Postage fee way more than actual postage cost

[whataboutbob]

I bought a cardi from a French seller. Postage was £15 which I thought a bit steep at the time. That's 18 euros. Arrived today, stamp on it for 6.85 euros. I feel annoyed, like it s just an underhand way of getting more than the stated price for the item. What do people think, and is there any redress?

You'll get the people saying you agreed to the price when you bid.

I do not believe with that at all because it isn't actually the price they have said it is going to be.

I would raise a case for this and ask for a partial refund. If they were a decent seller they would have already refunded the difference.

Yes. I can't know what the French post office charges until the parcel arrives. I will Contact the seller (and prepare myself for a frosty response ).

you can't raise a case for postage - you just have to hope the seller is decent enough to refund the difference.

If they don't you can neg and leave low stars. I think it is greed and it is of course against the rules to profit on postage.

You can raise a case that the item isn't as described because the postage isn't what they said it was going to be.

I would say that the postage can cover postage, wrapping, maybe a little compensation for time spent waiting for couriers etc, so would expect it to be more than the actual postage. However this seems a bit steep, 10 euros would have been a fairer price.

Frazzled postage is for posting and packaging not time spent posting it or waiting for courier.

private sellers cannot charge for time, petrol or ebay fees.

And you cannot get ebay to give a refund on postage charges - they will not intervene. Raising a case is pointless.

Raising a case for not as described on postage is pointless. Not as described is designed for the item, not the method it was sent.
The only place raising an ND will get you is an offer to return the item to the seller and a refund. Doesn't really solve the issue.

Contact your seller, be polite, you've noticed a large discrepancy in postage costs and would they like the opportunity to refund. Don't mention poor feedback etc.
If they refund, great, if not, 1 star in every category, negative feedback and move on.

Thanks everyone. Sisters your advice is probably the best from a sanity point of view. I have sent her a polite message.No answer yet. If she does nothing I agree, poor review in every category (she has nothing but rave ones). I speak fluent French so that'll be easy. Then block her from my account and move on.

The only thing you can do after appealing to a sellers better nature is move on really. You could be stubborn and return the item for a full refund meaning they lose out on their original postage, but it's very much a cut off your nose to spite your face action.

One of the first things I do now is check a sellers P+P and communication stars, they tell you so much about a seller.

Fingers crossed Bob your seller just naively overestimated overseas postage and refunds.

I've raised a case in not as described when they've over charged for postage and won.

You can ask for a partial refund in this too.

I wouldn't say it's pointless at all.

the only way you would be awarded a partial refund and 'won' a case is if the seller agreed to it. eBay will not award a partial refund.

Gloria, you were awarded that because your seller felt like it, not because they were under any obligation to do so.

What they could have said was 'return it for a refund' and you'd have been paying send it back tracked.

As Jacksonville says eBay will not take a partial refund from a seller for postage, though occasionally they may offer a buyer a no fault refund at their (ebays) expense.

No I wasn't she refused and eBay awarded it.

But they refunded the full amount.

so you did have a no fault refund from eBay and not a partial refund for the postage only. You didn't need to return the item first did you?

I opened the not as described case said that I wanted to keep the item but asked for a partial refund.
The case was then opened for the seller to reply.
She answered once and said I chose to pay the stated postage. I answered her saying yes but that wasn't what the actual postage was.
She never answered me again.
I escalated the case and because she had chosen to ignore eBay automatically refunded the full amount.
It wasn't what I wanted but firstly she shouldn't have over charged in the first place and then she made the mistake of ignoring the case.
I remember it so well because it was only in august.

so eBay did give you a no fault refund. The seller kept your money and you didn't have to return the item. Sistersofpercy was right.

Would eBay not claim it back from the seller?

No Gloria, eBay don't claim it back. It's kind of a 'sweetner' to keep buyers and sellers happy.

Oh ok well that seems a little unfair that these sort of sellers can get away with it.

EBay don't really care, they make money from sellers and buyers so they need to keep both happy ultimately.
It's a sign of the times I think, no fault refunds used to be reasonably rare, now they are much more common. I think eBay are desperately trying to please at present.