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]

---

@classicedge01 wrote:

You do realise that Macquarie are not a real mint,they are a 3rd party that purchase and then resell so you're better off buying from the Perth and Canberra mint or better yet off any of the coins sellers/dealers here on ebay to get a better deal.

---

Thanks, yes, I do know that. I didn't know at first until I started seeing them advertise coins that I had previously bought on here and also from Perth Mint at a rather inflated price. Perth sends me both email catalogues and also printed ones through the mail. I know I can stop them at any time, and I probably should, but I just can't help myself!

Normally I would have bought the gold coin collection from one of the other mints, but at the time, no-one else had it and to buy it on eBay, I could only get partially completed sets and have to fork out the whole cost in one go (not an option!!). I still get the catalogues from Mac Mint, and if I see something I like, I'll search for it elsewhere and can usually find it cheaper.

I think my best buy to date was 2 of the Australian map coins that Perth offers, the second coin in the series. I got them from a seller in Canada, for $AU60ea with the COA number of 3 and 5. I was pretty stoked with that! I know if I ever try to sell them, collectors seem to like low or unusual numbers. One of these days I'll get around to buying the rest of the series. 

I've also collected a few royalty coins along the way, when I have seen them go cheap. I figure once the queen goes, their value will rise. 

[colic2bullsgirlore]

---

@springyzone wrote:

That's the thing, if it arrived in a 3kg satchel, even though it was under 500g, this discussion never would have happened.

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

---

---

---

Can I give you some more examples of how this discussion might never have happened?

If the seller had offered the item with free post but adjusted the price so as to include the two "charges" that the OPs

hubby paid net result..... no thread...same cost

or wait for it

the seller had a AP volume parcel contract and listed on ebay with the original segmented post and item costs

.... then no postage would have been indicated on the package....net result.... no thread....same cost

Imagine all those  postage stars you have missed out on trashing (what fun???) from those sellers that ripped you off

listed as I have shown .... for those lucky sellers (your) "ignorance is (their) bliss"...

(Not knowing something is often more comfortable than knowing it.)

IMO since the introduction of fvf on postage only the naive, the bitter or scammers (whether they know it or not) buy an

item then whinge or react via dsr trashing and refund begetting re actual postage costs as compared to quoted costs.

Total price delivered is what makes me buy regardless of how the seller would like to set up their business model.

net result for the OP's hubby' seller........... profit reduced......... just for not listing with a total price and free postage

[dithommo]

I can not see what all the fuss is about either.

When selling an item I will 99% of the time just list with free postage and absorb that into my listing price.

Sometine I win, sometimes I loose but the buyer is never the wiser.

If it is a heavy item I will included the postage calculator for the variables of distance and accordingly pirce the item knowing buyers are aware they are paying exact postage.

When I purchase or bid on an item I never look at the list price I always combine the two in my head before hitting the bid or buy now button.

I regularly bid on a particular item that usually should cost no more than $60 delivered into my hand,

If making a bid and they have postage listed as $15:00 then my max bid will be $45. If they choose to have inflated postage price (as these items should post for about $8 then they are just missing out on my bid and possibly a sale.

[springyzone]

Well, I don't consider myself as bitter or a scammer. I have just about always given positives even when they have not been deserved and where I have been seriously upset, I haven't given feedback at all. I don't set out to be too picky or trash anyone's stars. I have been a seller too.

I fully understand postage includes more than just the PO charge & some buyers can be unreasonable.

And I know that if an item says 'free postage' it is simply included in the price.

But I think the people in here on these forums are an unusual group in that they are reading and learning about ebay in a lot more detail than I suspect the vast majority of ebayers ever bother with or want to bother with.

Now you and others might say-hey, I only look at the total cost and decide if I am happy with that, sellers have a right to decide how they post etc

I am not denying any of that. I am just saying-the majority of buyers will (I suspect) look at a postage cost and expect it to be roughly comparable to the actual costs. They might expect a bit more for packing and handling but some of them would not even have a clue ebay is charging any commission on postage. And so if you eg send a tiny, extremely light item in a 3kg bag when it could easily have gone in a 500g bag, that is your choice but don't expect most buyers to be happy and don't whinge if they don't mark you at 4 or 5 for postage charges. You will more likely get a 2 or 3. That is the reality and you can jump up and down and say that is vindictive, wrong, whatever, but that is what is going to happen most times.