£17.86 to post a 100g Large Letter !.

[punkwroc77]

Hello,

One of my listings is for the little poly' bags that 7" singles or CD's were put in when you bought them from a Record Shop. I started selling these off years ago but recently have been selling them £2.50 for 2 - Just wanting a fan of the band to have them - the one's I'm selling were limited and were issued to match the art work of the CD.

Anyway normally I fold them in half and send in an envelope with buyers agreement otherwise I just make 50p if I send them in an A4 Photograph Envelope.

Today I noticed a sale for them BUT buyer had paid £17.86 !!. I though there had been a mistake but no . The bags were to be sent to Ebay's GSP warehouse (£1.55) and from there Pitney Bowes to Canada.

Even considering where the Envelope was going I was still shocked as was the Post Master at my Local P.O.

If I had taken the Bags,in a hard back Envelope and posted via the P.O to Canada it would have cost £4.20 International Standard.

How on Earth can Ebay/Pitney Bowes justify charging someone £17.86 for  a 100g large letter - which was A4 size but only 2mm thick.

 I might take the GSP option off by listings and that way buyers will need to contact me first.

  I'm surprise the person even paid out that amount and didn't message me about it.

Shocking !!.

[papso22]

A big part of that will be PBs fee.

[pg_kicks · Accepted solution]

Also they may pay some sort of import tax, if I ever sell tennis trainers to Mexico (yeah they seem to love them) it comes in at over £100 a pair. I have a regular customer and I messaged them once and they basically just said he knows but nothing else he can do as he wants the shoe so just got to accept it.

[4_bathrooms]

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@punkwroc77 wrote:

I might take the GSP option off by listings and that way buyers will need to contact me first.

  I'm surprise the person even paid out that amount and didn't message me about it.

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I'm not sure what the problem is? Your buyer was clearly happy to pay what eBay charged, you received (almost) the same amount as if it had been a domestic sale and you won't be held liable if the item goes missing in transit, is delayed in customs or arrives damaged once it leaves Pitney Bowes' hub. Also, you're only paying a final value fee on the domestic postage cost; if you had sent the item outside of eBay's GSP you would be paying the FVF on the (presumably higher) international postage cost.

Don't get me wrong, GSP has it's problems and in quite a few cases the international carriage cost is disproportionate due to the limited number of forwarding services PB use. However, in this case I think the GSP worked as intended. As pointed out, when an item is sent via GSP the price paid by the buyer includes any import charges - if you sent the item yourself your buyer's domestic postal carrier would likely delay delivery until your buyer paid any import tax, duty, handling fee etc. that was due.

[rjwilmsi]

GSP handling fee plus VAT, more expensive fully tracked postage than international standard, import duty on the lot. It all adds up.

I don't think I'd send eBay sales internationally in an envelope (no matter how rigid), I'd want to box or double box given how the parcel may be abused on the way. So factor in parcel price not letter.

GSP is almost inevitably more expensive than posting the item direct, but avoids all the hassle of you filling in a customs form and the buyer having duty to pay - if you receive an item into the UK with duty to pay the Royal Mail or ParcelForce handling fee for duty is about £10 on top of the duty payable, so when you look at it like that perhaps GSP isn't so badly priced.

[punkwroc77]

26/02 . On checking the Pitney Bowes Tracking the weight of the envelope has increased from less than 100g/5oz to 1.3Kg /3lbs !!. 

[punkwroc77]

26/02 . On checking the Pitney Bowes Tracking the weight of the envelope has increased from less than 100g/5oz to 1.3Kg /3lb.

[punkwroc77]

Possible some kind of mix up - tracking now shows the 100g item I sent now weighs 1.34 Kg !.

[punkwroc77]

I had sent an order more than 10 times that weight also via GSP to USA and the postage buyer paid was less than £8. 26/02 . On checking the Pitney Bowes Tracking the weight of the envelope has increased from less than 100g/5oz to 1.3Kg /3lb so I think there has been a mix up somewhere and the buyer is expecting something a lot heavier.I have tried to contact buyer several time but no reply.

[punkwroc77]

Hello, Thanks for that information. I was not asked to provide a value at any point so can only assume the sale price was used before Ebay Fee and domestic postage which was £2.50 - would that really get bumped up to over £17 ?. According to the sub postage master it should have just been sent letter post and no customs forms would have been needed.

[4_bathrooms]

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@punkwroc77 wrote:

According to the sub postage master it should have just been sent letter post and no customs forms would have been needed.

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Your sub-postmaster is wrong. Letters (meaning documents) can be sent internationally without a customs form but physical goods - even if they fit in an envelope - must be accompanied by a customs form. Lots of countries have clamped down on this including the UK, US and most of the EU. If you had not used GSP and followed the sub-postmaster's advice the package might well have been disposed of by the receiving customs. If this happened you would have been responsible for refunding the buyer, the eBay fees would not have been refunded and you would have received two defects against your account (one in your seller performance standards and one in your service metrics).

[4_bathrooms]

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@punkwroc77 wrote:

I have tried to contact buyer several time but no reply.

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There's no need for you to. Once the package has been received by Pitney Bowes and you have an online delivery confirmation that's it; your responsibility in terms of getting the item to the buyer ends.