Ebay shipping ripoffs

I'm thought I had blogged about this before, but perhaps not. Not much to say about ebay's shipping policies, but the fact that more and more users are gouging other ebay users by charging a ridiculously low price for an item and then jacking up the shipping costs to avoid ebay's already low commission fees. Now, obviously "handling" should cover (for most sellers), the cost of gas and materials to package and ship the item properly. Obviously popcorn and other shipping materials are not free, and neither is the time to ship off whatever is sold. But let's be realistic. Charging 3 or 4 times the shipping price is a bit excessive. So what is ebay's response to these bad business practices? Nothing.

Maybe ebay ought to start charging a higher percentage on shipping cost fees in order to deter the practice. They could charge no fee for shipping and handling charges under $10 or $12, then get into a graduated fee plan for larger fees, which can be waived or modified depending on the category (cars or other large appliances for example). That way someone buying a book, which should cost less than $5 to ship media mail, won't have to pay $30 in shipping.

Or, wait until the 89th day or so and then hammer them with a negative feedback and then hope they don't attempt to respond until the 91st day, in which case they may be too late.

Tags: ebay, shipping fees