Seller - deceptive and misleading information - what to do now?

[janellehollycat]

Hi there - thought I would throw this open to see what others think.  I recently purchased and paid (yes, silly me!) for items from UK.  I did complain about the postage as I thought it was too high at the time.  Later on when I worked it out, the seller had not used combined postage for the items even though their ads state that they combine post for multiple items.  I complained about this again and asked for the weight of the package so that I could work out what the item should cost to post to Australia.  The seller has responded saying they have decided to charge extra for packaging and handling to give the money to charity.  This is not mentioned in the ad and they are not listed as a charity seller. 

So basically they charged me 29 pounds postage for a small packet that costs 18.60 pounds.  They have refunded me 2 pounds 'goodwill'.  So now I am being charged 27 pounds for 18.60 package.  I am chasing them for a refund for the rest.  A 'reasonable' handling charge would I think be 1 or 2 pounds on top of posage not 8.40 pounds.

Obviously this is very poor seller behaviour.  Can I report this seller to Ebay for misleading and deceptive conduct?  What do other people think?

[Anonymous]

By paying up front acknowledges you agreed to the postage price. Transacttion complete.

Your error is that you did not negotiate/querie the postage before checking out. Whose fault is that? 

[fixnwear]

WOW - not alot of very nice people on these boards is there?  I was just after some constructive advice and suggestions.  I won't bother next time. 

AND to that very nasty person - I type over 100 wpm so NO it doesn't take alot of time for me to type up a reply AND I'm just so happy for you that you are so very very wealthy that $14 means nothing to you and you are obviously very happy with yourself on top of it - good luck to you! 

Some karma coming your way very soon ... bye for now AND thank you for the nice people who gave me some good advice!

janellehollycat,

 thank you for the karma bit - but your efforts are wasted on me - I'm not superstitious in the slightest.

Very surprised at your reaction to my post - it almost looked like you don't think I have a right to express my opinion about your $14 surchrge on postage.

But, being a public forum - I do, and I did.

And I what I was trying to do is exactly the oposite, actually make you feel betetr about the whole situation by pointing out that $14 is not a lot of money in anyone's books and your loss wasn't all that tragic.

I am not a seller - but if I was and had a customer who was that concerned about 14 buck to create such a fuss - I would most likely give it to you, not just a postage but the entire money you have paid as you clearly needed it more than me.

I like doing good deeds, at least one every day - makes me feel great about life and people in general.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

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@janellehollycat wrote:

Hi there - thought I would throw this open to see what others think.  I recently purchased and paid (yes, silly me!) for items from UK.  I did complain about the postage as I thought it was too high at the time.  Later on when I worked it out, the seller had not used combined postage for the items even though their ads state that they combine post for multiple items.  I complained about this again and asked for the weight of the package so that I could work out what the item should cost to post to Australia.  The seller has responded saying they have decided to charge extra for packaging and handling to give the money to charity.  This is not mentioned in the ad and they are not listed as a charity seller. 

So basically they charged me 29 pounds postage for a small packet that costs 18.60 pounds.  They have refunded me 2 pounds 'goodwill'.  So now I am being charged 27 pounds for 18.60 package.  I am chasing them for a refund for the rest.  A 'reasonable' handling charge would I think be 1 or 2 pounds on top of posage not 8.40 pounds.

Obviously this is very poor seller behaviour.  Can I report this seller to Ebay for misleading and deceptive conduct?  What do other people think?

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just re-read the opening post again and have some questions for the OP . . . . . has the item arrived yet?  If yes, was the postage exactly the same as you "calculated"?  If no, then I think your concerns are a little premature and you should wait until the item arrives before doing anything about this as you may find that the cost was more than 18.60 pounds.

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janellehollycat , I'm still curious as to whether the item has arrived OR whether you did a Royal Mail internet calculation of what the seller has paid for postage.  I did ask 5 days ago, and you have been back to this thread.

So, I will ask again . . . .  has the item arrived yet?  If "Yes", was the postage exactly the same as you "calculated"? If "No" then please come back and let us know how much postage shows on the package when it does arrive. 

I'm not trying to be nasty, and I don't think I have been nasty to you, I'm just curious

Spoiler

no stinger here padi

[janellehollycat]

Hi there - sorry had not checked back on this.  Packaged arrived well packed (with reused packaging not new) for 3 ceramic items and promptly at 19.30 marked on postage in pounds.  The seller was never upfront with P&H fees and postage costs even though I asked several times.  YES it was my fault for being trusting and paying in advance.  Most of my regular sellers refund on overpayment of fees as do I when I am selling.  YES I did assume this was something alot of Ebayers do and I did expect to automatically be refunded on overpayment of postage costs.  YES, I hang my head in shame - I made an assumption!

And thanks to all on this post, I did take everything into consideration and I think I marked the seller fairly in the end - it was a fairly so/so transaction for me but I did not neg the seller in the end.  I gave the seller five stars for items x 3 and 5 stars for postage time.  I marked down on the stars for postage costs and seller comms and I believe I left fair and constructive comments for others to view and take into consideration when buying from this seller.  I won't be back to this seller again and no doubt I have been blocked by now but that doesn't bother me. 

For me, there is a reason why I purchase items from the same sellers time and time again - great pricing, great postage, great comms, great service - do that and I will keep coming back time and time again. 

We can put the baby to bed now!

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

thanks for coming back and letting us know.

[lyndal1838]

You may as well have given a negative....the neutral has done just as much damage.

It is interesting to see the whole truth of the transactions though.  If the seller charged you GBP28.00 then you did get an initial small postage discount as the full postage on those 3 items was GBP29.55....along with the GBP2.00 refund the seller is telling the truth about the amount of discount you received.

It looks to me as though it is not only the seller who is deceptive and misleading....this thread and the feedback you left has done you no favours either.

[2011.narelle]

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@janellehollycat wrote:

Hi there - sorry had not checked back on this.  Packaged arrived well packed (with reused packaging not new) for 3 ceramic items and promptly at 19.30 marked on postage in pounds.  The seller was never upfront with P&H fees and postage costs even though I asked several times.  YES it was my fault for being trusting and paying in advance.  Most of my regular sellers refund on overpayment of fees as do I when I am selling.  YES I did assume this was something alot of Ebayers do and I did expect to automatically be refunded on overpayment of postage costs.  YES, I hang my head in shame - I made an assumption!

And thanks to all on this post, I did take everything into consideration and I think I marked the seller fairly in the end - it was a fairly so/so transaction for me but I did not neg the seller in the end.  I gave the seller five stars for items x 3 and 5 stars for postage time.  I marked down on the stars for postage costs and seller comms and I believe I left fair and constructive comments for others to view and take into consideration when buying from this seller.  I won't be back to this seller again and no doubt I have been blocked by now but that doesn't bother me. 

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Why do you not just wait for a revised invoice for combined post before payment or even just message the seller for a combined post cost? I assume this was something that an experienced buyer who is also a seller would be doing.

Some sellers are worried about getting defects for any type or refund.Aside from that it's just so much simpler to do a transaction in one go without messing around to do a refund after the fact.