Should ebay profit from a FVF on postage costs?

[mamacas65]

Bad enough for the big sellers and their bottom line but what about the poor sods selling an item for a dollar with a postage cost of $7.20?

They'll end up with 18c after ebay have done their bit and then have to pay 50c to paypal.

Not only has he made nothing but is, in fact, 32c out of pocket!

Ebay govern us to not profif from postage and are quick to chastise the over-chargers but is it now the kettle calling the pot black when, for so many sellers, the FVF on the postage will be greater than that of the actual item?

For me there is only one conclusion..........

It sux like a Dyson!

[porcelainforyou2]

Excellent point. Buyers of multiple items are financially disadvantaged when buying from "free postage" sellers. (it shouldn't be referred to as "free postage", as this is misleading - it is actually "postage cost incorporated into selling price"!) unless the seller does what another admirable seller said in a recent post he / she does - namely include a 'free' item (example quoted was including a tenth item free when nine items were bought).  Although one can argue about the semantics of it, not offering some kind of discount to buyers of multiple items where the postage cost for each individula item has been incorporated into the selling price is actually against eBay's policy about "not profiting from postage costs". The sellers who "pocket" the difference between the actual combined postage and the individual incoporated postage cost x the number of multiple items bought will of course argue the semantic point that they are not profiting from "postage" technically, as their listed postage is of course 0.00 / free. It's the old "letter of the law" versus the "spirit of the law" argument...

As a buyer, I would be very wary of buying multiple items from a seller offering "postage incorporated into selling price items", and would email the seller before buying, to ask about discount for multiple items to compensate for cheaper combined postage vs multiple individual postages (as another member stated they did in another post). Alternatively, if I were to be vexatious, I might buy one item at a time over a period of time...! (which also has the advantage of spreading the AP missing parcel risk - better to lose one item out of 10 posted separately than to lose all 10 at once!)

[porcelainforyou2]

I have also contacted both the ACCC and Fair Trading, and unfortunately eBay is not contravening any specific law nor regulation in charging a fee on shipping cost, be it by Australia Post or by courier service. It is from the legal perspective merely another "eBay fee", and whether they call it a "FVF on shipping" (as they do in the seller account page) or "eBay's Fourth Fee" (i.e. the fourth fee after the first three - namely listing fee, FVF on item selling price and PayPal fee" or better still "yet another f*%#&!g fee" is neither here nor there in the eyes of the ACCC (to whom I have spoken at length several time after waiting > 20 mins on hold in their phone queue!).

[cq_tech]

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@porcelainforyou2 wrote:

Alternatively, if I were to be vexatious, I might buy one item at a time over a period of time...! (which also has the advantage of spreading the AP missing parcel risk - better to lose one item out of 10 posted separately than to lose all 10 at once!)

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You wouldn't even need to spread your purchases over an extended period because they would still all have to be sent separately, as the seller would lose their Paypal Seller Protection if they were to send multiple orders in the same package. Under Paypal's T&Cs, the only way they could maintain their Seller Protection is if all of the items were paid for with the one Paypal payment, but if the seller wanted to do that they would then have to refund all of the buyer's individual payments and initiate a single revised invoice with considerably reduced postage.

[porcelainforyou2]

Thanks for drawing to my attention the PayPal T &  C seller protection issue, which means that I could buy, say 10 items individually over a few mainutes and pay for them separately in ten PayPal transactions, to 'encourage' the seller to send them separately and be unable to profit from the combined postage savings at my expense...presuming that they are aware of and care about the "seller protection" issue...!

[li.vish]

Hello, everyone. This discussion is getting a little heated. Could we please communicate with a more civil tone. Thanks!

[dylan11235813]

I'm unsure as why buyers would do this, would buyers rather Australia Post and Paypal profit rather than the seller? Not to mention it would be a waste of packaging.

In regard to my point before to cq_tech, If I offered free post on all items and I found that on average buyers purchased 2 items I could reduce the item cost (with free post) to account for 2 items being purchased, in effect making it cheaper for single orders. This would mean that a buyer buying 3 or more items would be paying for this though.

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

You all need to take the fee in context, it would be like a dept. store/ hardware chain selling you something, ordering a transport co. to deliver your purchase - $100 and then charging you 9.9% of the cartage cost $9.90 for organising the transport for you.

[cq_tech]

If you were to buy 10 x BIN items individually, you would have to pay for each one of them separately anyway, unless you emailed the seller and specifically requested a revised invoice for all 10 items, but there's still no guarantee that they would reduce the postage component. Ideally, you would need to ask them if they would reduce the postage before committing yourself to the purchases. If they refused and you still wanted those 10 items, then you'd be silly not to pay for them separately so that the seller has to pay the fixed 30c fee for each individual payment, in effect 'punishing' them by making them pay an extra $2.70 in Paypal fees.

[dylan11235813]

Also I find that buyers do indeed purchase and pay for items individually more regularly for my free post items. Resulting in more profit for paypal.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@misterforgetfulsbooks wrote:

You all need to take the fee in context, it would be like a dept. store/ hardware chain selling you something, ordering a transport co. to deliver your purchase - $100 and then charging you 9.9% of the cartage cost $9.90 for organising the transport for you.

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no it wouldn't be.