Ebay, anyone complained about a high postage charge ?

[april74]

My friend sells on ebay and she sold something to someone abroad, guessed at the price, and postage was actually £2 cheaper than she thought. The person emailed saying she had ripped him off (it wasn't a polite email either) now as a principle she will not refund the difference, she would have done if they had gone about it differently, anyway they are saying they will report her to ebay and she is worried she might get kicked off, I also sell on ebay and don't think that they actually would as she said the costs before he bid.

Anyone complained and got nowhere, somewhere?

P+P is not just about the postage charge
It is the goods you package in, your costs of getting to the post office
I have to pay £1 to park to post things where I live!
I buy cheap preg tests off ebay, postage is one first class stamp and an envelope
But the p+p is often £2.00 or more
But you know beforehand and you decide if it is worth it

Her P&P costs also include the envelope/jiffy bag, parking to post item at post office, and her time! And as the buyer agreed to pay postage by bidding on the item they dont have a leg to stand on!

Your friend is allowed to charge whatever she wants as long as it is stated in the auction. The buyer is a twat. I have one of these atm, and they are complaining even though I am not making a penny on postage. She thought her parcel was going to swim across the Atlantic Ocean by itself I think.

She should contact the disputes bit of Ebay and make them aware of this. If the e-mail was rude then they should deal with it. She could of course e-mail the person with a full refund of the p&p then ask for the packaging to be posted back in original condition seeing as all the buyter is willing to pay is postage.

it wasn't rude, just do it or else you'll get a nagative kind of thing, luckily she has not left it for them yet either.

if p+p was clearly stated then I wouldnt worry about it. Some people will charge £5 for something that costs £1 to post

My dh bought a item of hardware off a company on ebay. They said the P&P was £17.50 and he agreed to it as it was a heavy item and he knew it would be expensive. He paid for it via personal cheque..then when he checked to see if it had been posted he was told the postage had went up to £40 as they had to send it via courier that would deliver next day, or it would take weeks, My dh wanted it for a job he had coming up so he paypaled the £22.50 and the item was delivered the next day. I was livid when he told me they had changed the price of P&P after he had bid on it but he really wanted the item and it was still cheaper than he would have had to have paid in the shops.

She will be fine, I complained to ebay and got nowhere as did a number of other people who won items from this particular person, who actually was a poweseller. I queried the postage cost before I bid and was told the item was very heavy, postage was actually £4 and I was charged £10 with no packaging costs as my address was just written on the box that the item came in. The most she will get is negative feedback.

I generally charge £1.00 on top of the postage costs, to cover a jiffy bag and parking etc to get to the postoffice.

I left positive feed-back once for someone although I did state I felt they ripped me off over postage. I was happy enough to pay the £2.50 p & p but the actual cost was only £0.37 which imo was a bit cheeky. She had posted parcels to other people on the same day, so would have only have had to go to the post office once.

I was polite, but received a very very abusive email back from the seller, with very personal insults - I should have reported the person but it seemed to much hassle over 37p!

I emailed someone re this, for an item I was watching. She was charging four pounds odd for an item I knew would cost less than a pound postage.

I got a curt reply back saying that she is doing this as a business and she has to cover her costs to account for the item selling at the lowest possible price. I don't agree with this.. p&p should BE p&p, otherwise she should raise her starting price.

I didn't bid.

I think a lot of sellers bump up the postage price to ridiculous amounts to cover their PayPal costs.... and also because eBay takes a percentage (e.g. 5%) of the final selling price, but not of the P&P. So by whacking up the P&P but keeping the item price lower, they pay less eBay fees IYSWIM TBH, I find eBay a bit of a rip-off these days with far too much crap to wade through to find any genuine bargains!

hello salty

I thought about it on the last thing I bought (£5.50 to stick 2 18-24 month old t-shirts in some brown paper and sellotape and pay 84p for postage?!) but predictably couldn't be bothered. I always do postage and packing pretty much at cost but I do agree that lots of people seem to bump up the P&P to cover Ebay/paypal costs.

£2 is nothing frankly. I honestly don't think Ebay would kick her off, and you do agree to the postage before you buy, so he doesn't really have a leg to stand on esp. if he was abusive.