topic Re: No wonder our fees keep going up! in Selling

No wonder our fees keep going up!

*crikey*mate* — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:10:55 GMT

Don't mind me - just ranting about postage charges from one of our Top Rated sellers.

TRS - Feedback nearly 3000 - selling clothes.

I bought two items - charged $11 combined postage.

*shrugs*

fair enough, I knew up front and calculated the cost into my purchase price calculations.

The items arrived today.

They were squished into a in a 500 g satchel - but here's the kicker - they weigh (according to my trusty digital postage weighing scales) 1006g

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

foxette-in-sox — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:23:21 GMT

Post and handling charge is $9.00 500g stachel. A combined postage and handing charge is $13.00

You got a $2 discount by the way she has written it-in a 'stachel'.

Can't see the connection though between her postage costs & fees going up.

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

the-kazbar — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:06:47 GMT

If there was a return address on the satchel then it is very likely that they will be billed for the extra postage (plus a $1.50 admin fee) by AP

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

colkym — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 23:45:05 GMT

Thanks Foxy, I couldnt see the correlation between the two either!

So if AP picked up on the diiference in weight and the seller has a return address, she will be billed anyway. If she didnt have the return address well, she was foolish.

At the end of the day you got your item that you paid for, and got a discount on the postage, so I dont get why you are upset?

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

*crikey*mate* — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 23:57:17 GMT

oh, ok - because they wrote differently in their item description, they're allowed to circumvent eBay's policies and FVF's by profiting on postage (which eBay don't get a cut of), and they're also allowed to send 1006 g in a 500 g satchel and only pay Aus Post for the 500g..

Fair enough - I didn't know that - never knew I could make up my own rules to get around eBay's policies and fees or Aust Posts’...

Never knew I could do all that and still be ranked as a top seller.

Glad you cleared that up for me - Thanks.

*goes off to adjust listings*

as for correlation - LOL - head for business eh?

I'm gonna have a guess here - but chances are eBay are putting up their fees cos they're not making the profit they want - and here we have a top rated seller (and where there's one, there is possibly more) avoiding FVFs by putting profit into postage on a few hundred items a month.

and as for AP - they were entitled to double the money they were paid - so it's like theft - going into a store and only paying for half of what you take. and just as it's done in our B&M stores - the price of theft (not to mention fraud) is worked into their budget - so if their bottom line isn't high enough - guess what they do?

and I didn't get a discount on postage - I paid $4 over what I should have for a 500 g satchel - now if this happens a couple hundred times a month - that's a nice little tax free and fee free money earner, aint it? near enough a $1000 a month!

meh..... as you were.

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

*crikey*mate* — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:52 GMT

and no return addy - a first name and a mobile phone number.

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

foxette-in-sox — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:08:48 GMT

I believe that ebay.com sellers have to pay FVF on postage also so perhaps you could help ebay.au out & suggest they adopt the same policy-I'm sure all the Australian sellers would be eternally grateful to you.:-x

Re the underpayment of postage,it may take a little homework on your behalf however I'm sure you could find all her details,report her to AP on their 13 number & rest easy knowing you've helped out AP as well.:-x

Civic minded people like yourself are few & far between mores the pity 🙂

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

phorum_junkie* — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:40:15 GMT

I'm sorry but annoyed as it makes me when people rip off AP I don't see the correlation between that and ebay fees. The seller quoted a perfectly reasonable $11 so what difference would it have made to ebay if they had been honest enough to send in a 3kg satchel.

I absolutely agree with Foxy that you should report the seller to AP who are actually partly to blame because somebody along the delivery chain should have realised that the parcel was massively overweight.

I would also leave the seller less than pos feedback with a comment about the postage being deceptive.

I also would like to know why you have made a blanket statement about ebay raising fees, many of us who have done their sums have come to realise that our fees will actually be less.

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

the-kazbar — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 01:23:43 GMT

that's a nice little tax free and fee free money earner, aint it? near enough a $1000 a month!

Tax is paid on all profit regardless of where it comes from

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

dickos-extreme — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 01:34:39 GMT

I would love to know what people think of this.

You have an order and do for Free post. Thinking you can cover the cost of a 500g satchel with this order.

You are pretty sure it is under 500g, but after packing it all it is just over. On the scales you have at home.

So you repack and cut down on some packing materials.

It now weighs 502g. Or thereabouts.

Now my question, is this still too much for a 500g satchel? Or is a few grams over OK?

Now if you think a few grams over is OK, at what point do you draw the line and say it must go in a 3kg satchel.

I am not really sure myself, but would love to see what others think.

The reason I ask is I had one of 518g today, I repacked it and it came to 497g, so all was OK. But would I have tried to get it through if it was 1 or 2 grams over. honestly I am not sure. But I may well have. Is that very bad of me?:-(

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

the-kazbar — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 01:45:55 GMT

Hi Dicko 🙂

I have successfully argued with AP that 509grams was ok due to the weight of the satchel being 10grams so the contents were under 500grams.

Its not something I am in a hurry to test again though :^O

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

calsof — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 01:50:48 GMT

Hi dickos

I've never really researched this but I'm sure there's a point at which Auspost would allow for a bit more weight. Scales aren't all the same or precise and that's kind of allowable.

Just like you have to go over the speed limit by at least 4km/hr before they book you because your speedometer or theirs may be a bit off.

Just like you would not yell at a mate who was 5 minutes late meeting you because your watch or theirs may be a bit behind.

Anyway, 500 grams over is not a small amount, like Crikey said. Many of the items I buy have 60 cent stamps on them when they should have been a parcel. And all those sellers normally don't include a return address. As I spend a lot on postage and complain about Auspost being so expensive for me, I don't appreciate the competition from other sellers, even when they pass savings on to buyers, effectively making themselves cheaper than any other honest Australian sellers like myself 😞

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

thecatspjs — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 02:09:57 GMT

I just go by that the flat rate 500g satchel weighs 13 grams - in that satchel I can post up to 500 grams. 500g plus 13g = 513g.

I lodge my parcels at my post office who accept, scan and sometimes weigh my parcels. No problem struck there.

My AP account, name and address details are on post label, so if at a later point AP determine that post has been underpaid by something between 1- 13g, I will get a bill for underpaid post. Never happened yet, if it does so be it, I will adjust my practice accordingly.

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

purple.cow — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 02:50:21 GMT

AP judge a 500g sachel as being the GROSS weight, not NETT, just as a 3kg etc. is the gross, but most AP stores grant a few grams leeway without going OTT about it.

Their scales are checked by the govn Weights & Measures office to be within 2 grams of absolute.

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

phorum_junkie* — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 03:48:57 GMT

I too take it as the complete packaged weight including the satchel.

If it is 520g then I can re package it to remove the sheet of tissue paper, the business card and the paper clip it is attached with, that brings it in at 498g

If it weighs more than 520g it goes in a 3kg satchel and I make a few bucks less but I have not defrauded anyone.

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

*crikey*mate* — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 03:49:32 GMT

Tax is paid on all profit regardless of where it comes from

if it is declared...

OK bad word choice - apologies

but is income derived from selling unwanted used items from around your house after a "massive cleanout" considered to be taxable income?

what about if you took those items to Cash Converters or had a garage sale?

what about "hobbies"?

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

purple.cow — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:07:50 GMT

but is income derived from selling unwanted used items from around your house after a "massive cleanout" considered to be taxable income?

what about if you took those items to Cash Converters or had a garage sale?

what about "hobbies"?

1. No, it isn't

2. Even is somewhere like Cash Converters was willing to buy your unwanted item they wouln't be generous toward you for it :-(. The gargare sale option might be the better way to go than CC ever will be 🙂

3. A hobby only remains a hobby until a given dollar turnover is achieved in the taxman's eyes, if declared at all that is, beyond that point it's seen as a taxable income.

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

*crikey*mate* — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 06:29:32 GMT

Thanks for that Moorna, it's what I thought...

hmmmmm

"Me and my family (huge family) are having a massive clear out lots n lots of bargains to be had,"

2163 feedback transactions as a seller......

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

purple.cow — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 06:41:55 GMT

"Me and my family (huge family) are having a massive clear out lots n lots of bargains to be had,"

Good luck with it all mate.

One man's trash is nearly always seen as another man's treasures 😛

I think the advantage (Maybe disadvantage sometimes) of selling your unwanted items through an Ebay auction is that you can end up with getting a better deal for your gear than you might price it at as a BIN or garage sale, but not being a true Ebay seller I can't say which way would be the best to go.

Only you can be the judge of that.

Re: No wonder our fees keep going up!

*crikey*mate* — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 06:54:58 GMT

lol - it's OK Moorna - I didn't write the pink stuff - it was from somewhere else

just how my goldfish brain works (I don't have that avi for nuffin ya know)

it kinda went from profit to taxable income to whether it was declared, to whether it had to be decalred and in what circumstances, and when a clean out ceased to be a clean out or a hobby etc....

don't mind me

*goes back to swimming in circles around the fish bowl*