You know the way eBay changed it's rules and sellers weren't allowed to charge postage on certain items?

I just ordered a PS2 memory card adaptor (spelling?) for the PS3 and was going through the usual eBay checkout process when up pops the seller's own checkout process through Channel Advisor, a legit eBay partner (I checked). Basically this allows the seller to charge for postage where otherwise they couldn't, in my case 29p, but you have to wonder how far that sort of thing can be taken

Anyone else experienced this? I made sure it was a genuine payment system itself, and that the Paypal login it took me to was genuine too (https, lock in the corner and so on)...

Was the postage charge made clear in the listing?

If not, Im not sure that's legal TBH.

I think I would have chosen a different seller tbh.

Looking at it again, on the initial auction page it says 'FREE P&P Royal Mail 2nd Class', but if you click the 'P+P and payments' tab you get:



Problem is, the seller only let me select the option for 1st class standard at the time (and it wasn't clearly set out either)...

Well, I certainly know better for the future, and hope somebody else finds this informative



I was going to (and will in the future if need be), but for the sort of money involved I wasn't fussed, and was curious about the whole thing anyway as I buy a fair bit of stuff on eBay.

That's fuel for negative feed back I think

We'll see how it goes

I have been selling some laptop parts on ebay this last week and learned of the business of having to permit free postage. I worked around it by adding £2.50 to the bid price, but that means that ebay takes more in listing fees AND 10% of the postage fee.

One item cost £2.34 for the postage alone and the other cost £2.89 and I'm not allowed to [LIFTED] charge for this! [LIFTED] [LIFTED] ebay [LIFTED]!!!!

However, there is an even simpler work around. AFAIK, it's only if you choose the Royal Mail postage option that it has to be free. I recently purchased a relatively low-cost item with "Other courier" as delivery option for £1.50. It still came with the postie.

I've got a few more bits to sell. I intend to use "other courier" and put a note in the postage details that a signature will be required. If anyone reports me and ebay don't like it, they can [LIFTED] off!

What makes me laugh is that eBay claim it's because "similar" market rivals don't charge for postage.

Well I'm sorry, I'm not Play.com, I'm selling stuff second-hand. I don't have a franking machine/deals with couriers for cheaper postage.

As trigen-killer says, eBay gain more in fees this way. I think it's a scam by eBay to claim more in fees. Yes eBay, you hear that? I'm making a direct allegation that you're greedy bastards who want more money in fees, and this was an easy way to do it.

Don't list the items then. Simple.

I don't. Suck on that Fleabay.

It's simpler not to list the items, yes. But I do make SOME money out of the enterprise, it's just unfair that ebay won't let a private individual charge for postage and when you add it to the item price, they take 10%

Add to this, the Paypal charges- If the buyer was to pay by cheque for something, he has got to pay for an envelope and stamp- around 40p. If the buyer pays on paypal, I have to pay the Paypal charges.

If it wasn't the only way to get rid of stuff (other than to car boot it or give it away) I wouldn't go near fleabay any longer.

It's no better for buying these days. No matter what category you look in, there are dozens of businesses and hardly any private sellers trying to get rid of unwanted stuff, which was the beauty of ebay in the beginning.

Focusing on the short term, eBay are gonna kill themselves off

I thought you could refuse to pay the charges? Or is that just on credit card payments into PayPal from third parties?

A journalist was complaining recently about collecting money from friends for a trip or something and he was having to pay the charges for each payment for the trip. He complained and PayPal said he could refuse the charges - the buyer has the option to pay the charges or pass the on to the seller, but the seller can refuse the charges.

^ I'm guessing few people know, hadn't heard of it myself...