eBay Shipping Policies Updated Today!

[DurocShark]

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200606.shtml#2006-06-27092621

Not much but it's a start!

Excessive Shipping Charges Policy

Sellers may charge reasonable shipping and handling fees to cover the costs for mailing, packaging, and handling the items they are selling. While eBay will not prescribe exactly what a seller may or may not charge, eBay will rely on member reports and its own discretion to determine whether or not a seller?s shipping, handling, packaging, and/or insurance charges are excessive. Shipping and handling fees may not be listed as a percentage of the final sale price.

Sellers who want to be sure they are in compliance with this policy may charge actual shipping costs plus actual packaging materials cost (or less).

In addition to the final listing price, sellers are permitted to charge:

Actual Shipping cost: This is the actual cost (i.e. postage) for shipping the item.

Handling Fee: Actual packaging materials costs may be charged. A handling fee in addition to actual shipping cost may be charged if it is not excessive.

Insurance: Sellers offering insurance may only charge the actual fee for insurance. No additional amount may be added, such as ?self-insurance?. Sellers who do not use a licensed 3rd party insurance company may not require buyers to purchase insurance. This is a violation of state law.

Tax: Only actual applicable federal, state, country, city, VAT, and equivalent taxes may be charged.

For cross border transactions, sellers may not collect tariffs and duties. However, buyers maybe responsible for actual, applicable tariffs, and duties as requested by respective country laws.

Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

*

Listing cancellation
*

Limits on account privileges
*

Account suspension
*

Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
*

Loss of PowerSeller status

 

[ScottFern]

That sounds like a step in the right direction.

 

[blurredvision]

Will be interesting to see what eBay thinks is excessive or not. Not sure I care whether this happens or not, because I always take shipping into account when bidding on an item. No matter what shipping is, I will always have a total price in mind, and if everything doesn't add up, I won't bid.

 

[waggy]

hmm wow.

 

[AStar617]

So I should have waited on that $0.01 car with $30,000 shipping+handling? :laugh:

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: blurredvision
Will be interesting to see what eBay thinks is excessive or not. Not sure I care whether this happens or not, because I always take shipping into account when bidding on an item. No matter what shipping is, I will always have a total price in mind, and if everything doesn't add up, I won't bid.

That's the whole point though... Someone might sell a $1000 laptop for $5 with $995 shipping and handling charges. That way they get their $1000, the buyer pays $1000, yet the ebay fees are a percentage of $5...

 

[iamme]

it was obvious that eBay would do something about this. they're losing out on potential revenue.

 

[Eos]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: blurredvision
Will be interesting to see what eBay thinks is excessive or not. Not sure I care whether this happens or not, because I always take shipping into account when bidding on an item. No matter what shipping is, I will always have a total price in mind, and if everything doesn't add up, I won't bid.

That's the whole point though... Someone might sell a $1000 laptop for $5 with $995 shipping and handling charges. That way they get their $1000, the buyer pays $1000, yet the ebay fees are a percentage of $5...

Took eBay long enough to get their ess together, no?

 

[SludgeFactory]

Yeah, I guess ebay finally decided they were getting screwed out of too much in final value fees. Let's see how well they suddenly start policing their site when money is at stake. I bet they turn out to be pretty good at it.

While I don't care to see ebay get an extra cent, as a buyer I'm tired of all the morons overbidding stuff because they can't figure out to add in a bloated shipping charge.

 

[DainBramaged]

Originally posted by: ScottFern
That sounds like a step in the right direction.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Why can one seller charge $10 to ship and another charge $30 both using USPS priority? :disgust:

Maybe E-Bay can provide a finder's fee for people that report ripoff shipping charges.

 

[imported_Stew]

That's good to hear!

 

[KarenMarie]

Great...

no more $18 to ship a ram module and $40 to ship a cell phone!!!

 

[madeupfacts]

I actually liked the rediculously high shipping cost. It keeps people from bidding on the item, and your more likely to win.

 

[eplebnista]

Originally posted by: DainBramaged

Originally posted by: ScottFern
That sounds like a step in the right direction.

ICAM

 

[purbeast0]

this will probably work just as well as them stopping people from selling bootlegs on ebay ...

/sarcasm

 

[dullard]

I'd personally just like to see one combined price: item + shipping + any tax. No math needed, no scaming through these hidden fees, etc. The only allowed extra cost would be for international orders which is of course more expensive. The seller pays for shipping out of his/her revenue from the auction.

 

[halik]

it's got nothing to do with ebay wanting to help the cusomers, high shipping costs is a great way to evade the ebay fees.

All this is gonna do is make people not list the shipping, so you have to email 'em.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: dullard
I'd personally just like to see one combined price: item + shipping + any tax. No math needed, no scaming through these hidden fees, etc. The only allowed extra cost would be for international orders which is of course more expensive. The seller pays for shipping out of his/her revenue from the auction.

I wouldn't. Tax and shipping can vary based on where the customer lives.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: madeupfacts
I actually liked the rediculously high shipping cost. It keeps people from bidding on the item, and your more likely to win.

Yeah, me too. I got a really good deal on a video card with $25 shipping a couple years back. I hadn't found a deal like that on ebay for a long time.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
this will probably work just as well as them stopping people from selling bootlegs on ebay ...

/sarcasm

The difference is this directly effects ebays profits. So instead of saying they're "working hard to fix the problem"and then doing nothing, like with scamming, they might actually do something.

 

[deftron]

They need to just include shipping costs
in the price in the auction


Then you'd never see 1 penny buy it nows and crap like that

If it costs $10 to ship the item, start the bidding somewhere near there


They could lower the final value fees by like 10 - 15% to offset
the sellers cost of paying the fees on shipping

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
Great...

no more $18 to ship a ram module and $40 to ship a cell phone!!!

Only if eBay thinks that is excessive.

I accidently bought a Dreamcast game for $4 on eBay a couple of months ago without paying attention to the shipping. It was $12!!! Shouldn't have been anymore than $4 to ship a single-disc Dreamcast game.

Since it was my mistake for not paying attention to the shipping cost, I ate the $12 but I'll be damned if I let that happen again.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: deftron
They need to just include shipping costs
in the price in the auction


Then you'd never see 1 penny buy it nows and crap like that

If it costs $10 to ship the item, start the bidding somewhere near there


They could lower the final value fees by like 10 - 15% to offset
the sellers cost of paying the fees on shipping

Nostradamus predicted these events in this order.

1) Hell freezes over.
2) Ebay lowers fees.

 

[dquan97]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: deftron
They need to just include shipping costs
in the price in the auction


Then you'd never see 1 penny buy it nows and crap like that

If it costs $10 to ship the item, start the bidding somewhere near there


They could lower the final value fees by like 10 - 15% to offset
the sellers cost of paying the fees on shipping

Nostradamus predicted these events in this order.

1) Hell freezes over.
2) Ebay lowers fees.

3) Paypal initiates a help desk dept for customers