Ebay postage charges

Hi

I have just bought a Pentax MX on ebay and have a question about the P & P costs I was charged.

The item was advertised as being shipped using RMSD at a cost of £10. I accepted this when I bid on the item. The item was not sent RMSD and the cost was only £4.45 to ship so the seller has made some money from the shipping costs (it was put in an old box with brown paper and brown tape so no great packaging cost).

I am thinking about contacting the seller to reimburse the difference in postage costs before leaving feedback to give them a chance.

If it had been set using RMSD and the cost had been slightly less than a tenner I would probably not been bothered, but since they didn't send it using the stated method and at a far cheaper cost to themselves I'm not too happy.

Any advice ?

Jason

I would have a quick rummage through ebay T&Cs first (if only to make sure you follow their dispute procedure.) Otherwise, it's a contract for sale, which should include any services paid for around it. As the seller specifically said special delivery, then they have failed to meet their side of the deal. So I think you should be able to claim the difference between SD postal charge and the actual charge (not the mark-up though).

Of course they may have assumed that you just wouldn't bother for the relatively small amount - but there are principals at stake! (I see this, and I assume so do you, as quite different to excessive charges. If someone quotes £25 as delivery with no specified method, and the buyer is happy to pay, then it makes no difference if the postage is actually 75p!)

Tony

I agree totally.

Like I said if they had charged £10 for RMSD and it had come to say £6.70 or so I probably wouldn't have minded as they had used the stated postage method, but choosing a lesser postage method and making more money I am not too happy about.

Jason

I would ask myself 'Is it worth the hassle?!'...

Ok, they used an old box, although in my mind recycled packaging is still packaging and has a value, even if not new.

I see the point about they said it would be sent RMSD and it wasn't (did they send it RM Signed For or something?), but the bottom line is it arrived safely, and I don't know about you, but I haven't the time or energy to pursue somebody for £3 or £4?

You also agreed to pay £10 postage when you won the item, and now you have it, the fact it didn't get sent via the advertised service is kind of irrelevant now really?

Personally, I would just put it down to experience and leave them only 1 star on the postage charge section...

I would be after them like a bloodhound
Not because of the money but its the principle of the thing.

Saying that my wife won some mohair wool and the seller advertised postage at £10 dispatched within 3 days .. 5 days later she emailed to say it was being dispatched the following day so my wife was a bit annoyed.
Arrived 3 days later in 3 boxes .. I worked out each one must have cost over £10 to post .. the total price incl post was only £28 .. so my wife let it go and actually felt sorry for her in the end.

Jason

While it is clear that the seller has made a bit extra on the trade by overcharging for postage (as a lot do), and it is annoying that it was not sent by the stated method, I have to agree with Tooks that it isn't worth the hassle.

I always assume that there will be some "gravy" in it for the seller on the postage charges and just count that as a cost of buying the item. I would just make a note not to buy from that seller again.

I agree with Tooks' comment.
Life is too short.

You have your chance to express your feelings in the feedback section when you enter a rating under P&P Charges.

Before you do, bear in mind that the seller may have made a mistake and may not have connected the price in the auction with what it cost at the Post Office (along with all the other packages they had) and that sometimes when we get to the PO the method quoted for turns out to be a worse choice than an alternative. So contact the seller first and see what they say.

I weigh items at home, allow a little extra for packaging, and have written out a table of costs based on the new eBay Reckoner. It is within the rules to add a small handling charge for packaging, labels, fuel, time, etc., and I have set my charge at 50p. Doing this I am usually very close to the actual cost, sometimes out of pocket but rarely more than £1 in my favour. I monitor the amount charged and the actual cost and any major error is refunded, before the buyer asks if possible.

I'm very lucky that one of the girls at ADAPS brings me boxes every week, and I have access to masses of boxes that would otherwise be thrown away. That I think is meaningful recycling.

I recently sold a shed load of gear on ebay and didn't pay much attention to the shipping charges I had listed and it appeared that I was overcharging by quite a bit in some cases. My mistake, but once a bid is received you can't change it.

My remedy was to either send the winner a corrected invoice for the item having first packed it, weighed it, and checked Royal Mail prices. If the item had already been paid for I reimbursed the overpayment. All buyers so far have been happy with that.

I charged only what RMSD price came up on their website. In the case of International Signed For (ISF), I did exactly the same thing except that some items went as ISF small packet, which was cheaper. I've not reimbursed the difference as it was pretty small.

I got burned on my first ever sale. Undercharged by about 4 pounds.
I've been charging the actual cost of shipping or very near. That's because I have loads of boxes and fillers to wrap the items. So I'm usign them and charging nothing or very little (I want to get those £4 back). I think I do it very fairly.
What the guy did was not correct, if he stated a service, he should ude it, even if overcharging, it is then left up to you to choose to bid or not.
I'm guessing the guy wanted his fees back.
I think its perfectly fair to do it, in the sense that if you are not willing to sell for less than xx than dont do it, there are ways not to do it. But you do not need to cheat...

When I recently bought the 80-320 lens I bought a 49mm lens cap off the same dealer. He charged me full postage on the two items and just slipped the lenscap into the box with the lens.

shim

£5.55 packing cost is excessive in this case, but not totally. Even when a recycled box/bag is used, parcel tape and labels and ink still cost money, and it's fair to charge a quid for the time and effort in packing and posting as well.

I would email the seller to say you're not happy that Special Delivery wasn't used (for the sake of speed and security) and ask for a £2.50 refund (which is very easy for the seller to issue through the system).

If you don't get that, then mention your complaint in the Feedback, though don't leave Negative feedback unless you're convinced that the seller is really bad.

I agree with Mike. It's principle. You pay for a service you expect to get it, if you don't, it's fraud, plain and simple!

All of this is true, but it is a good idea to talk to the seller first.

We shouldn't assume that it was deliberate until we have at least communicated our dissatisfaction.

Give the seller a chance to put it right.

This was my first thought and I think will be the course of action.