Free Postage? No such thing!

[lawnbowler46]

Hi all,

I know eBay likes to have and encourages sellers to list everything as free postage for their items to be more noticicable etc. (or Postage Included as some sellers would prefer it to be called after reading previous posts) But to me this can be a issue when wanting to buy multiple items for the one delivery!

"eBay need to drop this so called free postage policy that they encorage sellers to use, because I for one am getting tired of being treated like a fool from some sellers"

For example; I wanted to buy a pair of work pants, a particular type of top, a jacket and boots.

One seller had the pants for $42.00 w/ free postage the top for $29.50 w/free postage the jacket for $67.00 w/free postage and the boots for $89.00 w/free postage. Total of $227.50 including postage.

I contacted the seller and asked if he combined postage as I know each of his items has postage costs already included in the price. He replied that he already offers "free postage" and can not do any better. (yeah right).

Naturally like any good buyer should, I then shopped around and after a lot of effort (but nearling giving up and heading to a bricks and mortar store) I found a seller of all the similar items.

Pants $31.50 + $7.50 postage, top $21.90 + $7.50 postage, jacket $48.00 + $10.50 postage and boots $75.00 + $12.00 postage. Total of $213.90 with postage costs. Win I have already saved $13.60

I contacted the buyer and he said he would discount all the postage costs, combine and send everything in a 3kg express post satchel for $14.80 (what a wonderful seller!)

So instead of paying $227.50 with free postage I payed $191.20 including paying the postage costs.

Sorry for writing a book, but eBay in particular need to stop pushing free postage and giving those listings a big advantage over other honest sellers listings.

Thank you for listing to my rant 🙂

[chameleon54]

Plenty of sellers are not happy with the "free post" thing that ebay is trying to force on us. We recieve constant annoying messages from ebay trying to badger us into the scheme and threats of our listings becoming invisible. Personaly I just want to get on and sell stuff, without all of the pedantic little games.

[ms_aussie]

Please do not lump all sellers into the one category. We are not all rip off merchants. At the moment I have various Autograph tops most of them free post. They did have $7.50 postage on them that I took off and did not add any extra onto the original price.

FYI: Did you know that eBay takes 10% of the postage money you pay to a seller? That's right! We pay fvf on the item, fvf on the postage and fees to PayPal as well.

Furthermore, I charge $12.50 for a 3kg stachel.

[digital*ghost]

Free postage / postage included is one of those things where it's difficult to make any one, definite assumption (in regards to how the seller has priced their items). I am one of those people that doesn't like the choice being between postage added separately, or 'free post', in that I would prefer eBay to provide a more transparent option, but at this point in time, where the majority of sellers can not discount item prices post-sale or even during the checkout process (where the cart can automatically calculate discounts prior to confirming purchase), I suspect 'postage included' would cause more sellers grief than the issues it may resolve. 

eBay are testing item price discount features, there are some overseas sellers who have this implemented, so I do hope at some point this feature will be available for all, and all the sellers who use the "free postage" function when it's actually "postage included", will be able to acknowledge that their prices are postage included, and discount if and when possible.

All that being said, I refer back to making assumptions.... When comparing prices between two sellers, no matter how they list, the only thing the buyer can do is compare total costs to them. What you can't really do, despite the fact that circumstantial evidence indicates otherwise, is guess how the seller has priced their items, what costs they are basing it on and so forth, since you don't know (generally) what their costs are, what they've paid for their stock, what other operating costs they have, and how they will package and send their items (some sellers, even when they have postage costs stated separately, can't and won't offer combined discounts, often because their stock is shipped from various locations). 

There are definitely sellers out there that offer genuinely free postage (which to me means the item price would be the same no matter whether it's posted or not etc), and obviously 0 can't be discounted by any percentage. Some don't factor in 100% of postage costs into the prices because most of their buyers purchase multiple items, so they'd be subsidising postage on single purchases, or possibly losing money. The point is, not every seller using the "free postage" business model is dishonest and/or trying to fool buyers. 

[lane-ends]

The real issue is that regardless of the sellers wishes Ebay does not allow discounting to allow for combined postage with the postage inclusive option. If they did then that seller would probably have discounted in order to make a sale.

It is not the free post concept that is the issue it is the implementation.

If that had been me you contacted I would have discounted, but it would have to have been a make shift workaround. Sellers put themselves at risk when they do this.

[harley_babes_hoard]

Why not write to ebay customer service and tell them exactly what you have here, if they don't know how buyers feel about "free postage" they won't change it.

[i-love-my-sheep]

I offer 'free postage' for my small items that go large letter, but have paid postage on parcels. The large letter items, I wear the postage for them because most of the time they only cost 70c or $1.40 to post. I bought my padded bags in bulk which worked about about 5c each.

The parcel rate items, I'd rather give the buyer the chance to combine postage if they buy more than one thing.

[harley_babes_hoard]

I do the same as you ILMS.

[modestbods]

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@i-love-my-sheep wrote:

I offer 'free postage' for my small items that go large letter, but have paid postage on parcels. The large letter items, I wear the postage for them because most of the time they only cost 70c or $1.40 to post. 

The parcel rate items, I'd rather give the buyer the chance to combine postage if they buy more than one thing.

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Ditto to all.

There are also times in certain circumstances when I will do something extra & unexpected for a buyer, thus choosing to give up some/most/all profits that I might be making, or even sometimes go a little into the red, to ensure that my buyers get a good deal & experience when purchasing from me. It's not because I have to, or need to, or because the buyer is expecting it, but simply because I want to.

It might not make sense to some for me to do it, but my pov is that it represents no great loss to me, & who knows perhaps it might encourage the buyer to buy more from me in future, or perhaps it might encourage them to recommend me to friends/family, but ultimately it's primarily because it makes me feel good to do someone a solid who's neither asking for it or expecting it..

One example is from a couple of weeks ago. I was selling South Sydney Rabbitohs themed jewellery, on the Thursday morning prior to the Grand-Final weekend a buyer in QLD purchased a pair of Rabbitohs themed drop charm earrings from me for $6.95. Of course she had realized there was no way they would make it to her from Newcastle NSW in time for the weekends game via standard post (which was included free), so she messaged me asking that I upgrade it to express & she would pay the difference. When I checked it would cost me a further $4.75 to upgrade it to express, so I rounded it down to $4 and sent her a message & payment request for the extra $4 (which ofc Paypal would take a small slice out of). She was more than happy with this, but I wasn't.

I didn't feel comfortable about her paying $10.95 for what others had bought for $6.95 (even though competitors sold similar for a good deal more, and whilst I may have been biased in believing mine looked better & were of equal/better quality, that opinion was supported by feedback + quite a few pms coming back from buyers after they had received them). So I included a matching charm keyring as a gift with her purchase, that had a value equalling that of the earrings + a note simply stating "Please enjoy with my compliments") By doing so I gave up all profits I may have made from the earrings, but did so gladly. The only thing it actually cost me was my time involved, both in making them & in sending them, but that's no biggie to me these days.

[peri-landlubber]

There was a mention in one of the selling forums about 'free postage' - evidently if U add postage to your item U are only responsible for delivering the item to the post office, but must have proof of delivery to that PO.

If U use the 'free postage' option, U are responsible for delivery to the buyer, as technically the buyer has not paid for the postage.

I think I have explained it properly, but the original post is here = http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/Postage-of-Goods-Buyer-IS-Responsible-IF-YOU-DO-IT-RIGHT/m-p...