Yet Another Postage Question.....

[baratta9201]

Hi

I pose a question in relation to postage cost on purchased items.

would it be fair policy to request an actual postage reciept or a copy of the reciept with the item you purchase as you have paid for the

postage of the item.

Should EBay enforce this as standard practice when buying an item.

We recieve a reciept for the purchased item, why not for the postage that we pay for. This way we can indeed see what the actual

postage of the item really is.

i think this is a reasonable request as you recieve reciepts for everything you spend money on, so why not on postage you pay for.

[baratta9201]

sellers term are your terms, doesnt mean they are legally binding unless you paid a small fortune to have them legally written and verified through a court of law.

[digital*ghost]

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@baratta9201 wrote:

yes i have - my ISP breaks down the invoice to show all costs including mailing of paper bill opposed to email bill.

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Ok, but do they show you how much it costs you, or how much it costs them? 

[jensmanchester-australia]

Postage and handling is the fee to provide delivery of a product to your address - it is a service fee.

If you purchased an item at a local store and there was a delivery charge of, for example $75.00, would you expect the shop to provide you a breakdown of petrol costs, labour costs etc to have your purchase delivered or would you accept the $75.00 charge as what the service was going to cost you to have your purchase delivered?

[chezzy]

What about this scenario. You purchase an item from ebay - it is packaged flat and sent as a large letter. You are charged $2 (which covers postage and packaging/envelope. The seller sticks 2 x 70c stamps on envelope (postage cost being $1.40). You would 'expect' to see an Australia Post receipt for this? What if the stamps were from a stamp booklet purchased months ago - and the seller removed the 2 stamps from that booklet to put on your article. How do they give you a receipt for this? They may if you are lucky have a receipt from the booklet purchase but not a receipt for sending your item because those stamps were prepurchased long ago. And what about the envelope, it may have come from a pack purchased from Officeworks - would you be expecting to see the sales receipt for the pack of envelopes/stationary that your envelope came from??

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

oh dear, if you EXPECT or DEMAND a postal receipt from me then you better not ever buy from me!  I am afraid that I will disappoint you.  I am not a business, just a casual seller who tries to minimise costs where possible.

I bought a heap of 3kg satchels just before the last price rise.  I got a single receipt for the bulk amount I purchased.  I think I could find the receipt if I looked real hard.  Would that keep you happy if you bought from me?  You would have to pay the cost of me photocopying the receipt though, as under YOUR standards for sellers I would need to keep the original receipt as I would have to copy it for every buyer that buys from me as that is their right!  Would you need a receipt for the payment for the photocopy too?

I put my items inside a box that is made to fit nicely in the 3kg satchel.  I bought the boxes in bulk too.  I think it was 50 boxes.  Once again, I could find the receipt if I really wanted to, but it doesn't give a unit price as I paid postage to receive them!  Would you be prepared to pay 1/50th of the postage I paid to receive my boxes as well as the unit price for the box I would use if you were to buy from me?

I re-use bubblewrap that I have here, so that costs me nothing.  I could provide a hand-written receipt for $0.00 if you needed a receipt for each component of P&H.

I bought 20 rolls of 50mm wide packing tape from Officeworks last year some time . . . . . can't remember where that receipt is so I better not charge my buyers for packing tape (I always found it hard to measure how much packing tape I used as it would stick to my measuring tape and is really hard to get off and then use on my packages).

BUT all this is moot . . . . . as I do not charge the full amount that it costs me for Postage and Handling.  SO, if you bought something from me I could prove through providing you with copies of my receipts that you HAVE NOT paid the full cost to me . . . . . . would you offer to pay me shortfall?

You have a right to expect to pay a reasonable amount for Postage and Handling as shown in the listing you buy from.  If you think the seller is overcharging for postage then do not buy from them.  If you buy, you are agreeing to pay the amount shown in the listing, NOT the amount shown on any postal receipt.

You strike me as a buyer who looks at the stamp value on a package when it arrives, and feels ripped off if you have been charged any more than the stamp value.  Postage and Handling is what you are paying for, and the wrapping, sticky tape etc is not provided to sellers for free by Aust Post or eBay, it has to be pad for and IS NOT shown on any postal receipt issued by Aust Post.

You do not have a legal right to get a receipt for the actual postage paid to Aust Post by an eBay seller, you have a legal obligation to pay for items you buy, including the agreed P&H costs as shown in the listing.  YOUR act of buying is where you agree to the postal charges charged by the seller.

[wehavethatau]

Sorry but I dont have any postage costs or receipts to give you because all my items on eBay have free postage.

🙂

[tonalidesigns]

All of the above - plus a practical issue: for sellers who post at the PO this would mean, firstly, arriving at the PO with the parcels only partially packed. Then the PO staff would have to process each parcel as a separate transaction (ie weigh the parcel, process the payment and print the receipt one parcel at a time). Then the seller would have to slip all the receipts into the RIGHT parcels, close them up then take them back to the counter.

THE PO queus are already long enough without this sort of idea. 

[cherry*135]

If I buy something online from a Major Dept store or a smaller independent seller (non-ebay) I wouldn't expect and don't get any receipt for the individual cost (what the seller paid) of posting my parcel.

barrata - If you want a receipt for the cost of the postage, then you would want a receipt for the envelope, padded bag, satchel or box as well.?..and the tissue paper, bubble wrap, and any sellotape?

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@baratta9201 wrote:

i think this is a reasonable request as you recieve reciepts for everything you spend money on, so why not on postage you pay for.

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" . . . you recieve reciepts for everything you spend money on . . . ", no we don't!  I don't get a receipt for my fish and chips from the local takeaway.  I don't get a receipt when I buy a beer at the bar of the Mildura Workingman's club!

I get asked if I want a receipt when I shop at Woollies or buy petrol at the petrol station, they don't give me one as a matter of course.

[cherry*135]

We recieve a reciept for the purchased item, why not for the postage that we pay for.

You receive a receipt for the sale price, not the cost price to the seller of the item

If a seller pays $8  postage cost to AP + .80c to ebay FVF  + $1 handling.. then $9.80 is shown on the listing for posting costs and the buyer doesn't need to know the cost price.

Obviously if a sellers postage cost for a DVD was $15, that is excessive, and buyers would be put off from buying that item because of that.