Postage too high !

[Gardai]

This has happened a few times to me recently where the seller has put (and I have paid) an overrated amount of postage - but I have wanted the items and I agreed by putting a bid in so fairs fair.
I assumed the seller would post ASAP and it would be fine. But I find the sellers that charge big postage don’t appear to send on time and currently I am waiting for 2 items that should have been sent and received early last week.

I’ve just had to contact one to ask them when will they sent it and they said ‘whoops’ I gave it to my useless BIL to post, don’t worry I’ll send it.

As a seller, I’m really fair about postage. Would you ask for some of it to be refunded or just take it on the chin ?
I know I can open a case with eBay in due course but has anyone any idea if there’s any redress ? In future I’m not going to bid on overly high postage as it seems to be a bad sign !

Also another question for the seasoned sellers - is selling around Christmas a good or bad thing ? I sell mainly clothes and shoes. I was thinking of stopping due to postage issues anyway.
Thanks

I've queried high postage a couple of times and been told that they have to take public transport to the post office as there isn't one near/they don't drive etc, so it genuinely costs them more to be able to post the item.

Open a case with eBay for what? You can’t for anything related to postage charges.

All you can do is leave low stars for postage cost.

I view it as you agreed the price before you bought / bid on the item, so I don’t think you can complain about it now, I’m afraid.

I meant opening a case re non receipt of item potentially - not for postage charges.

Christmas season is usuallyl the best time to be a seller, you will get the best prices. Prices don't die down until mid January (at which point, dead spell with low prices until late Feb).

As a buyer, I only look at the total price with postage, they could charge £99 for postage & 1p for item for all I care. If I'm willing to pay £99.01 with delivery, then that's what I pay. As a seller I only list items with 'free' postage to avoid people complaining about paying the postage they agreed to pay. Except I list postage separately on charity sales b/c I don't feel obliged to pay £3.50 extra to charity PLUS postage & paypal fees out of my own pocket.

Does Ebay say the item should have been delivered by now? Sometimes private sellers don't realise they put down a very long dispatch time, like 10 days, too.

One seller admitted they didn't post it for two weeks - blaming her BIL but I haven't given negative feedback until (or if ) I get it. The other seller doesn't know what's happened as she posted it over a week ago. Both charged big postage, but I'm probably just unlucky, I normally have good experiences with eBay.
I do see the prices going up, so as you say a great time for selling.

I suspect I would open Item not received on the first item, unless they have uploaded tracking info by now & you can see it's in transit.

Delivery times do slow down a lot this time of year so I'd cut slack on the 2nd item, give it up to 2 weeks (after posting) to arrive.

Ideally decide on what feedback to leave only after you receive the item and can assess if it's what you expected. Then you have the whole transaction to comment on.