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.

[i-love-my-sheep]

You have posted 16 messages to the forum. Unless you have been posting under a different ID, then yes, you are a new comer to the forums. I never suggested for one minute that you were new to eBay.

My $8 is not excessive. $7.20 to post parcel rate and 80c for eBay postage fees and packaging as most of the time I don't get that for free.

Yes, $7 to post a coin registered is acceptable. Will you be listing any more coins any time soon? I'm a bit of a sucker for proofs and am always looking for something else to add to my collection.

[digital*ghost]

I don't condone postage piracy, but threads like this kinda bother me (sorry sheep, and I certainly don't expect that what bothers me to mean much in the grand scheme of things, but here's the thing - in so far as I see it, and this is a general comment / observation, because I understand the seller has responded with a reply that explains their original quote and that's favourable to the buyer and some of this is not wholly applicable, but a seller's postage quote has very little to do what the sellert pays to the service carrier. It is a service quote for how much it will cost you to have them package and post the item you buy. No one asks the plumber for a refund for "excess" charges if/when they see the part they replaced was only $20 but the bill is $100. Some plumbers charge more for their services than others, and some offer better value than others, but you still don't ask for a refund - you can grumble about feeling overcharged, not recommend or use that plumber again....but no one asks for a refund on services agreed to and provided, if a service was charged for and not provided, or course, then it's reasonable to ask for a refund, as can sometimes be the case with postage quotes). 

[harley_babes_hoard]

Just wondering what you people do if you buy from a normal website that charge say 10.00 and then you receive the parcel with a 7.20 sticker on it, do you carry on the same as you do here. I doubt it very much!

[classicedge01]

Haha sheep yes I have posted on the forums with my other IDs and yes I will be listing more coins but I didn't realise that you are a proof coin buff as I haven't sold you any coins on this ID or my other 4 IDs unless you buy with a different ID?

But then I still don't recall ever posting to Orange.

[classicedge01]

Precisely my point harley and the fact that it's mainly other sellers that are the ones whinging lol

[chameleon54]

The reason it is mainly other sellers who are "whinging" as you call it, is because unscrupulous sellers who engage in practices to blatently "rip off" their customers such as charging excessive amounts for postage, not only damage their own reputation, but also the reputation of the whole ebay brand. This turns buyers away and damages all sellers including the honest ones who try to do the right thing. Some of us make a living trading off of the ebay platform and if it becomes infested with unscrupulous people such as postage pirates, our businesses suffer and our standard of living falls.

I realise this is "big picture stuff" that many people who think the subject is a joke, may not understand, but practices such as postage piracy DO damage the brand. It is not impossible to see these sorts of practices trashing the system to the extent that people completely lose faith in it. 

[digital*ghost]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

The reason it is mainly other sellers who are "whinging" as you call it, is because unscrupulous sellers who engage in practices to blatently "rip off" their customers such as charging excessive amounts for postage, not only damage their own reputation, but also the reputation of the whole ebay brand. This turns buyers away and damages all sellers including the honest ones who try to do the right thing. Some of us make a living trading off of the ebay platform and if it becomes infested with unscrupulous people such as postage pirates, our businesses suffer and our standard of living falls.

I realise this is "big picture stuff" that many people who think the subject is a joke, may not understand, but practices such as postage piracy DO damage the brand. It is not impossible to see these sorts of practices trashing the system to the extent that people completely lose faith in it. 

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The way I see it, the damage to the brand is the effect of the complaint, people who post stuff like I did are trying to address the cause of the complaint, which is much less "big picture" than it appears, and is actually trying to get at the root of the issue.

[classicedge01]

Where is your proof that this seller is a pirate per say?

Like I mentioned earlier this seller has charged a high postage cost because this is what it costs the seller to send the item not just what the AP charges are,there's the handling side of it too.

If you had to travel to a post office and it cost you x amount in fuel to get there and what not,and I'm not saying that this seller had to do this but in general you would charge a service fee.

This seller had the cost in their listing and just because the item didn't come wrapped to your liking you automatically say they're a postage pirate well that's bull.

I still believe 100% that if you don't like the charges then don't buy,no one forces you to buy anything.

Complain before you buy!

[springyzone]

That's the thing, if it arrived in a 3kg satchel, even though it was under 500g, this discussion never would have happened. I know plenty of sellers who post everything, regardless of size, in a 3kg satchel as they buy in bulk and only keep one size. I don't have an issue with that as you are getting what you paid for....that is, your item delivered in a 3kg satchel.-sheep

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I don't have a problem with someone asking more than the Aust post charge for postage because after all, they are paying commission on postage and may have wrapping and handling charges. But charging double is overdoing it so i would have been annoyed too.

But I have also been mega annoyed by having a very light article arrive in a 3kg bag. Sure, the seller paid what they charged but they could easily have charged less. Why should their laziness be at my expense?

I trash postage charge stars if anyone does that to me. be warned.

[2106greencat]

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@classicedge01 wrote:

Precisely my point harley and the fact that it's mainly other sellers that are the ones whinging lol

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classic - if you have an established eBay account of 12 years standing, you may get more buyers by using it.

Seems strange to have a posting only id, that is trading by both buyng and selling.

Site Map, bottom of every page - will help you understand how eBay works, seems you are really not as sure of procedures as you would like us to beleive.