After agreeing to purchase an item for $1,000 a couple of days ago and paying for it immediately via Paypal I was surprised to receive an email the following day requiring me to pay $40.00 postage costs when the Ebay advert clearly states that shipping to within 50km of any CBD in Australia is free.
To me that tells me that as my required shipping address for the item is within 3km of the local town's CBD the shipping is free because it clearly states 'ANY' CBD in Australia.
The seller is now refusing to dispatch the item to me unless I pay them the $40.00 they now demand for shipping, which I might add did not show up in the total I was required to pay via Paypal at the time.
The seller argues that they mean any capital city CBD in Australia, not just any CBD in Australia as the Ebay advert clearly reads.
To my understanding of Australian Fair Trade practises it is illegal to charge additional fees for any reason after the goods have been paid for in full according to the sales/purchase contract.
It is also illegal to state in that contract 'Free Shipping/postage' is part of the agreed terms, then charge an additional fee for shipping.
As usual, Ebay isn't overly interested when one of their powersellers not only breaks Ebay rules, but also the law, so it looks as though the only alternative in this case will be to file an official complaint with the Office of Fair Trading.
Personally I think that when any seller so blatantly does this sort of thing Ebay should either suspend their selling account immediately, if not terminate it altogether.
What say you?
