An ebay bad experience

[Mirofsoft]

Hello Dear Friends
seen on eBay an offer; I bid, I won
4 pièces : 2 toys soldiers plastic, 1 small cigaret tin box and a Mafeking money note fac simile
total 2.77£ + 25.50£ sending costs
I asked a global sending cost ( 2 times )
Answer : "the sending cost per piece is in the bid, but as good gesture you receive 15% discount so
2,35£ in place of 2,77£" .. but still 25.50£ sending
As I'm engaged in a bidding, I paid
I received the pièces in 2 enveloppes first on with 1.87€ stamps, second one 1.27€ stamps total 3.14€
or 2.65£ about 1/10 of the invoiced cost
Coming from Malta

So beware

If need be I can PM the name of the bidder

 

[Tutilo17]

Sorry to hear about you bad experience with unreasonable postage charges.

Unfortunately you can see this bad habit rather often. As you don't pay Ebay fees on postage charges vendors sometimes offer low prices / starting bids but to compensate for the (expected) shortfall they charge very high postage fees.

You could actually report this to Ebay. I can imagine they don't like this practice.

Stefan

 

[Tecumsea]

Sorry to hear of your bad experience, probably worth raising a complaint with Ebay particularly if you keep the evidence. I suggest you go back to the vendor first and complain requesting a refund of postage..............then Ebay if they are unwilling to co-operate..........finally get some satisfaction by leaving negative feedback. I always ask for combined postage and advance notice of postage before bidding. There are plenty of sharks around on Ebay, but postage costs are increasing and it is important to factor this into your bids. Sometimes a bargain can be destroyed by the add ons.

Good luck my friend......Keith

 

[Mirofsoft]

Another one
Warning, let's just examine the " Good Deal"
Auction beginning at 0.01€ for a 90mm Pegaso BUT look at the sending cost : 50,00€
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Pegaso-Model...1?pt=Soldatini_e_Figurini&hash=item4ac4d7d05d

Be carefull on the e Bite

 

[rafaelega]

I saw to much cases with those problems. The people offer very cheap deals but the shipping and handle is very expensive. For example the same seller can sell a toy 12+5 (total 17 dollars) and 3+14 (also 17 dollars). They are trying to get customers that search articles ordered from low price to top and also if you order the list from top price to low. Any search you specify you get their offer. This is a trick but I think it must also be considered as formal swindle by Ebay.

 

[polyphemus]

It's an attempt by the seller to limit his ebay fees. The fees are based on the initial starting price and on the final selling price, excluding post and packing charges. So if he sells one of these at 1 euro he only pays the fees based on 1 euro and nothing on the 50 euros postage.
He's sold more than one of the same figure which may be suspicious or not and his feedback is 100% although the DSR for P&P is a little low.

Geoff

 

[Tecumsea]

Certain products on Ebay can only be sold with "Postage Free" This was introduced by Ebay to stop this scam which if course was depriving them of revenue. If this guy gets caught thy will close him down.

Keith

 

[Richard61]

Since I both buy and sell on ebay from time to time, I agree these sellers are doing it to limit the seller fees. Ebay do milk sellers but even so I don't hike my P&P charges and have been stung a few times by under estimating postal cost!
On a similar note to Mark S's post, I also bought a bundle of stuff from a private seller who was clueless of their true value and who had listed them in the wrong place which limited the bidding ........ Refused to give me any discount even though I'd bought 7 or 8 items from his auction so the postage was over £20.... When the parcel arrived it was just wrapped in a piece of wallpaper (Yes, wallpaper) and held together by a few tiny scraps of medical tape!
OK, I admit it was all there and nothing was broken but for the cost I'd have expected a boxed and well wrapped parcel. Some sellers are superb when it comes to packing but a few just seem to want to rip people off.

Richard.

 

[Dan Morton]

I've had similar experiences, but continue to sell and buy on e-Bay. Some suggestions. Just ignore unreasonable product price listings. People who are selling 90mm figures for a few pennies are probably not someone you want to do business with. There is a catch somewhere. The postal charge cost is just one of the schemes. Suggestion - ask the seller to provide you an e-mailed or faxed copy of the postal receipt. Almost any honest seller should be willing to do that. Make sense?

When I sell on e-Bay, I warn the buyer that the e-Bay postal (software computed) price is not accurate and that they should wait for me to send them a properly prepared invoice based on a real postal charge. You can't stop the e-Bay software from putting the postal charge on the listing. Only after the product is sold, I get the kit packed and weighed and priced the most inexpensive rate and I offer to e-mail them a copy of the final receipt from the post office. Personally I also do my best to package the figure or whatever. This often creates more package weight and more postal cost, but I want the product to arrive at the buyer intact. Having said this, I think it's not reasonable to expect the seller to take all the risk with the postal gorillas. Figures are inherently fragile. Gorillas will be gorillas. I don't know the right answer on this - just stating a position. When this has happened I've done everything from giving the product away to reducing the price one-half. But the buyer should be responsible for providing evidence that the product was damaged. Again - an e-mailed photo should be relatively easy to do.

Just some suggestions...

All the best,
Dan

 

[Captain Sprout]

I don't really understand the problem to be honest as you knew the postage and it was a rip off but you chose to give the seller your money..I would strongly suggest not bidding on items where the postage charge is too high. You don't have to buy items and there are better sellers. Bad sellers sell on Ebay because buyers give them money, stop doing it and they would stop.

It reminds me of Maelstrom games..I lost money to them but people buy from them because it didn't happen to them.

I never estimate postage on Ebay when I sell, I weigh all items and packing before I list and that way there is no misunderstanding between buyer and seller.

Anything on Ebay that looks too good to be true is too good to be true. Anything that looks like a rip off is. I've been buying and selling on Ebay for 10 years plus and have had 3 bad experiences with sellers in that time..I don't think that's bad as I have had as many bad experiences with retailers in proportion.

When bidding calculate the whole value of the item in terms of price and postage when added together and bid accordingly.

 

[Gerry]

Hi Racheal/captain Sprout.
I agree with your comments! if a buyer agree's with a price / postage etc, then it fair game! sorry to be harch guys, but look at the sellers rating, if there legit , buyers come back for more, simples! if there's no rating etc dont go there!!!! rip off's are rip off's, we should all know that by now! dont part with your hard earned cash unless you check the sellers rating or you know someone who has bought from them before ! otherwise you will be ripped off BIG time.
Gerry.