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Original poster

Ive paid £3 postage for an item that only cost 55p to send. Am I over-reacting?

49 replies

monalisasmile · 27/02/2007 17:18

Hi all. Im quite new to ebay and this has been bugging me since last night when the item was delivered.

Ive briefly read some of the other posts here and I must admid that mine might seem quite trivial in comparison to some.

I sent the seller a mesage this morning querying the postage difference and received this reply (I dont think it would be fair for me to reveal the seller's identity in any way, so ahve removed it from the reply):

"hello, To be honest i am new aswell. Ive sold quite alot of dresses and in the begining i under charged and lost out. So what i did is i set my standard rate which isnt that dear. And then i dropped the price of my dresses. Some designer was only £1. Check out the items in feed back. I belive you can see the p&p at the time of bidding and its your choice if you bid or not. My exact thoughts when i posted yours was great ive made a little money on p&p aswell so i do understand and it is a LITTLE PERK. I have 4 children all under the age of 9. I do have to drive 2 miles to the post office plus packaging which i know is peanuts in this case So i will offer you £1 out of goodwill. That is purley so i hope you dont give me bad feed back . But overall, £6 for a loverly dress that is delivered to your door is a bargin."

I think most of what is said is irrelevant, what does anyone think please. I though p&p was for 'postage and packaging' nnot 'petrol and person circumstances'.

OP posts:
MrsBadger · 27/02/2007 17:22

well, you did agree to pay it when you bid on the item.

For what it's worth I don't agree with using P&P as a money-making exercise, but I do think you should take into account not only the cost of the stamp but also of the jiffybag, the tape, the time spent queuing at the post office and, as she says, the petrol for her driving there and back - if she hadn't sold the dress she wouldn't have incurred any of those costs..

I agree the bit about having four small children is irrelevant though.

Look at the Total Price of things you bid on rather than the price ex P&P and make your own decisions.

BuffysMum · 27/02/2007 17:25

I'm sorry but you do know what they are charging up front and you factor it into how much you bid so it is something to accept and be aware of.

If the P&P had been stated as £1 you probably would have had to pay £2 more for the dress anyway! Only people to lose out on high P&P costs are ebay as sellers pay do not pay commission on P&P charges, it is a way most sellers use to cover listing fees and paypal costs.

HTH

NatalieJane · 27/02/2007 17:25

I think to be fair, the seller has a point, when you bid for the item you can clearly see the P&P costs, if you weren't happy with them, you shouldn't have bid.

That said, some eBayers do charge enormous ammounts for P&P, which I believe eBay are trying to cut down on, but I don't think £3 is that unfair.

When we sell things if it is to be delivered by courier we charge what ever the courier costs, but if it is something we just take to the post office we do always add a little bit (and I do mean a little bit) for our time.

I am also very surprised she has offered to refund you, I don't think I would have to be brutally honest.

staceym11 · 27/02/2007 17:27

i can sorta understand some extra but the other day we won 2 items and seller said he wouldnt combine, the postage for each was £5. so making the total £10. the item acctually cost £2.07 to send, so even with travel and box etc etc it could only have possibly come to a fiver for both, am very and have tried to get a refund for some of the postage but seller is being a pain, if he does not refund i will be reporting to ebay for making money on postage as some people use it to avoid the final value fee charged by ebay as postage is not included in this!

eefs · 27/02/2007 17:27

To be honest I wouldn't see an issue here. You knew the postage before bidding, and I believe there is scope to inflate the postage to reflect other costs - packaging, admin etc. Plus you are getting a £1 refund and a detailed reply.

LadyOfTheFlowers · 27/02/2007 17:29

ebay does state sellers may reasonably increase postage costs to cover their petrol/packaging etc.
but it still pisses me off too!

BuffysMum · 27/02/2007 17:31

you cannot assume a seller will combine postage costs - if they do not state it you should ask before bidding.

I'm sorry if that seems harsh but postage costs are clearly stated and people should (i always thought they actually did) bid up to what they are prepared to pay in total including postage unless collection is available.

lissielou · 27/02/2007 17:32

tbh when i list p&p i take into consideration postage, packaging and 1/2 ebay listing fees. plus, i look at p&p for simmillar items and try to put p&p at £1 less iykwim

Original poster
monalisasmile · 27/02/2007 17:34

Thanks for your comments. Of course I saw the postage cost before I bid and paid, but what i do object to is that other items i have received have, although less than, reflected the postage costs more closely. I wouldnt know that it was ACTUALLY only going to cost 55p to send until I received it. Some items ive received in boxes or more solid packaging.

Also, I was the only person to bid on the item and paid the minimum asking price. I just think that the costs mentioned could perhaps have been factored into the minimum price.

It seems that most or all are saying that that is the nature of ebay, and for me, that's fine, now that i know for the future.

I really do appreciate all the replies here. Thanks.

OP posts:
zippitippitoes · 27/02/2007 17:35

well I think it is wrong to bleat about it it is clear at the outset just like buying on any website..take it or leave it

why is it that people are gloating when they think they get a gargain but bleat over things like this?

she still had to wrap it and take it to the post office etc

staceym11 · 27/02/2007 17:36

i know you cant assume theyl combine but to pay £10 postage for something that could only reasonably cost less than £5 to send?

i think the OP is quite lucky to have a refund, and the difference could be caused by covering fees and petrol etc!

BuffysMum · 27/02/2007 17:37

the torture of queueing in the post office with 3 young children (sometimes for an hour, putting up with the miserable PO staff, having to get proof of posting for everything, the reams of sellotape you get through, evelopes, plastic, bubble wrap (why is that stuff so expensive), storing the stuff for an extra week when people bid then take a week to pay for no apparant reason..........time it takes to list, take photos, answer questions etc etc etc

It really isn't a quick buck

Original poster
monalisasmile · 27/02/2007 17:38

I have never sold anything on ebay so at least now I know about the acceptability of increasing postage costs.

If the stamp had been £3, I'd still have paid the same and had the same dress, but I do feel that more than 5 times postage actually paid if over the top. At least her kids should be able to eat well. (TIC)

OP posts:
NotanOtter · 27/02/2007 17:39

i agree it IS irrelevant

Postage is postage
not postage plus a bit of profit cos its hard for me

staceym11 · 27/02/2007 17:40

yeah but i sell too, i have 2 small children, i queue etc. and yet i still put postage that relitively reflect the acctual posting cost. except one recently where it cost £8.76 to send but postage was for 2 items and was charged at £18 this was because it was 2 full sets of clothes newborn and 0-3 month, 40+ items in each, and i have 2 children under 3 and dont drive, therefore had to get a cab. The bloke wasnt impressed but it was the only way i could manage it. if they had sold seperately i would have been able to take them to the post office seperately!

mustrunmore · 27/02/2007 17:40

I think that as a buyer, I expect the p&p to be a bit inflated. I dont mind sellers making a bit on postage, as I look at the total cost. Indeed, I do tend to do this a bit myself when I sell, just enough to cover my bus fare and a bit of the listing fee, aswell as the postage costs.

The only time I see a prob is when you look at the postage cost and assume something about the item ,eg that is it more substantial than it really is, because it must be heavier for that cost. But you learn to not assume things after a while!!

zippitippitoes · 27/02/2007 17:40

actually as someone who posts about 3 billion parcels a year i'm amazed she managed to make it thin enough to post for that..

BuffysMum · 27/02/2007 17:41

I'm lucky we can walk to the post office but some people do have to drive quite a distance, pay for parking etc and at the end of the day people do sell their stuff to make money. Just be very single minded and decide how much you want to pay for something and stick to it. Also under the new royal mail rules it is sometimes quite expensive to send things because of their size rather than their weight.

jenkel · 27/02/2007 17:41

Inflated P&P does annoy me. Dh was looking at buying a laptop battery (we already have the battery but it no longer works). He was going to buy 2 and asked for combined postage, we were told that the combined postage would be £15. As I said we have the battery, weighed it and and x by 2. Looked at the royal mail website and postage allowing for packaging for both would have been £4.00. We are not bidding!

I sell quite a bit on ebay also. I do add on a little, just to cover the packaging and the time/petrol it takes to get to the post office.

But we dont bid if we think the P&P is inflated.

mustrunmore · 27/02/2007 17:43

The best one I've seen lately was an item costing £25 in Argos, on buy it now for £1 plus £34 postage!! Would be £3 tops to post!

zippitippitoes · 27/02/2007 17:44

my advice is not to buy on ebay

mysonsmummy · 27/02/2007 17:45

mona - i totally agree with you. but then i buy from e-bay and dont sell. people say you knew the postage before biddng but you thought it might be nearer £3 to send not 55p.

stacey - what feedback did you leave him?

BuffysMum · 27/02/2007 17:45

I have to admit when we sell large things such as pushchairs I do factor in my time for resourcing cardboard to wrap it in and the time it takes - believe me an hour of my time to wrap something is not free. Fortunately this is offset my using inexepnsive couriers though.

Partly the issue is that ebay and paypal are the same company and you get charged by both of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It does make you want to get your own back on them - or it does me!

zippitippitoes · 27/02/2007 17:46

but you pay what you like for the item including the postage

when you buy in a shop it's the same if it's more than you want to pay you leave it there

staceym11 · 27/02/2007 17:53

i havn't yet left feedback, trying to sort it out first. as he hasnt left feedback id prefer not to leave any at all than recieve bad feedback myself. i dont feel i have done anything wrong, but i didnt know how much it would weigh and paying at least £5 more for postage than it can reasonably cost (including packaging, time, petrol etc etc) is a bit of a p*ss take!

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