IABU, I want to respond the buyer with a: "REALLY?"

[DrOwh]

I am selling a eco friendly leather boots mint condition on eBay. The only bit on it is £0.99.
Item finishes soon and the bidder messaged me asking if I am ok to wait for payment in one week time.
Really???
I know there are p&p costs involved, but if you don't have money to pay asap, just don't bid.
I honestly don't know what to reply.
Of course I could wait, but this person is taking the piss.

I would rather you call me inexperienced than nasty. Maybe naive or lazy for not checking how to do it properly. I am not saying I will keep the money and run.
Thanks.

Ok.
I just thought eBay suggested the price because it was right.

I always state payment within 3 days,had too many time wasters making up excuses!

recorded - or signed for, is more expensive and not as reliable as the couriers I suggested earlier. I don't find RM very reliable in getting signatures tbh.

But again, I would say start higher at the lowest you will accept on free listing weekend, take better pictures with uncluttered background if poss, show the boots themselves in a better light and charge £4.60 postage - you will then get much more bidders. And end at 9pm at night.

Ok, lets put the 'boot' on the other foot shall we? Imagine you as a buyer have been watching something all week and win it for a bargain price. You are overjoyed, you have a bargain! Your seller then says 'don't bother paying, I wanted more than that.'
How would you feel? Cheated perhaps?

To answer the question earlier of what this will do to your account, well, if you don't sell much a nice shiny set of 1 stars will bugger you up, add to that the strike and you are on shaky ground for keeping your account for long.

Do the right thing, send your buyer the boots and next time you list something at 99p think 'am I happy to accept this as an end price?' If not, start it higher.

I will send the boots to the lucky winner and put it down to bitter experience.

Anyone care to explain how do I work with the couriers?

and you could send your winning bidder a cancellation request now, but if they refuse you will still have 10% fees on the whole amount to pay too - plus risk of neg and low stars too. So if you relisted on the same a/c with that bad feedback it would put off potential buyers again.

DrOwh, have a look at collect plus or myhermes, both work out of local shops and will cost you around a fiver. You drop the package into your local shop and then it's collected from there. Actually easier than Royal Mail.

Might be worth refunding any overpayment of P+P as well if you choose to send by one of the above. Ebay is unfortunately all about those stars now and to maintain a healthy account you need to be keeping those stars up. A couple of quid overcharge could see you getting low stars in P+P and that isn't good. Refunding the overcharge could see you getting 5 out of 5.

My selling method is free P+P. As fees are worked out taking P+P into account you pay slightly less. Added to this you automatically get 5 stars in that category.

Work out the postage (Say £5 with Collect Plus), add the lowest you are willing to take for the item (£3 for example) and start your listing at £8 with free P+P. Free P+P listings tend to be more attractive to buyers as well because they bid what they want to pay in total rather than having to work out the postage on top.

How :( that OP gets hassled for using Ebay's own recommended postage value.

If you charged exactly your real postage & start at 99p & they sell for 99p you'll probably end up out of pocket on the sale (after all fees). Never start at 99p.

just go to either of their websites and register and input the address details and pay by paypal - very easy.

£8 is not rediculous for tracked postage on a fairly large item! That's perfectly reasonable ! I paid 7.60 o the post office to track my iPad and it's tiny ! (Mini iPad)

yes - but that would have been special delivery in light of the value of the item? Signed for is cheaper. And as we have said, a courier is cheaper than RM if under 2kg - plus no need to pay for signature as it is tracked when delivered.

Why would you need signed for deliver for a 99p pair of boots?

Just send it normally.

because MyHermes or Collect + are cheaper than RM.

I don't think charging £8 for postage is excessive. The going rate for p&p for boots seems to be about £10, and that's sent second class signed for as a medium parcel. Postage is expensive, why should sellers be out of pocket?

but if a seller can charge a sensible amount, get them delivered by a courier at half the price then buyer will be happier and leave better feedback and more importantly better star ratings. Charging a tenner for postage ensures very few bidders and rubbish feedback - and as a seller that risks you losing your account too.

So the listing states delivery by RM.
Can I change it now to other courier? Do I need to contact the seller and let them know beforehand?
Also the seller hasn't paid yet. How long do I wait?

you can send an invoice and tell them that they will be sent by courier - you wait 48 hours for buyer to pay, and if they don't you can open an unpaid case, wait further 4 days and if no payment close it, get fees refunded then can relist if necessary.

Op, it's fine to make a bit of money on postage. I would charge that for a heavy item. It's obvious what the postage costs are when you bid.

And even if I don't send the invoice, I can open the unpaid case after 48h?

yes you can open the case even if you don't send the invoice.

Cheers.

The buyer is hAppy to pay postage though just asking to wait?

Op it's simple
You either accept that or deny and post whatever way you choose

Bornin there was another bid so the person who asked me to wait didn't win.