Autumn 2014 Seller Release

pixie-six
Community Manager
Community Manager

"Twice a year we bundle together a number of site, functionality and fee updates aimed at helping you deliver an enhanced shopping experience for your customers. The initiatives announced today encourage sellers to adopt the behaviours we know buyers increasingly prefer - boosting the chances of a successful sale or sustained business growth. Read more at Welcome to the Autumn 2014 Seller Release."

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Autumn 2014 Seller Release

It's not false advertising and it's not against the law. Technically or otherwise.

 

It is legally accepted marketing strategy. The explanations for it are in a thread here somewhere.

 

It is not even legally considered to be misleading.

 

Don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger.


Some people can go their whole lives and never really live for a single minute.
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Autumn 2014 Seller Release

one thing we all fail to do is ask our customers whether thet would like a free set of steak knives with their purchases

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Autumn 2014 Seller Release

That only works for domestic sales, rama. Customs will probably confiscate any you send overseas.

 

So then you have a two-tiered system, where OS buyers are denied both 'free' post AND knives, and would surely kick up a stink with eBay.com, and we would ALL have to offer steak knives to ALL buyers, regardless of the laws of the recipient country.

 

A bit like the 180 day claim period that UK buyers are soon going to enjoy. Regardless of where in the world they purchase from.

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Autumn 2014 Seller Release


@misterforgetfulsbooks wrote:

one thing we all fail to do is ask our customers whether thet would like a free set of steak knives with their purchases


ROFLMAO - I seriously just bought a set of cutlery this week. A few sellers had the same set, I got it down to deciding which of two I wanted to buy off, and as they both had similar feedback etc, it came down to the one who offered a free set of matching steak knives hahahaha

 

and another seller had a bonus set of these three dishes I liked with something else I was deliberating over - so I got a bonus set of bowls as well!


Some people can go their whole lives and never really live for a single minute.
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Autumn 2014 Seller Release

And after that it will be a case of paying to give items away or will we have to compensate buyers for accepting items from us?

 

will we continue to get free listings or will we have to pay to list free items?

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Autumn 2014 Seller Release


@kustomizer99 wrote:

Absolutely. Saying 'free postage' is a lie and false advertising. It is technically against the law to do things like that.


It is a lie and may be illegal if the seller is an Australian business and they are just adding the price ontop of the cost of goods that they would otherwise have retailed at.

 

I have confirmed this with my state Office of Fair Trading, I encourage other sellers to make enquiries also and post the advice, to counter false claims being made about the same. 

 

If your business cannot absorb the cost of post in your bottom line business expenses and there is evidence to indicate you are just adding the cost of post directly to the price of the goods you are selling - and then selling them as having FREE POST - then you may be breaching Australian Consumer Law which expressly prohibits this type of trading behaviour, for obvious reasons.   

 

 

 

 

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Autumn 2014 Seller Release

Viewmont originally posted the quote in the link below, and DG also posted this info again to another thread on this matter a couple of weeks ago.  I think it is worth posting this again as it pertains to the thread topic.

 

http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/How-come-an-Australian-seller-can-offer-free-shipping/m-p/45...

 

 

Link to ACCC Document

 

"page 39 on the left hand menu or page 35 of the actual document (  I dunno why

 

 

 

The ACCC document above states that

 

 

"When the costs of a free offer are recouped by means of price rises elsewhere, it is not truly free.

 

 

"A business cannot make a free offer and at the same time try and fund it from the pockets of consumers.

 

 

To do so is to mislead the consumers, who may not expect (unless they are explicitly told) that "free" does not really mean free"

 

End quote.

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Autumn 2014 Seller Release

Or it could be considered puffery, as no reasonable person really believes postage is free.

 

Depends on the judge you get, I suppose.

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Autumn 2014 Seller Release

Dave, the above is an excellent example of how complex the law really is and why those not conversant with it should actually seek clarification from a reputable source if they are unable to correctly interpret documents themselves.

 

The marketing strategy in question has been dealt with by the law for many, many years and has been addressed extensively.

 

An example of how important it is to consider all supporting information to the general guidlines supplied in documents such as those presented above and apply them to the areas of business to which they are intended is evident in the seemingly contradictory information supplied at Section 48 of that document.

 

"Providing consumers with the single, total price payable for goods and services is not just good business practise - it is required by law: Section 48 of the ACL provides that if a business makes a representation about a part of the price payable for a good or service, it must also provide the single total price of that good or service in a prominent way...

 

The single price must include all components by the consumer to obtain the goods or services, including any fees, taxes or surcharges that can be calculated at the time the price representation is made."

 

 

 

 


Some people can go their whole lives and never really live for a single minute.
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Autumn 2014 Seller Release


@davewil1964 wrote:

Or it could be considered puffery, as no reasonable person really believes postage is free.

 

Depends on the judge you get, I suppose.


I still don't get how it can be relegated to 'puffery', and have yet to see, read or hear anything that is credible or convincing enough to sway me, just the same old line "it's puffery because everyone knows postage isn't free". I said it before and I'll say it again - that statement on its own is a logical fallacy.

 

The fact that postage costs someone money and everyone knows it isn't the issue, what is the issue is whether or not the buyer believes they're the one paying for postage when they purchase an item advertised as free postage. 

 

There are a lot of reasons why a buyer can and will believe that postage hasn't cost them any money, so I would really like to see some proper evidence wherin 'free postage' no matter how the price has been made up, has been qualified as 'puffery', particlarly when in some cases it does actually mean free for the buyer, while in other cases it is a matter of 'postage included in the price'

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