Postage for a pram, Would be cheeky asking for a cheaper option?

[Jem88]

I won a double buggy on ebay and it was collection only but i messaged the seller and asked if she'd post the buggy and could i pay thursday (tomorrow) she said yeah that was fine, she'd try and find the cheapest postage and get back to me. Yesterday she messaged me saying postage would be £20.

I sold LOs oyster pram about 7 months ago and it cost less than £10 to post so
I've just had a quick look on parcel monkey, put the weight & dimentions in and it's came up the cheapest being £7.45 and 3 others all under £20. I don't actually mind paying the £20 but would it be cheeky of me to ask if she could use parcel monkey and i could get postage for less than £20. x

 

[xlouloux]

I would definitely ask, that's quite a big difference in price!

 

[suzib76]

I would just ask if you could arrange your own courier to collect it, and maybe give her a small amount towards packaging

 

[LoraLoo]

Worth asking x

 

[Jem88]

I've just messaged her and asked, she said it's because "the pram weighs nearly 15kg and the dimensions are quite big" but she'll have another look at prices tonight.

Hmm, but i used the weight and dimensions from the argos website for the same pram and they are 12.9kg and Folded size L114, W50, D35cm. Surly with whatever she's packaged the pram in, it won't be much heavier/bigger? x

 

[Mummy2B21]

Hm tbh she gave you a quote of £20 so if she does knock some off that then id be more than.happy. If she wont accept £10 or.under then i dont think its worth getting upset/angry over as before you bought it she quoted you £20 so you must of been happy with that to buy it x

 

[omfgski]

.

 

[TFSGirl]

I have to agree with omfgski. You've chosen to buy it when it was collection only and then not to collect it, so she must have a reason for not wanting to ship it in the first place... it's difficult for some people to try to get these things sent off. Whenever I have had to ship something for eBay, I have chosen the courier that my parents use for their company because we rely on them for company business and it is "cheaper", but for me it takes a LOT Of leg work to get it there.... My parents live an hour away from me so I have to drive an hour and then package it with good solid packaging and ship it from there. I never charge more than the actual shipping cost, but that means I have to take it on the chin for what else I have spent. I'd just pay the 20 euros and be done with it if it was me.

 

[shellie]

Sometimes with ebay though the postage price people quote you isn't just the literal postage price of the parcel. Some people charge a little bit more to cover petrol for getting to the post office (or bus fares) if its a trip they normally wouldn't be making (and it sounds like in this case she wouldn't normally be going as she wanted collection only originally) and then the packing material (extra for bubblewrap and stuff). Also, some sellers only use one method of postage because they trust it's reliability etc so they might prefer to use one that's a little more expensive as they have confidence in it.

I think as it was collection only to begin with, you should let her choose which postal service to use as she's already compromised by changing it from collection only to posting it

I agree with this. I dont use e-bay often, but I do agree that people may see the p&p as just postage, not taking into account the packaging or getting the stuff to wherever it is sent from.

My sister recently sold something on e-bay, the postage she charged was £3, it actually cost her £3.15 to post and then she paid the packaging on top of that herself. She didnt ask the buyer for any more money, but she had a quite snotty e-mail off the buyer saying they would be checking the postage costs when the item arrived to make sure they hadnt been overcharged.

£20 is a lot of money though, so I'd say it is worth asking in this case, especially if you have used the details for the pram off a reputable website. I hope you get it for cheaper than that. xxx

 

[Abz1982]

I've paid £15 myself to post a saddle...due to the size and weight, and that was 2 years ago. Also, when I had to post my old Quinny it cost £18, and that was using a collection service as I couldnt get it to a post office.

That might be why its so much? They are maybe collecting from her house? SHe will also have to buy a box - I got 2 from my works FF and they are usually £5 each - it too k 2 to safely enclose the buggy.

 

[Jem88]

If she gets back to me tonight and it's still £20 i'll pay the £20, i just don't see why she'd charge me £20 for postage if she could get a cheaper option. She got £50 less than what she wanted/put as the buy it now price so i guess she could of been trying to get more for postage than was/is needed. She's using an online courier not the post office, so they'll be picking it up so she doesn't need to add extra for petrol etc, just packaging which i know is included in the postage price. x

 

[Sarahwoo]

You need to add VAT onto the Parcel Monkey price though, plus that's the cheapest option but might not always be the best for the seller. For example it's a real pain for me to get stuff printed off - so I always use the parcel force option where you don't need a printer. So for me with that option, plus VAT, plus a little extra maybe to increase the insurance, you'd be looking at more like £15. Then add on packaging and £20 looks pretty reasonable.

Another reason I use parcel force is that I know they always collect from me early, so I'm not waiting around.

 

[Jem88]

It turns out i was using the weight of the pushchair off the Argos website and i didn't think it would be that much heavier when packaged up but it's 14kg and everything was giving us quotes of £40 + so we've went with parcel force as they are the only one who will send it for £20. x