seller more than doubled agreed postage after sale.

[donnao6703]

Hi, I won an auction of an Ikea clock recently. The seller, in SA originally listed it as pick up only but after I asked if she would post Vic, she agreed and quoted a postage price of $25. I offered $30 so she could bubble wrap it. All seemed to be going well until she contacted me a day or so later and said that she thought the original postage price, which she had calculated on the Aus Post site, was too cheap so she took in to her local office and found that it was in fact $63. This is seemed very excessive to me given that the clocks weight and measurements (obtained from the Ikea website) are-Packed- 61cm x 61cm and 4.1kg. I let her know that I have sent many things through Australia Post well over that size and weight and they hadn't cost me anywhere near that price, and that she must have been given the 'Next day' rate instead of 'regular' delivery. It would seem she has either been given the wrong information by the Post Office or it's a blatent attempt to gain more money for the item than what it sold for. I have not disclosed my opinon that it is the latter to her but regardless, she has not responded to any of my emails since and it's now been 7day's since the auction ended. Since the sale she has been active on the site so it's very apparent she is ignoring me to avoid finalizing the transaction-even after I gave in and said that although I didn't agree with the postage cost, that I would pay it if it was the only way she would go through with the sale. What can be done about sellers like this? Just leaving neg feedback doesn't seem enough, nor fair to the buyer when seller's like this get to go on their merry way and just relist.

Thank you in advance,
Donna.

[harley_babes_hoard]

you shouldn't have gone through with the sale if that postage cost was more than agreed. Had she missed the sale she might have thought twice about doing it in the future to other buyers.

Edited, Confused have you paid or not?

[donnao6703]

No I have not paid. I'm still trying to get her to contact me as I would still like to purchase it. Even though I do not agree with the excessive postage she is trying to charge, due to where I live, I cannot access an Ikea store without travelling 5.5 -6hrs hours on a train there and back, so it would still be an ok buy. In saying that, what she is doing by charging that amount is wrong, but even more so is her lack of manners in getting back to me to let me know what she wants to do either way. I just think there needs to be more accountability for sellers who do this kind of thing. She should definitely not be allowed to relist it. In my opinion that's the only way sellers like her will get the hint that they cannot do things like that.

[chezzy]

I can't see where the seller has relisted the clock?

Seller may have put it in the "too hard basket", after all the actual original listing says pick up only?

(people normally do this for a reason - awkward size/nature and Aust Post don't have a fragile

service)

Perhaps the second price quoted was for Express Post, I get a price of around $62 based on

Adelaide to Melbourne....

Have you asked Ikea how much they charge to deliver same clock to you?

[donnao6703]

No I don't think she has relisted it yet. I am saying that I don't think it is fair that she should be allowed to after telling me that she would post and then not doing so after I won it. If she didn't want to send it fine, but she shouldn't have said she would. I sent her an email explaining that the Aus Post calcultor is pre set to calculate the express post option first so you have to select regular..which is what I did, and it came up $24.45. But she's saying she went into the office and they told her $63...which again, still would have been for express- which is not what I wanted anyway....
It would seem that if she wasn't trying to gain more money from the sale she would just recheck the 'regular' price and be done with it..easy!

Ikea do not deliver that item- must be that they deem it breakable...

[chezzy]

Perhaps she actually needs time to drag the item BACK to that post office to check the regular parcel post price

if they did in fact wrongly quote her an express post price...Who knows? Do you know if she is shipping in the original

box? Maybe if she is using different packaging it may be a lot dearer to post based on its measurements.

(not everyone has kitchen/digital scales and a measuring tape to work things out themselves to save time).

I do understand your frustration re the communication though....

[donnao6703]

I'm sure 5 day's in enough time to ''drag it back to the Post Office'' ( not that I asked her to take it there in the first place)( It doesn't take Einstein to figure out that $63 is not right) settle a transaction, and find time to communicate with a buyer. I find time to make the effort for my buyers, pity some others don't show the same level of respect.

Thanks for your opinon, but I'll leave it at that.

[chezzy]

Come on, be reasonable....not everyone can get to the Post Office every day.  I am one of those 'dreadful' sellers that can normally only get to the Post Office on Saturdays. Perhaps this seller also has issues getting to the Post Office. Did you try to pull their contact details and phone them?

[lyndal1838]

You say you told the seller the price was unreasonable...I would take that to mean that you are not going through with the sale.  Added to that the fact that you have not paid yet, I thing the seller is entitled to assume that the sale is not going ahead.

Postage is up to the seller, not the buyer...if a buyer told me that the postage was unreasonable I would think she was not going ahead.

[digital*ghost]

No matter what, there is no excuse for the seller to completely ignore you, particularly after you agreed to pay the higher quote.

Have you been issued an invoice with the postage added? If they have issued you an invoice with the $63 quote added, it's possible they are waiting for payment. If they haven't issued the invoice, then I would say they don't want payment for one reason or another.

Unfortunately, there is very little you can do in these circumstances, even feedback is going to be a problem if they open and close an unpaid item case.