Heads Up - Click and Collect might trigger a different postage rate!!!

[icecarmedia]

Found two shiny thangs today that tickled my wallet release

I flew through my normal ordering procedure

Picked my usual C&C location and paid

Imagine my surprise when the order confirmation email of my second purchase arrives with postage of £5.95 somehow bypassing the selected free postage option

Looking back at the listing the postage options contains the following caveat;

   * For delivery to collection point, delivery options may vary.

Obviously after selecting the C&C option the postage changed

However the way the checkout is setup it's easy(was for me anyway) to miss this happening

   Find shiny thang

   Click BIN

   Check/Choose postage

   Type payment card details

   Choose C&C location

   Confirm payment(never had the need to check total amount previously, will do in future)

To clarify, the first shiny thang purchase, all good, free delivery to C&C.

Moral of the story - looks like I need to adopt a defcon-1 caveat emptor stance with all future purchases

Begs the questions

-how can delivering to a C&C justify charging a different rate?

-when was this implemented?

-why is this not highlighted when checking out(maybe a popup when choosing C&C)?

[icecarmedia]

Done a little spadework;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/postage/click-and-collect 

Why sellers love Click & Collect

4

Click & Collect requires no extra cost to sellers – no more than your usual postage costs to send your parcel to the eBay collection point location.

Would seem it's OK to add extra cost to buyers though

[xyz307xyz]

Never heard of/seen such a thing. Any chance you selected Express delivery in your haste?

C&C should be cheaper under Simple Delivery [and the same price for non-Simple Delivery].

Probably the most useful idea - is to go back and look at the listing. What does it say about postage options and prices? If you want to share the item number, others can look and maybe advise. If you don't want to, that's fair enough - you could also ask the seller or CS, if they can explain.

Only explanation I can think of, is ebay thinks your click and collect place address is somewhere remote and not covered by the standard RM/Evri rate; but it's more likely to be something else.

[icecarmedia]

295478752262

Just done a test

Put item in basket

View basket

Checkout

Select C&C location(same one as always)

Lo and behold the free postage option disappears

Yes the item total increased and yes I should have checked before hitting pay

However, in my defence this NEVER happened before in any of my many tens of purchases with C&C delivery

And as previously stated, the first shiny thang purchase to C&C did not increase postage

So Not my imagination or an errant mouse click

Definitely a new one to me(you too it would seem) and I will, as previously stated, be checking for this in future

Now I'm going to have to do the add to basket rigmarole and never ever use BIN

[xyz307xyz]

Yes, same for me. They are a business seller, so it's nothing to do with Simple Delivery nor remote locations etc. It seems like they can/have set different postage options for home to c&c delivery. c&c being next day only. Never seen it before. I only have a private account, when I have 10 minutes I'll have a play around and see if I can do it/find any info.

Probably too late now - but could you request cancellation and buy it to have sent to your/someone home address?

[zobth92]

I've tried it with the same results. However another item from the same seller - 306016961991, does not add on a postage charge if you choose click & collect - so it doesn't appear to be something the seller has chosen. Also click & collect doesn't appear on all his listings, even though they are similar items. 

I would contact seller and ask for cancellation - value of item must be only around £2 so not worth paying nearly six quid to have it "delivered", and having to collect it yourself!