Frequent gripes include a seller over-charging for postage, a purchased item delivered late or one party being generally dishonest.
What's fair postage anyway? Is it the actual shipping charge, or is it ok to add few dollars for your own handling (box, envelope, driving to PO)? I always try to charge as close to actual shipping as possible. However, I recently purchased a couple shirts where the guy charged me $12 while the actual shipping charge was $4.90.
Usually sellers indicate what the shipping charge will be on the listing's page, and eBay also provides a shipping charge calculator. When neither of these are present for a listed item, the potential bidder can ask the seller what the shipping charge will be before any bid is made.
Given all of these opportunities to learn what the shipping charges will be, I confess that I never understood why so many people go ballistic over shipping charges after the purchase at eBay. If the shipping charge is of a concern, there are all sorts of ways of determining this ahead of time.
There have been several times when the shipping charge has not been stated or was unclear to me when I was purchasing a heavy item, and in all cases the seller replied promptly and politely when I asked via email.
EBay seller usually charge some premium on postage to recoup their fees. Technically this is forbidden by ebay, but the reality is costs are just going to be passed down to the customer. Just like these new fees.
The reason that they do that is that while eBay charges a fee (their commission) on the purchase price, it does not do so on the postage. So people reduce the price (sometimes) and inflate the postage so they can keep more of the money.
I do the same thing.....It's because FeeBay charges the listing fee based on the selling price...and the Final Value Fee based on the selling price. NOT the S & H....BUT, if you are paid by PayPal..( Which is owned by FeeBay..) I pay a fee based on the total.
IMO, the whole thing for Feebay is to try and recoup some of those lost fees.
I've seen people list something for .99 cents...with $25 S & H. And it was a GREAT BUY. Why would anyone...not find out what the seller is charging for S & H. No different than all the T.V. ads selling "TIMELIFE" albums...for .99 cents...but costs you $16.99 in S & H.
I had a guy complain once...that it cost $3 to ship...but I charged $7.99. I asked him...if the TOTAL price was cheaper than he could buy it anywhere? He said yeah, it was a great deal. I then asked him..if I was straight up front about my S & H fee's? He said yes...
The whole Feedback deal is just plain wrong....but the increase of 66% in FINAL VALUE FEES is going to hurt buyers in their pocketbooks.
Personally the stuff I sell...is seasonal. I have a few items listed right now...but they all end this coming week-end..and I will not list anything for the rest of the month. I also...will stop accepting PayPal, and just go back to Money Orders and personal checks. I've NEVER had any problem with taking them.
Feebay has made a big mistake....in all the new changes. This article doesn't even begin to detail some of the noxious changes.
I've listed a few things over at Wagglepop.com now. It's been around for awhile...but not much traffic. FeeBay has the name....but maybe it's good that they've forced sellers to look around at their options.