Ridiculous Postage & Packing

4linehaiku

4linehaiku

Repetitive
I'm sure most people here have purchased records (or pretty much anything I suppose) off ebay, discogs, gem, etc in their time. I'm also sure you have noticed that some people seem to view the postage and packing section as an invitation to make up whatever number pops into their head.
I would like to hear some especially amusing examples. Well, that and have a good complain.

To kick things off, a charming man on discogs is under the impression that sending me a £32 order of records is going to cost £18. Inside the UK. It's possible that he is going to hand-deliver them on a gold plated unicorn, but I doubt it.
 
M

mms

sometimes
4linehaiku said:
I'm sure most people here have purchased records (or pretty much anything I suppose) off ebay, discogs, gem, etc in their time. I'm also sure you have noticed that some people seem to view the postage and packing section as an invitation to make up whatever number pops into their head.
I would like to hear some especially amusing examples. Well, that and have a good complain.

To kick things off, a charming man on discogs is under the impression that sending me a £32 order of records is going to cost £18. Inside the UK. It's possible that he is going to hand-deliver them on a gold plated unicorn, but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

yes the most ridiculous i had was $75 to the uk for the 2 live crew record from the states.
erm - no .
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Perhaps you get these huge charges when you buy a really 'massive' tune, an exceptionally 'heavy' album etc....



(ahem. sorry.)
 
4linehaiku

4linehaiku

Repetitive
Some tunes are so big that moments after the postman delivers them to my house, he has to take them back to the post box where it was originally sent from and do it all over again. The crowds love it, but it does inevitably add to postage costs.

Oh and these days it's not just judged by weight, so you not only pay extra for a 'heavy' album, it costs even more if the tune is 'large'(er than 353mm).
 
D

droid

Guest
Its simple enough - dont order until you message them about postage - and challenge ridiculous postage costs by asking for a postage receipt.

Its one of the oldest ebay scams in the book anyway. Cheap auctions and ridiculous postage. Some people add in their 'time' to the P+P costs as well... OK if youre talking an extra few quid for some mailers - not good if youre talking an extra tenner.

What really pisses me off is big shops that do this. Minimum postage costs from juno to Ireland is about £30. How come I can order a big box of records from germany for 15 euro, but 4 12's from Juno costs £30?
 
owengriffiths

owengriffiths

Owen
What irritates me is when companies take too long to dispatch orders. I have worked in a small mail order businesses so know it's not rocket science. I fail to believe that UKrecordshop has so many orders that they can't post something after 1 working day. I only used them once though so maybe it was an isolated incident
 
4linehaiku

4linehaiku

Repetitive
It wasn't. UK record shop are amazingly slow.

My story has a happy ending by the way, while I was away from the computer for the afternoon he sent me a series of emails which first claimed it was a totally reasonable cost, an hour later he informed me he'd make it £15 absolute last offer, then another hour later he re-invoiced me for a £10!
Worst negotiator ever.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
4linehaiku said:
It wasn't. UK record shop are amazingly slow.

My story has a happy ending by the way, while I was away from the computer for the afternoon he sent me a series of emails which first claimed it was a totally reasonable cost, an hour later he informed me he'd make it £15 absolute last offer, then another hour later he re-invoiced me for a £10!
Worst negotiator ever.
Click to expand...

when it arrives let me know what the actual cost is and for how many - i've got a load of shit to stick on ebay and i want to know how badly i can take the piss
 
4linehaiku

4linehaiku

Repetitive
If it's just one record at a time you can go nuts as far as I can tell. At least £3 before people start complaining. You have to offer discounts for bigger orders though, or you're just gonna look like a dick.
For a decent estimate try this: http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder?catId=23500532&gear=pricingcalc
Assume each record weighs an average of 150g, select the packet option or whatever it's called (the biggest one), and then first class recorded. Voila.
I did that with this order and it came out as £8.97, so including 'packing' and that, I think £10 is pretty resonable. Will let you know what the exact price was when it arrives.
 
hint

hint

party record with a siren
crackerjack said:
when it arrives let me know what the actual cost is and for how many - i've got a load of shit to stick on ebay and i want to know how badly i can take the piss
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A good little loophole is to use 2nd class recorded delivery. It costs less, but usually arrives next day anyway. I think most people don't realise that 2nd class recorded delivery even exists.

I ask for £2.40 for recorded delivery of a single 12". Actual cost is about £2.10 for 2nd class recorded I think. You'll be undercutting most sellers, so you could probably add an extra 20p to that too and still be charging a reasonable rate, whilst making an extra 50p per record to cover packaging / time / sweeties.
 
M

martin

----
When I first went on ebay, probably around 2001, I won some CD from a bloke in the US, who then charged me a higher postage fee than specified. When I queried this, he then said he had to raise the price again, and sent me a cringeworthy email detailing how costs add up. He put together a list of things like "sealing tape, $0.22". Suffice to say I told him go fuck himself.

I have done the thing where I charge postage (normally a quid for UK) and then run it through the work post anyway, mind you, so I'm not gonna steal the coat of moral outrage...
 
B

BareBones

wheezy
4linehaiku said:
My story has a happy ending by the way, while I was away from the computer for the afternoon he sent me a series of emails which first claimed it was a totally reasonable cost, an hour later he informed me he'd make it £15 absolute last offer, then another hour later he re-invoiced me for a £10!
Worst negotiator ever.
Click to expand...

haha, this reminds me of that episode of futurama...

Brannigan: "I propose we go out on 10 dates."
Leela: "How about zero?"
Brannigan: "9!"
Leela: "0."
Brannigan: "7!"
Leela: "0."
Brannigan: "8?"
 
owengriffiths

owengriffiths

Owen
Does anyone know why ebay doesnt feature your auctions in it's search facility. I've got several items up for grabs and even if you type in the exact title it wont come up. Very irritating given the huge effort spent to list it to the fuck all profit margin ratio. Would be a nightmare if listings are fake and people cant actually buy your things.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
owengriffiths said:
Does anyone know why ebay doesnt feature your auctions in it's search facility. I've got several items up for grabs and even if you type in the exact title it wont come up. Very irritating given the huge effort spent to list it to the fuck all profit margin ratio. Would be a nightmare if listings are fake and people cant actually buy your things.
Click to expand...

They should feature - mine always do.

Try signing out and search again to see if they come up.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
As I understand it ebay takes a percentage of your sale price but doesn't take anything from your postage so it's better to sell a record for twenty quid plus twenty postage than for thirty and ten (say). If you state clearly in the description that you are going to add high postage and then everyone who bids takes that into consideration for their total bid then I guess it's fair enough. I can't feel too concerned about ebay losing some comission to be honest.
If someon increases the postage after sale price has been fixed (or just states an unfairly high postage price) then that's obviously completely unfair and you shouldn't pay it.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
As I understand it ebay takes a percentage of your sale price but doesn't take anything from your postage so it's better to sell a record for twenty quid plus twenty postage than for thirty and ten (say). If you state clearly in the description that you are going to add high postage and then everyone who bids takes that into consideration for their total bid then I guess it's fair enough. I can't feel too concerned about ebay losing some comission to be honest.
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They've wised up to that - certain goods (CDs) now have maximum UK post prices, some (incl DVDs, for God knows what reason) have to be free.
 
owengriffiths

owengriffiths

Owen
I noticed this when selling stuff, and the only way to get round this is to change the category to 'other'. It was really pissing me off. I was trying to sell comics and it said the postage couldnt be more than £2, whether it was a single item or more. The package is 4kg for fucks sake!
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
IdleRich said:
As I understand it ebay takes a percentage of your sale price but doesn't take anything from your postage so it's better to sell a record for twenty quid plus twenty postage than for thirty and ten (say).
Click to expand...

Ahhh, that'll be why you sometimes see (or used to see) items for £0.01 plus £20 p&p, adding up to a reasonable total price (eg. something worth £18 that might cost £2 to send). But as CJ says, they must have got wise to this, and presumably not just for CDs.
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"They've wised up to that - certain goods (CDs) now have maximum UK post prices, some (incl DVDs, for God knows what reason) have to be free."
Click to expand...
Yeah, they're fairly quick at closing loop-holes when it's them that's losing out.
 
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