Unscrupulous ebay traders

[Cyberus]

Here's the deal

I bid on a trade magazine.
I won the auction.
The guy wanted to charge 2.95 for postage and 40p for PayPal fees. I wasn't happy about the paypal fees at all, but when I asked if he could send the mag by 2nd class post, he said he'd knock off 50p.
So I kind didn't fell so bad about the deal, seeing as I would have to drive to the Post Office to get a stamp, and by the time I'd done that, it would've costed more than 40p to send him a cheque.

Now, the mag drops through my door today, with 71p's worth of postage. He charged me 2.45 for postage (this envelope can't have cost nearly two quid!) and a 40p PayPal fee, and the c**t suggested I left him feedback!

What can I do, as I don't want 'revenge feedback' tarnishing my spotless feedback, cos I'm sure he'd make up something, when I've gone to great lenghts in the past to make sure I deal with buyers and sellers fairly and professionally. I take great pains to weigh out my items when I sell, and in the past I've refunded the difference when the post quote has been over (once)

I know its only a couple of quid, but I don't think piss-takers like this should be able to get away with it!

Any thoughts?

[Cyberus]

FastRobPlus wrote:
If fees are given as flat fees in the auction, then charging any price for shipping and handling is appropriate.  After all, you can elect not to bid on the item.  I sometimes give a flat fee based on what I think it will cost, and don't refund the difference if it turns out to be cheaper.  This is because it's a better experience for the bidder to be able to bid on an item knowing the full costs up front, and being able to pay immediately and get thier item sent out quick.

If they don't specify fees in the auction, then I feel this implies actual cost of shipping will be calculated upon auciton close, which should be within 25% plus or minus of the actual real cost that the post office charges.

I see your point, and I fear that it will ring true with ebay too. However, I assumed it was a heavy magazine (you know what some mags are like, like phone directories), and I wasn't to know the postage was overcharged.

[Cyberus]

TheMagicM wrote:
Its against ebay policy to charge for paypal fees.  I'd report him.

How do I do that?
I find these particular parts of ebay (complaints etc) difficult to find. [Hmm, wonder if that's deliberate..]

[Cyberus]

I've written him a polite letter expressing my displeasure :lol:

Hopefully, as he only has a feedback of 10, he might try and keep me happy so I don't make him have 90% instead of 100%

[Cyberus]

I realise I don't have much comeback about the postage fees, its just that I always go to great lengths to ensure my postage is fair, sometimes I've even lost out by underquoting it. I always though it was both the fair thing to do, and sound business sense, to not rip off your buyer....

Also I've bought stuff, I've found that buyers have on the whole been very accomodating. For example recently, I got a piece of software and manual, and then was dissapointed to find the disk wasn't original (the manual, however, was) - the buyer offered to send me something else to compensate. As a result I was happy and left him great feedback.

Well, the world ain't fair....

[Cyberus]

UPDATE: here is a copy of the email I received from the seller

I fully understand why you think the postage charge isn't fair..
EBay sellers can set the postage and package charge to any amount eg to
include time spent packing and posting.
I set the item price to start at 99p and set the p&p to higher than the true
cost. EBay charge charge sellers more for items above 99p both for listing
the item and also on the final bid price. thats why on ebay there are lots
of items at 99p and p&p charges differ between sellers.

You know, I can almost see his point.
But even so, I'm sure most sellers don't do this, do they? But on the other hand, ebay is ripe with shysters (sp?).
Guess its getting worse....? :-(

[Cyberus]

So does this mean that because I find it a pain in the arris wrapping stuff up, and then I have to drive to the Post Office  to post it (I live in the sticks), I should charge more?

Like this guy did, over three times the cost of the postage?

[Cyberus]

I really didn't realise people systematically charged handling fees. I've always quote the postage cost + a few pence for packing. Guess I've been a bit of a mug then...!

[Cyberus]

Morley wrote:
Yeah, I also did it from my computer at home...using BIC and IBAN and all that... the problem was, the receivers bank wanted 15€ for accepting money from a Norwegian bank...huh. We're not in the EU you know, so they rip us off as often as they can.

I think you'll find that banks rip you off as often as they can, full stop. It doesn't matter if you're in the EU or not!

[Cyberus]

Madgun68 wrote:

I think that it's your own fault if you are upset about the postage. As someone else said, the fee was disclosed on the auction, and you therefore had an option not to bid on the item. As someone that DOES measure out and charge very accurately, I would think you'd spot that the shipping/handling fee was way off anyway.

Sometimes it can be misleading though. What may seem like an appropriate charge for shipping and handling at the time you're bidding may not seem so when you receive the package. I remember paying for a pci card once. The shipping didn't seem too far off. When I got the card, however, it was simply tossed inside a box (freely moving around.) Had I known at the time that the seller would ship it as such, I definately wouldn't have thought the shipping reasonable.

Exactly, I didn't know how thick/heavy the item would be.

If I'd bid on a memory SIMM and the postage was 10 pounds, it'd be obvious the seller was overcharging. But with this, I wasn't to know until it arrived.


As for the PayPal fees thing, its no longer about whether one should pass the charge on to the buyer or not, ebay's TOS forbids it AFAIK. I used to levy a fee of 50 pence for transactions under 5 pounds. Now I don't accept PayPal for payments under 5GBP. Hmm, maybe I should add more to my postage costs.

I just originally thought this was grossly dishonest and against the spirit of ebay, but I guess not.

Regards

[Cyberus]

Framiga wrote:
PS- think about all those poor guys, ripped on Amibench.

Did anything come of that investigation into the ripping?