Over charging on shipping and handling to cover sellers fees?

Over the past two weeks, oddly from two different sellers, I have been over charged as much as triple the cost for shipping. The last one saying its Canadian Expedited parcel and arriving Registered Letter. When inquiring at the over charging they say its to cover their seller fees. Its their handling costs. ?!? 

They then said, because I went ahead and paid the shipping when purchasing the item, they don't have to reimburse me. Also saying they can charge what they want, nothing I can do about it.

Actually there is a lot I can do. 😉 ....Especially since ebay can see their replies to my queries.

Just curious if anyone else is having this lately?

 

Don't they realize that if they want to cover the cost of their seller fees, they can just up the price of their item?

 

 

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Answers (4)

Answers (4)

Everything they told you is indeed true. When you purchase something you agree to the price. This is shipping and handling, not shipping only. A seller can add the amount he want, to cover what he want (time, packing, supply, gaz, etc, etc). eBay won't do anything. You agree to that price by purchasing. 

 

A others said there is no downgrade from expedited to registered mail. And i checked from the feedback you left, the seller listings are 'standard shipping' and not 'expedited' too. Its not even stated expedited parcel. 

 

You're the one breaking rules by requesting refund here. And on a false statement. The way you say there is 'a lot you can do' and everything, you seems to do straight extortion here.

 

I hope the seller know how ebay works as your feedback would be 100% removed if requested.  

The buyer rarely knows what the seller actually paid for postage.

We get discounts when we buy labels through eBay and have available services that are not on the regular Canada Post website.

Those discounts are usually used to cover the costs of packaging, something buyers don't think about until something is poorly packed and gets damaged.

 

The cost of a 200gr Large Envelope on CPO's rate page is $13.59 Registered.

The same Envelope would cost $43.89 ExpressPost with bubble envelope.

Oddly at 480gr the shipping would be $15.98 Registered and $27.25 ExpressPost.

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/tools/find-a-rate.page

 

Sellers are allowed to upgrade shipping services without asking, but not downgrade. The faster promise (which I am cynical about) would not make it a downgrade, just cheaper.

 

Most sellers will discount on combined shipping. Some will discount on downgraded shipping. Some will obfuscate the shipping service they plan to use which is hidden when we use Flat Rates, but open information when we use Calculated Shipping.

 

 

It's really bad form to do that and not refund (imo), but from a technical perspective I'm not sure they're wrong. Expedited Parcel is 2-8 days nationally and registered mail is supposed to be 2-4 days with both being tracked. In some respects, they're offering a potentially better shipping service. Sellers ARE allowed to charge more for shipping than what it costs them. It'll probably cost them sales and could lead to angry customers, but it isn't against the rules.

 

Personally, when I ship something, if it costs more than a dollar or two less than what the seller paid, I refund the difference. Since I subsidize the shipping a bit though, this rarely happens. Usually it costs me more.

 

I don't think eBay will back you up on this (although I could be wrong). You can definitely mention it in the feedback though, and as long as the feedback you provide is factual and doesn't break any of the rules, I doubt the seller will be able to get it removed.

mcrlmn
Community Member

Why are you paying those ridiculous costs to begin with?