Buyer complaining about postage WDID?

[Gravitygirl]

Just need a bit of advice as worried about the dreaded negative feedback.
A buyer bought 3 items off me so I estimated £5 p&P taking into account the packaging, trip to post office and actual postage. I thought it was ok?
They have emailed today saying the actual postage was £2.98 so my postage costs were too high... but thats not including the packaging etc..

What do I say to them if anything, do I refund a £1? as a buyer I take into conideration the sellers packaging costs etc is this wrong?

What do I do?

I must admit when I buy something and pay £3 for P&P and then it arrives only costing a large 1st class stamp and wrapped in an old plastic bag I do get annoyed! I think some seller go way over the top with P&P, when people bid they don't know what it will actually cost to send but then it gets there and you can actually see and think what a rip off!

I think you should have refunded a £ TBH.

Oh dear. Well I can't comment about the quality of the item but - can you respond to buyer feedback these days? State buyer made no mention that they were unhappy with goods so could not rectify problem and that P&P was fair.

That is really mean of the buyer to give you negative feedback. I would have given neutral if i was unhappy about the postage because i consider negative feedback to be a last option only if the item was really bad or something.

I wouldn't have offered a £1 refund as i think it's ridiculas to have to "bribe" a buyer into not giving you negative feedback.

It was mean of them to leave the neg without giving me a chance. I didnt feel that my p&p was unfair, but I suppose it might to some.
It does feel like you have to tread on eggshells to avoid neg fb though and that just does not feel right.

Oh well...wonder if it will affect my auctions currently running, I guess so?

Am I not right in saying you can add a comment saying you were not given the opportunity to address the problem? Either that, or update your current auctions with a note to say "due to recent, unreasonable feedback" you would appreciate being given the opportunity to discuss problems in future before feedback is left.

I'd have given the refund and chances are they would not have left negative feedback.

Some people have no idea of postage cost until they actually see the price so although they see the charge before bidding they may not have any idea of whether its over inflated or not.

I think 50p extra for new packaging is fine, or if re-used packaging then postage should be at cost.

I tend to charge the postage plus approx 50p for packaging. However, I print all my postage online via paypal and when you do that, you have the option to not show the actual postage cost on the label so the buyers will not see the actual postage cost. I always do this!

I'd say some people think they are being cocky by charging loads on p&p to push up the price of the item....ie a boden t-shirt that started at £3, they wanted £5 p&p when that makes £8 starting...I would question whats the point? Boden would only charge £8 for as many items as ordered and then I would sell those items myself at a sensible price. Lets be honest packing up a t-shirt, and taking it to the post office hardly justifies £5!

I dont think you should charge time and parking lets face it we are probably going shopping/working at the same time. Be reasonable there must be a postoffice a few miles from everywhere unless you live in the country or a scottish island. There are not many people who live 10 miles + from a postoffice. Also its not very fuel savey to drive just to a post office if you lived over 10 miles from one. This is why many sellers state that they only post on a certain day of the week - seems pretty sensible to me.

I think its up to the seller to weigh the items (you can do this on the kitchen scales) and work out the postage (from royalmail website) and add the packaging, unless its an expensive box/jiffy then its only a few pence, a pack of postage bags and a few slices of cellotape cannot justify £2. I think its wrong to make a profit on p&p because yr bidding on the item not the p&p.

I have stopped bidding on items now when I think the p&p is taking the mic. However if the items work out an absolute bargin then I wouldnt comment on it. On the point of the buyer knows what they are bidding on is not true, they do not know the weight and think some people are in essence "ripping you off"

I would take it on the chin and learn from it. But you really need to describe and be as accurate as pos. I just bought a pair of shoes which were not as described, I complained people must be transparent.

I use strong carrier bags which are available free in my cupboard.

I don't take negative feedback very seriously. Once I followed a chain of neg feedbacks. Each and every user had overwhelmingly good F/B, with just one or 2 negs, and each person who had left a neg in this chain was the same, and so on. It just seemed like a massive string of unusual misunderstandings.

If it were me, OP, I'd put in my FB "Sorry you were dissatisfied, but you gave me NO Chance to fix anything". Problems can happen to anybody, but Ebayers who realise and genuinely try to fix them are my favourite Ebayers, the only ones that actually deserve the stupidly effusive accolades of "A Class Ebayer!!!" etc.

I re-use Jiffy bags, we have heaps to reuse, I end up Freegling many excess, anyway. I don't understand why people don't re-use packaging more, reducing costs for all.