Australian postage fees

[woodbed27]

I called eBay today to clarify fees, despite the set cost by weight 500 g 1 kg , 3 kg of postage bags, eBay informed me thy will charge 9.9% of this as a final value fee. Then advised to add 9.9% as handling charges! This seems pretty unfair to the buyer or me whoever
absorbs the cost.
I have never charged anymore than the post office charge me, and eBay are levering 10% from Australia post . Any ideas ?

[orchidsnmore]

You have managed to find out more than I could.  It looks as though it is has been made deliberately hard to make a claim.

When shoppers pay for a few items and pay postage on each individual item it can add up to a big refund.

 Over 12 months it can add up to a big % loss.

[niceandbright]

Does anybody know if it is legal to charge a commission on a service which is not provided by ebay?

I charge a buyer exact postage according to Post Office quote (not ebay postage),  buyer pays me exact postage, I take item to Australia Post Office, pay that same exact postage to Australia Post,  the 100% of the postage.  ebay then charges Seller 9.9% for a service they are not involved with:  the postage is between Seller, Buyer, and Australia Post.

It's like imposing a kind of g.s.t. on an item or service that ebay does not provide and are not involved with.

Paypal collects the postage money with payment for the seller,  ebay does not collect any money.

All ebay collects is a seller's listing and final value fee, nothing more in my case.

I would like to know if anyone has any connections to find out.

I am not whinging about it being unfair,  a seller is meant to absorb selling costs and not add more than correct postage fee on a buyer.   

I am curious to know if it is legal.

[niceandbright]

 woodbed,   Hi,   I have just read somewhere that ebay owns Paypal,  whereas I thought Paypal was independent.

If that's correct,   I thought Paypal collected purchase money from buyer, including what we invoice to buyer as Postage,  and wondered how ebay coudl charge a commission for postage when they don't provide the service,  as you say Australia Post does.

I don't use ebay's in-house postal service,  I go physically to the post office shop and ask exact postage, get the payment, take the thing to post shop, pay them, and post it.   ebay I thought had no involvement in the process of postage.

If they own Paypal,  then through veiled invol vement, they may be entitled to charge the 9.9% postage fee as Paypal, an ebay company, collects payment.

I don't know, maybe the ACCC can help advise everybody on this.

[lyndal1838]

The ACCC has already advised those ebayers who contacted them....ebay is doing nothing wrong.

The time for complaining and asking questions was back at the beginning of the year when it was first announced...not nearly 6 months after it started.

[nesnah53]

Heads up people, i heard ebay or "greedybay" owns Gumtree. If they can get away with taking 9.9% of our postage as well as sales it will not be long before they stuff that site as well. Unfortunately these companies expect a record profit each quarter so do not be surprised when they bump up their percentage again. Like a lot of people i will be selling on Gumtree from now on.

[cmcoins2000]

---

@nesnah53 wrote:

Heads up people, i heard ebay or "greedybay" owns Gumtree. If they can get away with taking 9.9% of our postage as well as sales it will not be long before they stuff that site as well. Unfortunately these companies expect a record profit each quarter so do not be surprised when they bump up their percentage again. Like a lot of people i will be selling on Gumtree from now on.

---

Whooooa where have you been.

Gumtree is very well known for being eBay.

[woodbed27]

I don't sell that frequently so it only just came to my attention.

[hmmar-spier]

There has to be slightly something illegal with Ebay effectively taxing and taking a cut of an Australian Government 'fee for service provider'. I cant think of any other company that gets away with this in Australia, actually makes me think what deal Ebay has done with Australia Post which is still owned by the Australian people. Name another essentially private company that is taxing goverment services ? ACCC (toothless as they are) need to look at this.

[casbit33]

ebay don't pay tax in Australia, so they think they can get away with anything here. And yes it is illegal to charge a fee for a service you don't provide. ACCC have been told of this, but as usual they just sit on their hands and put it all in the "too hard" basket.

[cherry*135]

If an eBay seller sells their item  for $15.00 Free post ebay takes their FVF on the $15.00.

If I sell an item for $10 with postage costs additional at $5.. ebay takes their FVF on the $10 and the $5 - total $15

Whats the difference? eBay is still getting the FVF on shipping if postage is included in the item cost.

eBay FVF on postage/shipping applies in UK and US also.