Why has my postage charge changed on its own?

[senlac1]

Why has my postage charge changed on its own?

I currently have a sewing machine for sale which weighs 18Kg including packaging.

When I listed it I was forced to use Simple Delivery which offered two couriers Evri and Royal Mail.

I decided to exclude Royal Mail as I had heard of anecdotal pricing problems on heavier items.

The item was listed and it showed the buyer would pay £10.80 for Evri

I recently noticed that the postage had changed to £7.18 and now includes both Royal Mail and Evri, I didn’t do that.

I was surprised but I was able to revise the item back to Evri only at £10.80.

But without my interference after a couple of hours it went back to £7.18 and showing both Royal Mail and Evri.

At the time of writing this I changed it back to £10.80 Evri only. So when you read this it may have changed yet again.

Also I noticed on my selling  page it's showing  the latest bidding price and against it     + postage (you pay)

But buyers are seeing it as they are paying

What’s going on! Can Royal Mail really send a 18Kg item for as little as £7.18

Or am I going to end up paying out of my own pocket?

[senlac1]

No replies so I guess no one knows what was happening.

I used Simple Delivery,  selected Evri and deselected Royal Mail (RM)

After a few days RM mysteriously reappeared, so I deselected RM a number of times and each time after a couple of hours RM reappeared again.

During this time the postage charge kept on changing back and forth from £10.80 to £7.19. In the end I gave up.

The item is now sold I was given a RM postage label and  the buyer has paid £7.19

I have taken the item to a Post Office and it has been accepted.

So no unexpected charges for me as I had feared.

RM is delivering the 17.5Kg  item at a cost of £7.19 to the buyer, which is cheap in my opinion.

[brainuk]

Well I posted 8 large jigsaw puzzles to one lady. The lovely A.I. Bot worked out the combined Simple Delivery for me and it calculated 10kg and it cost me £0.83pence!!

[sml192 · Accepted solution]

£7.19 appears to be the correct rate for that weight band with both carriers selected, so a pretty good deal.  There doesn't appear to be an option for Evri only with that weight band, possibly due to the fact that the maximum weight permitted by Evri is normally 15Kg.

For items sold between £0-100

Item weight & size	Both couriers selected	Evri only	Royal Mail only	Click & Collect (through Evri)
1kg large letter	£2.70	£2.94	£2.72
0-1kg small parcel	£2.94	£2.96	£3.38	£2.26
0-1kg medium parcel	£2.94	£2.96	£3.64	£2.26
1-2kg small parcel	£3.38	£4.06	£3.38	£2.46
1-2kg medium parcel	£3.71	£4.06	£5.15	£2.46
2-10kg parcel	£5.21	£5.64	£6.65	£3.42
10-20kg parcel	£7.19		£10.80

For items sold above £100

Item weight & size	Both couriers selected	Evri only	Royal Mail only	Click & Collect (through Evri)
1kg large letter	£3.42	£3.72	£3.46
0-1kg small parcel	£3.42	£3.72	£3.94	£2.26
0-1kg medium parcel	£3.42	£3.72	£3.94	£2.26
1-2kg small parcel	£4.26	£4.66	£4.48	£2.46
1-2kg medium parcel	£4.26	£4.66	£6.16	£2.46
2-10kg parcel	£5.88	£6.46	£7.27	£3.42
10-20kg parcel	£8.41		£12.47

[thepillenwerfer]

Evri shouldn't be an option as 18kg is over their weight limit. The standard price for Tracked 48 for something between 10kg and 20kg is indeed £10.80 but e-Bay say they have negotiated special prices with Royal Mail and Evri.

According to the rules if you accepted e-Bay's estimate of weight and size you aren't liable if it's wrong.

[senlac1]

Those prices make sense. Thank you  👍
So to save the confusion all that was needed was to make RM the one and only available carrier.

Offering Evri and the consequences that went with it was just an unnecessary ball ache.

[senlac1]

One other thing is while the listing was live It was showing against the bidding price

+ postage (you pay)

That didn't happen, I didn't pay but that's another glitch they should sort out.

[xyz307xyz]

I think.

If you only selected RM - the postage would've been £10.80.

Leave both and it would be £7.19.

[henrythehoarder]

This has also happened to me, to the tune of 4 wheels with tryes that the buyer wants sent for £7.19?........would i have had to enter the 4 items dimesnions and weights to get a better cost for postage?

[xyz307xyz]

If you listed it with custom postage (i.e. without Simple Delivery) and ebay changed the live auction without any input from you, as far as I know that's up to ebay*. i.e. you would not need to do anything - just use the label provided.*

If you listed (or revised) an item and the Simple Delivery options were shown, you should've selected the correct size/weight band at that time.

(*) But if the 4 wheels/tyres are bigger or heavier than the absolute maximum for Simple Delivery - you can't send them Simple Delivery at all. https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575#se...

[henrythehoarder]

Thank you very much for the reply........what should i do?......each wheel is 19kg and there is 4 of them, buyer paid asking price with a £5.88 post fee and is now getting rather blunt saying it is my mess up, cheapest quote ive got with shiply is £184!!!.....do i open a case on them as clearly they wont be sendable?

[xyz307xyz]

Actually is it this item 335741222918?

That's listed with Yodel delivery so not Simple Delivery - ignore what I wrote.

What did you have as the courier and price when you listed it?

[henrythehoarder]

Yes, ford transit steel wheels with tyres, they have been on there over a year and there is no way i put the post at that rate, ebay must of changed it without me knowing....im aure i had the post down as another courier 3to5 days at possibly £60 to £100.....i also changed some wheels to £30 from 7 and looked at them again and they went back to £7 so i went in and changed them again and its worked........maybe i should of looked the wheels and revised them sooner but i was not aware it had changed

[henrythehoarder]

I thought the buyer would be sound and understand but his attitude is blunt and unreasonable.....if i have to front it with another courier at £184 i can do this, it happened on one wheel recent and the buyer was very understanding and agreed with the way  i communicated and sent....i will be looking at all my items now and revising them

[xyz307xyz]

Hopefully you will get some other members replying.

From me, I can only suggest discussing with customer services, to see if they can see any evidence/reason of if/why the postage has changed. (I've only heard of postage changing when an item was set to Simple Delivery postage.)

For customer services see https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Member-To-Member-Support/Wont-return-item/m-p/7896178#M304670

One option is to cancel the sale, that does have consequences though. I'm not an expert in that area (or any area!) - you might lose some fees and ebay doesn't like it, particularly if you cancel several sales in a period (AFAIK).

[xyz307xyz]

Buyers expect to pay what is shown. The main question here is did ebay change what you had selected, or did you just make a mistake? Maybe customer services won't be sure either way.

I've bought things where the seller has made a mistake in the postage cost (nothing like £95 though!), sometimes they honour it, sometimes they cancel the sale.

Clearly, if ebay did change it, you can at least moan at them, ask for any fee refunds, cancellation bad marks, negative feedback etc. to be removed etc. "Asking" doesn't necessarily mean it will happen, easily.

I guess you will end up cancelling the sale - but I wouldn't rush to. See what anyone else thinks, and see what customer services say. If you don't get a satisfactory answer the first time, you could always try again and hopefully get someone else!

[xyz307xyz]

I just looked at the last item I listed. I received an email from ebay at the time - it shows the starting price and postage. Maybe have a look and see if you received one similar, if you keep your emails from that long ago.

RE: #11  you can't open a case on anybody.

[henrythehoarder]

Thank you very much for the link

[henrythehoarder]

I have an email from them in dec 24 and postage is £95.00

[henrythehoarder]

I hear you on the case thing, i will contact customer services and see, many thanks as you have been super super helpful!!!!!!!