Just want to check something. I recently won a Moulton on ebay.

I want it posted to Norway. When I checked the price of international postage to Norway on the listing it said it was £30.

Now the seller is charging me £96. I checked some courier websites and it does seem reasonable.

However, my understanding is that if his listing advertises international shipping as being £30 then he has to honour that.

Is this correct?

if the price is fair – and the you want the bike then just go ahead – but if the seller has underestimated the cost to send (if they open the auction up to international bidders then its anyones guess which country it will be bought in) then they’ll most likely just pull out of the the sale rather than loose £66 on the deal.

what he said if they are not ripping you off and it is just a cost then it seems fair tbh

I suppose the flip side is would you have bought it if the postage was £93??

Moulton? Now that’s gotta be some weird looking niche bike with a comedy frame?

Yeah, I do want it but I only paid £120 for it. £120 plus £30 seems alright but £120 plus £96 is getting a bit silly.

I’m just wondering what ebay’s rules are on advertised postage. Is it just a guide or is it supposed to be the price. Their website isn’t clear as far as I can tell.

I wouldn’t pay any more than the £30 that you agreed to buy it at . When I bid on something I work out what I’m prepared to pay for it , subtract the postage and that’s my max bid . Depends how much you want it but I would think morally and legally you are within your rights to only pay what you were told you would have to pay when you bid for it .

I think there is an ebay clause that says that the seller can reasonably increase the postage charges to cover the actual cost of shipping the item. I recently paid £150 to have a vintage Schwinn cruiser (which I paid £100 for) shipped from Colorado (etsy not ebay though – it had to be done – I need that bike). I guess it depends on how much you want it.

so you think they will send you a £150 total cost [ price + postage] frame and suck up £93 postage ……I suspect they will find it is “broken” when they go to pack it if you force the issue tbh
Haggle on the postage??
Pull out due to costs?
Not sure but it seems a bit unfair on both of you tbh but i cannot see many absorbing a £63 postage cost on a £120 deal

What I’m really hoping for is that someone can point me to the relevant bit of the rules on ebay’s website.

I’ve been looking but I can’t find anything definitive.

At least if both the seller and myself understand the rules then it’ll make it easier to resolve.

I cannot find it either but I would be looking to do what was fair tbh
As I say I dont think many will take a £63 hit on a £120 frame tbh whatever the ebay rules say
Best of luck the ebay site is poor and i doubt you will get a definitive answer from them easily

BTW Junkyard, the £63 could well have been less than he would have got if I hadn’t bid. Especially if the other bidder was also an international customer and he based his bid on £30 P&P.

Moultons in that state often go for a lot less. One of the main reasons I bid was because he was one of the few sellers willing to send internationally.

work with the seller to try and find a cheaper courier.

the biggest problem is going to be the size. If the bike can be dismantled and packaged up quite small then it will be a lot cheaper to post.

Moultons are those weird little truss frame things with rear suspension aren’t they? Surely they must dismantle down into something compact? up to 20kg should be doable for £30 if you package it small enough.

Would splitting the cost between the pair of you be acceptable?

yeah, trying to sort something out now although so far he’s refused to say he underestimated the shipping costs.

I’m quite happy to meet him somewhere in the middle since the price he quoted is reasonable but I bid more than I probably would have if the P&P had been accurate. His price for UK postage was too low as well so that may have bumped up the price.

If he won’t budge I’ll probably just cancel the sale and report it.

Bit of a bugger but I’ve had ebay limit the cost of shipping to below the actual cost. Maybe they didn’t underestimate just couldn’t put more in.

In ebay spain people frequently put a postage price of say 199 euros with a buy now price of 1 euro. Obviously to bypass ebay charges but I’ve often wondered what would happen if I insisted on picking the thing up in person. Would ebay support me?

His price for UK postage was too low as well so that may have bumped up the price.

Uk postage rates have jumped quite alarmingly in the last few weeks so its easy for sellers to get caught out under estimating their costs.

If you’re not happy with the deal its easy to walk away, especially if he’s changed the postage from the one advertised. If he re-lists it – bid again at a price you’re happy with.

In ebay spain people frequently put a postage price of say 199 euros with a buy now price of 1 euro. Obviously to bypass ebay charges but I’ve often wondered what would happen if I insisted on picking the thing up in person. Would ebay support me?

No.

This was common practice in the UK and elsewhere a few years ago until they cracked down. In spain i can only assume they arnt cracking down as its more profitable not to, as we know some countries in the EU like to avoid taxes wherever possible 😉 so driving away customers is not in their interest, even if customers are breaking the rules.

ebay nowadays seems to prick the postage for you based on an estimate from similar items, and sometimes you have to mess around to stop it coming up with something silly.

Get him to check how much the postage is through http://www.parcelmonkey.co.uk, I have found that this gives the cheapest quotes, better than http://www.parcel2go.co.uk – and very likely better than parcelforce direct even when you actually choose parcelforce on parcelmonkey.

I doubt he is trying to rip you off just charge what the actual postage is.

With parcelmonkey, and parcel2go, you can get it picked up from your home so it is often more convenient.

We came to an agreement. We found a cheaper courier and he offered to cover £10 of the postage so it’s only costing me £50 rather than £90.

Luckily he was very reasonable so we were able come to an agreement fairly easily. I guess it’s a good lesson to double check postage charges myself and to question the seller if the price seems too low.

I think ebay could definitely be much clearer when it comes to whether the postage advertised in the listing is supposed to be binding or not.

I’m about to become a Moultoneer 🙂