Ebay sellers trying to recoup losses for cheap sales?..
 

Do i have a right to threaten negative feedback to some guy who charges me stupid amount shipping costs for items that obviously dont cost that much to ship?

this usually happens with clothing, i'll win auctions during the night or early morning for super cheap, ie. $35 shirts for $10

the seller offers shipping to Canada but does not specify a price

once i win, like a single T-shirt they send me an invoice for the $10 +$20+ in shipping

I HIGHLY doubt it costs $20 to ship a T-shirt to Canada on normal USPS mail, so obviously in some of these cases they are just charging extra to recoup losses on selling items for below cost

if the mail arrives and has a lower postage than what he charged me can i threaten negative feedback if i dont get a refund on a portion? or is it no good unless he says the price in the auction?

not really..its up to your descretion...i personally wouldnt buy if i cannot confirm a set price with the shipping included with the seller....give him a neutral one mark? (havent been on ebay for years) and specify reason,

I would say no. It's your choice to bid on something and if your not happy with the shipping costs don't bid and find another item. if that's the only one he's a smart guy and I don't see the problem with that at all.

Ya it might piss you off but it's still a smart move on his side of things.

This is why you ask the seller how much it'll be before bidding on it. It's pretty common on Ebay for sellers to inflate the shipping costs in order to recoup any money the lose on the product itself.

why dont you just be a dick and leave negative feedback anyways? ive done it

thing is, alot of these sellers just say "it's usually like $5 more than normal"

alot of good sellers use the same tactics, i'm not new to ebay ive got like 100+ feedback, but this shit is pissing me off lately

Umm, check the shipping rates before bidding? It's not that hard.

i believe the sellers is not allowed to do that and you could report them to ebay for it.

you should check it out

Link:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/....html#shipping

To Quote:
"Be sure to specify shipping costs and related service charges in your listings. It's against our rules to provide unclear or misleading shipping information or to charge unreasonable fees for shipping and related services."

yep, ask seller before bidding. that's like ebay 101.

You don't have a right to negative them when you agreed to pay the price + shipping. If you didn't look at the shipping cost before hand, that's your fault.

However you CAN report it when you see it, because setting low item cost + high shipping price is against their TOS. Because they only do it to get around Ebay's fees.

I do that all the time...shipping something small and charge people $40usd shipping.

you should blame on the fucking ebay policy, not the sellers. Ebay rips people off.

1) Listing fee
2) 8-12% Final value fee
3) 3% or sth Paypal fee
4) Poor Currency Exchange Rate

Total is like 15% for selling a $60usd item.

i just recently ordered a citizen ecodrive watch and was charged 30 bucks for shipping from the US.. i thought it was super high cuz it didnt have tracking or anything.. but when the watch came in the invoice was for $25. then i looked at the USPS rates.. they are friggin expensive

So where else should people sell their stuff on an international scale? If you don't like it, don't sell on there. But you can typically get more on there than you can selling local from what I've seen.

The bottom line is, you get what you pay for. It's entirely your choice. If you're happy with the outlined product and shipping fees, then go for it. If not, then tough luck. Find a different buyer with cheaper shipping.

its expensive to ship stuff across border. I try to avoid it but sometimes, especially on ebay, they will not ship to another address. however you can get around this by calling your credit card company and have them add another address onto your account.

x2, it's usually not as cheap as you think. Not to mention most of the time the "shipping" charge also includes the box and packaging cost. That stuff isn't free

why would you bid without first making sure what the shipping price is?

As i said, even reputable sellers with 500+ feedback will not give you a solid number in terms of shipping

they do not have a posted amount for shipping within US, nor do they have an amount for international shipping

they will usually say simply yes, they do ship to Canada, or somthing along the lines of "yes it's usually 5-10 more than normal"

trust me, i've been through all this before, the sellers give the same answers.

i dont really care because i'm still getting an item i want for a resonable price, but it's clear that the sellers are trying to recover losses from an item that sells far below retail.

You're a n00b.

As many others have said, the onus is on you, the buyer, to confirm with the seller PRIOR TO BIDDING what the shipping price will be. You can NOT just assume it will be the actual cost, unless they explicitly said so.

Yes, eBay does prohibit sellers from charging unreasonably high shipping, especially when it's obvious that it is to offset the selling price, but they're not doing it so much to protect the buyer, it's because eBay loses out on fees if sellers do this.

BUT, sellers ARE allowed to charge more than the actual shipping cost due to handling charges. There is no strict definition of what is considered an acceptable amount for handling, so eBay will probably decide this on a case by case basis.

Bottom line is, when you buy an item on eBay, the cost of the item is not the final bid amount, it is the winning bid PLUS the shipping cost, so that means you should always ask the seller what the shipping cost is before purchasing the item. ALWAYS.

I have done a fair share of ebaying and everytime the shipping fees are given. I know before hand how much the total is and I was never charged anyhting more.
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If they're being vague about it, you have two choices:

1.) Don't bid on the item.
2.) Ask for a SET NUMBER for the shipping cost.

This way, there is no discrepancy after you win the item.

Partially recoup the fees that they have to pay is ok for me.
Recouping the loss that they get from the final value of each item is wrong.

You can check their detailed seller ratings on how people rate their shipping prices as fair or not. This is why I don't inflate my shipping prices too much.

Also, I'm pissed off that Ebay increased the final value fees last month. 9-12% fvf on the final amount is a joke. No wonder sellers are charging more on shipping.

I thought it was common knowledge to ask the seller for the shipping cost so you can calculate what you would be paying after conversion etc. I would never bid on an item if the seller told me they would calculate the shipping after because they most likely will try to rip you off. If they say they can't determine the cost till after then I guess they don't want to sell the item badly enough and/or could be lazy. If I was selling somethng on ebay and someone asked me for a shipping quote, I would go to the post office and get back to them asap.

Ebay only cares about domestic shipping with their rules, they're very very lenient on international shipipng

last i remember when posting a listing your not allowed to set a ridiculous price on domestic shipping (depending on the category ur items in)

^ This.

If it's not explicitly specified, I always send them a "question" asking them a shipping price and provide them with my postal code so they can give me a fixed number for shipping costs. IF they charge more, at least you have something documented in email that you can show them later.

When I'm selling, I prefer to give them a number up front. Hence, what I usually do is find the zip code for the furthest possible point from me (I usually pick a New York or Miami zip code) and calculate the postage price to ship to that location and use that as the shipping price to someone in the US. This way, I've given a shipping cost where in the worst case scenario so I don't have to lose any money in shipping.