Changing postage after bid for oversea

[$bluesgod$]

First: Sorry for my bad english. I'm from Germany 😉

Can someone help me, please? An UK seller uses the ebay global shipping program and someone already bids on the item. I asked the seller to turn off the shipping program, because I want to have Royal Mail. Is there any possibility to change that? Maybe turn off the full postage so that there is just a note that I have to ask seller for postage before I bid and after winning the auction he sends me an invoice with postage?

Problem is, that no refund of postage is possible, because the money for postage goes directly to Pitney Bowes when I pay the item.

[drvsway2fast]

Hello,

The seller has the ability to add postage options in their listing.  You can ask them if they will ship Royal Mail, but if they are unwilling then there is not really any other option.  It will correctly quote the shipping upon checkout, but any overages will have to be refunded through Paypal (I am in the US, and it may be different overseas, but this is the way it works here.)  Best!

[$bluesgod$]

Thank you very much for your helpful and fast answer!!

The seller wants to sell to me with Royal Mail. He accepted my wish. But he said he is not able to change shipping costs. But I will tell him your solution. I will tell you if it is working 🙂

[$bluesgod$]

I asked 4 sellers to add postage for me, but all of them told me, that it doesn't work 😞 any other idea? Or can someone write down a step by step how to do for adding postage?!

[reallynicestamps]

I asked the seller to turn off the shipping program... Is there any possibility to change that?

No.

The Global Shipping Program is a Seller Protection program.

The Seller chose it because her responsibility for shipping ends at the GSP plant in UK.

With the Royal Mail, her responsibility does not end until you receive the purchase.

Problem is, that no refund of postage is possible, because the money for postage goes directly to Pitney Bowes when I pay the item

No.

The postage goes to the seller who uses it to pay (probably) the Royal Mail to ship to the GSP plant.

The other costs are German duty and German sales taxes plus a small service fee to the GSP.

You can ask the seller to relist the item for you without the GSP.

She is not required to agree. Remember that most sellers using the GSP are afraid of overseas buyers.

She may want to upgrade the security of the shipping service. This will cost more.

You will be responsible for the German duty and sales taxes on your doorstep before the carrier will give you your purchase. 

The carrier may charge more for this service than the GSP.

If you have a problem with the transaction after that, you will be dealing with a seller in another country, while with the GSP... well, basically, they don't want to be bothered with disputes, so they just refund all your original payment.

[$bluesgod$]

Thanks for your answer.

You are not right in one point. With GSP the money for postage really goes directly to Pitney Bowes. I did it 2 or 3 times and in my paypal account I saw 2 payments for one auction. The biggest part of postage costs goes directly to Pitney Bowes. I can send you a photo of that, if you don't believe 😉

That is why I don't want to use that. For used clothes it is way too expensive.

The sellers trust me because I received parcels from UK since about 2 or 3 years. They believe me that they won't have any problem with me. They WANT to sell their items to me, but it really seems, that their is no way if someone already bids.

Do the sellers get any problems with ebay if they relist items with bids on? Is that forbidden if you do it too often?

[reallynicestamps]

Language problem. I was a writer for the Canadian government for years and words must be precise.

Postage /shipping goes to the carrier. Probably the Royal Mail here.

Import fees which cover  duty, sales tax , and a small * service fee, go to Pitney Bowes.

From the import fees, PB pays the recipient's government and their own overhead costs including a profit.

Do the sellers get any problems with ebay if they relist items with bids on?

Not with eBay, provided they follow the correct steps.

But they have to believe that you will pay more for the item than the bidders they already have.

Remember the seller cannot see the maximum bid, only the high bid.

For example, if a seller opens at $10

and the only bidder bids $100,

the high bid will show as $10.

If a second bidder offers $25, the high bid shows as $26. One increment over the second bidder's maximum.

Your offer, if there is no Buy It Now on the auction, will have to be high enough to convince the seller that you will pay more for the item than his current bidder's maximum.

Which he does not know.

AND cover his costs (time is money -- 18 cents a minute is the minimum wage here in BC, Canada) for closing the existing auction, losing his sure sale , disappointing his current bidder,  and relisting as a Fixed Price for you.

As a seller, I would be telling you to bid on the auction, with your maximum bid making allowance for the GSP costs.

* In the USA that service fee is ~$5 USD. No idea what the UK one might be.