topic Re: Postage changed...!? in Buying

Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 21:28:56 GMT

Hi everyone,

Can someone please help me? I've been watching an item with a buy it now or best offer option. It had free postage. So I made an offer and it was accepted. Then I got to pay this morning and suddenly the postage is $15! A ridiculous amount for the item anyway.

What on earth had happened? I've messaged the seller but I'm so confused. The listing still says free postage when you go back into it - what has happened?

Thanks!

Re: Postage changed...!?

pancaket52 — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 21:39:07 GMT

Could you give us the item number then we can have a look and maybe give you some suggestions.

Re: Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 21:44:19 GMT

Sure, here it is: 201249783379

Thanks!

Re: Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 21:46:07 GMT

Even in the acceptance email it still says free postage and handling. It's only in the tax invoice that it suddenly says $15.

Re: Postage changed...!?

pancaket52 — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:14:39 GMT

Looks like a newbie seller who's made a mistake.

Have you contacted her yet? If not ,do so and explain that postage cannot be changed after the sale and you only purchased the dress because of the Free postage.

If she has problems changing the Invoice tell her not to click 'recalculate' when changing the postage to 0.00.

If she insists on the postage costs then you will need to make a decision as to whether it's worth it to you at that price or ask her to cancel the transaction.

There will be other members along soon who may have some other advice .

Re: Postage changed...!?

phorum_junkie* — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:20:08 GMT

They look like a fairly newbie seller so I think they may have not understood what ebay says about accepting offers, what it doesn't mean is they can add postage on if it is free postage.

Just email them and say there must be some mistake as $15 appears to have been added to the item cost for postage and that is not allowed, ask them to send you a corrected invoice without the postage charge. If they refuse then I would tell them you are not payying and will be reporting them to ebay.

Re: Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:38:59 GMT

Thank you! Yes I had already messaged them just before I wrote this. I didn't think you could change the postage. I haven't heard anything back yet.

But thanks again for the help 🙂

Re: Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 02:11:46 GMT

Hey guys, so I heard back from the seller. They said this:

"Hi my friend,

Thanks for your reply.

All the ebay offers are excluded from shipping cost.
Please kindly read the terms and conditions on eBay."

To which I said I didn't understand what they meant, and asked again if the addition of shipping was a mistake. They then replied:

"Yes. You have to pay for the shipping fees."

I replied again saying that they couldn't do that (in a nice way), and haven't heard anything yet. I don't want to be report happy, but I'm in the process and moving house and I'm just too busy to deal with nonsense. I mean, for goodness sake, the listing still stays free shipping. They've clearly just changed it when they sent the invoice.

So... it is too early to report? Thanks everyone 🙂

Re: Postage changed...!?

i-love-my-sheep — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 02:21:03 GMT

If they have shown free postage in the listing, they can't then add a postage or handling charge.

For a destination to which you've specified free postage, no other fees related to postage, handling or packaging can be charged.

Send them this link and tell them to scroll down and expand the Postage and Handling Charges link http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/selling-practices.html

I did that once when a seller was showing free postage in all their listings. I bought quite a bit and they tried to charge me a postage cost. I sent them that link with instructions of where to look and then received a revised invoice with the postage cost removed.

They used the excuse that I had bought a lot and therefore postage would cost more. I pointed out that they should have factored the costs into their listing start price.

Re: Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 02:27:59 GMT

Thanks, did just that. Their latest reply was this:

"Thank you for your swift reply.

Please note that the offer you made was shipping excluded, which eBay has given me the opportunity to add the shipping cost.

Unfortunately the shipping cannot be waved as there are handling and processing time involved.

This is a really good dress that hardly been used in the past.

You are getting a great deal after all.

Please consider if you would like to proceed to order.

Kind Regards,"

Just soo frustrating!!

Re: Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 02:46:07 GMT

... and now I've heard nothing and they have relisted the item.

Re: Postage changed...!?

curraone — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 02:56:26 GMT

definitely a new seller then, and probably English not a first language "Hi my friend"

If it was me I would just move on. There will be plenty of buyers who say give them a neg.

Re: Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 03:11:13 GMT

So what do I do then? They could easily say that I haven't paid for the item, which I haven't. Thanks 🙂

Re: Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:24:56 GMT

The seller is ignoring me now. I've sent a message to ebay, but is there anything else I can do? How annoying!

Re: Postage changed...!?

lizzy6107 — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:29:55 GMT

and now she wants $99 for the dress! Fat chance preloved portmans dress..

Re: Postage changed...!?

lizzy6107 — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:39:39 GMT

I would write to her and tell her you will have to report her to ebay, as the offer was made and accepted, on a listing that offered free post, end of story...

Re: Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:55:35 GMT

Oh my goodness, he has changed it to $99. I have reported him and told him that, yet he has ignored me now after insisting I pay and has now relisted the dress at a STUPID price.

Re: Postage changed...!?

i-love-my-sheep — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 03:41:47 GMT

EBay would NOT have given them the opportunity to add a postage cost to a free post listing, because it is against their policy. My guess is she has seen the postage box in the invoice, so taken it upon herself to add the cost (probably thinking eBay gave them the opportunity to do so).

I would remind her that she has now violated several of eBay's policies and that could lead to her account being closed down. I would also contact eBay again (by phone) and explain that she offered free postage, she accepted the best offer, now she is trying to charge a postage cost after sale. Not only that, she has now relisted the item while the transaction is still open.

I would imagine there is nothing in her ad to say that the final price didn't include postage? Even if there was, she still advertised free postage. If she remains stubborn, and I don't say this lightly, hit her with a red dot. Most new sellers are happy to be educated by more experienced members, but she is digging her heels in and not budging.

What does she think will happen if someone (stupidly) buys it for that price, then you decide to pay? Who does she send the dress to?

I would take a guess and say she wasn't born here by her reference to "dear friend". That is a common Chinese greeting when you ask a seller a question.

Re: Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 04:19:08 GMT

I know right!

It's a 'he' by the way 😛

I've reported him, so I'll wait a little bit longer. I'm in the process of packing up my house to move 300kms away so don't really want to spend time on the phone when hopefully ebay will read my message and sort it out. Thanks for the suggestion though, I'll definiely do it if I don't hear something soon.

Like you said, there was nothing in the description that said anything about postage charges, only on the listing it was free. On the resliting it's free too. It's definitely dodgy though, the way he's reslisted the item and ignoring me like our transaction doesn't exist.

Re: Postage changed...!?

mollycrownmolly — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 04:28:18 GMT

Got a reply from ebay, they are saying if I'm not happy witih it to request to cancel the transaction with the seller. They are also looking in to their actions.

Sick of this, just gave them negative feedback. I doubt they'll be too successful with a feedback score of 66%! Serves them right for doing the wrong thing.