eBay P&P (Barrack Room Lawyer)

There seems to be a generally sanguine approach by sellers, on this forum, to 'topping up' postal charges to cover packing (tatty used bubble wrap and re-used boxes!) and labour (wrap a bit of sticky tape and add a label). As a buyer, the 'you shouldn't buy it, if you don't like the P&P' dictum is only relevant if you know the weight and packaging needed. Example - recent purchase P&P £15.00, item turned up 6 days after payment, delivered by the much loved H....s. The item didn't work and it was returned, extremely well packed and delivered by DPD - a service which pre-informs you of your 1 hour delivery slot and updates on the day - cost £10.00 - picked up on Monday afternoon delivered on Tuesday lunchtime!! Rip-off Britain - in spades!

The contributor who says, proudly, that he has never left negative feedback might care to consider those other future buyers who get stuck with poor service , over-charging, misdescription etc.

The only safeguard for the buyer is HONESTLY assessed feedback.!

rgds

Bill

Fine in theory, Bill, but it's likely to net you retaliatory feedback yourself (why so many sellers wait for your feedback before giving you theirs). That said, I wouldn't be "proud" of not giving negative feedback to scumbags as that earlier poster professed to be.

Bandersnatch, Business sellers cannot leave negative or retaliatory feedback, we always wait for buyers feedback purely to see that they are happy with their item. Approx 40% of buyers do not leave any feedback at all.

This is a real can of worms, we have been selling for a number of years now as a business seller with over 14,000 feedback (+40% who do not post it) so quite a few sales considering we only sell one off collectables.

We have suffered our share of dishonest buyers, scams and outright lying over missing items, we just take it in our stride.

We spend approx £15k a year in our tiny village Post Office and we spend approx £2k a year on packaging materials. We used to just add a nominal amount to our postage fees to partially defray our packing costs but when EB at a stroke took 10% of all our billed postage charges that REALLY hurt. They do nothing for it at all!

I would LOVE to know if anyone on here can comment on the actual legality of what they do here? How can they charge fees on a postal service that they have nothing to do with?

£1500 pa straight in their pockets!

So now we cost that into our postage charges (giving EB even more profit in the process). It is clear in our listing what we charge and if buyers do not like it we advise them not to bid. Simple enough!

We always offer combined postage on multiple items and even advise bidders to wait for our combined invoice if they are bidding on other items. We have a large number or repeat buyers all over the world.

It does seem that EB is moving away from the auction format andjust want 'widget sellers' but we will see.

Cheers,

Martin

Sellers cannot leave negative or neutral feedback. For several years they can only leave positive or none at all.

Roger

You're right, of course, Roger. I'd forgotten they changed that. Second thing to go you know ...

As a seller, I try to be fair and try not to overcharge for postage - mostly saying how much it will actually cost for transportation - sometimes losing out because I get it wrong. Any issues and I refund the buyer all his cash - it is not life-changing and I can't be ar*ed with it.

As a buyer I mostly opt for first class post if I can and often avoid sellers who do not offer it. I give feedback to acknowledge this. Unfortunately it is becoming trendy to offer free postage at second class, often with no first class option. A trip to Argos is not attractive to me to get "free" delivery (or for any other reason) when someone can poke it through my door.

Outside of ebay I buy from those sellers who post it first class tonight, if I can. Some of the big names in ME supplies have the attitude "we might put it in the post by the end of the week" so I only buy if I cannot get elsewhere. Some sellers are realising price is not always king and some of us want service even if it costs more, or both.

I dare to be controversial but post and packing are probably the best bargain on eBay!

I have just sold a small book for £8 with free post and packing. Ebay fee is £0.80, Paypal fee is £0.47, Postage (Royal Mail second class signed for) £2.64.

So far my net gain is £4.09. I forgot the cost of printing a label but I did use a second hand jiffy bag! Then there is the 9 mile round trip to my nearest Post Office where I queued for 25 minutes because I promised next day dispatch.

If time is money I am well out of pocket so forgive me if the next time it goes for recycling.

As a buyer If I find something on eBay from a trader I try and find their own website and buy off that. So I lose Nectar points but what the heck!

Anthony K:

Interesting comments, we send 99% of our stuff in the UK 2nd Class, either normal or recorded and do not offer 1st Class. We have never had a single comment about not offering 1st and we generally find that stuff arrives either next day or day after at latest. We are always amazed at this! Our most recieved pos feedback comment is about how quickly people get our stuff. It helps that we are a 1 minute walk from our village PO and today have been 3 times, once for just one item.

We never use Argos.

When we have problems we always refund in full and often let the buyers keep the item if return is uneconomic and when the item owes us very little.

For damaged items we insist on photos of the damage before refunding; for 'lost in post' we insist on a reasonable wait and ask for buyers local PO details. Amazing how often the item 'arrives' the next day.....

Still works for us from a way of getting rid of stuff in our attic has turned into a respectable small business after my retirement from the film industry.

Cheers, Martin