Buyer wants combined postage refund

[mysterious_cities_of_mold]

A buyer made best offers of £25 on 2 of my £30 items which I accepted. They buyer is now asking for a postage refund as well, as the items are being posted together. Part of the reason I accepted the offers was that I would be posting them together. I have free postage on the listings. Should I also refund the buyer some postage back?

[tressygirl]

Yes,  you do need to refund any excess postage paid ,  if they are being posted together ,  and charged with 2 postage costs.

@mysterious_cities_of_mold 

[*guinevere*]

Your buyer has a bit of a cheek asking. When a buyer makes an offer it is on condition that the postage is added to the price. Obviously in your case the postage is part of the item price so what your buyer is asking for is a discount.

You can tell your buyer politely that the price stands and you will not be discounting, or you could agree to a discount it is really up to you.

If your buyer is not happy you can wait till 4 full days have passed and cancel both sales with buyer didn't pay.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

You most certainly DO NOT need to give any kind of refund for postage back to the customer.

If they wanted a discount for that, then they should have asked at the time of making the offer.

Aside from which, if you don't charge for postage, how can you discount it?  🙂

However, unless the orders where actually combined, then you still need to post them separately.

If you don't, then you run the risk of the customer claiming for none delivery on one of them.

[*guinevere*]

However, unless the orders where actually combined, then you still need to post them separately.

If you don't, then you run the risk of the customer claiming for none delivery on one of them.

Very good point @therenewalworkshopltd 

[jonat_broad]

if they are 'free delivery' as customer facing - there are no postage costs. I appreciate some customers might get what is actually happening - but they don't know your postage costs.

The whole point of free delivery is get wins when customers do order together in my view!

I personally would simply respond that these items are listed with free delivery.

[magpiecorner1]

I refund postage every day as we have buyers who paid for individual items - even if they don't ask for combined postage we will refund if we send more than one item in one package.  Even though it generally costs us more as we post most items in separate wee boxes. 

But on the occasions that we offer free postage - which we do from time to time -  I wouldn't refund postage simply because postage wasn't charged - how can you be expected to refund free postage?  Like yourself, I take into consideration the postage I will pay when dealing with a number of offers from the same person - for instance, when we offer free postage, we still charge international buyers postage, so tend to be more generous when dealing with offers from international buyers.

So up to you but it doesn't make sense to refund free postage - how much is the buyer expected refunded on a payment of £0.00.  And anyway, buyers can't change conditions of sale after the sale.

[magpiecorner1]

Good point, especially when the buyer is being obstreperous, as in this case.

[bravergrace]

There are a few other options here:

- Make a token discount to the buyer, and send them a message explaining that you'd already allowed for the combined postage in your offer.

- Refuse to make a further discount and tell them you'd already allowed for the combined postage in your offer.

- Refuse to make a further discount and politely offer to cancel the purchase if they prefer, "because there was clearly a misunderstanding".

Whichever you choose, I wouldn't be cutting my nose off to spite my face.  If the sale is profitable, go for it and post the items together.  If it is more hassle than it's worth, encourage the buyer to cancel.  Don't forget you can block them from further purchases.  

[suelel1968]

I think if you cancel the sale you will get a defect, possibly two. I did last time i cancelled one anyway. Let the buyer cancel.

You must add the tracking to the second item to show it has been posted.

But is it worth the argument? A sale is a sale, it helps with improving your metrics which will increase visability and hopefully lead to future sales. 

I find most don't ask for refund of postage, if you do it out of the goodness of your heart, they never say thanks. Don't risk the feedback. 

[porte2425]

Your predicament could be explained simply by a breakdown in communication.

They assumed you would still combine postage, and pass those savings on. You assumed they knew the discount price already included a postage discount (or that it wouldn’t be applicable to free delivery items). And you know what they say when you assume…

I could make solid arguments for either side of this debate. But neither side would be right, and neither side would be wrong.

In my mind, given neither of you are technically wrong, but they can make your life more difficult than you make theirs, is a couple of quid refund worth fighting over, losing a sale over, or having an unfair return request, and possibly losing a future returning customer?

[the-nutwood-collection]

 ... possibly losing a future returning customer?

Not all customers are worth having.  This is one of them.  Sometimes, the worst thing you can do to your competitors is to give them that customer.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Have to agree.  Any customer expecting a further discount after agreeing a price, is NOT worth having.

You can virtually guarantee further issues down the line.

[zoomingmouse]

As a buyer, it would never occur to me to ask for a postage discount if postage is free, especially if you've already knocked £10 off.

I'm a bit gob smacked by their request to be honest.

I would politely refuse & explain your reason.

Give them an inch, they'll take a mile... 

Give them a mile, they'll still be asking about that inch!

[porte2425]

Well I could be that customer.

I still expect a combined postage discount on free postage items – because it’s just a term, as we all know the reality is that postage is factored into the item price, and therefore never free. I know the seller is saving time and money, as well as getting an extra sale from me buying 2+ items together, so I think it’s fair to pass the postage savings onto the buyer. That’s what I would do, and have done, as a seller in the past.

Granted, personally, if I were the buyer in this scenario, I would have confirmed if the offer price includes a combined postage discount beforehand; but as I said, I can see both sides.

As a seller, you should not be taking too much personally (even private sellers). Buyers will always take it personally, and will lash out if they feel even the slightest bit deceived. If you do that as a seller, it will do more harm than good. (I’ve seen many mild feedback comments turn against the seller when they’ve taken it as a personal attack and replied unprofessionally.) Logically, giving them a couple of quid back makes more sense in this scenario.

I know all sellers are human (although I’m sure AI is playing more parts in sales than we realise), but if you want to be successful, or just less stressed, then you need to try and distance yourself from a transaction.

I recall a topic on here a little while ago where a seller was annoyed that someone was “fraudulently” trying to make a return claim. Everyone told them they would lose the fight, and advised them to accept the return, or they stood to lose both their money and the item. But they were adamant they were in the right, and was going to ignore the return request. So did they do the right thing in that scenario, as the buyer didn't deserve to return the item?

[therenewalworkshopltd]

It actually doesn't matter whether a listing if for free postage or charged.

The fact of the matter is, that if as a buyer, you expect an extra discount for combining postage, you do not ask after the fact.  That is simply unreasonable.

Also, just because two items can go into a single package, does not necessarily mean that the postage is any cheaper.  It can, depending on size/weight, be more expensive to do as one parcel, rather than two.

And frankly, from past experience with these kind of buyers, they are usually more trouble than it's worth.

You can virtually guarantee that there will be a problem with one of the items and they want a further discount.....

I would far rather lose the sale and the aggro that usually comes with it.

Especially when by complying with the customer, you are not or barely making any money.

Or maybe you should think of it in a different way.

You go in to a dealership to buy a car.  You agree a price, but when you go to collect it, you ask for a further discount as you expected them to deliver it to you!  I know not exactly, but it's certainly very similar.

Now what do you think the dealership would do in that situation?

[porte2425]

Unreasonable to you, yes. Unreasonable to the average person, I couldn’t say. Unreasonable to some, definitely not.

With a dealership you would have a purchase agreement / sale contract, and so if that does not state that price is for collection, then in court you would win, as any ambiguity in a contract benefits the party that didn’t write it.

But if it’s a £16K car, where a dealership will likely make a lot of profit, would they want to lose a sale over a delivery charge that may only cost them £20? If the salesman was desperate for a sale, that would also change the dynamic.

Because it is never straightforward.

But my point remains. In the OP’s scenario, refunding a couple of quid to avoid an unhappy (and potentially vengeful) customer, would be the logical choice.

[m25jet]

Personally I don't feel that you should offer any postage money back, as the buyer should have taken the postage costs into account when making his or her offer for the amount that he or she was prepared to pay for the goods, including the postage costs.  You accepted the offer and so the buyer should now pay what has been agreed so that you can get the items posted out.  If the buyer subsequently starts trying to change the terms of the deal after the final amount to pay has already been agreed upon, you could cancel the sale on the basis that the buyer is after something that was never being offered in the first place - ie:  a further discount on top of the one that he or she negotiated with you, and agreed upon, to start with.  Once that has been done I would advise you to add the buyer's User ID to your Blocked Bidders List in order to prevent him or her from attempting to purchase anything else from you at any point in the future and causing you any further aggravation.

[porte2425]

I’ve seen a lot of sellers who post on these boards seem to take a hardline with customers. Often I cannot believe that the simplest of things can seemingly get a buyer blocked from a seller. I can only assume that they are in the minority, as there wouldn’t be many sales still happening on eBay if that were the case with most sellers.

But everyone’s entitled to do as they wish their blocked buyer list. And I’ve certainly read enough horror stories of seller’s getting defrauded by buyers on here.

I’ve also realised that continuing to comment on this topic is futile (no offence to anyone intended), so will make this my last post.

Good luck to everyone. With the way eBay is at the moment, I think it’s needed.