Ebay charging fees including postage

[robag247]

eBay has a postage calculating facility, which sellers can use to estimate the charges by AU Post. 

If a seller calculates a sum for postage, using the eBay postage calculator and exactly pays that at the post office, what is the reason for eBay to charge on that cost. Those instances are NOT falling in by the ACCC allowed charges. That practice is illegal.

[lyndal1838]

Ebay has been charging a Final Value Fee on the postage component of the invoice for some time now.  It has already been brought to the attention of Australian authorities and nothing has been done....it is not illegal.

[joethenuts]

they have been doing it for a very long time now , it basicly stops sellers from rorting the system ala sell a $20 item for $1  and adding $19 for postage  so they pay a fee on $1 

[kopenhagen5]

It was apparently deemed acceptable and legal long before eBay introduced it.

It would also make sense eBay had researched the possibility before implementing it.

The rational was to stamp out the unscupulous sellers giving eBay a bad reputation by setting an auction or BIN at $1 with $500 postage to circumvent fees. So we have all those that partook in such to thank.

[*tippy*toes*]

Fees on postage came in in May 2014 from memory. Plenty of people made reports to the ACCC, but nothing happened. What they are doing is not illegal. It was run by the ACCC long before it was implemented and they approved it.

Do what most other sellers do. Add extra to your buy price, or add a bit extra on the postage. I charge $8.20 for $7.45 parcels and have 5 stars for postage. Therefore, it obviously doesn't bother the buyers.

[collect247]

There are still plenty of sellers out there still charging high amounts for postage.

I just recently won an auction for $2 but the postage was $18,total cost $20.

So ebay will charge the FVF which will leave the seller around $18,I received the item in a small envelope with a $0.70 stamp on it.

Seller still pocketed around $17,because the postage/packaging only cost them around $1.

So the profitering on postage still happens lol.

[egglesdtp]

For those items where you use calculated postage - which I use mostly for items weighing between 500g and 1kg -  where you cannot predict beforehand what the postage will cost, add a couple of dollars 'handling charge' which should take care of the FVF on postage. I do this because if the buyer is in the same state as me then postage cost for these items ($10.05) is a lot less than a 3kg satchel, even with my handling charge. If the buyer is in another sate, the 3kg satchel may often be the cheaper alternative, in which case i refund the buyer the excess postage (less the FVF).

[designers*n*more]

Plus the fact that eBay and PayPal are now separate companies, eBay also still get their cut on postage. Before only PayPal charged a fee on the total amount, ie item price and postage while eBay only charged a fee on the item price. Of course, they can't do without their cut so they now get their cut on postage as well. I think this was the real reason it was introduced, it would have been discussed long before the decision to separate the companies was announced and the excuse that it was to stop sellers charging exhorbantant postage on cheap items was just a smoke screen.

[247newdeals]

With ebay and paypal fees on it $7:45 postage equates to about $8.90. Of course you should have 5 stars for postage you are charging less than it costs you I would wager if you charged the full $9.00 it would be 4.9 though 

For a small parcel to make the $7:15 postage + $0.25 satchel and I cost bubble wrap/tape at $0.10 (real cost is more than that. So the cost for postage is approx $7.50 but I need to charge the buyer a minimum of $9.00 to cover the cost. Of course in reality to stay competitive it means a smaller profit margin so I lose $1:50+ a sale. At the end of the day it makes it harder to sell and means buyer have a smaller choice of goods to buy the only winners from this are Ebay and of course the chinese sellers who must be loving how Ebay au runs 

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

Fees on postage came in in May 2014 from memory. Plenty of people made reports to the ACCC, but nothing happened. What they are doing is not illegal. It was run by the ACCC long before it was implemented and they approved it.

Do what most other sellers do. Add extra to your buy price, or add a bit extra on the postage. I charge $8.20 for $7.45 parcels and have 5 stars for postage. Therefore, it obviously doesn't bother the buyers.

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[davewil1964]

Buy satchels in 20s. 15c each then; so there is 10c back.

Offset by ink and paper, though.