Seller refuses to combine postage - profiteering on postage?

[9647ian]

So I am quite prepared to pay the $80 to a seller on two separate sales. The sales are for some spare parts that would fit into the palm of my hand when combined, but he wants $13.80 postage for each sale. That makes an incredible $27.60 postage on items that he will be able to post for half that cost.

And how much do you want to bet, he will post the two sales together in one envelope?

I have told him that if he intends to charge me two lots of postage then I will expect two separate envelopes.

I almost made the mistake of bidding on a third ad of his for another $40. That would have made a combined postage of $41.40 on small items that could be posted for less than half that amount.

Why are some sellers so unreasonable when it comes to combining postage? Are they profiteering on postage? Seems so.

[9647ian]

Thank you but ebay policy is generally not strictly adhered to. For instance I had a seller recently from some European country (Latvia I think it was) who annoyed me for months and months and months with daily spam messages. The seller was also advertizing items that they did not actually have in stock. I knew this for a fact because I sent  them a message asking if a certain item was available. They replied with a deinfinte yes. So I purchased the item as soon as I received their message and they immediately cancelled my order. They then sent a message that the items were no longer in stock. But three weeks later they still had ads up for the same item. I sent them a message asking if the items were back in stock. They replied that they had not taken the ad down yet but would take it down soon. Another three weeks went by and their ad was still up. Looking at their feedback I found a lot of negatives, with most buyers cimplaining about cancelled orders due to the item not being in stock. I only tried to buy that one item from them and then they started spamming me. I reported the seller and got a reply from ebay that they would definitely look into the seller's activities. Well that was over 6 months ago and the seller is still on ebay and still selling products they do not actually stock. I still get spam messages from them occasionally, but not daily like I once did. So this tends to make a mockery of ebay's "strict" violation policies! My guess is that Latvian seller is just using ebay to phish for email addresses so they can send out spam, but that is just my opinion. Why else would they be selling stuff they do not actually have?

FYI, moderation goes both ways. 😉

[9647ian]

This is getting funny. Next thing we will have to send the seller an entire manual of legal terms and their definitions so he understands EXACTY what we mean and there can be no ambiguation and therefore no excuses about what the seller might or might not have thought the buyer meant.

"Combined postage": Meaning: Combined postage is when a buyer requests that the seller kindly consider combining all of the buyer's recent purchases under one cover on the understanding that this may provide a cheaper postage option for the buyer. It DOES NOT mean that the buyer wants the seller to charge the maximum price for postage then chuck everything in one packet and post everything the cheapest way possible so that the seller can make a profit off the postage.

[countessalmirena]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@countessalmirena wrote:

A handful of times I've asked sellers what the cost of combined postage would be, or if the seller could give me a quotation for combined postage. (I'd ask before bidding.)

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Phrasing - you're leaving out some info, there, but the fact that you asked for an actual quote, not just whether the seller combined postage, seems to say enough. 

By which I mean to infer, presumably you asked for a quote because you figured there was at least a chance the combined quote would be different to the sum of the postage quoted in each listing. When you asked, was that your expectation? I mean, even if it was going to be more than the combined total of the postage quotes, you can still purchase and pay for the items individually and not pay any more than the original quotes, so (logically) asking has no benefit unless a lower quote is expected or hoped for, to me anyway. 

And, the question you can't answer - did the seller presume you were asking if there were combined postage discounts available. I can't answer it either, but I'd put some decent money on "yes". 

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(I was forced to be succinct; I had to rush off to an appointment!)

I think that the last time I asked was when I was buying some Victorian pewter ice cream and chocolate and jelly moulds. I had my eye on several of them, and from memory the seller's listings said "happy to combine" or something like that. I let the seller know I was interested in several of the items, and said I'd either have them sent directly to me from her UK address, or have them sent to my UK parcel forwarding address (as a lot of things were going to the UK address at that time). The seller replied with all the information I needed; I ended up deciding on her combined postage discounted price to my UK forwarding address.

Since her listings indicated that she was happy to combine, I wanted to check what sort of total postage price I'd be up for before I placed my bids.

Yes - it was considerably cheaper than the sum of each separate lot of postage would have been. It was 6 or 7 separate moulds - so not lightweight. The wording of the seller's listings encouraged me to think that might be possible.

In any instance when I'm trying to get a discount for anything (postage, antiques, coffee machines, etc.), I am unambiguous. But in listings when the "each additional item" section shows no discount, I don't ask. I assume the seller has made a decision about postage, and spelled it out clearly, and I make my decision to buy or refuse to buy on the basis of the information in the listing.

(I've got my eye on some banquet chairs at the moment... Hmm... could be worth it... Hmm.)

[brerrabbit585]

I usually ask for a quote if I'm after specific items and it's not a lot of work for the seller to figure out the postage. Asking do they combine postage should be pretty clear to the seller what I'm asking but it doesn't mean I'll get a proper reply - "yes, I combine" doesn't give me much idea of whether they'll rip me or not.

In the early days I used to buy a lot from overseas and I'd ask for a postage quote on one item, then when I got it with one bid the seller would send me an invoice with an extra dollar or two on the postage. I doubt they forgot that they'd quoted me, unless they'd had several requests from people, so it really annoyed me. Most of the time I just paid and said nothing. I wouldn't have minded so much if they'd sent a note saying it was more than they expected but they probably just thought they could get away with anything.

The crux of the matter is that some sellers don't follow good business practice and there's nothing we can do to change that, any more than we can change someone's character. We've all been caught out by greedy/dodgy/incompetent people, both on and off ebay, and we just have to live with it and never deal with them again.

Rest assured that nobody ever gets away with anything - it'll come back to them eventually. People who are stingy in their dealings with others find that others aren't generous to them, but it's a different story with those who give good measure to others.

[brerrabbit585]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

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@brerrabbit585 wrote:

Lyndal, I think ebay and the term 'combined postage' have been in existence long enough for everyone to know that in common usage it means discounted postage (if indeed it does cost less to post things together).

There would be absolutely no point in a buyer asking for combined postage if it didn't mean a discount.  The only benefit of combining would be for the seller so there'd be no point in the buyer asking.

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With all due respect the ebay policy on combined postage only says that the buyer MAY get a discount when the seller combines postage.

For a long time buyers were expected to ask if the seller gave discounts when combining postage and it seems to me that ebay still expects the question to be asked if the seller does not expressly have discounts set up.

Sellers are not breaking any policy by not giving discounts as this thread sees to be indicating.

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Ebay seems to be doing its best to discourage communication these days and expects sellers to have as much information as possible in the listing so questions aren't required.  Very few people ask questions these days and it's in a seller's interests to make it as easy as they can for buyers by indicating whether or not they combine postage.

I wouldn't say this thread seems to be indicating that sellers are breaking policy by not combining postage, but a lot are virulently attacking the OP for expecting "fair play" from the seller in this regard.  Note that I didn't say "by not giving a postage discount" and that was deliberate because "discounting postage" infers that you're charging less than actual cost because you buy more than one, whereas combined postage is actually a reduction from the sum total of the separate amounts when it costs less to send them together than it would separately.