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Subject: 
Profiting from Inflated "Shipping & Handling" Charges??
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.market.auction
Date: 
Fri, 23 Feb 2001 01:05:22 GMT
Viewed: 
306 times
  
G'day folks,

I recently won an auction in which the listing stated:

"Buyer pays a fixed amount for S/H of $15.00 USPS Priority."

In general, these charges are pretty much the same as the
actual cost.  But when the item arrived I saw that the
total charges were only $5.45.  I was charge almost triple
the actual cost!  The item fit inside a free USPS Priority Mail
carton as well.

I checked the seller's other auctions.  There have been 50+
completed, all in the past month.  And all of them have shipping
costs that appear to be on average at least double the actual
cost.  Without running the numbers, I estimate this seller has
received over $500 "profit" on shipping costs.

Before I contact this seller I'd like to hear what others here
have to say about this.  Is this legal?  If I pay somebody a
fee for a very specific service, and am charged exhorbitantly
more than that, is that legal?  Does any of this violate eBay's
TOS?  The eBay TOS does say this:

"Listing Techniques that circumvent eBay's fee structure
Users may not use systems or techniques to interfere with the proper working
of the eBay site, which includes the circumvention of the eBay fees. Some
examples include:
- Auctions with low bid prices, but unreasonably high shipping costs"
[from http://pages.ca.ebay.com/help/community/png-list.html]

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanx,
KDJ

_______________________________________
LUGNETer #203, Windsor, Ontario, Canada



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Profiting from Inflated "Shipping & Handling" Charges??
 
(...) ... (...) I'd point out that S/H stands for "Shipping and Handling" and if the seller wants to charge $9.55 for handling, it might be to cover his time to go to the post office to mail the item. Since he stated this up front, I don't think you (...) (24 years ago, 23-Feb-01, to lugnet.market.auction)
  Re: Profiting from Inflated "Shipping & Handling" Charges??
 
Shipping and Handling are a grey area, but the person stated it up-front. I know that I used to live a LONG way from a post office, and to pack with peanuts, bubble-wrap, etc, and then drive to and from the Post Office was a big pain, long trip, (...) (24 years ago, 24-Feb-01, to lugnet.market.auction)

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