A few points here that do need adressing.
I object to items advertised as "free postage" that are actually charging and items with postage charges more than the item selling price.
Yes, there are sellers that do this. But Ebay is encouraging the "free" postage by providing an additional discount to their fees, when selling this way. It is a reflection of the likes of Amazon and is something that is not going to go away. Anyone with any common sense realises that the charge is included either way.
Why bother advertising "open to offers" and ignoring offers sent or replying with 5% off.
Why is 5% discount not ok as an offer? Just because you want a bigger discount that this, it is not unreasonable. Perhaps you should view it from the other side and not just how cheap can I get something!
Second hand items being advertised as "new". Charity shops selling gifted items (often used/repacked) for more money than Amazon!
This is due to the sheer volume of Private sellers and nothing that anyone but Ebay can do anything about.
I've never understood why they can allow private sellers to sell brand new items. They are not, even if they are sealed.
Sellers either not posting to Northern Ireland or claiming the postage cost is much more expensive.
The postage CAN be a lot more expensive to send an item to NI. It depends entirely on what that item is.
Just because you can send something at the same price with RM, does not necessarily mean that a seller uses their services anyway. But has a contract with another company.
Do sellers check what price other sellers are selling the same item at?
No, of course not all sellers do this. The vast range of prices, is because this is a marketplace, with many different sellers. Never mind the fact that an item may have been free to one, but cost a fair bit more to another. There are of course the chancers out there, that inflate the price and hope for a sale.
They quote a low postage charge which turns out to be several pounds less than the actual charge at the post office.
If that happened, then you simply did not input the correct sizes/weights before getting the postage sorted. Fees on Ebay are very similar to other platforms. At least the ones where you will actually sell something. And for the record, postage does NOT count as Ebay fees, it is simply postage cost.
