Question Expensive combined shipping. in Member To Member Support DO NOT DELETE

Expensive combined shipping.

overwims — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 00:39:26 GMT

Okay so I recently bought 10 different items from the same seller by winning auctions. The total cost for the items without shipping was £70. The seller stated in their description on every item that "UK POSTAGE IS £5 1ST ITEM EACH OTHER ITEM IS £1.50" However they also state that "PLEASE WAIT FOR FINAL INVOICE BEFORE PAYING, I MAKE POSTAGE AS CHEAP AS POSSIBLE AND CHEAPER THAN ADVSERTISED IF I CAN." So they say they make it as cheap as possible. They tried to charge me £14 for combined shipping. The weight of these figures is no more than 1.3kg. After checking the hermes website (the items say they are being sent by hermes tracked) I discovered that sending 1-2kg would be a total of £7.89 for next day and £6.82 for 2-4 days. 2-5kg would be £9.08 total for next day and £7.94 for 2-4 days. These are all including the cost of insurance, signature and courier collection. So I messaged the seller about the almost double cost of shipping. And I got this response:

HELLO

Your being charged £5 first item and £1 each adtional item, which is cheaper than the £1.50 charge, that is advertised on the listing.

I pay rent, rates, wages, utilitity bills which is all incorporated into the postage charge, all items are sent tracked and insured, the insurance also increases depending on the value of goods sent.

I hope answers your query.

Regards

Adil.

So yes he is charging me less than he said in the amounts but he is not charging me the cheapest which he also said he would. He also has basically said he is raising the postage cost to pay for his rent etc. I know that a lot of sellers do this but if he wants to make more money from the listing he should raise the starting bid or add a reserve. The additional cost is exactly 10% of the total item cost so he is expecting me to pay the ebay fees. I should not have to pay this. I accept that sending the items also includes the box and other packaging. He is using hermes who offer collection which I am of course happy to be included in the postage cost. There is no way that any amount of packaging for 1.3kg of items costs £7. No way. Yes he is not obliged by ebay rules to offer combined postage but at the same time his description states that he will do this and make it as cheap as possible which if he is charging me extra to pay him more money he clearly is not doing this.

What should I do as he seems reluctant to reduce the costs. I know it is only £7 but it is the principle. Should I just pay it and leave neutral or negative feedback on the items?

Re: Expensive combined shipping.

plpmr — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 01:01:26 GMT

the bottom line is pay or refuse and ask for a cancellation, but they might open unpaid cases.

"I pay rent, rates, wages, utilitity bills which is all incorporated into the postage charge,"

Only a registered business seller could possibly add anything for them to the costs.

For example, how could a private seller be paying wages?

Re: Expensive combined shipping.

overwims — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 02:01:25 GMT

No clue. He only made his account in november so it's not like its a massive company. It is just him selling stuff.

Re: Expensive combined shipping.

tobiasd4 — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 02:11:53 GMT

To add, if seller opens unpaid cases ( 1 for each item) & you don't pay, you will get 10 unpaid strikes, seller can block buyers with 2 or more in 12 months, so it will restrict your buying. Ebay don't get involved with postage disputes.

Re: Expensive combined shipping.

overwims — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 02:31:00 GMT

I don't plan on buying from the seller again anyway.

Re: Expensive combined shipping.

redwick1 — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 06:53:51 GMT

If you get 10 strikes off that seller the it is not just that seller that can block you. Many sellers have their ebay settings to block bidders with non payment strikes on their account so you would be unable to buy off many sellers not just that one.

Re: Expensive combined shipping.

john1297576 — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 09:39:23 GMT

The postage cost is clearly set out before you buy. You could have worked out the cost and if you didn't like it not bought. Even the initial postage of £5 for one item seems high, as Royal mail do up to 2kg. for £3.20 so if te itemis light weight why ever did you even buy the first one. If a seller has expenses topay they reflect it in the price not the postage, but it is up to you the buyer to use common sense as to whether you buy.

It would be very improper to leave negative feedback for something you agreed to when you bought.

Re: Expensive combined shipping.

red_magpie — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 10:48:58 GMT

I know it is only £7 but it is the principle.

If you're concerned about the principle you should be fair to your seller, and consider the full costs or postage and packing.

For a start, this has to include the seller's reasonable cost of time and materials and materials in packing. And as eBay makes the seller 100% responsible for damage, items need to be packed well. For 7 figures costing £70 I'm sure you would expect that. We don't know how large or fragile they are, does about 50p per figure sound reasonable? If so, you can add £3.50 to the delivery cost.

Next, on top of the actual coast of delivery and packing, eBay and PayPal will add their combined fees of about 15% on the total. This will increase it by about another £1.50.

This produces a reasonable p&p charge of between £13 and £15, depending upon which Hermes service is used. So on your point of principle, does it still seem right to talk about negging the seller for charging £14?

Incidentally, none of the above even considers eBay's advice to sellers, to budget in their selling plans (i.e. prices) for losses due to fraudulent refund claims by buyers, who quite often return items that they have damaged themselves, or even switched for another one.

Do please remember idiom that you should "walk a mile in a man's shoes, before judging him". In eight years as a member you've never yourself dipped your toes into the joys of selling here. When you do, you will see things from a very different perspective!

Re: Expensive combined shipping.

overwims — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 14:24:09 GMT

He has cancelled the deal without replying to my messages. Clearly he doesn't want bad feedback to alert other customers of what he does. I was still able to leave feedback so left neutral so that other people would see it. Didn't wanna leave it but only way people will see it unfortunately. Thanks for the help.

Re: Expensive combined shipping.

tobiasd4 — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 17:52:09 GMT

Sell can get all your comments removed as it breaches ebay policy, postage was clearly stated so ebay will say you knew the cost.

Re: Expensive combined shipping.

overwims — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 22:03:20 GMT

Yes it was stated to be the cheapest possible amount which he did not do.