Free postage and fees on postage problems for buyers and sellers. EBAY MUST READ IT.

[ozstockman]

Hi guys,

I know there is a petition to stop eBay from starting getting fees and I have signed it but I do not think eBay has ever thought through about their ideas to force sellers to offer free shipping.

There are big problems with both free shipping and fees on postage.

Everybody must understand one simple thing, if eBay is allowed to get a slice of postage cost all prices will go up and that's only a part of a problem. Since postage cost varies depending on buyer's location we as sellers will have to protect yourselves and we will be forced to include ebay fees from postage cost in our item prices based on maximum postage cost. That means that when a buyer is close to a seller and hence shipping cost to this buyer is the lowest he/she will still have to have to pay the maximum fee taken by eBay from the postage cost as part of an item cost. If we do not do it and include only the fee based on a minimum postage cost we will be out of pocket for the postage cost fee difference.

This situation is even worse with eBay idea for sellers to offer free postage. As postage cannot be free and it is just included in an item price it leads to the situation where price must contain the highest possible postage cost in it.
Postage cost difference for heavy items posted to the same city as sellers and for example states such as NT or WA can be 10s and even $100.

For example to post a 19 kg item to Melbourne from Melbourne is about $10 but try to post it to NT and it will be $114 if a box is not so big. That's huge $104 difference.

To offer it with free postage means that yo have to add $114 to the item price. Then what will happen if your actual buyer is in Melbourne? Why she/he must pay extra $104? Because eBay thinks it is nice idea to offer free postage? That  is just stupid and completely unfair to our buyers and there is no solution here to make it working. Because if you add just $10 to the item price as a shipping cost to Melbourne who is going to cover $104 if your buyers is from NT?

Has anybody from eBay ever think about all these problems with both free postage and fees on postage? It does not look like they have.

[asporty]

There is no way I can add postage price to my items to offer free postage. Ebay is dreaming if it thinks that can be done. Just as you pointed out, I signed the petition also and will contact ACCC also.

How on earth can I add $20 to my item price for dometic market, and then sell my item internationally also? My price in international market will be totally uncompetitive as it has been now inflated to include dometic shipping.

Already, ebay is basically pushing me to add $5 to my international pricing. This is because my parcels to Europe costs around $40-$50. Even with this addition, if the international customer decides to pay express, or $90, then I am suddenly $4 out of pocket as ebay will now charge a whopping $9 commission on just the postage costs. No way I can cater for that situation.

Once that out of pocket scenario happens, I am going to go after ebay customer service full blast asking for a refund.

Can we take ebay to fair trading also? Always wondered about this.

[phorum_junkie*]

Ebay employ a large number of legal eagles conversant with Australian commercial law, do you honestly think they would be rolling out inclusive fees if there was a likelihood it could be overturned by the ACCC or anyone else?

In the US they are even more gung ho about their 'rights' and had no success whatsoever in getting the ruling overturned.

As with every other change ebay has made over the years adapt or go under.