brilliant question. Many buyers have no idea what real courier/RM costs are, so they just think "am I comfortable with that?" not whether it was a fair reflection of real cost to seller. Just as some buyers will mark sellers down for slow delivery because it wasn't next day dispatch, even though seller SAID clearly in the listing that they only offered 3 or 5 day dispatch. DSRs don't have much to do with reasonable expectations.

Ebay says that private sellers are only allowed up to 2% low stars before they get restrictions on their accounts, it won't take many lots of bad feedback for that threshold to be exceeded for most private sellers.

P&P charges I give 5 stars if at cost plus a reasonable amount say 30p for clothing etc

4 stars if i feel too much extra added on like a £1 extra

3 stars if not sent by promised method ie paid for 1st signed for and arrived 2nd class

the seller the OP is talking about charging £5.50 for what will cost at most £3.70 (2nd signed for) and and should cost £2.60 as she stated just 2nd class on listing if you change to signed for that should be at your expense not the buyers I would only give her 1 or 2 stars for postage and probably only 2 for communication because she is taking mickey regarding postal charges

secondly regarding knowing postal charges upfront well yes but you assume is someone is charging £3 second class that it is a small parcel costing 2.60 with 40p added for costs and so entirely reasonable however if it arrives with a 69p large letter stamp you have been ripped off, because as a buyer you do not know the exact weight dimension of parcel so you can't know whether it was extortionate,

1 t shirt would have been a large letter so £3 was too much but if she thought well maybe it is thicker than 2.5cm it will be a parcel she was ok with charge but 3 t shirts would still only have been a small parcel so postage should have been the almost the same for 3

if she had sold all 3 separately and sent as small parcels postal profits would be £1.20 ( 3 x 40p) by sending all 3 together and still making a £1.20 profit the correct charge would be £4.80 however as only 1 bag, 1label etc 3x40p is still a bit steep and a more reasonable cost would have been say £3.20-£3,30 instead of £3 by charging £5,50 instead of making 1.20 profit from 3 parcels she is now making £2.90 profit from1 parcel she is ripping OP off still and deserves low stars

she did not say signed for in listing so that can not really be taken into account later as she said specifically that signed for was extra over and above the £3

Thanks Sarah, that's exactly how it is