Seller blames EBay for excessive postage

[gilld12]

A seller had 3 identical serving spoons for sale in one listing. I ordered the 3 spoons, and was then informed by the seller that they would be packed and shipped separately. I contacted the seller who said "I am afraid I am part of ebays Global Shipping program so they collect the shipping and do the shipping for me, so I can't change it."

This seems unreasonable as knives and forks are not packed and charged individually, so why should spoons be any different? 

[*new2vintage · Accepted solution]

Some sellers combine postage and charge the cost for postage and a handling fee. Some sellers say they combine it but only send items together and charge more.

I think the service your seller has told you about is new and I know hardly anything about it. I assume it's optional and not all American sellers use the service. It might be true about the way things are packed and sent and charged for but you can only find out for sure if you buy from a seller who uses the service. One problem with overseas mail is that stamps are not put on all packages so you can't always find out how much postage has cost. If the seller wants to cancel the transaction he will send a Mutual Cancellation Request. It's easy to fill in.

If you are in any doubt about costs or anything else in the future don't hesitate to ask sellers questions. If someone doesn't reply or doesn't tell you what you want to know it may be better to not deal with them.