Getting a bit sick of this over charged postage.

[gogetafix]

The last few months I've been buying from ebay quite frequenty. On some small items I've bought the postage has been set on the listing at £3.20 (Second Class Small Parcel). When the items arrive they have been sent as a Large Letter for £0.96p. I do know that postage includes packing as well. The latest parcel that I had arrive was just a very cheap jiffy bag. No extra bubble wrap or anything. So not a lot of cost with the packing. 20p at most.
Knowing these boards I know some my cry "Well you were happy to pay the postage price" and yes this is true I was happy to pay the postage price because I presumed it would be sent as a small parcel. The items I buy aren't that flat so I presume they would be over 2.5cms in depth. Perhaps the sellers thinks the item will have to sent as a small parcel hence the £3.20 Second Class postage price. 
When these sellers post their parcels and find out it can be sent as a Large Letter and pay for that service they pocket that difference in cost and don't bother sending their buyer a message and say it was sent as a Large Letter and not a Small Parcel so here's a small refund. These people must think their buyers are stupid. 
I also know these sellers have fees to pay but keeping the cost of postage that wasn't paid is all a bit of a con in my opinion. If it were me I'd partially refund the buyer. 

[asleepingdragon]

Yeah I agree with this.  I know it's postage and packing but since when did over £3 become the accepted postage price on the smallest of items.  I've started to assume this is some eBay calculated price since everyone uses it.

[plpmr]

Completely understand but as the price for getting it to you was in the listing there could not be any 'ocer charge'.

Even if a buyer was happy with the bottom line it does rankle to find excessive postage - one reason why numerous people won't touch eBay's Global shipping.

[Anonymous]

Was it a standard charge, some sellers quote the same price for postage for whatever they sell, so sometimes a buyer will pay more and sometimes they will pay less.

I normally have a set rate for my courier charges and don't change it unless I have something that requires a larger postage cost,  but sometimes it costs me a lot more and I just swallow it 

[papso22]

That might be the price that ebay suggests to the seller, and they may not realise they can overide it.

[hitchikers-to-the-galaxy]

I think you will find the overcharge on postage happens more with private sellers as they more often than not use the simple lister.

There almost everything is selected for them including stupid over the top postage charges that eBay tell the more often than not innocent seller that they should charge.

The answer to getting more accurate charges or at least to be able to give direct blame for overcharging is for eBay to stop interfering on postage as they do because it is frequently wildly inaccurate in both directions.

[mankellad]

I am totally with you all on this one. I recently won 5 items from the same seller. The individual postage cost per item was £3 so making a total postage price if £15 hence I messaged and kindly asked for a combined postage cost bearing in mind the same seller had a job lot of 20 of the same items I had purchased with a postage cost of £10 so I was expecting say £7 Royal Mail medium parcel tracked and signed for. The seller even has the postage as other courier which would probably be cheaper than Royal Mail in any event. But no the seller refused saying had to cover insurance etc which is nonsense as the items amounted to about £40 in total. I asked if the seller was not prepared to combine wound they then be posted individually or in the same box.  Again seller said they would post them how they wanted to and not how I wanted if they wanted to post in the same box they would which to my mind the postage would be extortionate.  I appreciate a little needs to be added which I have no issue with but £8 that is just taking the you know what. The seller replied if you wasn't happy with the price shouldn't have purchased and because I didn't ask pre auction ending they would not combine postage, I was not able to this which I explained as I didn't see the items until the suctions were nearly ended for there wasn't time, and then the seller cancelled my order just because I asked for combined postage and the reason for cancellation was "problem with buyers delivery address". Was I being unreasonable asking for combined postage?

[tsmgmd]

When I buy on eBay I look at postage and if it's reasonable I'm happy.

And when the item arrives it's unpacked and I sit back and enjoy my purchase.

I have never spent time comparing the stamp price against what I paid.

[asleepingdragon]

Well that's fine for you, if a bit smug, but if eBay are suggesting inflated postage prices to sellers that's just a tad unethical, isnt it?

[tsmgmd]

I don't call it smug. 

The fact is I have paid the seller to package my item and have it safely delivered to my home.

And for the last 15+ years that's exactly what's happened.

At least your seller didn't try and fool you by upping the selling price of the item with free postage 

[tsmgmd]

You say the listing stated Royal Mail Economy Small Packet. 

All I have seen is Royal Mail Economy 2nd class,  No mention anywhere of small packet.

[whitbyabi]

I buy and sell on ebay so can see both sides of the coin on this subject. I think ebay created a problem when they started to take a % of the cost charged by the seller for P&P. My local shop charges nearly £1 for a cheap jiffy bag, then there's parcel tape to buy so costs do add up, so add that onto the portion taken by ebay and then the actual postage cost it's not always the rip off it first appears, if it's a bigger item or a rural seller then theres the cost of getting it to the post office,I don't drive & my local PO only takes small parcels I have to get a bus to the larger one in town for anything over medium size which is then a £2 bus fare. I am sometimes actually loosing money by the time it has been posted! Not all sellers are overcharging it just seems that way before factors other than the cost of the stamp are taken into account. I have also been "had" though recently having paid £4 P&P for an envelope to arrive with an 88p stamp on it; the seller thought this was fine as noody else had bid and I got the item cheaper than he wanted to sell it!

[whitbyabi]

If something is classed as larger than Large Letter by the post office then it is Small Parcel which costs £3.20, there's nothing in between anymore. So if you post something in a lttle box rather than a jiffy bag to package it better the price goes from being between 96p to £3.20. My local PO says if it won't go through the plastic slot for Large Letters (that depends on weight too) then it will be Small Parcel which is £3.20 for 2nd class, then add on the cost of buying the packing & tape etc. & ebays slice of the charged fee on top

[gogetafix]

Sorry everyone for not coming back earlier to this board I started. I have read the replies so thank you for your comments  I will address some replies in a little while.

Today I had yet another 'parcel' arrive that was sent as a 96p Large Letter. This 'parcel' was in fact a small plastic figure that was packed in a very thin white envelope measuring 19 x 9 cms. The figure was just wrapped in a thin small plastic bag. The envelope was ripped and my figure was sticking out of it. I paid the seller £4.25 for P+P. How is that justifiable?!? I am angry that I've been ripped off again by a private seller. 

I have no issue with business sellers that set their prices according to the postal services they use.  At least they will have paid the postage charged unlike some of these private seller's on ebay. I did buy some small plastic figures last year from a shop and the only issue I had with that parcel was the fact the figures came in a huge box which was far too big. I imagine they used a massive box so they could send the parcel at the correct postal cost. 

Fileysales.
Your comments are fair but it sounds like you've been happy, indeed lucky, with what you have paid regarding P+P.  
I was not comparing the actual postage paid as I know there is packing involved as well. However, when the postage I paid obviously exceeds the packing cost and postage cost that's when I start to think about what I've paid.  If  I look at a P+P cost on the listing and think yes that item will be sent as a small parcel so the £3-£4 (for instance) that I will pay is fair. However that cost is not fair when a private seller thinks I'll send it as cheaply as I can and keep most of the P+P charge as profit!
The £4.25 I paid recently and mentioned above is testament to that. 

Fileysales you mentioned that there was no mention of it being sent as a small packet/parcel but I judged it would be sent as a small parcel because of the cost. £3.20 is the minimum cost of  a second class parcel. The item I bought was fairly small but because of it's width it may not have gone as a Large Letter. What annoys me is that these small private seller's don't even to bother to contact the buyer to say it was sent not as a small parcel which I charged you for.  Blimey, I'm getting more and more angry as a type but I'll carry on. 

whitbyabi mentioned travel costs. That doesn't come into it in my opinion. The postage charge is for P+P only. I am lucky that I don't live in a rural area and I can either drive into my local town or walk. If I walk I don't take a pedometer with me and charge the buyer for every step I take. Therefore I don't expect to be paying for bus fares or petrol. 
whitbyabi you also mentioned the cost of jiffy bags and tape etc. That is all packing and can be included in the cost so if, for example, I see a postage cost above the cost of a small parcel price and thinking it would be posted as a small parcel I'm happy with that because the seller has more than likely added the cost of a jiffy or box and bit of tape. 
I have to say if I were you whitbyabi I'd stop paying £1 for one jiffy bag at your local shop. You can buy quite a few for a quid if you look elsewhere. 

There are probably more things I could address but I'm getting wound up because of my experience this morning with this item that arrived. So I need to contact this seller. I will be back to double check any issues that came up that I may have missed within the replies and comments received.
Thank you all once again who replied and added comments.

[Anonymous]

It is the total cost you should be looking at; Item price + Postage = Total cost.

If you are going to keep getting wound up over postage you are going to make yourself ill.

[gogetafix]

Yes I agree with you I do look at the overall total. With my most recent purchase the item was listed with a fairly cheap buy it now price which was good. The postage was £4.25. I thought ok the item is cheap but with the postage price added it's not too bad.
My thinking was was that the seller would post the item as a small parcel at £3.20 and the extra pound he had added would be for packing or fees or whatever. What I didn't expect was the item to sent in a small very cheap (or a free given out by charities) paper envelope which had been ripped and had been posted as a Large Letter for 96p!
So I think you are missing my point. I did pay what I thought was a reasonable postage price but in the end I was ripped off in my opinion. 

[Anonymous]

I am not missing the point, I do understand where you are coming from, but you are not going to change it so adapt to it and start forgetting how much the seller made out of the postage and start thinking how much it has cost you for the item and delivered to your door.

I have paid over £50 postage to have a guitar delivered to me, when I can send one anywhere in the UK for less than a tenner, but as I was still going to make a profit on it I was quite happy to pay the price.

[gogetafix]

You are right Gilto45 I can't change it but that's not to say I can't get a little annoyed about it. Ebay more than likely can't do anything about it. Even though they tried to crack down on seller's overcharging on postage with their 10% fee which clearly hasn't worked imo.
Yes the item was delivered to my door as I expected but at a much cheaper rate than what I paid.

Like you I was happy to pay the postage on the items I have bought recently because I naturally thought that they would have to be sent as a Small Parcel because I know that once packed properly with a jiffy bag  or box and some bubble wrap the item or items wouldn't go as a Large Letter. I didn't question how the items would be sent and which postal service the seller would be paying for as I didn't think I needed to. However I have recently asked a seller if their little figure would go as a Large Letter. He proved to me that it wouldn't go as a Large Letter and even sent me a photo of the Post Office receipt and the parcel itself. So I knew I wasn't getting ripped off. 

What I'm not happy about is the lack of conscience these sellers have with sending out a parcel cheaper that the amount the buyer has paid even taking into account the packing.  As you know the seller doesn't pay the postage the buyer does. Ok, seller's probably need to cover the 10% postage fee (as it stands) and also packing. Any other fees such as PayPal and the 10% fee should be considered in the price of the item. 
When an item arrives such as the item that arrived today in inappropiate extremely cheap packing so that the figure I bought is exposed I really think I should question why I paid £4.25 postage and why should the seller hang on to the £3.29 from the money I paid him for postage. I could have spent that £3.29 on something else. If they had a conscience they would refund some of that money back. But no. Keeping that money as profit seems all fine and dandy to some people. 
I'm guessing that someone may say 'don't buy off ebay then'. This recent experience with postage costs has put me off a little but luckily it's not an everyday occurrence.

[bobandcharlies]

A couple  of points - if a seller does not fill in the size dimensions & weight when filling in the listing - the correct postage options cannot be selected by ebay.

Auctions and combined postage -  complicated as win price, weight and dimensions of combined items can take an order from a £2.25 parcel to a £7.99 parcel  - so always best only to bid on an item expecting to pay postage stated  or to ask before bidding.

Inflated postage price -  always buy where postage is included for free - no sleepless nights  over postage costs - simple really

[gogetafix]

Some good points. I would only query the free postage point because free postage isn't really free postage most of time but yes if one can't query the postage paid then one can't get too angry. 

This may not be allowed and I apologise if it's not. I've attached a photo of the envelope I was charged £4.25 for which had a 96p Large Letter stamp upon it. I've added it's dimensions. As you can see it was ripped in the post because the envelope was really only made to be used for a paper letter or card. The back of the figure is exposed. Hopefully you can see why I was a little bit angry about this particular postage charge.