@sjchaps wrote:
Can you point me to anywhere where this issue is being address or even discussed?
Thanks for your help Steve c
eBay address postage piracy and price-jacking (to avoid sales) in their policies.
The postage policy is a little vague, in some regards, as they allow for postage cost paid to the carrier, additional services, or service upgrades (registered, express, signature on delivery, extra cover etc), and handling (which is where it gets vague, as all eBay do is mention handling costs can include the cost of packaging. They used to mention a couple of things a seller "can't" include in their postage charge but don't any more, like the cost of petrol to get to the PO was listed as something that should be in item price rather than postage costs - and I put "can't" in quotation marks because handling is such an all-encompassing term and there's no way for anyone to determine what a seller considers handlng, and what the cost / value of that handling is, except the seller).
It is also against policy to increase the price of items in order to maintain visibility of a listing when it is out of stock (in case you weren't aware, eBay has a site feature that hides listings when they reach 0 stock. I make use of it quite frequently). I tried to find where this policy is explicitly stated, but can't remember under what page it's listed; I feel like it specifically referred to item price (which might explain why some sellers have taken to doing it via postage costs), but can't remember 100%. If I find the policy, I'll link it later - the postage policy is found here, though: https://www.ebay.com.au/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy?id=4346
Having the policies, and being prepared to enforce them are two different things - I'm not really sure the postage one can be enforced, for the reason I mentioned above. Most people looking at a listing for a small, light item only to see $400+ postage would consider that significantly inflated, and in general it would be considered a reasonable assumption, but reasonable assumption doesn't equal undeniable proof of a policy violation (and I feel a little galled typing that, knowing that ebay often take unreasonable assumptions as though they are undeniable proof).
If the seller is trying to avoid the sale in that manner, I suspect that a buyer is unlikely to be held to the price they committed to, to be honest (should one never actually look at the postage cost before buying), so I'm not sure in-depth discussion on that would nett much beyond people talking about what they think of the tactic.
