new ebay shipping scheme

[Bill Dufour]

In their everlasting quest to fleece users ebay has a new method of showing shipping fees. They just say " shipping varies.". No mention of price range. No way to look it up for item being auctioned. I looked ay a few items for buy it now and the shipping seemed high to me.
So what happens if you win the auction and the shipping fee is too high. Can you refuse the win with no bad feedback? I saw a dutch oven going for under $100 shipping was $30,000! I did not bid.
I can understand if these were big items to be shipped by freight. But all I saw were small things that would fit in a flat rate box.
Bill D.

[Bill Howatt]

I used to buy items off ebay but for the past couple of years or so I was getting the impression shipping costs were rising too much to make ebay as attractive as it once was.

[Mark Wedel]

Anytime I buy things online, I look at the shipping costs to take into account if it is worth it or not (or if another vendor is cheaper because they have better shipping rates, even if the item cost itself might be higher).

In the E-bay case, I'd be inclined to not bid on anything that didn't include shipping costs, or maybe contact the seller for more information (maybe the 'varies' is that they are willing to ship via different methods/speeds if you are willing to pay for it - UPS/FedEx ground fairly cheap, if you want next day, they'll do so, but going to be more expensive). I have no idea if such an exchange would be in anyway binding (eg, seller told you they would ship it for ground for $5, then after the auction is done, they want $15 to ship it ground)

Some sellers certainly make extra money on the 'shipping and handling' - charging $10 when it actually costs $5 in shipping costs, and that $5 is the 'handling' to pack it up and take it to shipping location.

I remember selling some D&D books on ebay and a person from Brazil wanted to buy a bunch. I think I said in my listing that buyer pays shipping, but I will just charge whatever it is. Shipping to Brazil was not cheap, but that buyer was willing to pay for it, so it all worked out.

[Doug Garson]

In their everlasting quest to fleece users ebay has a new method of showing shipping fees. They just say " shipping varies.". No mention of price range. No way to look it up for item being auctioned. I looked ay a few items for buy it now and the shipping seemed high to me.
So what happens if you win the auction and the shipping fee is too high. Can you refuse the win with no bad feedback? I saw a dutch oven going for under $100 shipping was $30,000! I did not bid.
I can understand if these were big items to be shipped by freight. But all I saw were small things that would fit in a flat rate box.
Bill D.

For $30,000 you should be able to keep the truck it's delivered in.
I rarely buy from Ebay and on the few occasions where I look at Ebay, the ridiculous shipping rates turn me off.

[Jim Koepke]

If I am interested in an item and the shipping seems off, the seller is contacted.

Screen shots are taken of items if the shipping seems low.

When I sold on ebay, I usually would include the shipping in the bid or BIN price. It was made clear that was for the U.S. only.

Most of the time the people in other countries would ask and accept the shipping cost for items they wanted.

I do not think this is a new scheme. Many sellers have always tried to add more profit through the shipping charges. Some even try to cheat the Post Office by sending tools at Media Rate.

One seller claims all packages must be shipped insured and then self insures.

jtk

[Ken Combs]

Had to look that up as I used to sell on ebay and plan to start again soon. They have a new feature called 'business policies' which is intended to aid in listings, reduce time. It allows one to specify a whole bunch of stuff as a policy and include it with each listing rather than typing the details over and over. Seems like some sellers are over using it, instead of entering shipping they just default to the 'policy', that shipping varies.

Shipping has gone up a lot in the last couple of years. I used to sell mower/garden tractor parts. An engine I sold often would ship to the center of the U.S. for 125 bucks. Same engine now is well over 300! Even USPS flat rate is almost double what it was 5-6 years ago. And the dropped some of my favorites, regional rate Priority.

[Brian Elfert]

Pretty much all of the stuff I buy on Ebay is Buy It Now and the shipping is often free. I look at the bottom line after shipping to decide if the item is worth buying. There is a lot of stuff on Ebay where you can buy faucets and similar items for a fraction of the price elsewhere.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I almost got burned by the high shipping cost. I buy a lot on eBay, and I was buying something I needed and saw a decent price and almost didn’t see the shipping cost!

So- here is a really funny one- the only time I’ve been scammed on eBay. I bought a moisture meter for something like $15. It was the one I had been wanting and I had been watching moisture meters for a good deal. So, I bought and paid. A few days later I get an envelope in the mail. It contained a magazine ad for a moisture meter!!! I went back to the listing and it clearly said “ad for moisture meter.” I laughed so hard that I couldn’t be mad. I have always wondered did I overlook the wording, or did they go and change the wording after the sale? I don’t think they can do that, so I think it was just cleverly worded enough that if you don’t read it slowly, you think you’re getting the meter. The photos showed the ad, and a closeup of the ad showing just the item. It looked like they were showing the ad to give more details on the item, and the close-up looked like a photo of the actual item. I’m laughing even now at myself.

[Bill Dufour]

I ended up buying a keyless chuck by accident before I noticed no shipping. Asked the seller on opposite cost to cancel since he would not ship. He said why would he not hip to California. Add had changed and shipping was 18.60.. he said shipping was 8.00. he saw 16.80 as what ebay wanted me to pay. I paid ebay the pickup only fee and sent him the extra 8.00.
BilLD