Pissed off

[SOJ]

I've been buying and selling on eBay for the best part of 15 years. I have a feedback rating of over 750 and take a lot of pride in the way I honestly describe items, pack items and promptly dispatch them.

I tend to use 2nd class recorded or Hermes 48. Both these services require a signature and have tracking giving me piece of mind and gives the buyer a cheap rate at the same time.

I've got one neg for an item that went missing in the post last year. The buyer got a full refund and I got the money back from the Royal Mail. Idiot left a meg anyway.

eBay have earned ****ing hundreds out of this year as I sold off all my modern and other collectables to fund my thirst for ESB MOC.

So this evening I get the following email from eBay:

"Your seller performance is below standard under the eBay.co.uk seller performance standards programme.

You will have an allowance on the number of items you're allowed to list on the site until your seller performance is no longer Below Standard. To see the details of your limits, click the 'Performance' tab in your Seller Dashboard.

When your seller performance is no longer Below Standard, your account may be eligible for higher selling allowances.

Based on your ratings, we recommend that you focus on charging reasonable postage & packaging, and dispatching your items promptly and informing your buyers."

Okay, so to be clear on this I used track & signed for services (which youn recommend i do) and slower services to reduce costs for the buyer.

Typically I charge between £2 and £5 and always offer to combine postage. I never top up charges.

EBay suggest I offer free postage, but guess what EBay NOTHING IN THE WORLD IS FREE.

With all the ****ing scamming bastards on eBay, there coming after me because people don't like paying for postage.

Once again eBay you've got it completely ****ing wrong. So disappointed.

 

[tiefighterboy]

Just fold the shipping costs into your starting price. Either way...they are paying for shipping...just seems free to them. Yes...Ebay sucks.

 

[PGowdy]

Buyers actually end up paying more with this "free shipping" nonsense. They're just too stupid to realise it and ebay bank on that.
At the moment i still charge for shipping separately (shipping is always paid for by the buyer, it just depends where the seller puts the charge). By doing this i can offer combined postage. So if i have an item for say £8 with £3 postage the buyer pays £11. If that buyer wants, say, 4 of those items, i can send all for with no extra charge. Buyer pays £32 +£3
With "free" postage the original item would have the postage price included in it, because, there's no such thing as free postage. So i would charge £11 per item. So what happens when someone buys 4 of said item? That's right, they pay 4x postage. What a deal!!! So instead of getting combined postage and paying £35 you now get "free" postage and pay £44.
No one actually gives away free postage. It's always included in the price. My postage bills are reaching £600+ a month. What do you think the really big sellers bills are?? £1000s. You think sellers are just giving that massive amount away as a freebie? Ha!!
To be honest i'm gonna have to start doing it too at some point. ebay are really pushing this free postage nonsense and are making it much harder for sellers to charge postage and for buyers to request combined postage.
I'll make more money but it'll be at the expense of the buyer which never seemed right to me. It was far better the way it was for sellers and buyers. But that's ebay for you.

 

[SOJ]

I know their giving it away, I work for a major online retailer in distribution. However how do you combine postage on items and give the buyer a good deal if you the postage is built into the end price and already "free"

I can post 1 loose figure 2nd class recorded for £2.80 or 25 loose figures through Hermes for £3.78

It's bollocks. They're all over the shop at the moment.

 

[Stargeezer]

funny that ebay is the one that tell you, you should do something for free.....
They charge listing fees, take a percentage on your sales (wich they recently increased), take a percentage through paypal as paypal is an ebay company and they screw you over through paypal again on international sales, because their currency conversion rate is higher then the actual currency conversion rate (not to forget, they also charge you for using a different currency if its not in your account).

I wonder what else they can think of to screw their users over in the future...

 

[Hothrebel]

As usual ebay have got everyone by the bollocks,basically just a bunch of clueless wankers.All this sellers standard is a load of ****,I have dealt with power sellers that are useless ,putting restrictions on sellers that offer a good service is nonsense but hay oh that's ebay for you.

 

[plantman]

Just do what Todd says, offer free shipping but incorporate the shipping cost into what you sell, that way the buyer cannot downgrade your stars on shipping because it was free, its a way of bypassing the rating.

 

[chazb73]

That's **** mate. They are a bunch of knobs. I got a standard rating - and even though I charge exactly the postage cost (not for packaging) I still only have a 4.7 for postage.

It's only a matter of time before I get restricted also I think.

 

[Palifan]

Just do what Todd says, offer free shipping but incorporate the shipping cost into what you sell, that way the buyer cannot downgrade your stars on shipping because it was free, its a way of bypassing the rating.

Out of interest, how do you add shipping into the cost of the item if it's a 99p auction style listing? Maybe ebay don't hassle you about shipping if it's an auction?

just wondered for future reference.

Ian

 

[PGowdy]

Just do what Todd says, offer free shipping but incorporate the shipping cost into what you sell, that way the buyer cannot downgrade your stars on shipping because it was free, its a way of bypassing the rating.

Out of interest, how do you add shipping into the cost of the item if it's a 99p auction style listing? Maybe ebay don't hassle you about shipping if it's an auction?

just wondered for future reference.

Ian

You can't. It's only for BuyItNows.

 

[Palifan]

Just do what Todd says, offer free shipping but incorporate the shipping cost into what you sell, that way the buyer cannot downgrade your stars on shipping because it was free, its a way of bypassing the rating.

Out of interest, how do you add shipping into the cost of the item if it's a 99p auction style listing? Maybe ebay don't hassle you about shipping if it's an auction?

just wondered for future reference.

Ian

You can't. It's only for BuyItNows.

But do you know if ebay are hassling people about shipping fees for auction style listings or is it only BIN?

 

[Nick_IoW]

The whole "must pay instantly on BINs" pisses me off - was a load of figures a seller had that were around £4-£6 each with £5 postage from the states, and the instant pay at checkout would have been ridiculous as I wanted about 30 loose figs. Having to pay postage on each one - and hope the seller can be arsed going through each one to refund postage. I didn't bother in the end, and after I emailed seller he was pretty disappointed in the whole Ebay process.

REALLY need some Ebay competition.

 

[Fishtalk]

This is the problem, no competition means ebay has us all by the balls. We'll all continue to use it no matter how pissed off we get, and they know it.

 

[Stuart Skinner]

The whole "must pay instantly on BINs" pisses me off - was a load of figures a seller had that were around £4-£6 each with £5 postage from the states, and the instant pay at checkout would have been ridiculous as I wanted about 30 loose figs. Having to pay postage on each one - and hope the seller can be arsed going through each one to refund postage. I didn't bother in the end, and after I emailed seller he was pretty disappointed in the whole Ebay process.

REALLY need some Ebay competition.

Your last scentence is exactly what is required. They've got the market sewn up at moment and all the time they have you will not see any vast improvements.

 

[SOJ]

Any vintage is heading to the forums first from now on, lesson learnt.

 

[Dark Sith Lord]

Sorry to hear this mate. As already said ebay are wankers. Glad to hear you are gonna use the forum now. 8)

 

[weasel]

Ebay really are an embarrassment. They could make so much more money by actually giving a **** and NOT trying to rape every single transaction.


I always try the forums first and only as a last resort use ebay. It may have a bigger audience but the number of scammers, the cost and their general refusal to ever side with a seller is ridiculous.

 

[tiefighterboy]

Just do what Todd says, offer free shipping but incorporate the shipping cost into what you sell, that way the buyer cannot downgrade your stars on shipping because it was free, its a way of bypassing the rating.

Out of interest, how do you add shipping into the cost of the item if it's a 99p auction style listing? Maybe ebay don't hassle you about shipping if it's an auction?

just wondered for future reference.

Ian

You start your auction off at the asking price plus whatever shipping will cost you. With your price example would be 3.99. starting bid. :wink:

 

[PGowdy]

Just do what Todd says, offer free shipping but incorporate the shipping cost into what you sell, that way the buyer cannot downgrade your stars on shipping because it was free, its a way of bypassing the rating.

Out of interest, how do you add shipping into the cost of the item if it's a 99p auction style listing? Maybe ebay don't hassle you about shipping if it's an auction?

just wondered for future reference.

Ian

You start your auction off at the asking price plus whatever shipping will cost you. With your price example would be 3.99. starting bid. :wink:

That wouldn't work. It would just be lost in the amount people are bidding. You could never say for sure that those bidding allowed for the postage in their bids. Most wouldn't. Especially in cases where the shipping cost stated is a low one. I know i for one just ignore it. I don't subtract it from the amount i wish to bid.
Given people tend to bid in round numbers and generally ignore a reasonable shipping cost, and decide they'll bid £20, say, if shipping is charged at £3. If shipping were listed as "free" would the person therefore bid £23? Personally i don't think so. Not always. Certainly if a large shipping amount is stated then that will affect the amount people bid but it's all just too hazy.
The only way to be absolutely sure you're getting what you think the item is worth + the shipping would be to start your auction at that number. Which as we know, is stupid. May as well do BuyItNow.