Just bought some forks and a wheel on the bay. The seller has now messaged me to say that he’s sent the stuff, but in two parcels, and it’s cost an extra £13 over his original postage quote – which i thought was steepish at £18!
He now wants me to pay the extra.

Now, I’m not inclined to pay. But am I being mean? And could he potentially leave negative feedback for me if I don’t?

not your concern

seller needed to price up correctly before selling.

tough shit, it’s his job to estimate it correctly. I sold some panniers for a motorbike few year ago and ended up £30 more, and that was before parcel farce lost one box and smashed another, was a nightmare and I had to re-imburse the buyer and put small claims court to work!

The seller has now messaged me to say that he’s sent the stuff, but in two parcels, and it’s cost an extra £13 over his original postage quote – which i thought was steepish at £18!
He now wants me to pay the extra.

Well it’s on it’s way. Was the postage named in the ad? If so I would say you’re in a good position.
When it arrives if you’re happy you can just leave it as it. Respond to any negative feedback with postage changed mail above what was quoted.

Unless you really really want his shit then tell him to jog on and learn how stuff works.

He cant leave you neg feedback. Do not leave him any feedback until its all settled & refunded.

Wait until you get the stuff then tell them to jog on.

He’s posted both parcels already, so he’s asking for the money retrospectively. Glad I’m not alone in thinking I should tell him to do one.

IF he’d emailed me before posting I’d have shown him the Parcelmonkey site where he could’ve posted both parcels for £20 on a next day delivery. Not my fault he went for the expensive option.

As above – Sellers cannot leave negative feedback against a buyer – so no need to worry about that. Buyers can though.

I had this with a new-to-eBay seller. Although annoyed, I sent an email explaining the ethics and letter of eBay, and that I’d also had some unexpected PO prices. At that point though they hadn’t sent and I’d scored a bargain.

His problem, it’s a gamble you take when listing items if you don’t check the postage costs beforehand. I’ve lost out on postage before, doesn’t worry me too much, it’s just one of those things, and it’s my own fault!

Seller needs to suck it up and pay, it is not your fault he didn’t do his homework before the sale and check the postal costs. A few years ago I sold a book to a bloke in Australia, agreed on surface mail, wife went to Post Office and paid for Air Mail (by private jet presumably given the amount she paid) I ended up sending it out for more than he paid in total, lesson learnt for me as it was our screw-up.

As above. They quoted and charged a postage price. End of chat.

prices have rocketed recently with royal mail and i think alot of occasional sellers are getting caught out at the moment. However, i did a sale on ebay recently and when going thru the listing process it now has a function where you can easily work out what it will cost or certainly get a much clearer indication as part of that listing process. You can also go onto the RM website (or others) and work it out or any of the online ones. It is 100% upto the seller to do this and state postage cost in their ad. If they haven’t done it properly and get it wrong, then tough titty.

I had this only 2 days ago as a seller. My quote from parcel2go for shipping forks £15 for UK. Awesome
Except I forgot offshore. And eBay doesn’t seem to differentiate which is a pain. I had to hunt around for half an hour for an even half sensible price to Guernsey which was still more than double what I’d charged. Schoolboy error really as i used to work in mail order. Sigh and suck it up. Told the buyer what I had to do though. Not asking. Just hoping they may appreciate and offer something but i didn’t expect any

sellers fault, stitched myself up sending a bike and the postage was £20 more than I estimated…wouldn’t dream of telling the buyer!

I had a guy buy some bits from me on Pinkbike. Pinkbike is a bit hit or miss for buying/selling, particularly when you’re dealing with some of the younger members.

I’d asked for £10 postage, but the actual cost was closer to £20. Obviously, I agreed the price so I wasn’t in a position to go back for more, but I did tell him that I’d paid the extra and that I wasn’t expecting more, but rather he pops a couple of quid in a charity box the next time he saw one then everyone’s a winner.

The nice lad (think he was 15 or 16) told me he was doing a sponsored cycle at school and would stick me down for £10 and put the money in himself. Then a couple of weeks later I got a picture of his sponsorship sheet and a picture of him finishing the sponsored cycle, with the bits I had sold him on his bike 🙂 Restored my faith in yoofs/humanity/pinkbike

It is the sellers responsibility but its so easy to get it wrong. The honourable thing to do would be to share the in foreseen extra cost. Its not after like the seller is trying to scam you.

What I would do is, as a gesture of good will, offer to donate the extra shipping cost to a charity of the sellers choice.

If you act without any care as some here are suggesting then you’re just taking advantage of someone else’s honest mistake, a mistake they could easily have fixed by not sending you the goods in the first place.

I had a guy buy some bits from me on Pinkbike. Pinkbike is a bit hit or miss for buying/selling, particularly when you’re dealing with some of the younger members.

I’d asked for £10 postage, but the actual cost was closer to £20. Obviously, I agreed the price so I wasn’t in a position to go back for more, but I did tell him that I’d paid the extra and that I wasn’t expecting more, but rather he pops a couple of quid in a charity box the next time he saw one then everyone’s a winner.

The nice lad (think he was 15 or 16) told me he was doing a sponsored cycle at school and would stick me down for £10 and put the money in himself. Then a couple of weeks later I got a picture of his sponsorship sheet and a picture of him finishing the sponsored cycle, with the bits I had sold him on his bike Restored my faith in yoofs/humanity/pinkbike

that is awesome

prices have rocketed recently with royal mail and i think alot of occasional sellers are getting caught out at the moment

…by not realising that there are alternatives to RM – we’ve used myHermes for all but the smallest items on ebay recently.

It is the sellers responsibility but its so easy to get it wrong. The honourable thing to do would be to share the in foreseen extra cost. Its not after like the seller is trying to scam you.

Except that it’s only an extra cost if the seller doesn’t realise there are alternatives to RM – and it’s hardly the buyer’s fault if that’s the case. Also a lot of people will consider the total price when deciding how much to bid – if the seller had quoted a higher postage price then the chances are the buyer would have bid less – I certainly would have done.

So what are the other options?

I always use RM/Parcelfarce getting to my local mailboxes etc isnt easy, the post office is.

Just wondering what my options are as RM costs are putting off ebay buyers?

geetee1972 – Member
It is the sellers responsibility but its so easy to get it wrong. The honourable thing to do would be to share the in foreseen extra cost. Its not after like the seller is trying to scam you.

What I would do is, as a gesture of good will, offer to donate the extra shipping cost to a charity of the sellers choice.

If you act without any care as some here are suggesting then you’re just taking advantage of someone else’s honest mistake, a mistake they could easily have fixed by not sending you the goods in the first place.

What about if the seller was aware of the cost but quoted lower to make the item stand out though?

I’d certainly go for the item with the cheaper postage if I had a couple to choose from.

Did you get a particularly good deal?

ebay’s orcing policy on postage is a joke, it won’t let you put the actual price in for things… EG: i was only allowed to put a shipping price of £8 (parcelforce 24) for a jacket i sold recently, it actually cost me £12 for that service.

so it might not be the sellers fault 100%

the way round it is to put the price of the shipping in the text of the ad that way there can be no complaints

if he has sent the goods do nothing, if they arrive ok i’d just ignore him and leave no feedback

So what are the other options?

er, a couple of options have already been mentioned on this thread, including one in the post you’re apparently replying to. myHermes will collect, or the chances are there’s a drop off point somewhere at least as convenient as the post office.

er, a couple of options have already been mentioned on this thread, including one in the post you’re apparently replying to

no chance your reply was posted as I was writing mine? Maybe? 🙄

never used Hermes or Parcelmonkey will have to check them out

ebay’s orcing policy on postage is a joke, it won’t let you put the actual price in for things… EG: i was only allowed to put a shipping price of £8 (parcelforce 24) for a jacket i sold recently, it actually cost me £12 for that service.

😕 – I’ve never noticed this as an issue (though to be fair haven’t used RM for shipping recently), so just to check I’ve tried creating a listing and it let me put what I wanted as the postage cost, without even any option to get it to automatically set the postage cost that I could see. I mean how can it possibly calculate postage automatically when it doesn’t know the size/weight of what you’re sending. Exactly how are you creating listings that you’re getting this?

ebay’s orcing policy on postage is a joke, it won’t let you put the actual price in for things… EG: i was only allowed to put a shipping price of £8 (parcelforce 24) for a jacket i sold recently, it actually cost me £12 for that service.

As aracer, I did a listing recently and I could put in whatever postage value I wanted, sounds more like user error tbh.
As others have said, when buying/bidding, the postage is an important part of whether I buy or what my bid limit is. I would never accept a revision of the quoted/stated postage after the sale.

when buying/bidding the postage is an important part of whether I buy or what my bid limit is

This.

I’ve miscalculated postage before and sometimes by quite a bit when I was selling off my drum kit. Sellers just need to suck it up.

Also, I never use Royal Fail apart from letters these days, they’re expensive and useless. All of the parcel2go couriers are reliable and come and pick the stuff up from me at work so I don’t even have to bother waiting in the PO.

On the one hand, yes it’s the seller’s problem. On the other, if I was asked nicely I’d probably help them out. (if he demanded, then I wouldn’t)

aracer – Member

Except that it’s only an extra cost if the seller doesn’t realise there are alternatives to RM

If the seller’s specified a postage method in the auction then they don’t have the option of changing it, so this isn’t quite true.

Been both sides. I bought a wheelset, including postage for a bargain price. Seems the seller didn’t get what he wanted for it because he then said he’d miscalculated the postage cost and was pulling out. So I offered to go halves on the postage with him (so the wheels worth ~£150 that I’d got for £100-odd posted were still only going to cost me £110) Then he said that he was going abroad and couldn’t post them, so he was pulling out. So I told him that was fine, I’d wait till he got back. By this time I was determined to get them off him, which in the end I did.

I also sold some stuff recently. Priced up on ebay properly as a small parcel first class and charged accordingly on the listing. When i got to the PO the counter bastard said he wasn’t allowed to squeeze the parcel through the posting slot, it had to pass through easily (it was clothing so compressible). Which then meant that the parcel cost me £8 to send as a medium parcel 2nd class instead of the £6.85 I’d quoted.

The recipient then messaged me complaining that I’d quoted first class and sent second and he wanted me to find out the difference and refund it (£0.90). I politely pointed out that if he wanted me to requote I’d be doing it for the medium parcel it had cost, charging him the full £8. Or alternatively, as he already had the goods in his hand, and was happy with them, I’d suck up the extra postage cost and say no more about it.

Would u have expected him to refund you the difference if he’d over charged you for postage?

He now wants me to pay the extra.

Now, I’m not inclined to pay. But am I being mean?

…and you’re having to ask…??? 😯

I have had a bit of trouble when people buy from overseas – as postage is quoted for post in UK.

I have had some guys buy stuff from me in Australia, and bale when I have asked for the difference in the postage ahead of sending. In fact I am having a problem at the mo with a guy in Tasmania who has purchased a hope hub from me…….And if you are on here mate – you know who you are – pay up or pass up today!

fine I will pay the extra postage just so long as you reduced the item cost by the same amount 😕 Some of these sellers don’t live in the real world

Surely we’ve all miss priced postage on something or other in the past? Its a lesson for him to learn, I’ve never tried to reclaim the cost, mark it up as my mistake and move.

I’ve sent a seller a few more quid in the past, when I’ve paid a low price & I can see how much the PO have shafted them for. Pay it forward etc, & all that.

As elsewhere there are a ton of well priced and insured couriers available at that price or less, Seller got it wrong, Seller loses out this time and hopefully has learned to do research rather than that Buyers are bad people.

If couriers are being named, Interparcel’s insured UPS service are my choice for things I don’t want breaking and their collection times seem to be pretty sender-friendly too…

Royal Mail/Parcel Force seem to be trying their hardest to persuade competitors to eat their lunch. It’s very strange. Maybe they’re sick of bring in business?

ebay’s orcing policy on postage is a joke, it won’t let you put the actual price in for things… EG: i was only allowed to put a shipping price of £8 (parcelforce 24) for a jacket i sold recently, it actually cost me £12 for that service.

As aracer, I did a listing recently and I could put in whatever postage value I wanted, sounds more like user error tbh.

Certain categories on ebay have postage limits (mostly lower value items I think), you can set the price anywhere up to the limit. Its to stop unscrupulous types bumping up the postage cost to reduce fee’s/dissuade buyers from returning poor quality stuff as they won’t get the postage refunded.

Sounds like they need to reassess the limits though!

I’d certainly go for the item with the cheaper postage if I had a couple to choose from.

Surely you’d work out the max you wanted to pay, bid accordingly on the first one, then if you lost it you’d work it out again for the second one, bid again and pay exactly the same?! The exception to this is where someone is taking the wee and charging an arm and a leg.