Apologies to those literary prooners expecting summat literary
Well the day before yesterday, one ordered several items through A on t'net and they have all arrived safe and well (and with good haste).
So far so good, however they all have postal amounts on the envelopes/packages of LESS than one was charged on ordering. Nothing new i suppose, it happens. One of the items cost £2.50 with paid postage of £4.50. This amount was accepted as it would seem to apply to most of this particular sellers wares, HOWEVER on reading the franked postage amount it was only £0.95, meaning that said seller has gouged me for over £3.50 for nothing.
Luckily it's not a large amount, but on principle i don't appreciate this kind of behavior from a 'business'. If it had been stated that postage was 'up to £4.50' then maybe fair enough, but to send such a small item and blatantly overcharge for the postage...... not on in my book.
I'm sure that other prooners have had experiences of such practice and would appreciate your thoughts (or thunks as mr D might say). I'll probably complain, but don't hold out hopes of any change in practice.
Yer, if you got something worth twenty pounds you sell it for 50p and charge 19.50p postage,but I thought ebay was supposed to be stamping down on this ploy?
I've complained in the past about peeps overcharging for postage,tiz a bit of a fiddle, still you should read the postage cost before bidding,I bought a solid bodied electric guitar off a bloke down south and he charged me seven fifty postage which was about right ,in fact I think he robbed himself of about 50p,I bought a small CCTV camera off someone else and he charged me 12 quid postage which was daylight robbery,always look at the postage cost before yer bid.
"Commission is charged on the price of the purchase but not on the postage cost."
You should be so lucky!
Recently bought a CD where the seller charged £2 p&p and then sent it in an ordinary envelope with a second class stamp. Complained before leaving feedback, and got a £1 refund.
They are not all bad, I brought a communications receiver on E-Bay last year, postage (by courier) was charged @ £30, the Item cost me £450. The seller e-mailed me to say he had dispatched it and as it had only cost £20 he had refunded £10 into my Pay-Pal account.
Recently I was trawling for a camera battery. Cheapest was £6.99 - until you looked carefully at the delivery charge - also (by coincidence?) £6.99. Blink and you might not notice . . . Found another supplier charging £9.99 with free UK delivery.
There is a large element of "caveat emptor" involved - always check the postage / delivery costs, whether buying on ebay, Amazon or other sellers.
It doesn't matter whether you are buying a book or a plasma TV - very often the delivery charge can make the cheapest item a lot less competitive. So the total price is the only one to go on.
There is often the opportunity for feedback - not just on ebay. Amazon sellers (and ABE also, I think) have ratings and feedback too.
It's not always in the vendor's favour, though. I bought a virtually new computer book on ebay - RRP about £25 - for 99p, and the vendor charged £5 postage, but it actually cost over £6 for delivery (he sent it 1st class, not standard parcels). So by the time he had paid his ebay listing, selling and PayPal fees, he had made a 150% loss!
SD
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You can't have everything - where would you put it?
There is a large element of "caveat emptor" involved - always check the postage / delivery costs, whether buying on ebay, Amazon or other sellers.
I totally agree, however in my case the seller through 'A' charged me £4.50 for the postage, but only paid £0.95p for said postage, the proof being on the envelope postal frank.
If they had paid £4.50 or approx i would have no problem whatsoever, except thinking that that was way too much for such a small item through normal post channels. However i have (IMHO) been cheated by this seller, albeit in a small amount. They paid approx 80% less than they (by contract) charged me. They were also clever enough not to include any documentation/invoice with said v.small package......
I understand that you feel cheated, and I am not condoning the "sharp" practice of charging way more than the actual postage.
And that is totally unacceptable if the delivery charges are not explicitly made clear before you buy the item
However, my point is that you can make an informed decision on whether or not to buy based on the total price (item plus delivery)
You can usually estimate the actual postage based on the (estimated) weight of the item.
If the vendor publishes the delivery charge, then you effectively agree to that as part of the contract when you commit to buy. You can't subsequently complain that it is excessive if you have agreed to it in advance.
That's why I said "caveat emptor".
SD
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You can't have everything - where would you put it?
Have any of you tight g**s asked yourself who is meant to pay for the postal bag, packing material and the time it takes someone to physically prepare the item and take it to the post office?
Have any of you tight g**s asked yourself who is meant to pay for the postal bag, packing material and the time it takes someone to physically prepare the item and take it to the post office?
In my case, the product was popped in a small envelope (10p ?) and franked in the sellers office and no doubt taken to a post box (or collected) with other clients post and that's that. Total cost perhaps just over a quid, p&p charged £4.50. I have NO problem being charged for p&p, but to be gouged is downright unacceptable. Thankfully it was a low amount, but the principle holds.
