Does anyone else find it very unfair that Ebay charges fees on postage charged.

[houseofvintageandretro]

I am a small ebay business and am being charged over $500 in fees by Ebay and Paypal.  Does anyone else think its unfair to be charged fees on the postage paid by the customer.  It's ok for large businesses to offer free postage as they can absorb it better, but if I do that, it can often mean I am giving my item to the customer for nothing - If I charge more postage than it costs so that I cover some of my fees (which Ebay has suggested I do), then I get a bad feedback in that area.  Most of my items are $10- $50 but might cost me $20 to post, so I just can't absorb that cost and give free postage.  I know this is legal for Ebay to do, but can't we try and fight them on this?

[springyzone · Accepted solution]

It is unfair but I think they introduced it to put a stop to sellers who had items at $1, with $50 postage, so they could dodge fees.

Been a while since I sold a lot each week as I used to, but if i went back to it, I think I would tend to work out the fees and bump up the price of the item by that much but charge pretty much what would look like the going price for the postage.

I don't think buyers expect 'free postage' on everything and are fine with paying postage separately, it is the overall cost that matters. I guess the only downside is they have to do the maths in their head, but  that isn't a major thing. The only thing that does annoy some buyers is if they see postage cost less than they paid. It's always been that way, they don't allow for wrapping materials and handling and quite a lot of them have no idea a seller is paying fees on postage too.

A decade back when i was selling, there was buyer/seller feedback but none of this star rating business and no paypal.

These days with the changes, you need to cover yourself and I think if you just bump up the item price, you'll cover yourself.

You can complain to ebay but if i were you, I would assume there isn't going to be a change any time soon.

[davidc4430 · Accepted solution]

my guess is you would struggle to find a seller who is happy about it.

but when you realise a lot of sellers were fiddling the books so to speak by putting low prices on items but high postage costs to avoid paying the fees its no suprise ebay fought back and we all lost.

is ebay greedy, prolly but it was sellers greed that started the war.

no point crying now, its a done deal. we just have to live with it.

[twyngwyn · Accepted solution]

Back in the day....when this first started....a petition was started with change.org.....there was not enough interest 😞

[davewil1964 · Accepted solution]

There was a bit of interest.

But the ACCC and every member of the government deemed it okay.

I use the eBay labels, which give me a 10% discount on the equivalent AP service, and thus cover the eBay FVF on postage. As eBay intended.

[imastawka · Accepted solution]

Slightly off topic, but I'm wondering why the OP insists on leaving

follow up fb for nearly every single positive left.

Must be very time consuming

[*tippy*toes* · Accepted solution]

I don't like it any more than any other seller, but since it was introduced 2 years ago, I'm used to it now. My postage rate is $8.20 for under 500g parcels and my postage cost stars have never been under 5. I have never had a buyer complain about the postage cost showing as less than they paid.

I did try the free postage thing, by inflating my prices to include the postage cost and sold absolutely nothing. As soon as I reduced the price and added a separate postage cost again, sales took off again. It also means that if a buyer buys multiple items, they can get an often significant reduction on the postage they pay.

Add the extra fees into either your item price or postage cost. If competition is too fierce to even increase by $1, then try a different product line with less competition.

[samjess54 · Accepted solution]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

I don't like it any more than any other seller, but since it was introduced 2 years ago, I'm used to it now. My postage rate is $8.20 for under 500g parcels and my postage cost stars have never been under 5. I have never had a buyer complain about the postage cost showing as less than they paid.........................................

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I have only started selling since that change 2 years ago so nothing to get used to on that front for me. 

I've fiddled with my <500gm rate and am currently charging $8.90 (until recently $8.50) - my reasoning being that $8.90 leaves me with 33c for my costs and risk after ebay/paypal fees are taken into account whereas $8.50 left me nothing - not a problem if it encouraged sales but I am also really happy for people to collect their items from me rather than me post with all the inherent risks involved.  Larger parcels get me the 10+% postage discount via ebay labels so no concerns there.

Haven't had any buyer complaints about the postage cost showing but my postage cost stars are only 4.9 so at least one buyer thinks they paid too much.   Mind you, when I'm sending things off I sometimes think that it is "too much".....especially if it is a $10 item that a WA buyer is prepared to pay $30+ in P&H to receive........I'm actually waiting for a month in which I collect more in P&H than I do for the items sold......reckon I'll have one someday.

[lane-ends · Accepted solution]

Additional reason is Ebay promoted free post, but doing that inevitably mean sellers shipping costs attracted fvf fees. so Ebay introduced fvf across the board so it didn't deter sellers from opting for freepost. as you are stuck with the fee whether you offer it or not.

[bubblegh · Accepted solution]

delete my post, wrong browser window