How do I report a seller for fee avoidance?

[IsItWishfulThinking]

Bought an item and happy to pay the postage as looking at royal mail assumed this was the best price for item.
Item turns up with postage half of what was quoted. Obviously managed to pass it as smaller parcel.
Contacted seller to ask if partial refund possible as double costs is a lot to pay. Seller says its to cover petrol and selling costs.
I've explained this is against rules. They say it's happened to them and eBay never sorted it so they're doing it too
I have been polite and not unreasonable but they're becoming quite rude and now say they're not refunding anything if im 'being like that'. All I said was it wasn't fair to punish me for what's previously happened to them.

I understand I agreed to the postage before I paid, I get that, but that was on the understanding that would be how much it cost the seller to post it.
Can I report it to eBay?

...or trawl through the eBay community boards looking for people who one wants to put on your Blocked Bidder List - far more profitable than this site. Sometimes, one can find people who don't know it's wise to use a posting id when going on the eBay boards and that way, one can really block them and save oneself the effort of saying that they wish they knew the buyer's eBay id

Did you factor the postage into the cost? And was what you bought still a bargain?

I'm guessing it was or you wouldn't have bid

Anyways seller is entitled to include unspecified 'handling fees' which I always assume will go towards petrol, parking and the like.

You agreed to the postage when you bid. Complaining to ebay about it is petty. And my heart doesn't bleed over ebay losing a few pence in "fee avoidance". By the time they've had their three greedy bites at the same cherry (soon to be four with the introduction of FVF on postage charges), they're not doing too badly.

Chive - a private seller is not allowed to charge for petrol, parking and the like. That is the whole argument here.

A private seller can charge 'handling fees'.

What that covers isn't specified.

there are ebay rules and the law

the law (HMRC) states that if you charge for your time in any way, shape or form it is income and taxable if you are a private seller you are selling your own stuff ( not stuff you buy to sell on) therefore the profit is not counted as income it also means that you can not charge business type expenses along with it which includes time, you can charge for sellotape bubble wrap, mailing bags etc it should be at cost there should be no profit for seller in P&P
packing does not cover ebay fees, whether insertion or FVF or paypal fees

petrol and parking costs are only expenses if solely for that purpose ie you left house in car went to PO paid parking and came straight back home you did not do any shopping or even post birthday card at same time you were not on school run, doctors appointment, you dropped no-one at station etc etc also claiming any vehicle expenses makes your car liable for insurance for business purposes rather than just social pleasure and commuting which is what most people have

ebay can have extra rules over and above the law however they can not have rules saying you can do something which the law says you can't ie that private selllers can charge for time

I've had a woman contact me this week after she won something telling me she expectd a refund of whatever postage I didn't have to pay - item was £3.99 P&P she said she didn't think it would be that much.

It cost £3, then the packaging was 50p, so I said that leaves 50p. She wants me to refund 50p and won't leave feedback until I do.

I still don't understand what buyers get so het up about. If you buy an item for a total cost of £25 what difference does it make to you if that is £25 + free postage, £15 + £10 postage or £20 + £5 postage? It is exactly the same cost to you.

The op feels as though she has been ripped off and that is what I genuinely do not understand.

I understand representatives of Ebay or HMRC pursuing sellers to make sure they aren't flouting the rules, but buyers such as the op are not really concerned with the rules or the law, they just want to save some more money.

it is the principle - p&p is for postage and packing, not profit or greed. Maybe sellers should just list everything with free p&p, which in effect will make no odds now the new rules are coming in re fvf.

The solution to your gripe OP is to only bid on items that offer FREE POSTAGE.

What principle?! Ebay are about to charge 10% on p+p. So much for the "principle" of not profiteering on postage. You're having a larf, right?

As if HMRC care about people making an extra £1 here or there on postage, either, especially when it's swallowed by Paypal fees & FVF, anyway.

Once the new rules come in I will indeed offer free postage on everything and bump up my starting prices accordingly so that people like op will not have something to complain about.

It is all a bit pathetic really.

i agree with you that double what it ciost to send is unfair but no one ever comes on postage threads saying the seller paid more for postage than i paid shall i send them some more money, i have qouted uk postage for items then someone in scotland has won the item and because most of my items are courier sized rather than royal mail now they have put pirces up i have ended up paying £2 or £3 more than i charged, i have never asked a buyer for more money or charged for the tons of bubble wrap that costs me a lot of money