An end to silly prices on eBay ?

"Paul Boyd" wrote>

not? Many sellers leave it in batches in one sitting.

I always leave feedback for buyers as soon as cleared payment is received, which is usually just before the purchase is shipped.

eBay seem to agree with this. Their latest barmy rule doesn't allow a seller to leave neutral or negative feedback for a buyer. If they persists with this crazy idea then feedback becomes totally irrelevent in my eyes.

John.

Canada Post covers the field; it owns Purolator Courier as well as epost, an electronic bill delivery system.

While on the topic of Canada Post, they have an iniquitous pricing system whereby there is no small package category for domestic mail. Any item over 2cm thick goes as a parcel, minimum rate over $6. It can be cheaper to send the same package to Australia.

On 03/02/2008 17:45, John Turner said,

When I first heard about this scheme, I thought it was a spoof. But no, from May, sellers will no longer be able to leave negative or neutral feedback to buyers. There is supposed to be a UK/USA eBay "strike" on from the 18th to 25th Feb in protest against this absurd rule.

For the few sellers that don't accept VISA, seniors can also get free international money orders instead of paying about $6.

Probably Bill Gates' next target.

Or you can have your own web site - £200 every 2 years (and I use an expensive provider since I'm happy to pay for reliability). Somewhat less than eBay plus PayPal.

And customers are always perfect? Hardly... We gave up mail-order due to ranters who think the world revolves soley about themselves!

Have you read the new rules?

Cheers Richard

Happens all the time "I can't pay unitl Friday/end of the month/until I get back from holiday/I can't get to the [insert place of choice] until.." Mostly though, the seller just hears nothing until payement turns up a month later, followed 20mins later by a demand for the goods!

Now there I absolutely agree. If eBay want to host "shops", then they should be entrirely separate from the "boot sale" operation, charged at a one-off fee based on the size of the shop. They won't do that though, as traders will quickly suss out just how expensive eBay are compared to having ones own site. eCommerce, card processing etc (even accounts/stock control) are all available free (open source), the only bit you have to pay for is the card charge, which you'd pay for anyway. Even if you pay someone to set it up it would be far chaper in the long term, though usually a bit of determination and time the user can do it themselves - though budegting for a PC or two being thrown out of the window is advisable ;-)

Cheers Richard

You misss my point - Royal Mail deliver post. That's what their customers pay for. That should be the end of it. A signatre should not be necessary, and certainly not at extra cost. I think that sums up my frustration with them. Would you be happy if your garage charged and extra £20 to show you the parts removed after a repair to prove they had done the job?

Cheers Richard

Unfortunately, none of the above covers dud cheques - the curse of the retail industry. Retailers are not only declining cheques due to the cost (incidently, cards "clear" only one day faster than cheques) but due to fraud, and with cards becoming somewhat more secure (though not perfect) and easier to use, we and others view those wanting to pay by cheque with deep, and well justified, suspicion. Sadly. that also includes business cheques these days.

Cheers Richard

beamendsltd said the following on 04/02/2008 08:45:

Ah - I see what you're getting at. Yes, you should know that when something is posted it will arrive. Royal Mail do seem to have a strange position in that they can offer a service whilst accepting no responsibility for that service, even to the extent that if something does go missing they won't refund your postage costs, just the goods value.

My favourite was the eBay buyer who wrote: "I don't know anything about any postal strikes", (it was headline news at the time), "I just want my goods posting straight away." So I did and he had to wait several extra days while they cleared the backlog. I had offered to wait until the strike was over before posting the goods and he would have received them quicker that way.

(kim)

Try asking them. Do let us know what they say.

MBQ

me said,

It's no worse than you would be charged if you had an online merchant account, and probably a lot less for some small businesses.

So, insist the buyer pays in your own currency and they pay the charges.

One alternative is that the buyer pays by cheque and you then have to factor in the cost of your time in handling it, visiting the bank, posting it to the bank or whatever.

Another alternative is direct bank transfer but if you want to do this cross-border it will cost one of you far more than the PayPal fees.

So, what is your answer to the issue, instead of just moaning about it?

MBQ

I've snipped it all as it had no relevance whatsoever. Unless you care to explain?

MBQ

They say it costs too much and is unreliable. (I don't necessarily agree with them).

They are lucky they have the option. Private sellers and one man businesses like me are stuck with Royal Mail. We have had to endure a *doubling* of postal rates for small packages over a short period of time. That is in addition to a reduction in collection points, a slowdown in delivery times and the termination of former door-to-door services. It is obvious to me that Royal Mail is screwing people like us in order to subsidise their losses elsewhere. That is why I say it is "unjustified".

(kim)

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com said the following on 04/02/2008 13:25:

With eBay, there is no need to insist - the buyer *must* use the currency specified in the listing. The buyer then pays the charges and Paypal's unfavourable exchange rates.

Cheques are rightly gradually being banished to the dark side for much the reasons you mention!

In message " snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com" wrote:

The 4 companies on this site don't use RM because:

They ain't cheap (for parcels), except to Highland & Islands etc. They ain't convenient - they won't collect without a contract, or extra fee, and the paperwork for export outside the EU is ridiculous. Couriers just need a phone call, even without a contract, and will call daily with one - free. Parcel Force additionaly require Microsoft Office unless you want to fill four copies of everything out manually. One form is sufficient for the couriers. They ain't efficient - the faffing about weighing each and every parcel to the nearest gramme is ridiculous, the couriers just have (typically) 4 price bands for inland, with coresponding ones for EU/Export, easily looked up on chart and they take your word for it on the weight unless you take the pee. Also, we tried to use the "express" service to France once, and they failed to turn up to collect, despite being paid up-front. No phone call. No appology. No nothing. It's "not in their terms and conditions" to actually turn up, or tell you if they aren't going to turn up. They are restrictive - max length is 1.2m, which is nothing. ANC, and other carriers, will take pretty much take anything they can get on the van. If it has pointy bits they just ask you to add sufficent protection. All of the above concerns, except price, are unncessary in this day and age as the couriers have proved. Sadly, RM seem to have a very stuck-in-the-mud attitude based on past history and practices rather than forward thinking. It's a dammed shame, as with their infrastructure they should be able to make it impossible for the couriers to compete, and I happen to believe that universal delivery is vital, though I can't see it remaining so for very much longer.

I should stress we are talking business customers here, but losing business customers has an ineviatable knock-on effect to retail.

RM strategy seems remarkably like the philopsophy behind the Beeching cuts - cut off the small roots and the tree dies. Rather than asking "How much do we need to invest to become better", they seem to be taking the usual short-sighted British route of cutting and cutting until the tree dies.

Cheers Richard

beamendsltd said the following on 04/02/2008 15:33:

I like the way you brought that back on topic :-)

(And yes, I do agree with you about the typical British way of doing things.)

beamendsltd wrote in news:4690c06b4f% snipped-for-privacy@btconnect.com:

I can offer you hosting for considerably less than that :-)