Sold an item to a UK address this morning with free post offered in the listing, so expected to pay £2.72 for large letter label. When checking payment details I noticed that I had been charged £3.46 ( Small Parcel rate). Listing quoted large letter dimensions ( up to 2.5cm thick). Sellers - please check your payment details carefully - Customer Services could not explain why this had happened, but agreed to refund postage paid.
After digging deep into the mire of SD postings I have discovered that eBay charge the higher amount for items sold for over £100 ( even though Royal Mail cover large letters for up to £150 .) A lesson learned - from now on all my 'Free Post' items will revert to ' Buyer to Pay Postage'.
Yes, sellers are being charged more for simple delivery labels. I was sending items for £2.69 on custom delivery with Yodel before they took custom delivery away and now my items are asking for over £3.20 with eBay’s desired delivery service. I don’t think they can convince me that they have the buyers interest at heart, nor mine. I wondered if I could add the cost of postage to the item and send it outside of eBay but then I can’t get the address to send it to. Unless eBay reinstate Custom delivery in the interest of both the seller) I won’t be selling on eBay again. I am hoping they will see sense and bring it back.
eBay is (possibly illegally) charging you 20% VAT on top of the postage charge as it's considered a 'service' to offer Simple Delivery. The postage charge from the post office already includes the 20% in the stamp price - but from April - if you are a private seller - you must now pay at least 220% in extra charges for the smallest of items. That's more than an extra £2 per item plus the VAT for what would normally be a 95p stamp.
tracked 48, which is a service that Royal Mail use in simple delivery does have VAT in it. eBay would be right to charge VAT on the charge they are listing for postage.
