Not ethical

[deviator43]

Looking at Silver Bullion today I see an offering of 3 X 1kg of silver starting at less than a dollar.Thinking "that's low" I suddenly realise the postage is set at $1999.99.

   Surely this is unethical if not illegal by the rules?Had I not taken the extra seconds to read the bottom part I may have been locked into this contract with a bid below a dollar.

   This sort of practice should be condemned I believe.

[bsal6160]

DG, the reason I say it will only hurt other sellers is that buyers will simply shop elsewhere when the seller is forced to raise the item listing price. And anyways, doesnt the US site already hit the seller with a FVF which includes the postage price? If this happens in au it will signal the end of ebay au as most buyers will just go to other online sites to spend the dollar unless sellers here can match our OS counterparts prices, which I highly, doubt given the exorbidant prices some seller are asking on here already.

[digital*ghost]

I understand that higher prices is the end result of higher costs, and there is always a breaking point when sellers can't / won't absorb costs, and buyers can't / won't pay the asking price. The happy medium is on very shaky ground, but I doubt FVF on P&H here would be the end of eBay, you only have to look at how many Oz sellers already pay it via offering free post and are still doing ok to see that, but (and all other issues surrounding eBay taking a cut of P&H aside) it would make it hard for a number of sellers to continue trading here if the cost of postage was effectively raised by up to 10% for choosing eBay as the selling platform. 

[thecatspjs]

I think the listings gone ?? 

Maybe T&S are finished with taking coat hanger listings down, and moved on to something else.

Gosh when reporting it was eligible for so many of the categories, I ended up doing several reports.

[latina4621]

the listing is still there you need to look at completed listings  and it had 3 bids on it.

[tonalidesigns]

Nah - T&S have been too busy with other "important" issues like pedantic hair splitting on allowable keywords.

eBay have filters in place to prevent you sending messages which even vaguely hint of external contact. They seem to be able to pick up within a few minutes listings that have rather pedantic key word spamming. Their filters don't let you include an email address in a message. They can even pick up duplicate listings..

But if you have a postage price that is 200,000% higher than the starting price for anything (let alone bullion) this doesn't raise any alarms??????

Good one eBay.

[stormness_1]

I'd report these listings as a scam, if you were to not receive the item, what would paypal refund you - if you were to go through them? The listing price, not postage.. 

I see many of these listings and I report them as such. Selling items at 99c and charging $50+ for shipping, people think they are getting a bargain for exxy items even including shipping, but fail to realise that they will only get their 99c back if something were to go wrong, such as an INR or NAD case. Blatant scammers and fee evaders.

[jawsnine]

Paypal buyer protection does include the original postage price.

PayPal Buyer Protection

PayPal Buyer Protection helps you if you don't receive your item or the item is significantly different from its description in the seller's listing. Eligible transactions may be protected up to the full purchase price and original postage charges to a maximum of AU$20,000.

Not saying I think its right to charge over the top handling fees but there are plenty that do it.