Excessive combined postage?

[Vix7]

I've been on a bit of a knitting kick lately and been buying yarns on eBay with no problems.

Last week I won 4 auctions from one seller. He listed £4.99 for postage per listing. I messaged and asked for a combined invoice for all the items. He comes back with £1 discount off every additional lot won.
Which makes the new postage £16. For effectively just under 1.5kg of yarn.
I've had a look at Royal Mail prices and a medium 2kg box signed for 1st class only comes in at £10! The listing is for Royal Mail 2nd class which is £6 if signed for.

I don't mind paying slightly more than the RM listed price to cover packaging fees but this seems a tad much to me. Do i have a case to argue for excessive postage and ask for a reduction in postage?

Yes you do-postage charges should reflect the actual cost (plus around 11% which goes to ebay). When the parcel arrives, the postage is normally shown on the outside. If it's considerably higher than you paid, just go back and ask for a reduction.

I had this once-the seller wanted to charge 4 x the actual postage price for some bulbs. He refused a reduction so I used the return system on ebay to return the bulbs and get a full refund including the postage.

queen it's against eBay rules to incorporate ebays cut into your postage fees, though in reality I'm not sure how this can be enforced.

OP, if you feel the buyer had excessively charged on postage fees , and they won't partially refund, all you can do is leave appropriate feedback.

I've just had a look at the seller's other items. One of the listing is for 100 balls of yarn with a postage price of £10.

(Oops hit post too early)

100 balls for £10 postage vs 23 balls for £16 postage.

Hmmmm......

He's taking the piss.

What about you tell him he you ain't paying unless he bills you for the true cost of the postage? Would be worth an unpaid bidder strike, if it even got that far.

I would cancel the sale.

Yea if he won't give a fair discount I'd cancel the purchase

Collect Plus are even cheaper. Its a fiver for up to 2kg, and thats for a tracked service.
I'd leave neutral feedback, and one star for the postal charges.

If you have bought multiple items if you left a neg 8 days apart each would count as one against his account. Seller is greedy and contravening the rules and spirit of ebay. Tell him to use Hermes or Collect Plus and bill you for what it costs.