UK to NZ Shipping - eBay £34.95 Ouch!

[tractorboy]

I recently won 3 items (2 regular wheel, £10 each & a small Major Pack £5).
Stated on listing that shipping cost: USA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA WILL BE £17.00 tracked & signed for.
No mention of being part of Global Shipping Programme.
Bit expensive but I assumed 3 items could be combined for that cost.

When invoiced, the shipping cost to New Zealand was £34.95. (Delivery service Standard Int'l Postage)
I queried the seller and he assured me that he was not making anything on shipping.

Package arrived yesterday and couldn't find any postage cost on the labels but peeling away some of the labels did manage to see that the seller had initially posted to:

Impact Express Wholesale Ltd
Blackthorne Crescent
Coinbrook
Slough

Who then sent it on to me via Express Worldwide DHL - appear to be pre-paid or printed off labels from Impact Express that the seller has initially used.
Over here we call this double dipping - who is getting the money here? The seller?, the shipper?, eBay?
Does the seller get an option for shipping or has eBay tied sellers into using 3rd party shippers?

Most of his other items sold appear to be SIMM cards (often with free shipping), with the occasional model sold. I'm about to leave feedback and don't want to ping him with a negative if he's correct about postage.
I will contact him again as he has had some good condition models listed that I'd be keen to bid for and will suggest he manages his own postage.

The bonus side of the deal was the models won.

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[johnboy]

I can't help with this much, except to say that using Royal Mail (small parcel airmail 101-250g) the stamp would be £10.05 for tracked/signed. Obviously this is not touching the gsp and most sellers add a little on to cover ebay/paypal/packaging charges. £34.95 is daylight robbery, ebay hasn't tied sellers into using specific 3rd parties if they don't use the gsp.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Another official scamming system if you ask me!

...anyway, glad you persevered, as you got some cracking models.

Ghosthunter.

[tjlglass]

eBay automaticly opt you in to the shipping programme, you have to opt out yourself via the my eBay route, one big con.

[Rob]

eBay automaticly opt you in to the shipping programme, you have to opt out yourself via the my eBay route, one big con.

Yes, good information Tim provides here, ebay have changed many things and become more complex and it may be that the seller does not realise he has to opt out, it's a possibility.

There is always the option which may be fairer not to leave any feedback for now rather than negative or neutral, especially as you are pleased with the models, see what the seller says in response to your message and then decide.

[tractorboy]

Just a follow up on the trade.

I contacted the seller and he replied:

Hi Roger
Thanks for the Shipping request for info
I was charged £24.80 + 20% VAT....Total total £29.76
So, To be fair to you, I do owe you £5.04
I will send you the £5.04 I owe to you immediately
I do believe I can send you a receipt if you need to see it my friend
I will send it back to the email you paid with
I'm so glad they arrived safely, and I'm really glad your happy with service and honesty ive given to you
all the best my friend

True to his word he refunded the £5.04 and I have since won 4 other early, nice condition models from him at similar prices.
I got a family member in the UK to bid on my behalf and let the seller know what was happening. I asked that he pack in a small box so it could be shipped onto me.
The UK postage was £6.00 so will be interested to see what it costs to ship onto NZ.

I'm glad that I didn't rush into posting negative feedback (left neutral) as he has been polite, helpful and up front with his messages.

[Moyboy]

I recently bought an old magazine advert on A3 size sheet of thin paper ( as per a normal mag page ) I had already asked seller if he could do better postage as GSP said US$23 + to ship it. He said he could send for just over $4 but I kept getting an Ebay invoice to pay and yes you guessed it $2 for the item and the $23 postage on top. I ignored it and asked him to invoice me but said he couldn't as it was international so I sent him the $6 via Paypal, marked it as paid and still got a stupid Ebay invoice. They are just ripping customers off and charge a ridiculous price which they then include as part of the FVF so they get more of a percentage. I'm not sure if they will bill him the FVF based on their quote or on what I paid him.
Are there no lawyers amongst us who can determine if it is legal to take a % of the postage cost as surely this has nothing to do with Ebay at all - it is a private matter between seller & buyer only, sweet FA to with Ebay.

[toysnz]

True to his word he refunded the £5.04 and I have since won 4 other early, nice condition models from him at similar prices.
I got a family member in the UK to bid on my behalf and let the seller know what was happening. I asked that he pack in a small box so it could be shipped onto me.
The UK postage was £6.00 so will be interested to see what it costs to ship onto NZ.

I'm glad that I didn't rush into posting negative feedback (left neutral) as he has been polite, helpful and up front with his messages.

Rodger - you need to check out YouShop through NZPost - its a drop-box... I use it all the time (especially for items that will be shipped free within the US or UK) You can get US, UK and Chinese drop-boxes and although the lowest price for on-shipping is NZ$17.50, you can wait and accumulate packages and then combine them into one shipment and save on shipping costs. I recently saved my self $56.00 by combining 5 packages into one from the UK. Worth a look-see... and it gets round the Global Shipping Programme rip-off!

Ian

[tractorboy]

Hi Ian - I'd actually signed up to YouShop a while ago but had forgotten about it

Couldn't remember what it was called and just had a search in my e-mails and found the details in an wrongly labelled folder.
Many thanks for your post that reminded me and enabled me to find my details.
I will give it go if a similar situation arises.