Ebay Clamping Down On Postage Overcharging

[Pete S]

About time too

***Clamping Down on Unfair Postage & Packaging Charges***

05 December, 2007 | 04:20PM GMT

We pride ourselves on bringing sellers a large audience of engaged, active buyers. In the last month alone, almost 15 million people visited eBay.co.uk looking for great deals on all manner of items.

Over the last year we've been asking those buyers who have left eBay, or who no longer buy as much as they used to, why they did so. One of the most common reasons cited was the prominence of sellers who clearly overcharge for postage & packaging on their items.

The introduction of Detailed Seller Ratings on the site earlier this year allows us to identify clearly those sellers who are consistently rated poorly by buyers for postage & packaging charges. As a result, we'll shortly be introducing changes to the way that we display search results based on Detailed Seller Ratings for postage & packaging charges.

For the vast majority of sellers, this will mean that your items will continue to be featured as normal in search results.

However, those sellers who consistently receive the lowest scores on postage & packaging costs will receive considerably reduced visibility in default search results by appearing much further down the list of items. This will apply to sellers whose Detailed Seller Ratings for postage & packaging are 3.9 or below, which accounts for roughly 0.5% of all sellers on the site.

This small group of sellers are responsible for a hugely disproportionate number of buyer complaints about overcharging for postage & packaging, and taint the vast majority of good sellers who buyers agree are charging fairly.

We will be introducing these changes during the week beginning December 17th, after the main Christmas trading period is over, and we encourage all sellers to continue to review their postage and packaging charges to make sure these are as fairly priced as possible.

We expect to make further changes to the display of search results to protect buyers in 2008, including extending the use of Detailed Seller Ratings to other areas of concern for buyers.

You can comment on and ask questions about this change here.

Regards,

The eBay Team

[John Reed]

I found the French sellers the worst, tended to ignore them, unless I confirmed a real postage amount, up front.

[Guest]

To be honest i find uk sellers the worst for excessive postage charges.

Derek

[Steve G]

To be honest i find uk sellers the worst for excessive postage charges.

Derek

Really Derek?

I've found a few "looney tunes" west of the Atlantic Ocean myself when it comes to postage rates.

[Guest]

Really Derek?

I've found a few "looney tunes" west of the Atlantic Ocean myself when it comes to postage rates.

There are a few over the atlantic for sure but i always check for rates before i buy from them, or just avoid those who quote extortionate rates in their listing. But i regularly see uk sellers who quote £2.50 - £3 for one 45 recorded, which is a bit strong really.

Derek

[Guest]

There are a few over the atlantic for sure but i always check for rates before i buy from them, or just avoid those who quote extortionate rates in their listing. But i regularly see uk sellers who quote £2.50 - £3 for one 45 recorded, which is a bit strong really.

Derek

Only a Scottsman moans about 50p,whatcha`Derek

[Harrogatesoul]

Seems to be too many now charging £2 / £2.50 for one 45. And then asking for 50p or a quid for each one after that! I don't even bother looking if the postal charges are too high (Unless of course it's REALLY worth it). There's one seller in the US who I think (last time I looked) charged $20 for the first 45! Even when I mailed him for confirmation I still couldn't fathom out what the charges were as he made no sense.. If you want to make a little extra put a higher start price in then!

Rich

[Guest]

Only a Scottsman moans about 50p,whatcha`Derek

Mean me? I'm ok had an op on my arm couple of weeks ago but improving by the day.

Derek

[Pete S]

Only a Scottsman moans about 50p,whatcha`Derek

I'm not a Scotsman and I moan about it as well, if I'm overcharged by 50p 500 times a year I lose 250 quid.

Should never cost more than 2.00 recorded, actual cost of 1 x 45 recorded is 1.40

[45cellar]

I'm not a Scotsman and I moan about it as well, if I'm overcharged by 50p 500 times a year I lose 250 quid.

Should never cost more than 2.00 recorded, actual cost of 1 x 45 recorded is 1.40

Gotta agree about Postage Charges.

Ebay concerned about High Charges, Whatever Next.

They Own Pay Pal don't they.

[mischief]

I bought 3 45's of a nice chap on ebay last night... combined the postage not expensive at all.. he should have the cash 9am tomorrow morning

[Benji]

I find US sellers to be the worst, with UK sellers coming in a close 2nd

[Pete S]

I bought 3 45's of a nice chap on ebay last night... combined the postage not expensive at all.. he should have the cash 9am tomorrow morning

That was me right? The thing is, I am sick of people charging say 1.50 for the first record then 50p for each after. You can send 3 records for 1.40 providing it's under 250g and it usually is. Thats why I didn't charge you any extra Paul.

[Dave Morris]

Just had record through from guy in States who only charged me $3.60 air mail to UK.Normally get charged around $7 when actual postage on packet says $4.50.

Wont buy off anyone if post is in my opinion excessive.

Dave.

[mischief]

That was me right? The thing is, I am sick of people charging say 1.50 for the first record then 50p for each after. You can send 3 records for 1.40 providing it's under 250g and it usually is. Thats why I didn't charge you any extra Paul.

cheers Pete cash has gone as is on its way as I type

also while i'm here got the cat DVD as well looking forward to watching that tonight

[boba]

The detailed seller ratings is the biggest BS thing ebay has added, though, it's totally meaningless and relying on that won't help. The worst sellers with like less then 90% feedback will still have over 4 stars for everything and the best sellers will not be much further off.

[Guest Russ Smith]

I found the French sellers the worst, tended to ignore them, unless I confirmed a real postage amount, up front.

French postal charges are absolutely outrageously expensive !!

Thats probably why.

[Modernsoulsucks]

I got a 45 today. $10 postage charge. Actual price $4.50. 45 was cheap [i think] $16 for "Ooh Baby" Carla WDJ but that is still taking the mick.

Didn't leave bad feedback but rated seller "Very unreasonable" on P&P. What else can you do but put it down to another knobhead in the long line of knobheads that you have to deal with in this game.

ROD