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.

I think the signed-for vs second class is a red herring, because the seller was going to charge pinkandred £5.50, regardless of how she sent the parcel, and pinkandred is actually getting a better standard of postal service than the one in the listing. It would be very different if the seller quoted for second class post, but sent the item signed-for, and then attempted to charge extra for this.

As others have said, she has done this in order to protect herself from someone she considers (rightly or wrongly) to be a difficult buyer.

Elsewhere on here, someone is being taken to court next week, over ebay. She sold something, the buyer said it was broken, the seller said to return it for a full refund (including postage, as a good will gesture, though the listing says that postage won't be refunded in case of a refund), which happened, and now the seller wants more money - and has taken out court proceedings to get it.

Some buyers and some sellers are totally barking, and maybe this seller has been burned before, by someone less nice and decent than pinkandred, and that's why this has raised red flags for her, and why she has sent the items signed-for.

the point is that 5.50 is a rip off because listing quoted second class standard it would cost 2.60 to post 3 t shirts standard second class so by charging 5.50 she is making £2.90 extra profit from postal charges which ( if she then chooses to send signed for at a extra £1.10 that is not the buyers beef but she would still be making 1.80 on postage which is still extortionate on 3 t shirts

1. ebay fee avoidance by making up for low price of selling fee by overcharging on postage
2. straightforward profiteering
3. disingenious /dishonest

if you accidently overcharge for postage you should refund the buyer

so if you quoted £3 thinking it would be 2.60 fine but if you get it as large letter for £1.10 you should refund 1.50 and you still have your 40p profit you should not to use the £3 send it first class signed for and expect buyer to be happy that you have upped the service rather than given them money back

Yes Sarah, you are absolutely right. Not to mention the inconvenience that I now have to wait until Saturday morning and then drive 4 miles to the post office to collect the parcel.

No one forced you to bid I am sure if she had known it would be this much hassle for the sake of a couple of quid profit then she would rather have not sold to you.

There are loads of sellers on ebay charging stupid postage, don't buy from them then whinge. The best way to stop over inflation of postage is to buy from someone else

If I see the bad review left in these circumstances I just think "moron its not like the postage was a secret, why did they buy it?"

I am sure there are dozens, hundreds if not thousands of sellers with postage you would be happy with so why did you buy from this one?

Blue why do you think that people are a moron for giving poor feedback on p&p ? Ebay obviously want to have feedback on p&p which is why they ask buyers to give it.

I find your post quite rude. If I'd have purchased one item from this seller then moaned about the p&p then you would have a point. But, I've bought 3 childrens t-shirts from her. I'm not asking her to reduce the p&p for each item, I'm asking her to lump them together and charge me a reasonable price, which she is not!

Blue, I bought from this seller because I the liked the t-shirts

Well - you bought three items and asked her to combine postage, which she did, didn't she. And she did make a reduction on the postage costs from the postage quoted in the listing. The problem is that you don't think she made enough of a reduction - and when you complained about this, she made a further reduction.

Assuming that the listing offered to combine postage if a buyer bought more than one item, she did have to fulfil that promise - but unless the listing stated a particular price for combined items, she was not committed to a certain reduced postage price. She certainly didn't have to offer you a further reduction.

So it was not sensible or reasonable of you to assume that combining the postage costs meant that the postage costs would be slashed - which is what you seem to have wanted. For that reason I don't think you can complain.

I think that you should look at the full, quoted postage costs on an item, and ask yourself if you are happy to pay the full costs - and don't bid if you aren't happy. Or at least contact the seller before bidding to ask what the combined postage would be, and then decide to bid. But bidding in the hope or expectation of getting a big reduction in the quoted postage costs is not a good idea, and if you do that and win, I don't think you can complain if you aren't happy with the result.

I do agree that the quoted postage costs were too high, and even when reduced, were still pretty high - but you knew that when you bid.

blue when you see postage is £3 you assume that accurately reflects cost as seller has weighed it etc not that she is hoping to post for less than £1 and make £2 extra profit

the other point is the seller wants to combine postage by putting all 3 in same bag but does not want to adjust postage accordingly, she could say it is 3 separate parcels

the point of ebay stars for P&P is whether charges were appropiate considering cost

pinkandred you can get PO to redeliver to your home or indeed your work address no need to wait till saturday ( ps some sorting offices are open as early as 7.30 so you maybe able to get on way to work)

I mostly sell on ebay, mostly china which need a lot more packing than t- shirts and i charge 50-80p extra ( well £2 for multi items like a teaset)

sorry got bold wrong

I suppose its down to how a seller interprets what "combine postage" means. For me, it would mean packaging everything a buyer has bought from me, weighing it and working out how much it will cost to post it.

But, I suppose that I have to accept that for some sellers it will mean adding up the individual postage costs quoted for each separate item then knocking a few quid off in order to make a few quid profit from p&p.

I like to think that I'm very fair when it comes to p&p charges when I'm selling and I don't take opportunities to overcharge people. However, I realise that not all sellers are the same and sometimes it may be their best way of making a few extra quid.

I know the seller has not done anything wrong here, its just difference of opinions.

But, whether some of you agree with me or not, I will mark her down on feedback for p&p because she has overcharged me but justified it by sending the package by recorded delivery, which in turn has inconvenienced me. That's my opinion.

I would think "am I happy to pay the cost of the product + the postage for this" I don't break it down to it was x for this and y for that - either I am happy with the total or not. I cant believe anyone has so much time on their hands they give it so much thought.

If she had charged way more for the product then should would have had to take out EBay's cut which quite frankly makes selling stuff on there hardly worth the effort. I cant find it in my heart to worry about whether this is against their Ts&Cs with their tax shenanigans. At this rate ebay will just end up being full of professional sellers rather than the mixed bag it currently is and there will be no bargains to be had at all.

Would I think someone was a fool for taking an item to the till and then complaining about the price after buying - I am sorry but yes I would. If anything you have MORE time to decide whether you are happy or not with the price when buying on the internet.

I did not mean to be rude to you but I don't understand how you cannot think "oh perhaps I should have asked first"

I always make a point of saying "please ask questions before bidding" - unfortunately I have had someone bid and then start unreasonably trying to move the goalposts, luckily they were outbid by a more considerate buyer.

YABU.

At the point at which you won the items you entered into a contract to purchase them for the listed price, plus the listed postage.

The seller reduced the postage for you, which she did not have to do, and you want to complain about this.

That is unreasonable behaviour.

People don't seem to get that its a contractual agreement.

I'd have been a bit at the request for a postage reduction after bidding - before a bid I would consider it a completely reasonable request.

Ebay should just demand that all items are sold with delivery included in sale price, pay a premium if you want faster than economy delivery. Would sort this nonsense.

the seller overcharging in the way she did is against ebay rules and is fee avoidance and greed. Anyone stating you knew when you bid is justifying her greed, a reasonable person would charge the cost, not use p&p as a profit making exercise.

Is this still going? Lordy.

OP- You took the chance and lost. Another time you'll win. It's the way it goes.

As for all the worry about ebay rules and fee avoidance they charge listing fees whether an item sells or not, they get a good percentage if it does sell and they get a third bite at what's often a piss poor take with rapacious paypal fees.

Forgive me if my heart doesn't bleed if a few pennies are shaved off their cut.