Free postage???

[jadavi]

Does anyone understand why so many items on eBay now have free postage? Even from private sellers not shops or dealers.
Just bought a book for £2.65 - free post!
Some things are baffling to me!

[linzi133]

I figured out that if you return an item (faulty badly described) and it has free postage then they don't have to refund your postage costs. If you pay for postage then they do!

I got stung with a free postage item from china. Didn't work and it cost me more to send back than I paid for it.

I asked for my postage back and was refused because I didn't pay for postage in the first place.... I raised it with eBay ad failed!

So I'm now very careful of what I order with free postage!

[jadavi]

Aha thanks. But the book i bought today will
Make hardly any profit...

[chezzagriff]

Thats one of the main reasons and also so they get 5* feedback. Also be careful as I have had paid for items then no sooner I have paid they change the P&P to free (dont know how) so the rules mentioned still apply. I have often thought that there will not be much profit made but maybe they buy in bulk so there is.

[LauraS]

Some categories have to have free postage or a maximum postage, DVDs is one. So It might be down to eBay.

It's not in the sellers interests to do free post because the eBay fees payable on the sale are on the selling price less postage, not the total, so they will incur.higher fees. Perhaps they don't know that though.

[LauraS]

I figured out that if you return an item (faulty badly described) and it has free postage then they don't have to refund your postage costs. If you pay for postage then they do!

I got stung with a free postage item from china. Didn't work and it cost me more to send back than I paid for it.

I asked for my postage back and was refused because I didn't pay for postage in the first place.... I raised it with eBay ad failed!

So I'm now very careful of what I order with free postage!

You should have had a full refund inc. postage, but you don't always get anywhere with PayPal/ebay disputes.

[linzi133]

I didn't get anywhere with the vendor or eBay/PayPal !

[bunyip]

A lot of buyers don't like paying for postage and drag down the sellers' stars ratings if they charge it as an additional sum - so sellers have got the message and now just lump the P&P cost in with the item price. The eBay company also encourages sellers to offer free postage through some of its processes.

The earlier comment about refunding return postage for items which the buyer returns - this isn't strictly correct. Return postage has always been the responsibility of the person who bought the item. But a lot of sellers will refund it anyway, cos they want to please the buyer and not get bad feedback. In fact, the seller doesn't even have to refund the original P&P on items sold then returned. Again, many do so to keep the buyer happy, etc. So, in that respect, free P&P costs the seller more if the goods are later returned.

Ultimately, sensible sellers are lumping in the P&P costs with the minimum start price or 'buy it now' price. That is, they're treating it in a businesslike 'cost of the sale' way. If they're clever, they'll add a little extra to cover the losses on the odd occasion when items refunds have to be made. :)

[linzi133]

I was using the distance selling regulations that state that if an item is faulty the seller should refund all associated costs.
I did ask for a replacement but was just refunded my purchasing costs and not the cost to return the item.
If I just wanted to return the item then no postage costs should have been refunded... But since the item was faulty postage should have been refunded.... But wasn't