Thread: Great scuttle for $5.00!!!

Originally Posted by Utopian

He's not working a loophole, he is violating eBay policy and is stealing.

Not trying to argue here but is he? I'll admit I haven't read the policy so I'm not sure. My point is that when questioned he was forthright with his reasoning. The ones that tick me off are those that charge you say $10 or $15 for shipping and you see the postage is less than $2 and those bubble envelopes don't come close to the difference.

Originally Posted by Catrentshaving

Not trying to argue here but is he? I'll admit I haven't read the policy so I'm not sure. My point is that when questioned he was forthright with his reasoning. The ones that tick me off are those that charge you say $10 or $15 for shipping and you see the postage is less than $2 and those bubble envelopes don't come close to the difference.

Well, what do you think it's going to cost to ship that scuttle? The most I could imagine is in a $10 flat rate box USPS Priority with lots of peanuts and bubble wrap, but even with tracking and insurance and the cost of "supplies" that can't possibly come to more than $15.

The guy said it himself, he's doing it so Ebay won't get their percentage from that much of the overall final cost. I haven't read all the ebay rules either, but from a business standpoint, I know there's no way they'd allow something like that. Cuts into their profits.

Originally Posted by Catrentshaving

Not trying to argue here but is he? I'll admit I haven't read the policy so I'm not sure.

Of course he is, and he admits it.

According to the eBay website. the policy on fee circumvention for shipping is as follows:
Unreasonable shipping or handling costs - The seller may add a reasonable shipping and handling fee to the final price of the item, but may not charge excessive shipping and handling fees, excessive required insurance fees, or excessive (or not applicable) taxes in an effort to make the item appear artificially inexpensive, to avoid eBay fees, or for any other purposes. A shipping and handling fee may cover the seller's reasonable costs for mailing, packaging, and handling the item. Shipping and handling fees may not be listed as a percentage of the final sale price. Please see the complete Excessive Shipping and Handling policy for more details.

yes, what he is doing is violation of ebay's policy. sometimes ebay cares about it, usually it doesn't.
once i bought something on buy-it-now and then realized the shipping was ridiculously high, like 200x the actual cost. ebay told me when the seller hits me with a strike for non payment to contact them and they'll remove it, and that's what happened. The seller got a bunch of negatives for doing this and I'm not sure if he got suspended, but i would assume the negatives damaged his business.

of course, this is also an example of a famous psychological experiment about rationality in decision-making.
I had a thread on it few years ago in the conversation forum

Im all for savign a buck and pocketgn a buck but I dont think its right to go agenst their policy and steal from ebay to do it. Just because ebay dosent stop every case dosent mean that it dosent effect them. If everybody did this ebay would go bankrupt so i gotta say im with ron on this one that its not ok to bump up the shipping and keep the item price low so that ebay dosent get there share. In my book its still stealing.

Originally Posted by TeMpTiN

If this is inappropriate I apologize and please remove the post.

Dear proshop81,

Why such high shipping?

- Me

Response

Dear Me,

$32 shipped is a great deal for this brush. Just price it anywhere else. The shipping is 25 because eBay doesn't take a percent from shipping cost. Would you rather me price the brush at $28 and having shipping at $7? It would cost $3 more for the buyer for me to get the same amount of profit. It saves us both money.

- proshop81

Seller did not post the question/response for the public to see.

Yeah. I remember when a big stink was made over the increased fee's ebay propsed a year or two back. As long as the buyer is aware of the final price at the outset, seems Ok.

There is an easy way to cure the guy of this. Buy yourself a cheap scuttle by hitting "buy it now" and then filing a dispute with eBay over the shipping charge. eBay will force him to charge a reasonable shipping amount and you will have saved some money and screwed over a cheater.

No, I don't think ebay can force the seller to lower the shipping. The most they will do is let you off the hook paying, since when you hit the buy-it button you agree to the stated shipping charges.
I think the report button says 'I want to report an item I didn't bid on', if you've won an auction there's a completely different dispute process to be followed.

If Eboy finds someone using the old shipping scam it's usually between them and the seller. The buyer or bidders usually don't hear about it.

There is a line you can approach in the shipping fee before you get yourself into trouble with them.

I assume that $32 is over that line.