Excessive P&H Charges

[i-love-my-sheep]

My husband bought an item on Dec 21st and was charged $14.90 for postage. The item arrived today and the label said $7.20 (I really wish he would show me before he bought stuff!!!). He didn't want to go ahead and just red or grey dot the seller (who seems to have a history of excessive charges), so has opted to send him a message letting him know he's not happy.

He's happy to let slide that it took 8 days to post due to the time of year, but he's really pished at the postage cost, especially when no packaging was bought. It was recycled (which is absolutely fine). He wants to let him know that unless he is refunded the excess costs, he will trash his feedback, but he doesn't want it to sound like feedback extortion. Can anyone suggest some way of wording it so he's not violating the feedback extortion policy?

I know it's acceptable to add a handling cost and also to add the postage fees into the cost, but at a total of more that double?

Are we being unreasonable expecting a refund for excessive postage? It was one of those items where it could easily have gone into the next postage bracket if he had packed it really well (packaging was pretty poor. Chucked into a box with 4 bits of loose styro). If he was a new seller I probably wouldn't worry, but he'd been selling for years and has over 2,000 feedback as a seller.

Am happy to hear your thoughts before we proceed with anything.

[imastawka]

I've asked sellers,  before buying,  about excessive postage.

Only to have them be aggressive, and tell me if I don't like it

don't buy it.

Out of principle I haven't bought,  but I was really mad!

[classicedge01]

Obviously you should know that you are being overcharged with postage cost it's got nothing to do with a crystal ball.

$14.90 postage,what are you expecting it to arrive in?

I know that OP is an experienced ebayer and her husband may not be as experienced and therefor should have asked OP first,but this is still just a simple mistake as to not knowing postage pricing so therefor the seller shouldn't be punished for it.

Like I said and it's just MO contact the seller and try to resolve it and don't waste your life chasing postage pirates as the first postage pirate is the post itself.

[i-love-my-sheep]

Gee, with nearly 1,500 feedback as a buyer (and that doesn't include sellers who didn't leave it) and 574 transactions as a seller, who would ever think to contact the seller? I kind of got the impression that was what this message was about, contacting the seller, or didn't you read the original post?

Buyer getting aggressive? Give me a break. If I was going to be aggressive, I would have just gone ahead with a red dot and trashed his stars without bothering to contact the seller at all, let alone come here for advice on the best way to communicate with him.

I have no idea what ad on TV you are referring to......lol (the little lol at the end makes everything OK).

[chameleon54]

classicedge 01 - Are you a postage pirate ????  As previously mentioned, buyers dont know the weight of an item or how it is packed until it arrives. Sellers should be making enough profit from the items that they sell that they shouldnt need to "rip off" their customers using unscrupulous means such as postage gouging. Sellers that do this contribute to the break down in standards of honesty and integrity that ebay needs to function properly. Excessive postage charges damage ALL HONEST sellers as witnessed by the 10 % FVF that ebay introduced to prevent these sorts of scams. Buyers become more un-trusting of all sellers when a few chose to engage in postage piracy. This damages everyones sales and leads to more of the argumentative type buyers you mention, making ebay a much less pleasant enviroment to work in.

[cq_tech]

If it's listed at $14.90 postage, I expect it to weigh somewhere between 501g and 3kg and arrive in a 3kg satchel. Don't you?

The fact that you seem to think it's perfectly OK to overcharge on postage tell me a hell of a lot about you as a seller, too.

[classicedge01]

That's is right and it's because ebay allow them to do and say that in the first place.

With all the money ebay has you would think that they could come up with a system that when a seller goes and inputs their postage cost a sorry your postage cost is invalid meaning too high please enter the correct amount thank you haha.

[classicedge01]

Check my sales out no I'm not and thanks for asking

[classicedge01]

I never said that it's ok too over charge on postage now did I?

[classicedge01]

Well the crystal ball is out isn't it?

What the hell does it tell you what I am as a seller?

[cq_tech]

Just checked your completed listings and there's very little consistency in your postage prices, particularly with the painting you listed one day with pick-up only, then with $150 postage the next. What's that all about?