Is postage in China free?

[wishbone44]

Greetings all,

I was told that postage in China is free to its residents, which is why you see so many "free postage" items from Chinese sellers.  Is this true?  If it is true, then are they allowed to charge postage?

I buy from a Chinese seller quite regularly.  Some of the items are "free postage", and some have a postage fee.  So, just wondering if I'm getting a runaround here, or is this allowed?

Thank you, in advance, for your input.

Cheers,
wishbone44

[jameshouseofstyle]

Hi OP,

Yep, it's scott free, all they have to do is turn up, put the the parcel on the counter, make up their minds on how and to where they want to send it - and it's  as good as done!

As for "are they allowed to charge postage" - ot course they are! Who's stopping them?

All you can do is be very, very, very annoyed, throw things at the wall, stamp your feet, slam the doors - all this accompanied with a few choice words of course - and you'll feel instantly better!  Guaranteed!

I know I did all that  (and it works) - after paying $1.99 for an item - only to discover they had the audacity to charge me $3.99 postage! Can you believe it!!!!!

[wishbone44]

Thanks for the response.  Amazing.  You'd think eBay would consider that postal fraud?!  I do.  Amazing.

By the way, you have some awesome items in your auctions. 

[annies_fancy_dress]

I received a parcel once which had stamps all over it. I paid a pittance for the widget and the stamp values added to a high number.

I assumed it was just that our dollar had so much more value.

[digital*ghost]

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@wishbone44 wrote:

Greetings all,

I was told that postage in China is free to its residents, which is why you see so many "free postage" items from Chinese sellers.  Is this true?  If it is true, then are they allowed to charge postage?

I buy from a Chinese seller quite regularly.  Some of the items are "free postage", and some have a postage fee.  So, just wondering if I'm getting a runaround here, or is this allowed?

Thank you, in advance, for your input.

Cheers,
wishbone44

---

No, it is not free. It can be very cheap, or quite expensive, depending on which service they use.

Free post is a marketing tactic used by sellers all over the world, and generally has nothing to do with the actual cost of posting an item.

It's called postage and handling, so even if the Chinese had access to free postal services, there would be nothing wrong with, or fraudulent, about charging for packaging, handling etc.

[jameshouseofstyle]

Sorry OP, 

looks like I gave you the wrong info - maybe it's not free.

When I was in China, trying to post a parcel home the PO person looked at me and asked: 

"You, Chinese?"

I had to turn around to make sure no one was standing behind me, with being blond and 5'9"  I didn't think they were asking me!

Was so tempted to say yes, but instead asked them

"is this a trick question?"

When she said"

"You pay, you pay"

I just assumed had I been Chinese I wouldn't have paid anything!

But - looking now at my $199 potato peeler (with $3.99 postage) - I just realized I'm still in front! Woo - hoo!!!

Hard to get here - those nice wide bladed ones, and supermarket ones are around 10 bucks, and not as good!

[belindabargainhunter]

the thing that I would like to know is once it comes to Australia it's aus post posting it. So is there an arrangement with china and other countries as far as aus post is concerned.
I see the end of Australian made items when u can buy for cheaper than what aus post charges us for postage.
Oh to answer your question with china post I think that when buying just look at the whole cost and then decide if u are happy. Some include postage into there price some charge separately and don't forget about package materials.

[thendreamer]

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@wishbone44 wrote:

Greetings all,

I was told that postage in China is free to its residents, which is why you see so many "free postage" items from Chinese sellers.  Is this true?  If it is true, then are they allowed to charge postage?

---

It's close to it, i checked a package i just recieved it was $6.2 HK dollars postage which is $0.43c. To post the same item with in Australia whould cost me $1.2 and to china it whould be $1.85 more then 4 times the cost, price diffrences get much worse when you go in to small packages.

[digital*ghost]

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@belindabargainhunter wrote:
the thing that I would like to know is once it comes to Australia it's aus post posting it. So is there an arrangement with china and other countries as far as aus post is concerned.

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The current arrangement for countries signed on to the international postal agreement is that each country keeps the money paid for outgoing international mail (so all money paid to send items overseas are kept by the original country's postage service). Then there is what's called terminal dues, which is to compensate for differences in mail volume between two individual countries. The volume of mail from Australia to China would be significantly lower than the volume of mail from China to Australia, so Australia Post would receive a fee based on the difference (I believe it's a flat rate per kg). 

The terminal dues generally don't cover the actual costs to deliver the individual packages - as an example, the US was paid around $1 per kilo of mail received from China in 2012 (in excess of the mail sent to China). 

[trulyspecialgoodies]

I regularly receive International Express Post (500g) packages from Hong Kong which get here in about 3 or 4 days and they convert to approx AU$20. Our cheapest Express Post International service (to Zone 1 - New Zealand) is $46 and to Hong Kong it's $54.80!