posted on September 6, 2006 03:34:28 AM new
Figuratively speaking, of course, but it hurts nonetheless. They've pulled a listing for excessive shipping cost and, when I inquired as to just who decides what is "excessive", this is what I got:
Many sellers will often have different shipping and handling for items
due to location, packaging cost, handling fee's. We then can not then
tell you specifically tell you what to charge. However, please
understand that when we review a listing, we must take the listing at
face value and take appropriate action based on the information provided
in the listing title and description.
If you are going to have an auction where the shipping and handling will
be high, we would suggest explaining it in your listing why it is such a
price. State the weight of the item in the auction,
Name the shipping company and service used (USPS Priority Mail, FedEx
Ground, UPS Ground, etc.),
Give an itemized list of shipping charges,
$x.xx for shipping via shipping company and service used (USPS Priority
Mail, FedEx Ground, UPS Ground, etc.)
$x.xx for insurance
$x.xx for box
$x.xx for bubble wrap
$x.xx for peanuts
I'm particularly intrigued by the idea of itemizing my shipping costs in each listing. What a concept. As I see it, I'd be listing them not for my customers benefit, as they rarely complain about my shipping charges, but for the morons at feebay who pull auctions at whim (or at the request of my competition, I suspect.)
posted on September 6, 2006 06:51:02 AM new
I agree that you need to make money to cover all your expenses, and thats what I have been doing for all they years I'm selling. My shipping cost includes my material/handling/money exchange with pp/Ebay fees, and sometimes a little left over.
Any web site you shop on (which I do alot) they more then double the shipping cost and it appears to be an accepted policy.
Even the USPS does this when I order certain supplies. NO ONE charges only actual shipping cost.
And I don't agree with itemizing your expenses in your listing.
If a buyer feels your shipping charges along with the item price is fair then they will bid, If they find it cheaper with another seller then you loose out, you need to be able to compete with other sellers of the same merchandise but still cover your expenses.
posted on September 6, 2006 07:41:02 AM new
They aren't doing anything with the guy listing leather jackets for 99 cents with $49.00 shipping. He has several listings too.
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Two men sit behind bars,one sees mud the other sees stars.
posted on September 6, 2006 08:50:59 AM new
First - this goes on throughout eBay from Leather coats,batterries,jewelry,EVERYTHING.
People selling want to keep a large piece of the pie-eBay wants their piece to be bigger.
So some have employed this VERY OBVIOUS way to make a larger profit.
I agree and disagree,with the seller and eBay (almost like ..... flipflop (yuk!).
It often is obviously a ploy to keep from paying fees and actually S/H is the profit for listing and selling the item. For example those .99 cents listing or $2 listings and most do not combined shipping for customers.
ON THE OTHER HAND - customers have the information and SHOULD READ and make the decision as to bid or not bid .
Personally I would bid if I wanted the trinket, but just one item . That way the profit would be very sparse on S/H . If I wanted another item , I would wait til that one was here and the other item would come up again sooner or later. Buy one trinket at a time from the seller S/H profit lister, I do,do that ! That way they can not put two to three 4 oz items in a packet and send them out for $12 .
It is STILL the responsibility of the customer to read what they are agreeing to.
A few weeks back I purchased a watch (not a .99 cent item) It was about $60 , the S/H was $18 not including insurance. I look at others selling watches they had $12 -$20 S/H. Gracious , wish I could send a $4.05 Priority Mail item and get that kind of "handling" mark-up.
I wanted the watch and purchased. I did not feel that I was cheated, I read and understood that the seller had outrageous S/H fees.I MADE THE DECISION and placed the bid.
Love my watch -paid $60 for a watch that would have cost me about $200. I gave her great feedback, I got what I bid on in a timely manner and I knew the S/H cost and had agreed by bidding.
I do charge S/H not the exact postage-but not an outrageous amount. I let customers combine S/H.
I ship to all USA states ,territories, processions and military mail for the very same price .
BTW >>>>I also pay feebay several thousand a month in fees.
posted on September 6, 2006 01:00:33 PM new
This particular item was a car charger for a cell phone and it happens to be a dropship item, so I charged what the dropshipper charges me....$7.99 UPS Ground which includes insurance. The item itself was $5.99. I don't find that excessive at all. Now, with the items I have in my own inventory I ship USPS Priority and First Class mail, I add $3.00 for handling, materials, fees, etc., and that same item would ship for $7.05 at Priority rate, insurance optional.
I don't charge excessive shipping rates and never have. I abhor sellers who do and I don't make any purchases from those who do.
posted on September 6, 2006 05:37:49 PM new
Well if it is a drop ship item and they charge that price can't you send copy of an invoice from dropshipper to show you are not overcharging as that is your cost??? Besides Ebay must really be hurting to go after your rinky dink overcharged shipping at $7.99 when there are bigger fish to fry so to say with the ones charging WAY too much for shipping like the leather coat stuff mentioned above. It is obvious if yours got nuked that someone turned it in probably a competator trying to clear the field. I would not think your shipping would be in question so much I bought a car charger for my Cell and paid $9.99 shipping and got it for $1.00 but that was good deal for me locally they were over $20.00 for my cell phone. Thing was when I got my stuff , 2 chargers, and 2 cases leather the shipping was combined and I paid about $16.00 and when it arrived the total on package was $3.75. I knew what the shipping would be on all the items but bought anyway but it was the thought that I overpaid shipping that still kinda gets to ya. But I knew going in so didn't have any complaints- still got a deal on all items at least he combined and did good combinations where some don't or just give a dollar discount big whoop.
posted on September 6, 2006 05:44:47 PM new
Those prices aren't that bad. I'd just about guarantee you that one of your competitors is turning you in just to cause you trouble.
Dr. Arcane, revelator of mystical secrets http://www.drarcane.com
Got questions about the secrets of the universe?
posted on September 6, 2006 06:18:07 PM new
I wish eBay would get some brass ones and tell "competitors" who turn in other eBay sellers for obvious personal reasons (ie: the example in this post...$7.99 is most definitely NOT excessive) that their concern is "noted" but that the shipping/handling costs were reasonable. While most eBayers are the best in the world, there ARE those who try to play the game and eliminate their competitors by filing these frivolous "concerns". Several months ago, eBay pulled one of my auctions because the item was prohibited (it was a set of dentures). When I "searched", I found over 75 auctions for items similiar to mine. When I alerted eBay to this, they told me that they "couldn't search all of the auctions" and would respond only to specific complaints. I suggested that they could do what I did (which took a nanosecond) and then simply delete all those offending auctions...Oh well...like I said, wish eBay would be a bit more fair in issues like these and the one cited int his post.
posted on September 6, 2006 07:48:43 PM new
It is low-down and deceitful to turn in , and this case VERY UNJUST, a seller to limit competition.
A person who would do this to eliminate competition is no more than a scumbag!
Of course the sheriffs at eBAY SHOULD be able to see through this false accusation.
Surely they take time to investigate. If they simply looked at this auction being questioned they could PLAINLY SEE it was NO legitamate basis for the accusation.
Gracious, the S/H was very fair.
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posted on September 6, 2006 08:05:10 PM new
But, they would have to speak English and understand the $USD - as well as the shipping process and reasonable costs involved.
I guess the training module they ship to India doesn't contain enough detail.
posted on September 6, 2006 08:28:27 PM new
So sorry. You were obviously targeted and unjustly had your auction terminated. This is totally unreasonable!
posted on September 6, 2006 08:32:05 PM new
Anyone want to venture a guess as to how long it will be until the only auction that is safe is one that contains an Ebay shipping calculator? And how much will the fee be for the calculator?
If Murphy's law is correct, everything East of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic
posted on September 6, 2006 08:39:08 PM new
This is still the Ebay acts without asking questions first. You can also kiss your listing fees goodbye. Just another in the line of eBay fee hikes.
posted on September 6, 2006 08:46:31 PM new
e bay makes you Turn in EACH and EVERY offender individually,,,,,,they will NOT blanket the entire 3000 offenders of their OWN laws........found that out VERY early on in e bay......Was selling a knife back in 2000.....some competitior complained,,,,mine was nuked,,,,,,I,, when we could REALLY "Talk" to e bay sent notice of the 3000 violations,,,,,,i was told to send Specific auction numbers, I KNEW then this was ALL a BIG competition Joke........if you want 5000 NAZI items nuked,,,,,,,Be prepared to spend the REST of your days typing NUMBERS of auctions for Violators.......
e bay WILL nuke,,,,,but ONLY for SPECIFIC auction numbers even tho they KNOW,, millions ARE in violation.......
e bay is based on MONEY.........Fees,,,,FVF.....and they Love to contact AFTER the violating Auction is finished Esp, when it's a BIG BUCK Item.....don't do that again, sorry it took the remaining 3days and the ENDING of your auction to inform you of this VIOLATION......
posted on September 6, 2006 09:09:37 PM new
Cellphone accessories is a very crowded and competitive area on eBay and I rarely venture into it for that reason. I do believe I was reported by another seller in that category. The identical item in my eBay Store was pulled for "keyword spamming" rather than fee avoidance and excessive shipping, as I did not include the words "compatible with" or "fits" in the title. My mistake! The competition is cutthroat.
posted on September 6, 2006 09:35:31 PM new
In this case I also feel it was not called for. However (god I can't believe I'm going to say this) in ebay's defense, do you really expect them to moniter all listing's for overcharged shipping? Your kidding right? There is physically no way for them to keep a eye on 10's of millions of listing's that are live on ebay on any given day. Even if they had a army of 10,000 personel to monitor their listing's they still wouldn't have enough people to check all the listing's. That's why they only respond to listing's that are reported. That's kind of the way it's alway's been on ebay. They expect ebay members to police their own.
1 out of 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Take a look at your 3 closest friends. If they seem alright, you're the one! - Kyle Stubbins, CMS
posted on September 7, 2006 09:11:57 AM new
This may be a stupid question, but why couldn't eBay develop a script that looks at the listing price and the shipping price when using the listing form that will warn sellers of pending violations? Say a seller puts in a starting bid of $0.99 with shipping of $50. That would send up a red flag in the program just as it does when you are listing other items like precious gems. Sellers would have to be forced to put the shipping cost in the form instead of just their template in order for it to work, but it's better than what they have now.
posted on September 7, 2006 09:29:40 AM new
Probably because it would never work. Good example. 6 weeks ago I won a portable hydraulic power system that weighed around 900 pounds. The shipping via motor freight cost me a little over $450 (they charged actual cost and even included a copy of the motor carrier's bill), the auction started at 99 cents and I won it for $28. Just because a auction starts at 99 cents and has a high shipping charge doesn't mean it's a scam.
1 out of 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Take a look at your 3 closest friends. If they seem alright, you're the one! - Kyle Stubbins, CMS
posted on September 7, 2006 09:46:51 AM new
Sellers from China who accept Paypal payment charge shipping of 25-35 for any item starting at one penny,this is because they have to use EMS to track the shipment.
posted on September 7, 2006 10:31:46 AM new
I have a friend who starts all of his auctions at$.99.
He sells stamp collections with an average weight over 40 pounds. 99 out of a 100 times they close at a value in the $100's, yet he was warned by telephone about the excessive shipping costs upfront.
What are you to do. The only hope you have is that you stay below the radar screens of the trolls who have nothing better to do that comb listing to report.
These trolls need to get a satellite dish so they can watch more tv and spend less time on e-bay!
posted on September 7, 2006 11:08:40 AM new
Shipping overcharges were discussed in Town Hall Meeting yesterday. Bill Cobb more or less praised the community for policing itself! Look for shipping charges to be shown in search results and/or included in FVF calculations.Bill said that you are doing things right you don't need to worry. Sounds like that isn't true in shething's case.
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posted on September 8, 2006 05:36:06 PM new
Ebay is very selective in who it targets for excessive shipping. I was charged $11.95 for a memory card that cost less than 50 cents to ship. Even if you add in the padded envelope, it is way tooo much shipping, but it was stated in the ad and I bid and paid. The seller than had the nerve to hound me for feedback!! I was not complaining, but I was not praising, either.
posted on September 8, 2006 06:43:13 PM new
From a buyers point of view I could care less how much a seller charges for shipping as long as they are up front with the fee. I look at the total price of shipping and the item being purchased. If I'm willing to pay $20 for something I don't care if they charge $19.99 for shipping and .01 cents for the item or the reverse being .01 cent for shipping and $19.99 for the item. It's still $20.
On the other hand as a seller it does bother me sometimes. Sellers charge outrageous fee's for shipping to cut down on ebay listing and FVF's which in turn hurts other sellers that charge normal shipping prices. We honest sellers end up paying more in fee's because we are honest and end up making less. Sucks doesn't it.
1 out of 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Take a look at your 3 closest friends. If they seem alright, you're the one! - Kyle Stubbins, CMS
posted on September 8, 2006 07:44:06 PM new
Re Memory card. I paid $8.95 + 11.95 shipping. I had bid on another card and "won" it for $4.75 + 7.95 shipping from another seller, but, they discovered they did not have any more!! I guess the price was too low. I found out later I could have bought it from Staples and gotten them basically for free after rebate, but I did not do my homework. I did not complain to the seller, it was all up front,I paid and did not complain. My point is Ebay is not hassling them.
posted on September 8, 2006 09:10:25 PM new
I bought an item today which allowed local pick up for a $25 handling fee ($14 less than their normal shipping charge). Very upfront and acceptable.
posted on September 9, 2006 05:33:08 AM new
I wonder if this 'I found a cheaper item ' mentality will spread to choosing a spouse?
What if you find someone cheaper and just as good and the wedding would have cost you less?
Or worse,someone not only cheaper,but better and wedding is FREE ?
Or worst,someone not only cheaper,better,no wedding expense and comes with a generous dowry?
Is this better than winning a state lottery?
Now I find my spouse at a local garage sale-cheaper,better,no handling fee,handsome dowry and he promised to work his ass off after marriage to support me and my team of cats and dogs and parrots.
We shall file separate tax returns and I get to claim all the deductions.
1 out of 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Take a look at your 3 closest friends. If they seem alright, you're the one! - Kyle Stubbins, CMS