Overcharging postage

[michaela1162]

I bought a top from a seller who charged $8.50 for postage. It arrived in a yellow A4 paper enveloe with a postage stamp of $1.60. I was disapointed and emailed the seller requestng a refund for the difference. She responded saying it was her policy to charge a flat rate of $8.50 and this was to encourage buyers to puchase more than one item and save on postage as she would combine postage on additional items. I replied saying I think its great you offer to combine postage however its a bit unfair to charge buyers buying only one item such a high rate when it arrived in an envelope with a $1.60 stamp! She responded again saying this was her policy and that I had agreed to the terms when bidding. Im not concerned about the money, its more the principle! As a seller myself I would never do this to another buyer! I always endeavour to do the right thing by paying for items immediately and charging whatever it actually costs to post items. Should I leave negative feedback and report her for overcharging or am I in the wrong due to her stating her 'policy'? I have tried to resolve this with her but am getting the 'its my policy' thing. Thanks!

[lane-ends]

If you sell a lot of marginal items, its not always obvious if they will flatten down or not. Cuts out a potential cause of error  and also streamlines listing. If I were to use a shipping cost rather than freepost route i would probably pick a flat cost of say $5 which in most cases would be under actual rather than try to be accurate and get it wrong.

[digital*ghost]

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@egglesdtp wrote:

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Then why not work it out before listing? Surely it's not too hard to use a PO measuring gauge to see if the item will fit through the 2cm limit? And why not weigh the item? I weigh all my items before listing, and include the weight in the listing, both for my own benefit when working out the appropriate postage and also so people can work out whether they can fit more within the satchel (I mostly use prepaid satchels). Buying more than one item is usually a win-win for both buyer (postage cost is less per item) ansd seller (FVF on postage is reduced).

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That would defeat the purpose of using  single, flat rate postage price. I refer back to one of my earlier posts where I mention some of the reasons I use a single, flat rate postage charge. 

This kind of thing is still just looking at the postage price alone, and judging it based on "what I would do" kind of thing - it's not applicable, because this seller has a different perpective, and doesn't do what you do, so you can't say "this is how I work things out, so I expect it's how everyone else should operate, too".