what can i do ? postage charge

[shelley72]

I have sold a pair of shoes (99p), and I stupidly charged £3 postage by royal mail. I went to the post office this morning and they will cost 5·20 to post. Can I contact the buyer to ask if it's ok to courier them instead? I know I'm still going to be way out of pocket but would be ever so slightly less so by not using royal mail.

So I think that it's actually cost me to sell them

no you can't ask for more money, against all the rules. I would send via MyHermes, will be £4.30. You are just going to have to swallow the cost sadly.

I think I would just suffer the loss but check postage the next time.

No sorry.I was never going to ask for more money, just to change the method of postage - from royal mail to courier. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.
Can I do that?

Just say the shoes are actually damaged and cancel the transaction !

Please don't take dededum's terrible advice. Most buyers will see straight through it and it could earn you a non performance strike and poor feedback.

Send the shoes and chalk it up to experience, message your buyer, explain your mistake and ask if its ok to send by courier. Please ask them though as some buyers will avoid auctions that use couriers.

Hope it all works out for you.

Thanks all. Have emailed buyer so will see what they prefer. Just out of interest, would children's shoes also cost this much to post?

I wouldn't think they would mind a courier instead of RM - I know I wouldn't.

Cost depends on weight and size, difficult to say.

Sorry to bear bad news, but I would mind a courier instead of RM, because if they come when I'm not in I want to be able to go to the Royal Mail depot (half a mile away) instead of the courier's depot (who knows where).

shelley72 if you are in Lincoln (or close) I can post them via Royal mail for £3.00 for you.

Trills, thats why I suggested to ask first as I know some people would struggle with couriers and collecting.

shelley, get yourself down to Home Bargains and you can buy a set of digital scales for under a fiver then work out exactly how much to charge, something that will benefit you anyway now eBay charge fees including the postage.

Thank you, but nowhere near Lincoln, or indeed a home bargains store. I'm not sure if it was the weight or size of parcel that put the price up. The lady behind the counter seemed to take a while to decide what to charge!

I've used Wii Fit in the past in an emergency to weigh a parcel hehe

Of course you CAN ask the buyer for more to cover p+p but they are under no obligation to cough up & many will be annoyed if you do ask.
Yes you can reasonably ask to change method of delivery, most buyers won't mind at all. But do ask without presuming it's ok.

Can you package them within the following dimensions: length 45cm, width 35cm, height 8cm?

Could you take them out box and pack flatter? If so, small parcel 2nd class start at £2.60 for weight under 1kilo.

Are they heavy?

As Bakery says it is to do with dimensions as well as weight. Shoes generally can't fit through the small parcel slot so jump up to the next category. If you pack them side by side as flat as poss (no box) you can sometimes get shoes to go small parcel. They are now a bit of a bugger to sell due to this P&P change. Mostly the P&P for shoes will be £5.50 or more which puts people off.

I underestimated 2 things this week. V. annoying, I should know better by now. I charged £5 for jeans to Paris but they cost £7.60 and a pair of shorts I thought would go LL didn't so I was down 60p on them too. R.M charges are bad news! My fault really I couldn't be arsed to weigh the parcels first because I wanted to get them done in a hurry.

Shelley72, if you're selling on eBay & want to make a profit then you need to go on the Royal Mail website and look at the pricing options.

You can estimate the weight if you have no scales. Look at what you've got in the food cupboard which will all have weights on to give you an idea if you're completely stuck.

But yes generally shoes would be medium parcel sized which at second class starts at £5.20 but will have weight categories too.

I don't bother sending heavy shoes. I have sent a pair of ballet pumps as large letter size once though. The width max for that is 2.5cm if I remember correctly.

m.royalmail.com/mt/www.royalmail.com/personal/help-and-support/Tell-me-about-size-and-weight-formats

Collect plus operates through loads of newsagents and small shops for collection/ drop off. Costs £4.89 for a

If you can package shoes in a cereal box (standard size not super enormous) then they will go as a small parcel if that helps. I have done that with pumps & children's shoes but no joy with boots!

I would just take the loss but contact the buyer to ask permission to use courier. Nine times out of ten they will offer to pay the difference. I always pay the difference if I notice the seller is out of pocket

Addictedtolatte you sound like a nice buyer. Wish they were all like you. Usually no one notices if you have undercharged although I did have a buyer contact me to say don't worry about postage refund when something went LL instead of parcel. I thought it was very nice of them.

Dededum - have you 'sold' me a yummy mummy bag 12 days ago? And just contacted me to say it's split? Well can I soddin' have my money back then please!!!!!!!