Pallet prices and surcharge

[truck-88]

Two sales lost again this week due to the add on charge for a pallet with a LOW VALUE item. With VAT the E bay surcharge works out at £7.95 which pushes the delivery cost up too much for the buyer. We have now lost over 100 sales of this type due to this surcharge. The collective value of these sales runs into thousands of pounds. But as each sale has a very low margin we are unable to absorb any of the charge. We continue to reduce out stocks of heavy low value items and are not replacing them at this time. This in turn reduces out E bay sales which will of coarse lower our E bay standing. E bay we do need an answer on this problem.

[second-chance-sa1es]

Unfortunate what is happening overseas right now with countries such as the UK. Post Brexit tariffs are ruining them. I havnt ventured into international shipping because frankly it scares the hell out of me. Most of my items are small and light, but some are heavy, but also fall into tight margins. Hopefully things will improve soon.

[berserkerplanet]

Please explain what you are talking about.

What pallet add on charge? What surcharge? (you are on the US boards, and neither of those is a "thing" in the US on eBay)

[slippinjimmy]

This is the US board, although I know what a "pallet" is I have no idea what a "pallet charge" is and how it relates to eBay?

Care to elaborate?

[truck-88]

Hi when we ship a parcel or a pallet E bay add a charge of 10% plus tax to the shipping cost. We are in the UK and a pallet will cost from £50 up to about £75 or sometimes more plus tax to send. On a low value item which is too heavy for a parcel the profit on the goods  is too small for us to absorb the 10% E bay charge so we must pass it on to the buyer. On a High value item we can reduce the customer cost by not charging the buyer the full amount. We are finding when we pass on the charge the buyer will not always buy so as a result of this E bay charge we have a lot of lost sales .

[truck-88]

Hi we are a UK seller, there will be no problem with post Brexit charges as they will only apply to goods sold in Europe as they already apply to goods sold outside Europe. As we sell world wide and the items are of a high value to other business we have no issues with this. Brexit will be a very good thing for the UK  as we will be able to do trade deals with the rest of the world which we are unable to do if we remain in the EU. There are on problems with most exports that is apart from the E bay pallet surcharge. We are exporting a machine at the moment and  the shipping cost is £700 if this was an E bay sale they would add £70 on to the shipping cost which I think to too much.

[truck-88]

See my post below

[janet9988]

Ebay charges 10% of the total purchase price.  You cant change that.

[truck-88]

Janet9988 I know I cant change that, E bay are also losing money on the sales we cant make. The 10% surcharge has not been in that long and we can all see that E bay needs to make a profit as do we, but when that requirement makes the price too high it needs to be looked at again. As I have said there needs to be a cap on this charge as it is preventing sales taking place.

[pickupsan63]

I suspect it's the shipping company adding the surcharge