Insufficient postage

[morrisconvertible]

Hi

I have sold a photo printer and printed off the shipping label. Postage automatically included in my listing is £7.50. I checked at Parcelforce and if I wish to post the item separately, the cost would be over £18. When I present the parcel for shipping, what will happen if the prepaid postage is insufficient? I gather that I can’t just add more money at the Post Office. Is the lesser amount quoted by eBay because of a special ‘seal’ with Parcelforce? 

[**peaseblossom**]

No, it's probably just wrong.   You can either pay the correct postage yourself and the payment will be released after 14 days.   Or cancel/refund the transaction and relist with the correct postage for the buyer to buy and pay again.   The unused label will be refunded in 30 days.

[morrisconvertible]

Thanks. Am I able to pay the additional postage at Parcelforce when I take the package to them? I’m OK with doing that, but I read somewhere that they won’t allow it!
Simplest might be just to cancel the sale, get the buyer refunded and relist with the correct amount.
Sent from my iPhone

[tressygirl]

I agree,  cancelling and relisting with the correct postage,  is the best way forward.

Send the buyer a message explaining what you are going to do , as you need their ' permission' to cancel, so you do not receive any defect on your account.

Also,  make it very clear the reason why you are cancelling,  that you will be relisting the item for the buyer to buy again from your eBay listing,  and this is not an off eBay sale.  eBay read all messages going through their system

Then, cancel citing Buyer Requests to cancel,  this refunds the buyer,  and your seller performance is not affected.

@morrisconvertible 

[lucy_farmer]

'The unused label will be refunded in 30 days.'

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If your buyer paid the postage, this is correct.

If you choose 'seller pays postage'  (like the old 'free postage') you- the seller- have to request a postage refund within 14 days of the 'non-use' of label.

There is no technical reason for this disparity: it seems to be just another hurdle to make *not* using S.D. more awkward. ☹️

[xyz307xyz]

If it's a Simple Delivery label and the parcel is within 20 kg and 61 cm x 46cm x 46, cm the £7.50 label should be fine, according to the below.

If you are sending using the SD label, it doesn't matter what you would pay if you were sending the same size/weight item elsewhere.

Does the £7.50 label have a weight or size limit on?

See https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/guides/how-to-sell-on-ebay

If you have a personal eBay account, you’ll most likely be using Simple Delivery. This means the buyer pays for the postage and you’ll be sent a prepaid postage label. You can print this yourself or ask the Post Office team to print it from a QR code. Our branches should accept all parcels, as long as they’re within the service’s maximum weight and dimensions (20 kg and 61 cm x 46cm x 46cm).

If the postage/label is not SD, ignore this response.

[morrisconvertible]

Hi
The parcel I want to ship will be a fair bit longer than 61 cms. The actual printer is 64 cms long, and the parcel, with sturdy box and loads of bubble wrap will be a fair bit longer still.
I think my only option is to cancel the sale, trigger a refund for the buyer and re-list with the correct postage amount. The buyer seems to be a nice guy who I think will be happy about this.
Thanks for your help
Cheers
Bill
Sent from my iPhone

[xyz307xyz]

It sounds like "you didn't enter the correct dimensions" when you listed the item. If you had, and if it was within Evri's max dimensions you would (should) have got an Evri label. If it's not within Evri max dimensions, you would (should) have been directed to enter your own custom postage.

In terms of you doing something "wrong", there have been other posts/comments about sellers not having any (obvious?) option to enter dimensions or weight when listing, and of course ebay just changing items over to SD whilst live, with AI determining the postage rate. In other words, you shouldn't feel too guilty.

Hopefully on relisting you can find a way to enter custom postage. I'm not on mandatory SD, so I can't try myself.

In terms of your original question the £7.50 versus £18 is irrelevant* - it's only because it's over maximum size that there is an issue.

(*) It's possible that if a seller sells (many) items that cost ebay (a lot) more than ebay had expected, someone (or AI) would look into it. Obviously if a seller was somehow fooling the system, there could be consequences. Obviously doesn't apply in this instance.

[morrisconvertible]

Thanks for this. Tbh I’m a bit of an eBay numpty and should have checked that the AI generated dimensions were correct!
When I re-list, I’d like to include custom postage, which would allow me to arrange my own delivery, but charge the buyer, which he is happy about.
Thanks
Bill
Sent from my iPhone

[xyz307xyz]

I don't think anyone really understands more than about 70% of how Simple Delivery works - and it's likely to change (have enhancements [and fixes]) fairly regularly for many months, I would think.

If you can't find Custom Postage when you relist - let us know, sometimes people can only get to it in a roundabout manner ...

[morrisconvertible]

Thanks very much. I definitely will!
Sent from my iPhone