Postage charge

[Bobbins43]

I paid (late) for some boots on eBay and was charged about £6.50 for P&P. Fair enough, I thought. They’re probably heavy. The boots came today. They were packaged in a shoe box (not the one for the shoes) and had parcel tape around the box. The stamp cost £2.90

AIBU in emailing the seller and asking what they charged me for?

You can ask for a refund but the seller doesn’t have to give it to you.

The charge is not only for the cost of a stamp, it's for the packaging too. You agree to an amount, it's unreasonable to question it later. It takes time and money to package the items, some sellers need to take the bus etc to the post office. There's also the Paypal fees to cover.

When you buy from a shop, you don't question if the standard delivery fee sounds too much for one pair of socks or 2 pairs of boots.

If you believe the delivery fees are too much, then don't bid on the item.

I think you're being a little unfair here. When I paid £6.50 I kind of assumed that they would be packaged a bit more soundly than in a shoe box with some parcel tape round it. The seller didn't exactly pay £3.50 for that, did they?

Agree it's a bit late to ask about it now BUT I hate being fleeced for postage so I don't think it's unreasonable in the feedback to say "good item but the seller charged far more postage than he/she paid" is unreasonable either.

To be honest, you bid or buy with p&p in mind. So if you’re prepared to pay £20, then take the £6.50 off and bid up to £13.50.

The seller is charged listing fees, selling fees on the item cost and postage cost, PayPal fees, postage fees, any packaging, printing labels, and the time it takes to go to the post office etc. It’s barely worth it sometimes.

Postage costs can sometimes be tricky to calculate in advance. My scales never weigh exactly the same as the ones in the P.O. and quite frequently I am out of pocket. I went by the suggested Ebay postage charge only this week (the easiest way to list) and was shocked to see it nowhere near covered the actual cost. I have not passed that on to my buyer as sometimes it goes the other way.

Ask and you may receive a refund, if not, leave honest feedback

I don’t bid on things where the postage looks too high. I’ve sold on eBay myself so know what it should be.

I'd have expected first class signed for and superb packaging for that.

It irritates the hell out of me when people say “You knew the p&p before you bid, so you can’t complain afterwards”.

You know what the seller is charging for p&p, true, but what you don’t know is how much the p&p costs the seller.

So I agree, if you were charged £6.50 for a secondhand box and some parcel tape, when the actual cost to the seller was £2.90, and you don’t find out you’ve been ripped off until the parcel arrives, I would leave a low DSR for p&p costs.

Do you know how much it cost the seller to take the bus (for example) to go to the post office and back?

It's really irritating when people decide that postal costs is the price of a stamp, but happily ignore the other costs listed above (ebay fees, paypal fees, transport, packaging)

Ebay charges are based on the total amount (item + postage), the fees are clear, so no-one is ripping anyone off. People just want everything for nothing.

You got charged for the fees, the seller's time, the packaging, the time and cost to go to post office - not everyone has one at the end of their road. You were happy when you purchased the item. If it sounded too much, you could have bought the boots somewhere else.

I've never ever charged anyone for anything other than the literal cost of whatever I packed the item in and the postage for the item. I guessed that maybe people bumped up the P&P charge but it would never have occurred to me that people try and cover their eBay charges with it. That seems a little dishonest.

Have you sent them message Op?

You probably will find they will refund some of that for you.

I've sold boots in box before and over estimated postage. I always make note and refund maybe a message will remind them.

How is that dishonest to reflect the ebay and paypal charges?

I have just ordered some items for my kids nativity, some as low as 99p.
If the seller charges the exact amount of the stamp he uses, he will be completely out of pocket! Fine he is happy with it, I don't want to overpay, but I do understand that there are other charges, transport , packaging etc to take into account.

Your mistake is not to look at the total amount. Ignore what the stamp says, just think if you are happy to pay. Some sellers give you "free postage" but up the items, others give you a fair or low price but price postage and charges more fairly.

I might ask next for a refund of my last delivery fee because it was too expensive for a small item. I will let you know how that works out.

@coddiwomple

You got charged for the fees, the seller's time, the packaging, the time and cost to go to post office

Sellers are not supposed to charge their eBay fees to the buyer. That comes out of their profit.

And what do you mean by the seller’s “time”? Unless they are a business, working for a set hourly rate, how is that calculated? Surely a sensible seller combines trips to the post office with other tasks? No sane person would drive their car to the post office with one parcel to post and then drive straight back home again.

No sane person would drive their car to the post office with one parcel to post and then drive straight back home again.

What task? Why do you assume people have to go to the post office on a daily basis? I don't. I A business seller has it planned into his routine, a private seller obviously not.

What task? Why do you assume people have to go to the post office on a daily basis? I don't. I A business seller has it planned into his routine, a private seller obviously not.

I’m assuming nothing of the sort. I’m assuming a seller would have the common sense to combine a trip to the post office with a food shop, for example.

I’m a private seller and I schedule my auctions to end the evening before my day off work. I take my parcels to the post office on my day off and then go on to the supermarket to do my food shop.

I really don’t have the time to make a single trip to the post office with one parcel.

You knew what the postage cost was when you bid on the item so I think it would be unfair to leave bad feedback. It sounds like the packaging was fit for purpose (in that the item arrived in good condition). You can't complain just because it didn't arrive in an expensive Jiffy bag.

You don’t have to leave bad feedback. You can leave a low detailed seller rating for p&p. This would be based on the fact that you were charged £6.50 and would reasonably have believed that this would be because the cost of p&p to the seller was close to this amount.

You only knew how much you had been overcharged for postage when the item arrived and you saw how much the seller paid for postage.

I didn't and wouldn't leave bad feedback for something like this. I just wondered what the general consensus was. I didn't have a problem with the charge as I thought it would be because of the weight and size of the boots being delivered. I still don't think it's OK to charge someone almost double what it actually costs you to post an item but you live and learn.

Thanks for your input