Seller requesting additional funds

[julmum8]

Hi I purchased an item that was listed as free postage, paid in full and then have since received a message from the seller asking me to pay $5 towards postage costs as I live in country SA and they are claim postage will be extra (but it was listed and still is listed as free).  This is a company with 1000's of items sold (so not a one off sale) but they have requested that I send my email details so that they can then get me to pay the additional $5 to them.  I have said that I am not happy to make any payments outside of ebay.

Is this normal? If I need to pay the extra $$ how should I get them to invoice me for this or is this shonky and I shouldn't pay them anything extra.

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

[sugar249 · Accepted solution]

Last time I checked Free postage is Free postage.

So unless there is something in the advert to say additional cost for country SA (I doubt it),  it is free postage.

And definitely don't pay outside of Ebay.

[countessalmirena]

What is the item number? Perhaps the item showed as having free postage in the eBay app (if you’re using that) but was actually free pickup…?

[julmum8]

Thank you and no I went back and checked and there is definitely nothing about extra postage costs for country areas etc 

This was the first email I received - copied and pasted:

We're sorry to infrom you that the psotage is more than we could bear, could you pay extra AU $5 for the postage please ?
Thank you for your understanding 

then I received this:

We could send you the invoice (through paypal ,please provide the email address) or send the account details,which one is ok for you ?

I did state that it was listed as free postage and that I would not be prepared to do any transactions outside of ebay.

I will re email them and state that postage was listed as free so I won't be paying any addition funds and see what they then say.

Thanks again

[julmum8]

No pick up isn't even an option - ebay store 18,000 plus items sold - its a hoverboard seat supposed to be located in Australia and item is still listed as free delivery (there was multiple options and multiple available) with no mention of additional postage costs depending on location just option to pay for express post which I haven't selected and they have asked for a $5 payment to contribute to postage and asked I send my email or paypal account details 

[countessalmirena]

If this had been an inexperienced seller, I’d be sympathetic to their position (although it is poor form to try to charge an additional amount subsequently). As it’s an experienced seller, it is difficult to understand how the seller could make a mistake of this nature. Listing with free postage is listing with free postage (or rather, “postage included”). 

This may involve fee avoidance in addition to asking you for extra after the sale.

I agree – reply politely that you won’t be paying more than the listing stated, as that is part of eBay T&Cs.

[sugar249]

just further to that if they then refuse to send the item,  just wait for the ETA to pass and lodge an Item Not received claim, to get your money back.

[paper-jack]

The seller's feedback reveals they have tried this on other buyers. They seem to have lifted their game as negatives are not recent but if I were in your position, I'd be leaving this well alone and hope they don't send and do as Sugar249 recommends. (I'd be checking a seller's feedback before making a payment to be on the safe side)

[springyzone]

Extremely cheeky, considering this is a big seller with previous experience.

The message you showed us, where they say the postage is 'more than they can bear' is absolute nonsense.

If we were talking about a $50 mistake, I could perhaps understand. But even most mum & dad sellers could suck it up and put it down to experience for a $5 difference.

They are just greedy or lazy or both.

My take on it is they can't be bothered putting extra effort into their ads to show different postage to regional areas so they leave it as is and if a country address comes up, they just ask for extra on the sly. Paperjack says they have previous form for this.

Just do as others advise-say you paid in good faith as per the ad & expect them to honour it as it is not right to demand more after a firm sale & if they wanted more, they should have adjusted their ad.

Do not mention opening any claims with ebay, Do not mention giving bad feedback.

However, if they don't send it, you can claim item not received.

I feel they would be more ilikely to cancel the sale on you but if possible, give negative feedback once this is resolved one way or another.

[julmum8]

Update - they cancelled the order and refunded.