Postage cost changed from agreed option

[pintop_24]

Out of half a dozen items I've purchased postage for today, I have one item which has increased from £2.94 to over £5, seemingly without rhyme or reason.

The item isn't any larger or heavier than other items I've purchased postage for today, and the only one which has changed in price from the option I selected when listing the item.

If I select the new postage I'll be making a significant loss on the sale.

Any ideas on how to change back to the previously selected postage?

[twfan11 · Accepted solution]

Sounds like your buyer is at an address that the courier treats as outlying and therefore charges extra for.  

To check if this is the case, and not an ebay glitch, go to the courier website directly and get the price. 

If it is the case, see if RM would be cheaper.  It will be if it is a small parcel under 2kg.  If not you are stuck with the loss. But if you are changing to RM check with your buyer first as you are supposed to stick with what you had on the advert. 

[pintop_24]

Thanks, I didn't think that Wales was too 'out there', but who knows!

I'll contact the buyer and see if I can change the carrier.

[abbott3366]

This happens to me all the time, indeed it happened this morning when I stated that the item was a small parcel, the buyer paid the requested (by me) Royal Mail cost of £3.39 then eBay changed it at purchase of postage label to a large letter for £2.70! So annoying.

All you need to do when purchasing a postage label from eBay is first check everything is correct, size, weight etc using the edit icons next to each section of the purchase postage as it can all be reset.

I hope this makes sense, it will when you try it!

Good luck!

[lorraineash2012]

Just had exactly the same problem.

Yodel Store to Door quoted me £2.69 for 'shoe box size up to 1kg'. Went to purchase the postage label, and they'd upped it to £6.19. The cost of the item was only £7.50, so I'm practically giving it away at that price. Yet if I click on 'Letter size up to 100g', the cost stays at £6.19. Then when I click on 'shoe box' again, it increases to over £7.

Contacted eBay, who were about as much use as a spent match and I would have had more success arguing with a taped message.

So I've had to contact the customer to ask if he'd opt for Royal Mail, which although more expensive than the £2.69, is still considerably cheaper than paying practically all of the cost of the posted item.

[jimbojones3]

I had this exact issue today, where the EVRI option cost £2.94 when I created the listing, but once sold wanted over £5 to create the postage label. After much time wasted with ebay customer support, they couldn't put the glitch right, but suggested I ship the item outside of eBay. I couldn't be bothered with that so I switched courier to Yodel and paid under £3 still, just not my preferred shipping method.

[dm932187]

Also had this issue this week.  Quoted £5.21 for Yodel to send larger parcel. Buyer paid postage of £5.21 but lives in the Scottish Islands, for which Yodel charge £9.03.  eBay customer service have apparently 'never heard of this happening before', which from the above, clearly isn't the case.  I looked into using RM only, but they can be prohibitively expensive for mainland UK deliveries once you get to bigger parcels, so I've decided instead to exclude delivery to remote locations from my listings and let buyers from there message me if they want an item delivered, in which case I can add bespoke postage for them.  A much better longer term solution, would be for eBay to actually adjust the postage based on the buyer's location.

[smarts-gaming]

This has happened to me twice now this month. Todays customer is in Northern Ireland, so I assume thats why.

However, ebay should be charging the customer a higher postage rate. Not charging the seller. Ill be on phone to them tomorrow. 

[glasgowgirl29]

Hi, i have had this today with simply delivery. Seller has paid the listed rate then when i go to purchase the postage label it is almost double the price. Surely the buyers living in these ‘remote’ locations should be the one forking out for the extra cost to post the item to them. It is unfair for ebay to put that on us sellers whom are only just selling our personal items as a way to get by in this current economic climate. 
Everywhere i have searched for a resolution to this doesn’t appear to work in our favour so seems it’s either like it or lump it. 

I was finding the simply delivery actually alright aswell, and easier, until this. Have now had to block anyone not mainland Uk from buying from me in future and hopefully this prevents something like this from happening again. 

[papso22]

If the buyer has paid for the label under Simple Delivery then you just print that off.  You don't buy another one.

[dm932187]

Unfortunately, this seems to be a problem eBay has no interest in resolving, and I found that @papso22's suggestion didn't work as the buyer hadn't paid the full postage - I was simply required to make up the difference.

I have since blocked sales to remote UK, but include the following wording in all my descriptions:

Postage to remote UK available, but please contact me before purchase to confirm courier and charges.

I have since sold to a buyer in the Scottish islands, who contacted me to purchase.  eBay wouldn't let them buy the item.  I removed the block and retained only RM as the courier, enabling them to purchase.  I then put everything back as it was.

The problem is RM's universal service obligation requires them to have flat pricing whereas other couriers don't.  So evri, etc. will be cheaper on the mainland but more expensive to remote.  If we don't offer these cheaper couriers, many buyers (on the mainland) will be put off by unnecessarily higher postage rates for RM. But if we don't block remote, eBay will allow remote buyers to purchase at the cheap mainland rates for non-RM.  So unless eBay sets pricing based on UK buyer location (which it's apparently not going to), then this is the only workaround I'm aware of.

Regarding any instances of being caught out like this, eBay won't help you, so you have to try to narrow the gap between what the buyer paid and what you're charged for postage.  You can buy elsewhere than eBay (parcel2go for instance), but I think if you do, eBay might retain the simple delivery postage (which is deducted), but you can also go directly to Packlink's eBay page - delivery.ebay.co.uk - which is essentially the predecessor to simple delivery.  Here I found prices better than simple delivery and was able to buy a Yodel drop for my remote location with minimal additional cost, which I could still buy from my eBay balance.  I then informed the buyer that eBay had undercharged them postage and that nonetheless, I would bear the additional cost but the parcel was coming via Yodel instead (and as a mark of their gratitude, the buyer didn't even have the courtesy to leave me a review). 

Hope this helps, and you manage to get this sorted as best you can. Unfortunately, it's a case of lesson learned.

[dm932187]

Actually @glasgowgirl29 , I think it was Yodel I quoted originally (and buyer bought), but DPD I selected via Packlink.

[glasgowgirl29]

This was my understanding with simple delivery, and has always been the case, however because the buyer has paid me £2.94 for delivery but the cost for the postage is now showing as almost £6, then ebay say i have to pay the extra from my own funds to purchase the label. The buyer lives away up north so evri charge higher to deliver to these places. Just a shame ebay can’t add that cost on to the buyer for shipping and instead penalises us sellers. It isn't through fault of the buyer, but more a flaw in the system which judging by the things i have read ebay have no interest to change. 

[glasgowgirl29]

Thank you for your advice, that is a good shout to include that information within your auction so remote buyers can still purchase with correct shipping prices. 
I haven’t contacted ebay, i don’t really see much point as judging by others who have had this issue, there has been no resolve. I will pay the difference and definitely take it as a lesson learned and take on board your advice for smoother shipping in future to these remote locations.