postage cost more than thought

[matthewkai]

Hello I sold an item, did all the calculations, weight, size, etc and it apparenly would have cost $15. Sent it today and cost me $18 to ACT so it actually cost me. Also it was only a 1kg parceal. Why is this

[davidc4430]

what did you use to calculate the post price? ebays calculator or?

[matthewkai]

Yeah with ebay calculator

[davidc4430]

i find the ebay calculator is often wrong, but usually it over charges. ive had a couple where i ended up a few dollars out of pocket tho. the only true way of doing it is taking your packed item to the post office for a quote but thats not practical. i just make sure i factor in a few dollars in my list price to cover such errors. i can allways give a refund for over charges but cant ask for extra.

[davewil1964]

If it will fit, put it in a 3kg satchel. $13.40 to anywhere in Australia.

[chameleon54]

Australia Post have a postage calculator on their website. This is identical to the one used by post Office staff, so if you enter the details correctly, you will be quoted the exact same price as if you took the parcel to the post office and had them do the calculation. I use it regularly for local and international postage calculations and get the correct price virtually every time.

As Dave has mentioned 3 kg and 5 kg. satchels work out much cheaper than packing items in a box. For those who dont know ( and there are quite a few ebayers who dont use them ). The satchels are a plastic bag with pre paid postage that you buy from the post office or through ebay. They have a sealable strip at the top and places for address and air freight declaration signiture. They also have a tracking number sticker that you can peel off and keep. You just put your packed item in, seal and mail over the counter at AP office or put them in the mail box. If you put them over the AP counter you can see the staff scan them in and ask for a scanning reciept.

[lyndal1838]

The PO uses cubing to calculate postage.....you are charged whichever is more.....either calculated by weight or by dimensions.

[davewil1964]

And a reasonable bet the OP didn't take into account packaging, which can add a couple of cms to each dimension.

[typhoon4u]

Yes, totally agree with the use of satchels. Very much the best way to go.

I went into the LPO the other day. My box would have cost $90 to send express as quoted by the staff.

I purchased  5 kg and 3 kg express satchels (about $35) and split the order into them.

A substantial saving......

More than one way to skin a cat when it comes to AP!

[aussie-picker]

If losing $3 on a sale through your own thoughtless prep , is going to send you to the wall , Quit Now 🙂