posted on July 8, 2006 01:05:05 AM new
After a review of the ebay "Packaging & Shipping" posts, I thought I would post the following for your consideration ...
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"I'LL CHARGE WHATEVER I WANT
chatroomname (0 ) View Listings | Report Jul-05-06 06:38 PDT
I will charge whatever I want for shipping. Yes this is ebays website, a venue, whatever.
Excessive shipping, who is the professional certified guru at ebay who knows exactly what it should cost a seller to ship something huh?
Which is right....
A seller who say sells a book for $20.00 and charges $5.00 to ship
or
A seller who sells the same book for $15.00 and charges $10.00 to ship
All shipped via the same method.
Yes ebay gets less FVF fees from the second one, paypal gets the same.
Plus what if I have an item i want to DUMP. I want to list it at $1.00, ship it for $20.00. Its a big item that DOES cost $20 to ship, I do not want it anymore, I want to sell it and get rid of it, my $1.00 selling price is legitmate, and it is a legitimate shipping price.
How can ebay tell me my shipping is excessive. Do they want to see receipts from the post office???
Just my .02 cents on another stupid ebay policy designed to help ebay and not their members."
OR ...
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"the-antique-store (302 ) View Listings | Report Jul-05-06 17:36 PDT 20 of 88
I believe ebay has shown how it will handle this by how it handles other buyer "complaints"
If your comptetor (or ticked off neighbor) turns you in once or twice, Ebay will end your auction...probably without even looking at it.
That "report this item" link should just say "end this item" because anyone has the power to end your auction, all they have to do is ask ebay to do it.
Being a powerseller, ebay felt it necessary to waste a phone call on me to inform me of the new policy and tell me I need to re-evaluate my shipping rates. Bull@#$%! I have a shipping calculator, with the items weight and a $2 handling fee. If thats too much to cover ebay/paypal fees, storage,labor,bubble wrap,boxes & envelopes, pick up fees, etc., I'm gone.
I have revised my store listings to remove cash, bidpay, and so on. I'll be dam#$d if I'll edit another 5,000 to lower a reasonable fee.
And...ebay no longer refunds the listing fees if it ends an auction for a violation, so you'll pay to relist it. Its a win, win, win situation for ebay.
I've already decided, when they end the first one, I'll end the rest. Enough is Enough.
Why dont they work on my 23% unpaid item rate by newly registered bidders? Or my 38% drop in store sales since express went up?"
OR ...
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"gift-from-heaven (1 ) View Listings | Report Jul-05-06 18:12 PDT 23 of 88
Sellers do not rule ebay, buyers do. Although I believe sellers SHOULD rule ebay, they just plain DO NOT.
Buyers have a choice and should exercise that choice with the back button. However, this being a society of brainless fools, they just cant figure out how that works. Thus, ebay thinks for them and provides them with that "end this item" link so those burned in the past can turn in every auction they look at.
I also feel this policy is wrong and that it is another nail in the ebay coffin (its a big site, it'll take quite a few nails, true.)
The venue can only take so many rules till it becomes a dictatorship. When it becomes a site where only scammers can make money, the buyers wont come back.
Sellers will turn to their own websites or another 'base' where they are free to run their business as they see fit. If they hike shipping rates, they'll lose customers, they'll learn their lesson without being forced to.
The time wasted on adopting this policy should have been spent on how better to educate bidders as to apropriate trading procedures and telling them they have a choice (back button)."
OR ...
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"fantasticbookbargains (366 ) View Listings | Report Jul-06-06 07:04 PDT 27 of 88
First of all, there is a common misconception on eBay that sellers can ship their items for the cost of postage (and insurance, in some cases, as the last poster suggested.) I used to suffer from that misconception prior to beginning my selling career. But there are multiple problems with this faulty concept. Sellers have many other costs that are directly related to shipping. I have to purchase bubble wrap, boxes and bubble mailers, which are often quite expensive since I don't sell in tremendous volume and don't have a lot of space to store shipping supplies. Second, I print my own labels and packing slips from my computer. Third, I have to drive to the post office often, and to the store to pick up supplies. Fourth, I use my own postal scale. Fifth, there is my time. Time is a cost in shipping; if I were to pay somebody else to pack those items carefully, thoughtfully, with tremendous effort and attention to the item arriving on time and safely, they would charge me a fair wage for that service. And yet I am expected to do it for free. I find that strange. I work very hard when I pack and ship, and if you calculated up what I earn after my "actual costs" (i.e. exact money spent on supplies, postage and insurance) I would be making less than minimum wage. I am not the sort of person who consistently prices their item at a penny and makes up for it on the shipping. I price my items fairly and try to sell them for what they're worth. But I must tell you that it puts me at a disadvantage in the marketplace and I often end up having to put high traffic items up for a penny just to attract traffic to my listings. Nobody, eBay included, understands just how difficult it is to compete in this dog-eat-dog marketplace, except those sellers who have tried to make a go of it and have found themselves in a difficult position because of all the people who underprice their items and make up for it in the shipping to get at the top of the "lowest first" list. So my reaction to this "crackdown" is dual; I would like it very much if the people who charge one cent for their item and $4.99 (or $49.99) for shipping were stopped. But I think this is very likely to affect the ordinary seller who is simply trying to make sure that all of their costs are covered, including time and effort spent packing and shipping, and driving, and standing in line at the post office, and having a margin for error. I have taken more shipping hits than I care to mention, and have gone to the post office to discover that their scale weighed the item heavier than the one I weighed it on. So no, I cannot sell shipping "at cost." No seller who is actually in business to make money or to remain solvent could."
OR ...
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"smorgie49 (145 ) View Listings | Report Jul-06-06 08:23 PDT 28 of 89
As an Ebay buyer for my personal account and a seller for my business I see both pros and cons in the current trend of shipping charges. I agree that just because USPS says it is $8.53 to send an item to Arizona, that I am NOT ripping off a customer by charging $9.99 by adding an acceptable "handling" fee. However, when the USB flash card that I want to purchase is selling for $.99 with $29.99 shipping, I do find that unacceptable. Many sellers shipping deals are cheaper for the same item from overseas! How can one justify that it costs more to ship an item from Arizona to Wisconsin than from Hong Kong? There are many sellers that are taking advantage of this to not have to pay Ebay a surcharge for charging the correct cost of an item.
Those extremes (and there are many) are putting the whole shipping policy under scrutiny. The standard seller that is just covering costs on his end is not the problem here. The problem is the seller selling a $50.00 item for $.99 and charging $49.99 for shipping, when shipping is only $5.85. If an item cost $50 to ship, then it costs $50 to ship, there is no problem with that, but it isn’t fair to Ebay or the buyers. If you feel that Ebay is ripping you off by surcharging you for a higher cost item, then don't it sell on Ebay. It is their policy."
posted on July 8, 2006 04:49:15 AM new
smorgie49 seems to be the only one who has a clue of what is going on.
the-anrtique-store is a dumbass and should quit selling.
chatroomname as well.
Sellers overcharging for shipping are the ones bringing this about. just look in the computer section and you will see it rift with this.
Also reporting does not get an item ended, only the ones that deserve to be ended.
Sellers better face the fact, if you are overcharging on shipping you are ripping off eBay and it does affect their bottom line.
posted on July 8, 2006 09:09:03 AM new
We may not be able to put a number to it, but we know excessive (truly excessive) shipping when we see it. Sorta like pornography.
posted on July 8, 2006 09:55:43 AM new
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
For 'just a venue' eBay sure is getting it's willie wet.
posted on July 8, 2006 11:03:23 AM new
Kozersky couldn't have said it better. eBay has no clue about shipping costs and a lot of us will get burned because they just buy into something that some ignoramus says about an item. If someone says its in violation they end it they do not check. We sell guitars, all have to go in an oversize 1 caton. We charge $26.50 for shipping. The carton costs $5, the foam peanuts cost $10 per bag and a bag works about 4 guitars on average. So, I'm left with $19 for the shipping and I guarantee it will cost me more than that for a guitar to Seattle WA. I get more disgusted with eBay as each month passes. Unfortunately, nothing sells on Amazon, Yahoo and the rest anymore. Plus all the buyers seem to think we get guitars for 20 cents on the dollar and are here to give them away. This aint no raffle, we're all trying to make a living - well some of us anyway.
