Stars for P&P rant

[RaisinHell]

I am fed up. What more do you have to do? I charge only exact stamp cost for P&P, I state that in my listings and that I don't profit on P&P. I estimate the charge as best I can and am usually accurate. Sometimes though the PO lady will squeeze things through as a large letter instead of small parcel or a small instead of medium parcel and so the actual cost is cheaper than what the buyer paid. So I refund them the difference! Sometimes I get it wrong the other way round and I am out of pocket. Some eejit has just left feedback saying 'good condition, fair price' for an item which he won for 99p and the postage was £4.10 exact stamp cost. And I am sure he has given me a 1 on P&P as my stars have gone down . Sorry, better to get it off my chest

well - your stars could have been marked way down by a previous buyer tbh - you do not know it was him

list on free listing weekends with free p&p - then your stars won't take any hit.

Thanks SandyDilbert, I think it was him as they were fine until his feedback, they were almost a 5 on P&P but now are 4.6. How does that work then with free P&P? you build it into your start price? Do you think that's better? At least they can't mark you down on P&P if it's free!

well a few previous buyers could have all left 4 stars and it caught up on this buyer.

Yes, start the item at higher price including the p&p - do it on free listing days, it makes no odds to your final value fee now they charge that on p& p too.

Ah that makes sense. It makes me cross though, it's not my fault Royal Mail prices are steep these days and I only charge exact. I think it shouldn't be allowed. They are basically saying that they think Royal Mail is expensive but it actually reflects on me.

I will try doing as you suggest when I get back on there in the New Year.

don't forget if you charge exact p&p you are losing out as ebay will charge 10% on top of that now. And yep, Royal Mail are too expensive, I use My Hermes if under 2kg now, much cheaper plus tracked too which you need really. I sent a 3KG item today for £5.40 - that would have been £14 odd with RM as a medium parcel.

This is why I never charged exact postage; most buyers don't care and those that do aren't always rational in their ratings.

You could go with inclusive postage but I am sure that puts buyers off. It's pretty obvious that a lot of sellers don't know about Ebay taking 10% of postage, so effectivly they undercut those of us who go postage inclusive (only they don't undercut really, because of fees they don't know about....)

Thanks. I had thought about trying My Hermes for a while now, I think I will.

Also I had forgotten about the ebay fees on postage now I have been out of pocket then.

lljkk - if you don't charge exact postage, how much do you put on? And how are your P&P stars?

You sound great. Wish I'd got stuff off you. I just bought something and paid 6 quid p+p for a 2.60 stamped envelope. No refund.

Now I do inclusive postage because it guarantees 5* and Ebay charge 10% on postage anyway (since September 2013). Am pretty sure that most buyers don't like inclusive postage in auctions, though, and Cassini sorting drives prices down, too :(.

I used to charge actual posting price plus I tried to charge enough excess to cover the Ebay+paypal fees (really resented paying FVF on paypal fees &paypal fees on FVF). I would refund any excess after those were covered (used to get glowing comments for such refunds, I think it's quite unusual actually to refund for excess p+p). I couldn't expect to add all of real FVF to postage on high value items, had to suck that up. I suppose it meant up to 30% over actual postage, but usually more like 10-15% because most of the stuff I sell is under £3. I go to a lot of trouble to use recycled packaging, so don't have to charge for that.

I had just one low postage DSR over maybe 200 transactions doing things that way. 1* when I charged £3.29 p+p (RM cost= £2.60) on a 99p item. Buyer straight on my BBL list, of course.

I don't see any "principles" in this argument about how postage charge should only be postage. Since Ebay is strongly endorsing inclusive postage they obviously don't care, either. But they do care about Bad Buyer Experiences. I don't see OP as out of pocket for her refunds; the sale transaction is now all one charge for everything including the delivery service, item in description provided, etc. Only out of pocket if she had