Over priced shipping help

[skislope15]

Just looking for suggestions on how to approach a seller that has an item listed for sale that I'm interested in. The item is auction style so I'm not worried about the price what I am worried about is the sellers current shipping price. She has the shipping price for a pair of sandals economy shipping within the same province for $35 I looked on Canada post and a regular shoe box expedited post is $17.80. Question is how do I approach the seller about her excessive cost without offending her and risking getting blocked? Normally I wouldn't care too much but her price is 3x the cost plus if I did win the shoes and pay the $35 because I want them regardless I'm likely to ding her stars and feedback if she over charges me. Just to note economy shipping that she has in her ad is only $12.40 as per the Canada post website

Tia

 

[unluckystars]

Just looking for suggestions on how to approach a seller that has an item listed for sale that I'm interested in. The item is auction style so I'm not worried about the price what I am worried about is the sellers current shipping price. She has the shipping price for a pair of sandals economy shipping within the same province for $35 I looked on Canada post and a regular shoe box expedited post is $17.80. Question is how do I approach the seller about her excessive cost without offending her and risking getting blocked? Normally I wouldn't care too much but her price is 3x the cost plus if I did win the shoes and pay the $35 because I want them regardless I'm likely to ding her stars and feedback if she over charges me. Just to note economy shipping that she has in her ad is only $12.40 as per the Canada post website

Tia

Does she have other items listed with high shipping as well?

 

[BeenBurned]

Just looking for suggestions on how to approach a seller that has an item listed for sale that I'm interested in. The item is auction style so I'm not worried about the price what I am worried about is the sellers current shipping price. She has the shipping price for a pair of sandals economy shipping within the same province for $35 I looked on Canada post and a regular shoe box expedited post is $17.80. Question is how do I approach the seller about her excessive cost without offending her and risking getting blocked? Normally I wouldn't care too much but her price is 3x the cost plus if I did win the shoes and pay the $35 because I want them regardless I'm likely to ding her stars and feedback if she over charges me. Just to note economy shipping that she has in her ad is only $12.40 as per the Canada post website

Tia

That's a tough one for several reasons.

1. If you question it, you risk getting blocked
2. Dinging her DSRs when you know the shipping price up front isn't really fair. You'll have chosen to buy in spite of the shipping cost
3. If you ding her stars and she runs reports, she'll know you did it, will block you and you'll risk being unable to make future purchases from her

OTOH, she may not intend to use economy shipping and just may have erred in the method she checked.

My feeling is that you should either wait to find another seller with what you consider more reasonable shipping for the same item or suck it up and pay her charge. (If you choose the latter, I wouldn't leave feedback but may tell her after the fact that you did the research and tell her the costs you found.)

 

[restricter]

Are they an expensive designer pair? She may be packing them in an oversized box to keep the packaging pristine. Or she may have selected the wrong shipping option. Also, if you select it, eBay automatically calculates postage so the box dimensions/weight she input might be wrong.

I would approach and just be polite. "Dear seller, I'm very interested in these sandals and wanted to confirm that the shipping price is $35 for economy. Thank you!

 

[*schmoo*]

....

I would approach and just be polite. "Dear seller, I'm very interested in these sandals and wanted to confirm that the shipping price is $35 for economy. Thank you!

^I think this is a polite way of asking. I just shipped boots with box for $18 economy. $35 for sandals is crazy. But it may be worth overlooking if the cost overall is still a good bargain for those shoes.

 

[Love Of My Life]

Are they an expensive designer pair? She may be packing them in an oversized box to keep the packaging pristine. Or she may have selected the wrong shipping option. Also, if you select it, eBay automatically calculates postage so the box dimensions/weight she input might be wrong.

I would approach and just be polite. "Dear seller, I'm very interested in these sandals and wanted to confirm that the shipping price is $35 for economy. Thank you!

I also think this is an appropriate manner to approach the seller.

It simply may be an error on seller's part & seller might be most
appreciative of you bringing it to their attention.

If it is not an error then the shipping is what it is. The seller taking the
time to bring it to the po, supplies etc might be calculated into the
extra charge.

I don't think the seller should have their stars dinged once you agree
to make the purchase with the shipping fee as stated.

 

[acrowcounted]

I would just factor the shipping cost into the price and if the item is still worth it to you at that price, let it be. It's not fair to agree to a price and then complain about it later (via star dinging).

 

[tzar]

That's a tough one for several reasons.

1. If you question it, you risk getting blocked
2. Dinging her DSRs when you know the shipping price up front isn't really fair. You'll have chosen to buy in spite of the shipping cost
3. If you ding her stars and she runs reports, she'll know you did it, will block you and you'll risk being unable to make future purchases from her

OTOH, she may not intend to use economy shipping and just may have erred in the method she checked.

My feeling is that you should either wait to find another seller with what you consider more reasonable shipping for the same item or suck it up and pay her charge. (If you choose the latter, I wouldn't leave feedback but may tell her after the fact that you did the research and tell her the costs you found.)

I disagree with that. I recently had a pair of Celine shoes shipped to me from the boutique. They charged me $25 for ground despite the service being 5$-10$. I purchased the shoes because I wanted them, but that does not mean I was happy with that. If I had had the opportunity to leave feedback on the whole thing, I would have certainly complained about the shipping. The stars are to help improve service. By leaving back appropriate feedback we are encouraging the seller to take the appropriate measures to price their shipping accordingly.

 

[vernis-lover]

I disagree with that. I recently had a pair of Celine shoes shipped to me from the boutique. They charged me $25 for ground despite the service being 5$-10$. I purchased the shoes because I wanted them, but that does not mean I was happy with that. If I had had the opportunity to leave feedback on the whole thing, I would have certainly complained about the shipping. The stars are to help improve service. By leaving back appropriate feedback we are encouraging the seller to take the appropriate measures to price their shipping accordingly.

My first question would be is this an experienced seller or not?


Stars don't help improve service at all for the inexperienced seller. They might for a business seller who has to maintain averages for discounts etc but I doubt your random seller gives two hoots about stars in all honesty.


An inexperienced seller may have calculated incorrectly, ticked the wrong box, copied a previous listing and forgotten to change the shipping options, may be shipping in a larger box than the shoe box you have based your shipping costs on etc etc. Too many variables to assume the shipping cost is way out in my humble opinion.


I'd give the seller the opportunity to explain the shipping charge before bidding and then make my decision accordingly re bidding. There are many polite ways to raise this query.

 

[BeenBurned]

I disagree with that. I recently had a pair of Celine shoes shipped to me from the boutique. They charged me $25 for ground despite the service being 5$-10$. I purchased the shoes because I wanted them, but that does not mean I was happy with that. If I had had the opportunity to leave feedback on the whole thing, I would have certainly complained about the shipping. The stars are to help improve service. By leaving back appropriate feedback we are encouraging the seller to take the appropriate measures to price their shipping accordingly.

X

Not only do star dings not improve service but in many cases, even with experienced sellers, they don't know how stars were dinged, high volume sellers can't easily even tell that stars are dinged and low volume sellers may not even sell enough to run reports and know that stars were dinged at all.

Buyers with so little understanding of the ebay school of thought and ebay's wanting to run small sellers out of business, the arbitrary advocating of dinging stars and feedback will only serve to make ebay another Amazon, will prevent many good buyers and sellers from doing business on ebay and will get those buyers who advocate dinging on so many BBLs that they too won't be able to buy.

 

[Love Of My Life]

I disagree with that. I recently had a pair of Celine shoes shipped to me from the boutique. They charged me $25 for ground despite the service being 5$-10$. I purchased the shoes because I wanted them, but that does not mean I was happy with that. If I had had the opportunity to leave feedback on the whole thing, I would have certainly complained about the shipping. The stars are to help improve service. By leaving back appropriate feedback we are encouraging the seller to take the appropriate measures to price their shipping accordingly.

I would imagine there was insurance included for your shoes for the fee (above a certain $ amount)
Did they ship Fedex or UPS? How fast did your shoes arrive? Depending upon how far they
had to go, it could have been overnight or 2/3 days. Under those circumstances with extra
insurance & using a premier service, don't think the shipping fee was excessive. And it is possible
that where you had them shipped to you might not have had to pay sales tax, so taking that into
consideration the shipping fee IMO was not terrible.

If you felt the shipping fee was inappropriate, you very easily could write
the company & share your thoughts about the shipping fee or you
could have asked to have the shipping fee waived which many stores
will do.

Dinging stars when a buyer knows what the shipping fees are up front, IMO is
unfair.

 

[jeep317]

Maybe it's just me but if I don't like the total price with shipping, I don't bid. It's ridiculous to assume you have the right to tell someone how much to charge, and furthermore it may very well be ebay's calculator determining that cost.

 

[skislope15]

That's my worry is getting blocked when I do want the item. I calculated shipping based on a regular Louboutin box that I have these are sandals so I'm quite sure the box is much smaller. The seller has just under 100 feedbacks so there not exactly new and the cost of the other item they have is high too but no as high as this one. They are under $200 so I can't see insurance being the reason for high costs either. They haven't listed the dimensions on there listing just a flat rate price.
I get that if I buy the item I agree to the cost but at the same time i don't agree that charging atleast 3x the cost is acceptable either. I think I'm going to wait until I hopefully win the sandals then see what the label price shows on delivery, if it's 3x what it should be I will contact the seller before leaving feedback if they don't rectify then I will leave feedback accordingly. Does this seem like a better approach?

That's a tough one for several reasons.

1. If you question it, you risk getting blocked
2. Dinging her DSRs when you know the shipping price up front isn't really fair. You'll have chosen to buy in spite of the shipping cost
3. If you ding her stars and she runs reports, she'll know you did it, will block you and you'll risk being unable to make future purchases from her

OTOH, she may not intend to use economy shipping and just may have erred in the method she checked.

My feeling is that you should either wait to find another seller with what you consider more reasonable shipping for the same item or suck it up and pay her charge. (If you choose the latter, I wouldn't leave feedback but may tell her after the fact that you did the research and tell her the costs you found.)

 

[tzar]

X

I have bought 2 items and sold 12 over the past year on ebay.

 

[tzar]

My first question would be is this an experienced seller or not?


Stars don't help improve service at all for the inexperienced seller. They might for a business seller who has to maintain averages for discounts etc but I doubt your random seller gives two hoots about stars in all honesty.


An inexperienced seller may have calculated incorrectly, ticked the wrong box, copied a previous listing and forgotten to change the shipping options, may be shipping in a larger box than the shoe box you have based your shipping costs on etc etc. Too many variables to assume the shipping cost is way out in my humble opinion.


I'd give the seller the opportunity to explain the shipping charge before bidding and then make my decision accordingly re bidding. There are many polite ways to raise this query.

I agree, I would contact the seller first, but if they were adamant about their shipping rights and I still wanted the item, I would purchase and then leave appropriate feedback.