topic Re: Australian postage fees in Selling

Australian postage fees

woodbed27 — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 09:36:28 GMT

I called eBay today to clarify fees, despite the set cost by weight 500 g 1 kg , 3 kg of postage bags, eBay informed me thy will charge 9.9% of this as a final value fee. Then advised to add 9.9% as handling charges! This seems pretty unfair to the buyer or me whoever
absorbs the cost.
I have never charged anymore than the post office charge me, and eBay are levering 10% from Australia post . Any ideas ?

Re: Australian postage fees

beautysecretfashion — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 09:46:44 GMT

ebay are finding more inventive ways of gathering $$$... seems incredible that they can charge a commision on a service they are NOT providing!! Lets face it, Australia Post is the one providing the service...

ebay's way of getting more sellers to offer FREE postage.

You need to class it as an overheads and work that cost into your product listings. I agree it does seem unfair, however what choice do we have a/ absorb the cost ourselves b/ work it into the product cost

ebay charging % on overseas postage is going to cause a few sellers to cease sending globally. I know I am reconsidering.

Re: Australian postage fees

orchidsnmore — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 09:53:07 GMT

Do ebay refund the % when postage is refunded, I have asked them on this subject and never received a reply

Re: Australian postage fees

woodbed27 — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 10:42:53 GMT

Thanks for your reply, thought I must have got it wrong at first, but it seems to be true! It isn't good for all us honest sellers !

Re: Australian postage fees

woodbed27 — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 10:44:30 GMT

I don't think they do. I only noticed the fee hikes in my invoices ,after the new policy may this year apparently. Makes it not worth selling .

Re: Australian postage fees

cq_tech — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 13:45:34 GMT

Apart from the fact that what eBay are doing is unconscionable, they've also given you incorrect information. If they're taking a 9.9% cut of the postage component, you actually need to increase the postage price by 11% in order to break even. If you only add on 9.9% you'll still be losing money.

e.g. $10 + 9.9% = $10.99 - 9.9% = $9.90 (IOW, you lose 10c).

or $10 + 11% = $11.10 - 9.9% = $10 (so by adding 11% you now break even).

Re: Australian postage fees

peri-landlubber — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 04:28:00 GMT

But then U have to add the Paypal commission on the postage tax charged by eBay.

I have found that if U multiply your postage by 1.15, it comes out approximately correct: if the postage is $7.20 + the cost of your packaging (including the cost of a satchel) x 1.15

Re: Australian postage fees

woodbed27 — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 07:00:43 GMT

Thanks for the advice. I don't feel good about this at allow its sneaky to the buyer.

Re: Australian postage fees

ellasdolls — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 10:44:34 GMT

That happened back on May 5.

Re: Australian postage fees

ellasdolls — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 10:49:24 GMT

I asked them an finally got an anwer, you have to claim it along with the buyer ID, Paypal refund#, item # ETC,ETC,

i have to do a back claim from May 5th 2014 when this BS came in. So far i am unable to find out where to email my big list

to. Typical rip us up and dont help us just hinder us

Re: Australian postage fees

orchidsnmore — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 21:04:04 GMT

You have managed to find out more than I could. It looks as though it is has been made deliberately hard to make a claim.

When shoppers pay for a few items and pay postage on each individual item it can add up to a big refund.

Over 12 months it can add up to a big % loss.

Re: Australian postage fees

niceandbright — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 05:47:15 GMT

Does anybody know if it is legal to charge a commission on a service which is not provided by ebay?

I charge a buyer exact postage according to Post Office quote (not ebay postage), buyer pays me exact postage, I take item to Australia Post Office, pay that same exact postage to Australia Post, the 100% of the postage. ebay then charges Seller 9.9% for a service they are not involved with: the postage is between Seller, Buyer, and Australia Post.

It's like imposing a kind of g.s.t. on an item or service that ebay does not provide and are not involved with.

Paypal collects the postage money with payment for the seller, ebay does not collect any money.

All ebay collects is a seller's listing and final value fee, nothing more in my case.

I would like to know if anyone has any connections to find out.

I am not whinging about it being unfair, a seller is meant to absorb selling costs and not add more than correct postage fee on a buyer.

I am curious to know if it is legal.

Re: Australian postage fees

niceandbright — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 06:29:00 GMT

woodbed, Hi, I have just read somewhere that ebay owns Paypal, whereas I thought Paypal was independent.

If that's correct, I thought Paypal collected purchase money from buyer, including what we invoice to buyer as Postage, and wondered how ebay coudl charge a commission for postage when they don't provide the service, as you say Australia Post does.

I don't use ebay's in-house postal service, I go physically to the post office shop and ask exact postage, get the payment, take the thing to post shop, pay them, and post it. ebay I thought had no involvement in the process of postage.

If they own Paypal, then through veiled invol vement, they may be entitled to charge the 9.9% postage fee as Paypal, an ebay company, collects payment.

I don't know, maybe the ACCC can help advise everybody on this.

Re: Australian postage fees

lyndal1838 — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:21:18 GMT

The ACCC has already advised those ebayers who contacted them....ebay is doing nothing wrong.

The time for complaining and asking questions was back at the beginning of the year when it was first announced...not nearly 6 months after it started.

Re: Australian postage fees

nesnah53 — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 23:38:32 GMT

Heads up people, i heard ebay or "greedybay" owns Gumtree. If they can get away with taking 9.9% of our postage as well as sales it will not be long before they stuff that site as well. Unfortunately these companies expect a record profit each quarter so do not be surprised when they bump up their percentage again. Like a lot of people i will be selling on Gumtree from now on.

Re: Australian postage fees

cmcoins2000 — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 05:40:08 GMT

@nesnah53 wrote:
Heads up people, i heard ebay or "greedybay" owns Gumtree. If they can get away with taking 9.9% of our postage as well as sales it will not be long before they stuff that site as well. Unfortunately these companies expect a record profit each quarter so do not be surprised when they bump up their percentage again. Like a lot of people i will be selling on Gumtree from now on.

Whooooa where have you been.

Gumtree is very well known for being eBay.

Re: Australian postage fees

woodbed27 — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 21:50:27 GMT

I don't sell that frequently so it only just came to my attention.

Re: Australian postage fees

hmmar-spier — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 02:32:56 GMT

There has to be slightly something illegal with Ebay effectively taxing and taking a cut of an Australian Government 'fee for service provider'. I cant think of any other company that gets away with this in Australia, actually makes me think what deal Ebay has done with Australia Post which is still owned by the Australian people. Name another essentially private company that is taxing goverment services ? ACCC (toothless as they are) need to look at this.

Re: Australian postage fees

casbit33 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 07:10:47 GMT

ebay don't pay tax in Australia, so they think they can get away with anything here. And yes it is illegal to charge a fee for a service you don't provide. ACCC have been told of this, but as usual they just sit on their hands and put it all in the "too hard" basket.

Re: Australian postage fees

cherry*135 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 07:24:29 GMT

If an eBay seller sells their item for $15.00 Free post ebay takes their FVF on the $15.00.

If I sell an item for $10 with postage costs additional at $5.. ebay takes their FVF on the $10 and the $5 - total $15

Whats the difference? eBay is still getting the FVF on shipping if postage is included in the item cost.

eBay FVF on postage/shipping applies in UK and US also.