enodreven Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 Hi, Has anyone else noticed that most of these auction type web sites seem to have very high postage charges ?? I have just been trying to negotiate to pick up an item that is on auction as i actually live in the town where the seller is located, but they won't reduce/remove the exorbitant postage charge ?? shouldn't the postage charge actually reflect the postage cost ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 i assume if your buying from a seller running a business he/she also pass on some of the other charges i.e ebay/paypal fees and add these to the postage and packaging costs. understandingly so in my eyes as long as not taking the pi55 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 If you look at the actual cost of postage plus the actual cost of envelopes, even padded, some - but not all - mail order businesses are overcharging. Even if you take the true total cost of employing a university graduate to do the packing at, say, £12 an hour and he/she packs one order every five minutes that is only £1 per order on average? And then there is the government's legalised scam of adding VAT to everything on the invoice, including wages, postage costs and packing materials (on which VAT has already been paid) and charging it to the end user (you and me). When buying online I always look at the p&p being charged and I prefer to buy from those whose charges look sensible rather than be lured by a seemingly lower basic price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enodreven Posted November 29, 2007 Author Share Posted November 29, 2007 Hi, The item i was referring to actually had a buy it now price, and they weren't prepared to accept that even though I was going to actually pick it up, so surely they were using the postage charge as a way of trying to appear to offer a lower price than was actually the case ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MandyAndy Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 Hi, I sell on Ebay on a daily basis, I also post around 30 items a day in padded envelopes. Alot of the electrical type items are sold with huge postage to save them paying high ebay listing fees, you can report these people as ebay is trying to clamp down on it apparently. It annoys me too when people won't let you pick up but then they often run things from home and the items are actually in another town or even country but they just run the Ebay business from a home computor. Ebay will remove any item you list if you intentionally add price of listing fees to postage or mention that somewhere in the description. They will also remove items that mention cash anywhere in the payment methods (this happened to us as we didn't know about it) Mandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enodreven Posted November 29, 2007 Author Share Posted November 29, 2007 Hi, That's good to know that they are trying to stop it, but i would imagine its very difficult, however its not only eBay, those TV channels that sell items always seem to have the same or similar PP charges no matter what the size of item, I supose you could say in that case that some people are getting the PP cheap but I doubt that happens in reality ? It seems you have to always look very closely at the PP before you by/bid as it can make a lot of difference ??? to the overall price you have to pay ? Mandy&Andy - 2007-11-29 3:35 PM Hi, I sell on Ebay on a daily basis, I also post around 30 items a day in padded envelopes. Alot of the electrical type items are sold with huge postage to save them paying high ebay listing fees, you can report these people as ebay is trying to clamp down on it apparently. It annoys me too when people won't let you pick up but then they often run things from home and the items are actually in another town or even country but they just run the Ebay business from a home computor. Ebay will remove any item you list if you intentionally add price of listing fees to postage or mention that somewhere in the description. They will also remove items that mention cash anywhere in the payment methods (this happened to us as we didn't know about it) Mandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 Yes, a lot of ebay sellers do set postage charges high. You can complain to ebay about particularly bad offenders. And you can post negative feedback about them, which sellers really don't like receiving. But the bottom line when bidding/buying is: what's the maximum TOTAL price you're prepared to pay INCLUDING the quoted postage charges. If it's a big-ticket item, you can always email the seller before you bid to ask what his realistic actual charge would be to post/courier to your individual address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Parke Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 The three 'main' T.V. shopping channels seem to have a p& p of £7:99 per item, at times £8:99. This indeed does make a difference to the overall purchase price of the item, but with selective purchasing you can still get some good 'bargains' Regards Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enodreven Posted November 29, 2007 Author Share Posted November 29, 2007 I totally agree with the point you make, and i think that applies to eBay and others also as there are certainly some bargains out there, but i do think its necessary sometimes to just raise the point about PP charges so hopefully people will be more aware that the PP needs to be added to the item cost before you know if its a bargain ?? as i think a lot of people just look at the headline price without noticing the pp. Mike Parke - 2007-11-29 3:52 PM with selective purchasing you can still get some good 'bargains' Regards Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carioca Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 i've bought quite a bit of stuff off ebay you have to look at the total price ie (item)£6 (postage £4) (same item different seller) £8 (postage )£2 same overall price ;-) at the end of the day we choose to buy off these sites Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J9withdogs Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 Some ebay sellers are obviously trying to reduce their ebay fees by inflating the P & P charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJH Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 We sell a number of family history related items through our own web site, mail order, eBay and dropshippers. Our postage & packing charges are set to reflect the averaged out costs involved - postage, envelope/postal tube, address labels, printing & labour. I've never bought from the TV shopping channels but I wonder if their charges are any higher than they pay out? Many companies use couriers rather than the Royal Mail (which we use) and their minimum charges can be comparatively high. The commonest items we sell are CDs (standard worldwide P&P charge of £1) and the postage (stamp) element of the cost (within the UK) is either 48p or 70p (more for air mail) depending on the weight (some doubles take the large letter package weight to just over 100 grams). I just checked TNT and their minimum charge is £26.90 because they use a minimum weight of 1Kg. Lynx (up to 10 Kg) is £14. I presume that bulk mailers like the shopping channels do special deals with their couriers which enables them to charge the £7.99/£8.99 quoted in previous postings. As has been stated above, though, it is the total cost which the purchaser needs to be aware of. There have been a number of times when I've decided to purchase from a shop rather than by mail order because the P&P inclusive cost exceeds the shop price. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 One of the reasons they up the P&P costs and sometimes have a low item price is that they pay selling fees on their items final selling price, but it is not chargeable on the P&P costs, so if they have something that has a high seling price, it can add quite a bit to their selling costs if they don't do this (and who wants to pay for selling on ebay than they really need to!). I always look at the whole cost as a 'package', ie the item and the P&P, and decide what the total cost is I'll pay for anything, not just on the item cost. If they say no collection, they usually mean it. If in doubt, ask before you buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJH Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 One of the reasons people running businesses from home might not be keen on collection is insurance. A normal household insurance policy will include occupier's liability cover for people visiting for domestic purposes but will not include cover for customers of a business. We have sold a few things privately on eBay and had the buyers come to collect them as they were in this area - indeed, when we sold a frame tent we stipulated local pickup only because we didn't want the hassle of posting a heavy & bulky item. It would be a different matter with business items - but, having said that, the cost to someone of coming to collect would probably exceed the charge we make. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davenewellhome Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 When I sell stuff for mail delivery I usually charge £15 P&P. The delivery via overnight courier costs me £11.75. I consider thr remainder to be fair in covering my time to package the item and deliver it to the courier firms base. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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